Elixir, North Hollywood’s new variety show
We create art in NoHo, yes. But the NoHo Arts District really is a neighborhood that entertains, LIVE. And The Federal Bar does just that. Our local gastropub and night club is now home to one of L.A.’s hottest variety show: Elixir – The Show. It happens monthly on a Friday so check their calendar for dates. We asked the folks who put on this monthly extravaganza to give us a bit more info so you too can enjoy the show.
What is Elixir?
Elixir is a show that conjures up the spirits of the heyday of live entertainment. We take you back to a time when men didn’t leave the house without a suit-jacket and hat, and women would NEVER leave the house in yoga pants or PJs. The ambiance of the show is best described as the Rat Pack, meeting up with Mad Men at the Playboy club for a martini or three. A true variety show, borrowing from shows like the Ed Sullivan show, hell, even the Gong Show to some extent. We love the variety.
We also believe in audience participation, so our guests can win prize, get personalized dance performances, participate in sketches, you name it!
The show originated from an idea that it was time to let all of these talented artists we have in the NoHo and surrounding communities get together and perform for the love of the art. Too often the artists spend a bulk of their time selling tickets and attracting guests for the club or the promoters to get paid on. Elixir is a free show that leaves the pretentiousness, hollywood attitude and competitive nature of performing in LA at the door.
The end result, you get a show with between 20-35 performers, all working together to make the best evening of entertainment possible for our guests. A lot of talent, a lot of acts, working toward ONE SHOW. It has been truly amazing to watch this Elixir family grow and evolve. The sky’s the limit with the talent in this show!
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How do you choose your performers?
Wow, talking about evolving. Early on we scrambled to find talent. No one knew who we were and we would still be booking talent on show day. Flash forward to today and what was imagined has become reality. We regularly, at least weekly, have artists calling on us asking to collaborate with other acts (a dance troupe wants this singer, a songstress wants to see that guy doing some pole art while she sings), we have guests that come to see a friend perform and then they want to be a part of this. We even have people that have heard of Elixir but never been to a show calling on us to see if they can participate and become part of the family.
We’ve booked talent that has NEVER performed in front of an audience before and we’ve had nationally ranked and world famous acts grace our stages. That adds another level of variety to our show.
What this has allowed us to do is to focus on the types of performers and performances we have. Ultimately the “art” that the artists wants to bring to the show has to fit into the brand, after that we make sure that they will gel with the rest of the family. Very rarely, if ever, does someone just join a show, they join the family.
Why did you choose the Federal Bar??
The Federal Bar is a great space for our show and the management and staff of the bar believe in this brand. When we moved to The Federal Bar we were looking for two things, additional space (our crowd had outgrown the previous location) and we needed to have food! The Federal was our first choice, not wanting to leave the NoHo Arts District, and thankfully they approached us with open arms and have shown nothing but love and support. Their food is great, as are their drinks and ambiance. They were sort of a no-brainer for the next evolution of Elixir – The Show.
What’s this month’s theme?
We are really excited to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary show coming up this month (August 22nd)! And with that, we’ve chosen an 80s theme. The music, dance, comedy and outfits will be screaming “I LOVE THE 80s”. It’s a bit of self indulgence as I’m an 80’s kid and for that one night, I can pretend I’m Don Johnson, Richard Grieco or George Michael like I used to (with only limited laughter). We have performances (song and dance) that include all genres from that decade. We expect a lot of very tight parachute pants, every pair of jeans to be acid-washed, torn and pegged, side ponytails, mall bangs and everyone will be wearing hoop earrings.
We don’t usually to an individual theme show as we focus on being a show that people will get dressed to the 9s for. We need more excuses to look our best in this laid back town. But we usually do a halloween show and a holiday show as well.
Where do you see Elixir heading?
We are always looking for the next bigger, better opportunities so we can continue to evolve this show into the next national phenomenon. Corporate events, conferences and awards shows, we’ll bring the business. Casino venues, you can bet on it!
You can find Elixir The Show here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElixirTheShow
Instagram: @ElixirTheShow
Twitter: @ElixirTheShow
YouTube: Elixir YouTube Channel
**** For information on Los Angeles theatre, tickets to theatre in North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts District, theatre reviews, the NoHo Event Calendar, restaurants, news and local businesses in NoHo, or anything and everything about the NoHo Arts Community, bookmark nohoartsdistrict.com.