-Are we going?
Is it rolling?
Do we need to do the snap?
Snap! Begin!
♪♪
[JENNIFER WENSRICH] Moisture Festival is a festival of comedy
variety circus arts, neo vaudeville,
every kind of thing you can imagine on the stage.
It’s the longest running festival of its kind in the world.
♪♪
(banging)
All shows are here at Broadway Performance Hall.
Yeah, this is mine. No costumes.
We've got four weeks of shows.
The first three weeks of shows are variety arts.
The final week, fourth week is burlesque shows.
And then closing night of the fourth week
is another variety show to close out the whole festival.
♪♪
In 2004, the first festival was held
in a tent in a parking lot in Fremont.
[RON W. BAILEY] One of the key things about this festival is
I was at a festival in Berlin.
It was a comedy variety festival there.
And so I came back and talked to Maque daVis
and Tim First...said, “Why don't we try this in Seattle?”
And so we didn't know it was going to last 18 years.
After that first year, we were invited to relocate
to Hale's Palladium.
And now we're here
at the Broadway Performance Hall on Capitol Hill.
Sometimes we just shake our heads and go,
“How does this even work?
How does it even work?”
[JENNIFER WENSRICH] It works because of our over 250 volunteers, the people
you see at the box office. -Welcome. Glad you're here.
-All the way up through the lobby are concessions.
All the crew working the shows,
all the people working backstage
with our artists to make their experience amazing.
(chiming bells)
-This going to work for you?
-That is all volunteers.
-So nice to finally meet you.
-Works are going up!
Heads up.
The yellow balls.
It's white... -Purple, purple, blue and purple, blue, white,
-White, blue, white, red, white, purple, white, green.
The balls will glow.
-Yeah.
♪♪
[TIM GONZALEZ-WILER] Jen Wensrich is the heart and soul of Moisture Festival.
She holds all the keys and all the secrets,
and she knows everything there is about this festival.
It would not happen without her.
[JENNIFER WENSRICH] This year we have 156 artists performing,
and one of the reasons they come
here is for the camaraderie.
[RON W. BAILEY] Because they’re always performing
in different places, you know, this fair
or that theater or that cruise ship,
but they never get to hang out together.
And this festival lets them all hang out together.
“Where have you been? Where have you been?”
“Tell me where I can get a gig.” Blah, blah, blah.
You know, they have fun together.
The other thing about the camaraderie
is that the artists and the volunteers
all share a meal at the end of the show.
The volunteers get to know the artists.
The artists get to know these people in Seattle
who come and work long hours to put these shows on.
[TIM GONZALEZ-WILER] Ron Bailey, he is...
we call him our Scottish leprechaun,
and he is always has a smile, always has a laugh,
always has a clever thing to say.
He is the artistic heart and soul of this organization.
-Don't talk about RB.
Ron Bailey should never be mentioned in public.
We should keep that private.
We only talk about him in the restroom.
-HEY!
-Yeah?!
[RON W. BAILEY] I just cover this base
and that base and do whatever is necessary.
And I'm also musicians, so every now and again,
I'll sing a little song.
(♪) Why do they call it the (♪)
(♪) Moisture Festival? (♪)
(♪) I want to give you my $0.02. (♪♪)
♪♪
[RON W. BAILEY] The live show bands really are a key part
of what makes this thing happen.
And each week has a different show band.
♪♪
So when you have a live band
accompanying the artists, that's a beautiful thing.
A beautiful thing.
The last week of shows at the festival
are burlesque shows.
If you've never been to a burlesque show,
they are so much fun.
I mean, it's basically
sexual humor and it's not lewd at all.
It's not lewd.
There's so many creative approaches
to how one takes this off and puts that off.
♪♪
-Shall we go in?
Come this way. Walk this way.
Come on. Come up...come this way.
Keep coming.
It's right up here.
Come on. Up the stairs.
Careful, careful.
♪♪
(crowd applause)
[RON W. BAILEY] You know, it’s hard to describe, really,
why I love this kind of entertainment so much.
I believe in laughter.
And I believe in appreciating some of these bizarre skills
we see on the stage.
That combination of appreciation of
of an art form and laughing together.
That's what keeps me excited
about this.
♪♪
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