Aurora performance shows versatility

“Voddville,” written by Hitchcock Taylor (AKA local entertainer Dave Shirley) and Robert Dubac, who wrote “The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron,” opens at the Aurora Fox Studio Theatre with a large screen and a few props visible. Projections on the screen show a crowd.

Enter Hitchcock Taylor, a modern-looking man, who performs as a mime would — silent — but this mime has contemporary technology at hand, so he can perform tricks that leave a viewer wondering: “How in the world did he do that?” An ongoing chain of sound effects includes an occasional yowl from a backstage kitty, music, the clatter of junk falling whenever Taylor steps behind the screen …

He can reach behind that screen and pull out an item we’ve seen projected or send off for a dose of happiness and retrieve a large “happiness”-labeled box. Soon he’s wearing an oversized gold chain, juggling oranges and contemplating a large inflated doll, which sags and re-inflates, with no apparent help.

The versatile Hitchcock started busking as a teenager, created Rattlebrain Theater Company, performing in the lower level space in the May D&F tower on the 16th Street Mall for several years. He is the writer of “Santa’s Big Red Sack,” which plays at the Avenue Theater during the holidays. And he took part of his Rattlebrain act to “America’s Got Talent.” In the process, he’s perfected non-stop entertainment skills that keep an audience involved.

Midway, a few audience members are singled out to help make music, with Taylor on bongo drums and the others using rhythm instruments. Focus switches to a ventriloquist and dummy — and an attempt to get a magic number up to 300 with various sleight-of-hand tricks — and communications with a mysterious on-screen woman wearing a silvery wig.

This bit of theater combines ancient busker skills like juggling and miming with a 21st-century concoction of sounds and special effects these two comedians have designed to keep an audience engaged, if a bit puzzled. Before one figures out how it’s done, he’s off on another tangent. (Some parts are not appropriate for little people.) Entertaining evening!

If you go

“Hitchcock Taylor’s Voddville” plays through Dec. 6 at the Aurora Fox Studio Theatre, 9900 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora. Tickets: $25/$22, aurorafoxartscenter.org, 303-739-1970.