Meet Brian Foley of Brian Foley Dynamic Theatre and Valley Variety in Tempe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Foley.

Brian, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My family and I moved to Tempe in 2011 when I began my M.F.A. studies at ASU. As I now spend most of my weekdays teaching on a university campus, I miss the community of circus and variety artists with whom I spent much of my pre-AZ life performing on cruise ships, at international festivals, and in the circus. New York City had so many open variety shows that I could hop in to a clown show, circus show, or vaudeville show just about any week. So, in March of 2018, I set about creating Valley Variety, a monthly Vaudeville show that is family friendly, features a wide spectrum of local and national talent, and is a place where the performing community can connect with each other.

I began experimenting with magic tricks in pre-school, and I taught myself to juggle by the age of 10 with three tennis balls in my back yard in Plantation, Florida. By the time I was 13, I was performing as a magician and clown for the birthday parties of the younger children in my neighborhood, and what was a fun job through high-school became the focus of my art in college.

At NYU, I studied acting and directing for the theatre, but I also had wonderful opportunities to learn from some wonderful clown teachers and to integrate the skills I already had in the variety arts into my performance work. My variety career continued on the Renaissance Festival circuit, where I developed stage shows and interactive ‘street’ characters that proved successful and took me back to NYC where I parlayed those skills into a lucrative career as a special-event professional.

On the evenings and weekends, I would perform as a clown, magician, juggler, living statue, or whatever else was needed, for the likes of Steve Martin, Madonna, Russell Simmons, and even our current President. I got my bottom pinched by Rosie O’Donnell, learned that Vivica Fox smells like oranges, and shared the television screen with some lovable Muppets on a few episodes of Sesame Street.

While juggling at a theme park, I met another like-minded performer with a complimentary skill set, and we launched Bambouk Clown Theatre, which toured nationally and internationally, winning a few awards and putting us squarely at the center of the international variety community of the early 2000s. Performing on stages, cruise ships, and festivals around the world was a wonderful way to spend a formative youth. But once my daughter was born, the travel lost its appeal.

I had been teaching clown at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, as well as entering a large number of elementary schools and theatre conservatories as a teaching circus artist, and I enjoyed the teaching almost as much as my performing. So, we packed up our little apartment and came west to begin our adventure in Arizona.

My wife, Brenda Jean Foley, is the Artistic Director of The Bridge Initiative, a theatre company seeking to promote gender equity in the arts, and our daughter has performed in some of the community college productions I have directed, as well as some fun character roles with a number of youth theatres in the valley. My daughter and I also participate in the Circus School of Arizona’s youth troupe — I as a coach, and my daughter as a guest performer at community events.

I continue my academic life during the day, and as my schedule permits I remain connected to the world of special events — volunteering shows for my daughter’s school or creating entertainment concepts for clients like the Desert Botanical Garden, ASU President’s Club, or the Phoenix Symphony. On the third Tuesday of each month, I host and produce a family-friendly vaudeville show entitled Valley Variety. These activities, plus driving my daughter to her after-school activities, cooking for the family, and getting my grading done keeps me pretty busy. But I get to come home each night, and as a seriously invested ‘family man’, I am content with that.

Has it been a smooth road?
There is nothing easy about making art in the 21st century — audience development is a challenge, funding is a challenge, and sometimes the technology that is supposed to make our lives easier simply fails on you. But if it were easy, more people would do it, don’t you think?

Making art in this country, in these times, is a privilege. And with that privilege comes the responsibility to use our art, even the silly, popular aesthetics like circus and variety in which I work, to make the world somewhat better for those whose lives are significantly harder than mine. And the recognition of how truly fortunate I am helps me shrug off any struggles I may have along the way, and just keep moving forward.

Finding the time to get it all done is a challenge that we all share–not just artists. But I owe my students their grades and feedback on time, and I owe my audience the best show that I can give them. Every road has some bumps, I simply choose to focus on the destination.

That said, if any kind soul wants to help lend some financial support to Valley Variety, I’d be very appreciative.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Brian Foley Dynamic Theatre and Valley Variety – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I reside at the intersection point of academia, theatre, variety, and special events. This allows my artistic ventures, under the umbrella of ‘Brian Foley Dynamic Theatre’ to call on the resources and collaborative abilities of a wide array of artists, both professionals, and students.

Agents in New York City often called me when, at their own admission, they “didn’t know who else to call!” As a special event professional, I enjoy offering some of my performance material that is tried and true, but just as often I am being contacted to fill a need that will require some custom creation. By way of example, ASU’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society is working on a multi-year initiative inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I have developed several different iterations of a performative Frankenstein’s monster character, seen at several special events and at public events such as First Friday or ASU’s Homecoming. My mix of interesting collaborators, skill with stiltwalking, experience teaching a makeup class to undergraduates, and my background performing a Frankenstein-inspired show with Macarthur Award-winning Bond Street Theatre in New York, allowed me to successfully create, revise, and implement a design for a character based on their evolving needs. I’ll be slapping on the green facepaint again soon for an event at ASU’s Gammage theatre.

As I sought venues in which to perform locally, I noticed that burlesque and improv were both very popular in the Phoenix area. I enjoy both of these genres of performance, but I cannot take my daughter, my little theatre buddy, to a bar to see a burlesque show. And while I’ve studied and performed in improvisational shows and companies, I do stronger work when I’ve been able to rehearse and present material that I’ve tried out a few times (in some cases, a few decades). So with Valley Variety I consciously chose to present a family-friendly show that allows performers to present material they’ve rehearsed or performed before.

This allows for a multi-generational audience, which is important to me, and valued by many of my performers as well. It means you’re getting some solid entertainment for your $12 ticket ($3 for children) including material seen on television, and at events around the valley that often have a higher cost of attendance.

And I just love what I do. I love making families smile, I love slapping on some makeup to become a living statue, I love giving my students opportunities to engage with local arts groups, and I love doing all of this with my family by my side. When clients contact me, I’m less interested in what their performance needs are, rather I’m more interested in hearing their goals for the experience of their guests and clientele. Once I know the experience they want their guests to have, I can share my expertise in translating those needs into a performance that will meet and hopefully exceed them. After close to 30 years of live performance in a million different contexts, and two fine arts degrees in creating a live performance with a multiplicity of collaborators, there’s not much that surprises me anymore. But I work to continue surprising myself by continuing to find new technologies, new themes, new skills, and new collaborators with whom to create something fun, engaging, and memorable.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love how many artists are in this city. I love how many different cultures, voices, and cuisines we find in this city. I love the passion of the politically active and the persistence in the fight for justice.

As someone who straddles the jobs of artist and educator, I wish that Arizona, in general, did a stronger job of supporting the arts and education.

Pricing:

• Valley Variety–$12 for Adults, $3 for Children under 13

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brianfoley.net www.vvphx.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/BrianFoleyArtist

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.