"What we all need today is a good laugh, and you can laugh yourself back to good health when you see 'Frank Olivier's TWISTED CABARET' & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show, now playing at the Mason St. Theatre.  He's an energetic, multi-talented, masterful comedy performer who can do it all -- He's a juggler, a magician, a knife-thrower, part of a chorus line, a lecturer, a dance team, a yoga master, a ballerina, a unicyclist, a comedian, and more!  And he does them all to perfection!  Together with an emcee and a 3-piece band, he clowns his way through the funniest show I've ever seen.  In fact the best way to describe it is -- it's a hoot, a riot, a scream, it's slapstick, it's unbelievable!  Take it from me, I love good comedy and you'll laugh your head off at 'Frank Olivier's TWISTED CABARET & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show' now playing at the Mason St. Theatre in San Francisco.  It's comedy at it's absolute best." 
    -- Jerry Friedman
(02-15-2002)

  Juggling. Magic. Knife- throwing. Fire Eating. The stuff of carnivals you say? Old-school vaudeville stunts?
  Not in the hands of Frank Olivier, the insanely funny and outrageously multi-talented comedian whose 'TWISTED CABARET & pandemonium Vaudeville Show' hurtles into the Mason St. Theatre beginning today for a limited run.
  Aided by master of ceremonies 'Unkle Paul' Nathan and Nolan Gasser's Twisted Cabaret Band, Olivier turns traditional vaudeville on its ear with a dizzying assortment of comic characters, from the despondent knife-thrower Frankonovitchski to the hilarious yoga master Frankanada.
  Over the course of the evening Olivier not only manipulates juggling pins, unis, and fire, but numerous parts of his body as well.  Through the magic of puppetry he becomes a 3-foor tall "Maurice" cycle, knivewho lives in a garbage can, and a trio of dancing girls called The Frankettes.  The key to the show's success is a twisted sense of danger that permeates the evening." 
     -- Adam Sandel
(02-14-2002)

"Jugglers don't come much better or stranger than Frank Olivier. This Berkeley boy, who was featured in the Broadway hit Sugar Babies, is a one-man reincarnation of vaudeville with a decided edge.  Frank Olivier's TWISTED CABARET & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show features the performer as more than a dozen showbiz characters including a pointedly inept magician, and an emotionally distraught knife thrower. When Olivier is juggling no one can touch him.  Not just for his mind-bending skill but also for his perfectly honed awkward-guy appeal, which gets an audience roaring. A fire-eating restaurant sketch he does with (emcee Paul) Nathan is physical comedy perfection, and his finale, riding a unicycle while juggling and playing a literally flaming guitar, is downright awesome.  It's a delightfully wild ride." 
  -- Brad Rosenstein 
(02-20-2002)
 

Frank Olivier is a nut -- probably not personally but certainly professionally. He's an overgrown kid playing with fire and very sharp objects, an inept klutz teetering through leaps and pirouettes on a unicycle, and an eager innocent dabbling in gross-out humor with irresistibly boyish charm. 

He's also very good at what he does. "Frank Olivier's Twisted Cabaret & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show," is a strong showcase for Olivier's talents. Which makes it a very funny and often astonishing tour de force of juggling, fire-eating, tongue contortions and madcap comedy. 

Some of the material will be familiar if you've caught any of his previous solos, TV appearances ("The Tonight Show"), his show-stopping featured  act in the Mickey Rooney- Ann Miller

"Twisted" is a succession of vaudeville turns with patter and occasional magic tricks by a master of ceremonies, the dryly humorous Paul Nathan. It also features a sharp trio playing the beguiling Weimar cabaret- influenced original tunes of Nolan Gasser, with Gasseron piano, Tim Vaughan on drums and the honey-sweet reeds of Roger Glenn. 

The heart of "Twisted," though, is the solo vaudeville turns by artists with variations of the name Frank, all played by Olivier in a mind-boggling assortment of debonair and ridiculous costumes. As himself, he's the same wondrously funny, dexterous juggler as ever. 
 

Olivier has always been the kind of artist who makes failure intrinsic to his act. Even the unfulfilled skits become almost as much part of the joy of "Twisted" as the dropped clubs and unicycle spills that add a shiver to his handling of a sharp blade or casual consumption of flaming blobs on a very long skewer. And Olivier isn't just an adept and original juggler, fire-eater and all-around vaudevillian. He's also one very funny guy.
  -- Robert Hurwitt 
(02-22-2002)

Frank Olivier's "TWISTED CABARET & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show" is good-time theater, and no one seems to be having a better time than Olivier himself.
  Want to see an audience squirm?  Go to San Francisco's Mason Street Theatre and watch Olivier, in his guise as yogi Frankananda, inhale a strand of dental floss through his nose and then cough one end out of his mouth... hilarious! 
  You'll also see him eat fire and swallow flaming swords, bounce eight-balls off of his head until he bleeds (no, it's not real), and juggle so many objects you'll think that gravity has given him special dispensation. 
  With an ever-present gleam in his eye he straps two dolls to his shoulders and becomes a trio of dancing girls known as 'The Frankettes'. He hauls a hapless volunteer from the audience and makes him the amnesiac half of an acrobatic team.  And he does tricks with a pink tutu and a unicycle that would leave Baryshnikov agog.
   A man possessed of enormous talent.  He is a pleasure to watch. He turns juggling into the best stand-up comedy around. Olivier manages to muster up the sort of "how does he do that?" magic that delights and disarms.  Here's hoping that Olivier's 'TWISTED CABARET & Pandemonium Vaudeville' continues to freak out audiences for a good long time!" 
     --  Chad Jones
(02-16-2002)

Frank Olivier calls his new show "TWISTED CABARET & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show," so right off he gets points for honesty. 
  This is not your wistful reminiscence of the old Orpheum circuit and the Singing Sisters of Spain.
  Olivier, like a slightly bent variety arts chef, cooks up a blend of entertainments into a wildly funny show.  He's got a 3 piece band and the wickedly clever emcee 'Unkle' Paul (Paul Nathan), who give the show a polished look.  Bandleader Nolan Gasser composed most of the music used in the show, and Unkle Paul is just about as twisted as Olivier, himself, offering a comedic counterpoint and some great material.
  Where Olivier is innocently manevolent, Unkle Paul is like the kid down the block who won popularity with his seemingly endless access to adult novelties.  He seasons the act, and helps it move quickly and seemingly effortlessly.
  Olivier's always on the very edge of disaster, constantly giving the impression that the next juggling club will brain him, the fire won't go out when he sticks the flaming sword in his mouth and the beautiful dove really has been reduced to a mound of feathers by an inept magician.
  He offers some devilishly inventive version of old show-business warhorses.
  His knife-thrower has an Eastern European accent, of course, but he has also seperated from his wife and target, and takes his angst out on the new target; he is a yoga master who take the old show-business wish "Break a leg" far too seriously; he performs his acrobatic dance standards with a hapless audience member he has pulled from his seat and thrust on-stage; and his big finish incleds guitar playing and juggling aboard a unicycle that reaches nearlyto the ceiling. 
  It's one of those shows that works so perfectly wondefully you're surprised nobody had come up with it before.  But fortunately Olivier is the one who did -- because he does it all so tremendously well.
  -- Pat Craig
(02-15-2002)

If taste and decorum matter to you, you had better cut a wide berth around San Francisco's Mason Street Theatre these days.

Frank Olivier has just set up shop there with his "Twisted Cabaret,'' and the first thing jettisoned in this gooney lampoon is etiquette. This is a high-kitsch carnival spiked with toilet humor and stupid pet tricks, all shamelessly designed to make you go yuck!

Lest you think that's an exaggeration, consider the facts: It's hard to maintain a sense of propriety when Olivier drops his pants and lights his, ahem, emissions on fire. Then there's the bit where he makes like an Indian yogi who proceeds to do the biologically improbable with some dental floss and his nasal cavity.

So if you're likely to be offended, you may want to exercise some caution. On the other hand, anyone who longs to relive the shtick and saliva-filled atmosphere of the second grade need look no further. If there are moments when the wit wanes, there is never long to wait before the next laugh-out-loud pseudo-obscenity.

And there are times when the show exits the potty. The former Berkeley street performer knows his way around the classical vaudeville bag of tricks, from juggling to knife throwing. And the Café Flambé routine, in which Olivier gorges on fire shish kebab, should stun even the most jaded circusgoer.
 

The real acts of cruelty, however, are reserved for those who enter the ego danger zone known as the audience participation skit. If you're not up for turning humiliation into an extreme sport, you may want to follow this reviewer's example and stare purposefully at the floor when Olivier asks for volunteers.

If not, you may have to take the stage for a song-and-dance that crescendos in a spitting contest. Or, if you're really lucky, you may be invited to bend over while a whip gets cracked in your direction. (If it helps, they say there are no small parts in the theater.)

Throughout it all, however, Olivier remains king of the freak show. After all, how many of us have mastered the art of twisting our tongues into a three-leaf clover? If demented vaudeville is a religion, this man is a high priest. And if you're not above getting a little spit in your eye, you may become a devotee."
  Karen D'Souza
(02-22-2002)