The droll and dry former stand-up comic Michael McLaughlin is effusive, practically effervescent as he describes the features of “Song and Dance Lip Sync 8.”
“Until I’m proven wrong I’m standing by my claim that the local Lip Sync show is the largest and longest running show of this type anywhere in the world,” boasts McLaughlin, who adds, “plus this is the best show in the world for folks with a poor memory or a short attention span.”
McLaughlin is producing and directing “Song and Dance Lip Sync 8,” playing Friday, January 8, 3 p.m.; Saturday, January 9, 7 p.m. and Sunday, January 10, 3 p.m. at the Auditorio de la Ribera.
This is McLaughlin’s fifth go as king of the fast-paced show that dazzles the audiences with more than 30 area residents (mostly women) bedecked in amazing costumes that help create the image of the songs they interpret.
In addition to the music, cast selection and writing, even the costuming falls into McLaughlin’s realm of expertise. His aunt was an Emmy-nominated costume designer for Desilu Studio.
“I loved going shopping with her. She’d talk all the way through the stores describing what she was looking for and how each piece would create the effect she wanted. Then she used a special lens to look at the outfit and see how it would look on TV in black and white. Never fear, our dance and lip sync performers will dazzle the lakeside audience in living color.”
This is fun theater. Local audiences come back year after year just because they know they’ll see their friends and neighbors on stage dancing, lip syncing, acting silly and having fun.
“With 30 three-minute acts, we can please anyone in the audience,” McLaughlin adds confidently. “They’ll barely have time to register that they don’t much like one song before the next on the program is on the stage.
“Like the Andrews Sisters? We’ve got ‘em. Country you’re thing? We’ve got a song by Toby Keith. You still into the disco ball? It’s covered. Then there’s Janis Joplin, Dion, and the Blues Brothers. For those into the Latina sound, we have a little Mark Anthony, and, Selena, the late great TexMex singer. And to keep it all moving, we have Judy Ward as ringmaster … ah, better make that master of ceremonies.”
Of course this show is an annual crowd pleaser – why else would it fill to standing room only at the auditorium for three performances every year. But the real reason the show exists is to benefit the auditorium improvement projects.
“They’ve been working hard on improving the auditorium now for several years, but it’s going to take more, after all, the facility was ignored and neglected for a long time. The back stage area still needs a lot of work and so do some of the other areas that the public rarely sees.”
With 30 acts and a cast of about 35 members this is, as Ed Sullivan would have said, a “really big show.” When consider that this is the eighth year of the local “Song and Dance Lip Sync” show, it’s little wonder that McLaughlin is ready to promote it as the biggest and longest running show of this type in the world.
“I contacted the world record people about getting it into the Guinness book,” McLaughlin said with distain, “but can you believe it, they wanted something like five grand to come here to check it out.
“We know who we are, the kind of show we produce and that the money we make goes to improvement projects at the Auditorio de la Ribera, not to Guinness. If that’s how they play their game, we’ll stand on our own claims until someone proves to us that their show is bigger or has a longer run.”
Tickets are available at Diane Pearl Colecciones, the auditorium, Yoli’s, Mia’s Boutique. They are also available at the Lake Chapala Society box office from January 2-9 from 10 a.m. to noon. Tickets for the center section are 250 pesos. Side section seats are 150 pesos.