PORT ANGELES — Louie Foxx gets right down to business in his magic show.
“I make my head shrink,” the Seattle conjurer promises.
Such shrinkage might be needed tonight.
Foxx is just one component of the Art Blast, a free night of live entertainment at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
Local artists
Festivities will begin with a party for the local artists whose work is freshly mounted at the library: Kathi Doty, Cindy Green and Sallie and Randy Radock’s creations await along with refreshments at 6:30 p.m.
Admission is free to the party and the art display, which will stay at the library through April 2.
This evening’s magic and comedy follow at 7 p.m., with Foxx’s 45-minute “One Man Side Show.”
This is more than magic, he said.
“I juggle, I balance, I might do my lasso,” along with a flea-circus stunt and the feat Foxx did to earn a Guinness World Record: bouncing a soap bubble 107 times before it bursts.
“People will see some stuff they didn’t think was possible,” Foxx believes.
Second performer
Patrons also will behold Mario Lorenz, the Tacoma comic-mime-juggler, with another 45 minutes of antics and audience participation.
He plays with scarves, cigar boxes and other flying objects, and has polished his act while touring Canada, Mexico and Cuba.
In Mr. Mario’s Musical Mime Show, he often works silently, so he has no language barrier.
And Lorenz likes audiences of any age.
He’s performed with the Atlanta Symphony, pulling a stunt that required him to fall on a cello, and makes monthly visits to Seattle Children’s Hospital to entertain the patients.
Library events
Tonight’s event aligns with a whole set of activities coming this season to Clallam County’s four public libraries.
The Winter Reading Circus, inspired by the best-selling novel The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, is an adult reading program with movie screenings, discussions of The Night Circus and prizes — including a night’s stay at Lake Crescent Lodge — for those who take part.
Readers can sign up for the program, which runs through March 20, at the Port Angeles, Clallam Bay, Forks and Sequim public libraries. All Winter Reading Circus activities are free.
The movies include Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” to be screened at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave., and at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18, at the Port Angeles Library. For a complete calendar of movies and other events, visit the North Olympic Library System website, www.NOLS.org, or phone 360-417-8500.
As for tonight, Lorenz and Foxx aim to deliver a pair of one-man circuses to make the winter drear vanish.
“My show is one point of comedy to another,” Lorenz promises. “I don’t really have a message.”
But then it dawned on him: If not a message, Lorenz has a mission as a comedian.
“The objective of life,” he said, “is to transform into joy, to bring happiness out.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
