10 Year Jubilee

Pam has been with SAP for 10 years. As a US employee she would have been sent a nice email with a link to a website where she could choose a gift. Germany though has a different plan and Pam is a German employee. Each November, a tent is erected in the city center of Mannheim and the Radio Regenbogen (Rainbow) Palazzo starts. The shows are daily except Monday and it runs until February. SAP buys tickets to 5 Saturday shows for its Jubilee (10 Year) celebrations and you pick one of the Saturday shows. This past Saturday (11/8) was our week. Pam’s colleague, Kathrin and her husband (from the Dresden office) were also in town for the event.

http://www.palazzovariete.de/

The tent is a one ring circus type tent with a lobby tent attached. The floor is a raised from the ground and there is a hardwood floor and the ceilings and walls are lined with drapes to hide the tent and seat around 300/350 people. The tent is heated and was in fact quite warm when we got there. There is a fixed menu and drinks are included in the price. Essentially, the Palazzo is a dinner theater with a round stage in the center (which elevates) and a second stage along the back wall.
We arrived and presented our ticket and Pam had indicated my dairy allergies. I was given a little ticket like thing that showed I had food allergies. A serving person came by also to identify people with specials needs and became my very own serving person.

The show was MC’d by a comedian, Kay Scheffel, who can sing, do ventrilliquy and do a little standup. He introduced the acts and also preformed. He started the night off dressed like John Belushi in the Blues Brothers and did a nice job, although he was missing a Dan Akroyd. There was also a female singer, Marissa Burgess and 4 dancers, den jungen Schönheiten, all tending to be dressed minimally. Also, there is a second comedian, John Fealy. Fealy is a British Standup Comedian who poses as the Chef for the Palazzo.

The Palazzo process is as follows; Kay, then an act, then Marissa and den jungen Schönheiten, then another act, then Kay, then John Fealy, then a course would be served. Then the process would start again. Kay would usually have a musical number and a comedy routine before each course. Pam and I had a difficult time following the comedy act as it was mostly in German. John Fealy on the other hand presented his act in English, which seemed to leave out very few people.

Kay did a ventrilliquy act twice. Once with a dummy he called, Donut and once with two dummies pulled from the audience. This was probably his funniest bit of the night. He had a man and a woman on the stage and he held each of their wrists and whenever he would squeeze there wrist they would open their mouth and he would speak for them. As the act progressed, the guy held up well and was very funny, the woman on the other hand had difficulty not laughing. It worked amazingly well and the guy was great and very expressive facially as well. At one point Kay was let go of their wrists and they would respond to his words and even mouth the correct words. Even though Pam and I only understood about 25% of what was said, we still found this to be hysterical.

The circus type acts were very impressive, one couple performed twice and all of the others performed only once.

The first act was Denise Randol and her husband. In this act Denise worked with Hula-hoops. At first working with just a few, but at the end she had about five going around her torso and one each on her arms. Her husband’s job for this act was to throw her hoops. The Huescas were the second act before the first course was served. The Huescas are brothers. One brother (always the same brother) would lay on his back on a padded piece of equipment that elevated his hips above his head, so that the other brother could jump up and land on his feet(in a seated position). From this position, they would perform various feats. The Laying down brother spinning the other brother or throwing him into the air. This was all very impressive and required amazing leg strength.

The Jaster’s act included knife throwing and a crossbow. From about 20 feet Giacomo would shoot the crossbow at balloons that Elena was holding and also shot an apple on her head. The act included spinning Elena while he threw knives at the board she was spinning on, very cliche. This was my least favorite act, but still an impressive demonstration of skill. In the same section Aurelia Cats performed. She was on a single trapeze and essentially performed a dance routine on the trapeze. Some of the strength moves and flexibility she exhibited were astounding.
The Randols came back for another act. This act involved roller skating on the elevated stage, which was about 6’ in diameter. Massimo’s job was essentially to skate in a circle very quickly and to throw Denise around while remaining in the small circle. I am sure if you asked Massimo, he would demur and tell you that what they do is not that difficult, I would tell you that it was the only act I really felt that disaster was just a fraction of a second away. One tiny misstep and the momentum of both of them could have gone flying into the audience. This act was followed by the Pellegini Brothers, four brothers who performed acts of acrobatic strength. One brother would lay on the stage and another brother who grasp his hands, and then be benched press to full extension by the brother on the ground and then the brother in the air would let go with one hand. A third brother would then grasp the brother on the grounds free hand and push himself into a hand stand on that hand. These guys were amazing!

Additionally, there was Rosa. During the meals she acted as something of a clown, going from table to table performing quick routines.

The show started at 8pm and ended at 11:30ish. We left after 1am after spending time chatting with Kathrin and Rene. When we left the performers were at the Bar talking. I am sure the idea is that you can socialize with them after the show. I was actually amazed at the number of performers who were smoking.

I am sure that on a yearly basis the show changes slightly as acts change and I very much enjoyed our evening there, but I do not desire to head right back and do it again. It would be great fun to do it again with another couple or persons who have not seen the show again.