PROVIDENCE —

They’ll be plenty of clowning around at this year’s Bright Night Providence festival on New Year’s Eve. “We’re really excited about it this year, it’s going to be a great festival,” said Festival Director Adam Gertsacov.

This year’s festivities feature more than 160 performers in various locales throughout downtown Providence, new partnerships with performing arts venues, ice skating, a masquerade ball, and Bambouk, a headlining clown act staging three shows at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Bambouk’s Brian Foley and Mathew Duncan, bald-headed clowns sporting snappy tuxedos and old-school red clown noses are a vaudevillian style physical comedy act that’s taking New York’s off Broadway scene by storm. “They sacrifice their dignity for people’s enjoyment. I saw them off Broadway and I thought they were amazing. And I’m a professional clown, so that says a lot,” said Gertsacov, who hangs up his clown gear on New Year’s Eve to act as ringleader of the artist-run Bright Night, Providence.

In addition to sharing the stage with the Moscow Circus, Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, Big Apple Circus and Cirque du Soleil, Bambouk also won the prestigious Sherman Brothers Award for Best Clown Duo and the 2010 Golden Nose Award winners for Audience Choice Best Clown Act. “The headlining act has to have broad appeal. They’re silly enough for kids to enjoy them, and smart and talented enough for adults to appreciate them,” said Gertsacov. “There’s also a fair amount of audience interaction.”

The festival gets under way at noon with strolling performers, half-priced skating at the Bank of America Center in Biltmore Park and storytellers, clowns, jugglers and performers taking the stage at four different venues. The Providence Children’s Museum will host puppet shows and other children’s activities, storytellers will take the stage at Perishable Theater from 1 to 5 p.m., the Beneficent Center will feature jugglers, clowns and acrobats, and URI’s Shepard Building offers up a circus workshop with Marvelous Marvin, Indian story and dance workshops with Shanti Muthu, storyteller/performer Keith Munslow and the ever-popular Big Nazo Puppet Band at 5:30 and 7 p.m.

The performances at all of the venues, which also include the AS220 Cafe, Grace Church and the First Baptist Church, start at 6 p.m. after the official opening ceremony in Biltmore Park at 5 p.m.

Singer/songwriters take the stage at Perishable Theater from 6 to 10 p.m. at the annual Bright Night Acoustic Coffeehouse followed by A Night at the Disco: The 70s Strike Back performing a fun retro tour through the gilded age of mirrored disco balls and leisure suits at 10 and 11 p.m.

The First Baptist Church is host to local jazz legend Greg Abate, Fishin’ with Finnegan, a Celtic music act, and Rhythm Room, a first at the festival. “They’re kind of a rogue music group with 10 players and 40 different instruments,” said Gertsacov. “They have a wonderful, danceable sound: I’m expecting the place to be rockin’ it out.”

Two other Bright Night favorites, mentalist Rory Raven, and sideshow artist Matt the Knife are slated to perform at AS220 in advance of the annual Bright Night Poetry Slam at 10 p.m. flowed by an array of bands on the AS220 stage performing up to 2 p.m.

The Bright Night Blues Bash with the Black and White Blues Band kicks off at 8:30 p.m. at the Beneficent Center, and an array of performers are also scheduled to perform in its sanctuary starting at 6 p.m. with master steel drummer Jason Roseman. “I’m really excited about him,” said Gertscov. “He learned how to make steel drums from his father and he’s been performing for 35 years. He plays calypso music, but he also plays jazz.”

The Rhode Island Children’s Chorus and the feminist chorus, Woman Spirit Rising are scheduled to perform at the Grace Church, which will also feature storytellers Mark Binder and Bill Harley.

“There’s a wide diversity of performers, and we also have some extraordinary street performers too,” said Gertsacov.

Bright Night Providence is also pairing up with the Providence Performing Arts Center, which is offering discounted tickets to 8 p.m. performances of Mama Mia on Friday and Saturday, and Trinity Repertory Company is also discounting tickets to its New Year’s Eve plays: “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Another partnership this year offers a reduced ticket to the World Masquerade Ball, a black tie, 21 and older event at the Rhode Island Convention Center. See the Bright Night website for the fine print details on these partnerships.

Bambouk: A New Vaudevillian Escape will be held at 6, 8 and 10 p.m. at the R.I. Convention Center. A Bright Night ticket (a Tyvek wristband) will guarantees admission to one of those three performances, plus more than 50 other performances at 12 other venues throughout the day and evening (on a space available basis).

With New Year’s Eve taking place on a Friday, Gertsacov is expecting a good turnout at this year’s artist-run New Year’s Eve event. Tickets purchased before Dec. 24 cost $10. Tickets after the 24th cost $15; group discounts are also available.

Check out www.brightnight.org for a full schedule of events and a listing of ticket sellers.

If we’re looking for low-cost options for this year’s Bright Night Providence, I’ll bet the White House party crashers, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, would make an appearance. (Though they might be more likely to come if they’re not invited.)
I’m guessing Sarah Palin would come to “Rogue Island” for the state’s largest New Year’s Eve celebration if we give her a chance to peddle her new book, “Going Rogue.” (My favorite part is when she misattributes a quote from American Indian activist John Wooden Legs to former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.)
And if we can work something out with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, perhaps disbarred Providence lawyer John M. Cicilline, the imprisoned brother of Mayor David N. Cicilline, could sit on a stool, play the ukulele and set off sparklers. (Sentenced to 18 months after pleading guilty to conspiring to shake down drug-dealer clients, he is scheduled to be released to a halfway house on Dec. 29, so maybe his performance could count as community service.)
Of course, I’m joking. (Everyone knows Cicilline can’t play the ukulele.)
I’m actually a big fan of Bright Night. We brought our kids downtown last year despite frigid temperatures, 8 inches of snow and 25-mph winds, and since so many people stayed home, we had great seats at the Providence College/St. John’s basketball game. We wandered over to the Convention Center to see the Nerveless Nocks Daredevil Thrill Show. And later, we saw a performer that we referred to as the “existential clown.” (She had a trombone and talked about the apocalypse.)
So I was sorry to hear that Bright Night Providence is slashing expenses and making an emergency appeal for donations. The city usually provides Bright Night with $20,000, but amid this year’s fiscal crisis, the city has committed to providing just $5,000 in city services and no cash. The festival has applied for a grant from the Providence Tourism Council, which in the past has provided $25,000 for a fireworks display. But since the festival won’t have fireworks this year, it’s unclear if it can get the grant.
I understand why the city is cutting its contribution. The state unemployment rate stands at 12.9 percent (the third-highest rate in the country). And this year the city raised property taxes even as it slashed millions of dollars from the city budget, froze wages and axed jobs.
You’d have to be an existential clown to spend $20,000 in taxpayer money on New Year’s Eve fun. Still, Bright Night does provide a civic beacon, a magnet that draws thousands of families together to see musicians, magicians, actors, dancers, singers, acrobats, clowns, puppeteers and storytellers.
So I hope businesses and everyday residents heed the call of festival director Adam G. Gertsacov, who hopes 2,010 people will donate $20 and pass on the appeal to 10 other people. (Go to www.brightnight.org.)
Gertsacov noted that local artists launched Bright Night Providence seven years ago after First Night Providence faltered. He said the event boosts the local economy, bringing up to 20,000 people downtown, and 90 percent of the performers come from the Rhode Island area. Most importantly, the event offers a chance to “come out and celebrate the New Year in a family-friendly way and celebrate Rhode Island’s most important cultural asset, which is its artists,” he said.
“We make people happy,” Gertsacov said. “And we don’t want the city to go dark on New Year’s Eve.”
efitzpat@projo.com

We’ve got the cover of the Lifebeat section, as well as a lion’s share of the article inside! Good stuff!
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Lighting up the Nights

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, December 27, 2007

By Channing Gray

Journal Arts Writer

The featured Bright Night act is Carmine Appice’s SLAMM! From left are Appice, Zoilo “Zman”, “Mad” Matty Alger and Mark “Voodoo” Joseph. Along with Veronica Bellino, not pictured, they create a high-energy show that has been called “Stomp on Steroids.” SLAMM! performs at PPAC at 6, 8 and 10 p.m.

There will be fireworks over Providence Monday night as Bright Night once again ushers in the New Year in the capital city.

This year’s celebration will be “bigger and bolder than ever,” said producer Adam Gertsacov, a Providence entertainer. Look for clowns, jugglers, storytellers, magic acts and two fireworks displays over the State House, at 5:35 p.m. and midnight. In all, more than 200 performers will be working their magic at venues across the city.

The highlight of the festival, which runs from noon to midnight and beyond, is a high-energy band of drummers put together by Carmine Appice, former drummer for Rod Stewart.

The five musicians, known collectively as Slamm, will be banging on everything from garbage cans to Dixie cups, said Gertsacov.

“It’s like Stomp on steroids,” he said.

Slamm will perform three times at the Providence Performing Arts Center, at 6, 8 and 10 p.m. A Bright Night wristband — $10 in advance, $15 the day of the event — guarantees admission to one of the shows. Space permitting, you can catch a second performance.

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