Magic, hacky sacks and juggling will be taken to new extremes for a "high energy, fast pace, in your face" experience Saturday at the State Theatre.
A group of Penn State students, who will perform the Out of Hand Variety Show, will take the stage at 8 p.m. with a featured guest -- Penn State President Graham Spanier.
Spanier has performed a magic routine with the four performers in the past, which has been at the beginning of the shows performed during LateNight Penn State in the HUB-Robeson Center, Chris Ruggiero, Class of 2008, said.
"The hardest part with [Spanier] is that he's a busy man, so we don't have time to practice with him. He comes in and does his thing and then we do our thing," he said.
Ruggiero said the performers in Saturday's show will combine juggling, magic and comedy in their first State Theatre performance.
"My vision and goal for what we do is to break down the barrier of exactly what you have in your mind -- you go to a magic show and it's something 5-year-old kids are going to be into and it's going to be lame," Ruggiero said. "Our show is fun for children, but also we can entertain college students. We take a new approach to the things that we do, rather than, say, pull flowers out of the sleeve."
Ruggiero said he graduated from Penn State last December and stayed in State College to continue performing with the group.
The group offers routines that interact with others to flow into a whole show, performer Nathan Kepner (junior-secondary education) said.
"The group has discussed how juggling to non-jugglers gets old quick. We are doing tricks to mostly non-jugglers. So, we keep the acts on the shorter side and use high energy music," juggler Joe Scholz (graduate student-engineering and science) said. "And we try to make most of the juggling routines -- two or more of us interacting with each other. That brings more of an entertainment element to the show."
The show also features a more modern style of juggling. David Clavens (junior-marketing) said he can often be found in front of the HUB playing hacky sack. Clavens performs hacky sack in the show as well as regular hand juggling. He will also take part in a magic act with Kepner.
Since the group usually does not perform on an actual stage, it is looking forward to many features of the State Theatre.
"It'll be very nice to have a proper stage with curtains and side stage areas and dressing rooms," Scholz said. "Other places we've performed, it's a rush in order to get things ready in between acts. And it'll also be nice having someone run the sound."
Clavens added he hopes the audience will combine students and people from the community.
"I'm looking forward to our act that will be more family-oriented, too," he said.
