2022 Moisture Festival: Opening March 17

BOARD & STAFF

Board of directors

Moisture Festival is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a governing board of directors

Dan Shih President
Dan is a dedicated fan of live theater—the wackier, the better. As a former member of Boston theater troupe Fresh Fruit Productions, he produced and performed in musical-comedy revues with such titles as “Spring Queening” and “Venus Envy.” Now an attorney at Susman Godfrey, with prior experience in business strategy and finance, he also serves on the boards of the ACLU of Washington, QLaw, Carbon Washington, and Washington Coalition of Minority Legal Professionals.

Jamie Marshall – Vice President
Jamie came to Seattle at the turn of the century to work in software, and is proud of having been voted “most eccentric” at his computer-games studio. Despite such honors, he felt the need to move to something less virtual, more real, and became an electrician.

After several years as a faithful audience member, Jamie decided to join the fun at the Moisture Festival. He performed a variete of tasks, from driver and stagehand to provider of Italian deserts, until he found his calling as bar manager for Broadway Performance Hall and special events. This position brings the opportunity to invent new cocktail recipes, see fabulous Moisture festival performances, meet the fine audience members and benefactors, and provides a reason to have a four-tap kegerator in his basement eleven months of the year. 

Ted MacGovern – Secretary
Ted is a stay-at-home Dad of three daughters, which certainly shows him the comedy and variety in life. He is actively involved in his daughters’ school (TOPS K-8) and serves on its Site Council. He has dabbled in the circus arts enough to know how hard they are, and he enjoys helping to organize the Moisture Festival.

Joe MurphyTreasurer
Joe discovered theatrical circus in the early aughts and has spent much of his free time since trying to soak up as much comedy, circus, and theater as he can. During the day, Joe works in video game technology, but has prior experience in accounting, theater tech, digital media, and projection design. He is currently (slowly) working on a book (pamphlet) about Franco Dragone’s work. He joined the Moisture Festival Board to contribute in any way he can to the longevity and quality of the Festival.

Charly Castors
Born in Paris between the Moulin Rouge and Le Chat Noir, and raised in the sawdust of the circus, Charly and his brothers founded the world-famous foot-juggling and Icarian-games trio Les Castors. He has performed in fifty countries for the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Queen Elizabeth, President Richard Nixon, Prince Albert and Princess Stephanie of Monaco, Sean Penn, George Lucas, and Sharon Stone and has been part of the Teatro ZinZanni team in Seattle and San Francisco for over a decade. Now focused on directing, teaching, and sharing his knowledge of acrobatics and comedy with the next generation, he’s found a perfect place with the Moisture Festival.

Maque daVis
A former disreputable circus owner, known to indulge in absurdist theater, and is seeking to be defamed before his time.  He helps around the house, seeks an audience that survives intense laughter, and is curious in what is beyond their reach.  Often he asks himself; why now and do you have your ticket yet?

Michael Froebe
Michael Froebe was born in Seattle and raised backstage of various local community theatres.  After fulfilling obligatory educational requirements to get a mechanical engineering degree, he moved to southern California and was made technical director of the Ana-Majesta Players, a community theatre in Anaheim, after presenting zero experience and high enthusiasm.  Moving back home to Seattle to enjoy the green and the rain he continued his volunteer activities with numerous groups for the camaraderie and to make life a bit more enjoyable for all.  He is active in supporting the Seattle Mountaineers Ski Lodge near Stampede Pass, even though he does not ski (??)  and a local gemstone faceting guild.  Intrigued by being alive on this planet, he applies his engineering education and experience to solving mysteries and problems where humans are the actors in everyday life.

Bob Greco
Bob Greco was born and raised in New York City where he earned a BA in Mathematics and an MS in Systems Science. He was an early software geek with an entrepreneurial bent and co-founded Active Voice Corp which grew from 2 to 350 people. He served on the board of the Washington Software Alliance as well as numerous for profit companies.  He is a founder of the MossyBack Morris Men (1980) and continues to dance and play melodeon for the team.

Sasha Rayburn
Raised on San Juan Island playing music to whales and exploring the woods, Sasha ran away to study jazz and nightlife at the earliest possible opportunity. After living in a slew of different cities, Sasha returned to Seattle and joined the band Good Co, touring the US and Europe and playing locally for almost a decade. Simultaneously, Sasha built a career in nonprofits focused on working with both employers and workers to develop equitable pathways to high-skill jobs. She has also worked in grantmaking, organizational development, and mental health. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and another in Social Work from the University of Washington. She has retired from singing, but is an avid seamstress and always looking for ways to be engaged in the performing arts. She currently works in Learning and Development in the finance industry and also serves on the board of Kol HaNeshamah Synagogue.

 

Advisory Board

Katherine Bragdon
Katherine Bragdon is the founder of Active Roots Consulting which oversees volunteer signature gathering drives to get progressive initiatives on state ballots across the country. Katherine is passionate about volunteer activism and has a deep-seated belief that volunteers are the heart and soul of political campaigns. Katherine found great joy in using her organizing experience to help the Moisture Festival in the early years and beyond. Like campaigns, the lifeblood of the Moisture Festival is its talented and fun-loving volunteers. Katherine lives with her husband, Ted, who played trumpet in The Moisture Festival house band for years, and their young children, Caelen and Johanna, who have grown up as Moisture Festival circus rats relishing in fun of this magical festival and its playful and loving community.

Tim Furst
Tim Furst is one of the founders of the Moisture Festival and currently serves as a Producer, coordinating the booking of the performers. He is also one of the founders of The Flying Karamazov Brothers, with whom he performed for 20-odd years (and they were very odd years), as well as a founding member of the New Old Time Chautauqua and the Hawaiian Vaudeville Company (now Hawaii’s Volcano Circus). He served on the board of the International Jugglers’ Association, and was the first American representative to the European Juggling Association. He has performed in 48 states and over a dozen countries, and has played Shakespeare (literally) on Broadway.

Sandy Neale
Sandy Neale is a vaudeville chanteuse, costume enthusiast, sign painter, and a founding member with a 20-year career background in marketing, promotion, sales, public relations, event planning and editing/copy writing. After moving to Seattle the summer of 2001, she first became involved in community arts through the Fremont Arts Council and later performed with the Fremont Players, the Cirque de Flambé and the Peliculiärs. Working on the business side of the arts is a rewarding and fun part of her life. Sandy moved her home base to Copenhagen, Denmark in the fall of 2010.

Paul Casey
Paul is CEO and founder of Casey Communications Inc. a full-service communications/marketing firm based in Seattle, and currently hosts Voices of EXPERINCE (VOE), a thirty-minute weekly radio show and podcast airing on KKNW AM 1150.
Paul has written two books on Entrepreneurism and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Washington State University, where he served two terms as student body president. He is the former chair of the Murrow Professional Advisory Board and is a current Trustee with the Washington State University Foundation. Paul and his wife Marti are part owners of the Tacoma Rainier’s, AAA affiliate to the Seattle Mariners, Tacoma Defiance, AAA affiliate to the Seattle Sounders, and The Reign, a women’s professional soccer team. Paul lives with his wife Marti in West Seattle, with 2 spoiled pups.

 

Marvin Osterhout
Born in 1957, Marv is a native Seattleite who has been a long time fan and supporter of the Moisture Festival. He became enthralled with the festival’s unique entertainment and joined the board in 2012. Marv is a dentist in Des Moines, where he’s had his practice since 1986. He is an enthusiastic Husky fan, having graduated from the UW in 1979 and the UW Dental School in 1983.

Tom Hillier
Tom Hillier graduated from St. Martin’s College in 1969 and Gonzaga Law School in 1973. He has practiced criminal defense since. In 1982, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals appointed Mr. Hillier to be the Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Washington. Tom retired as the Federal Defender in 2014 and is currently Senior Counsel with Perkins Coie. He maintains an active trial practice and is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. His commitment to the service of others has been recognized on a number of occasions. In 2005, the Seattle-King County Bar Association recognized Mr. Hillier with its 2005 Outstanding Lawyer Award. He lives on Bainbridge Island where his wife, Stephanie, is a teacher. His two daughters, Annie and Kerry, are huge Moisture Festival fans.

Amanda Lee
Ms. Lee is a native of the Pacific Northwest, born in Kennewick, Washington and moving to Seattle before starting school. She grew up north of Green Lake, attended Seattle public schools, and studied technical writing and industrial engineering at the University of Washington. After graduating college, she worked at SAIC in Tucson, Arizona on military defense projects including space vehicles, the B-1B bomber, and synthetic aperture radar. She also worked for computer companies in Carson City, Nevada, and Redmond, Washington, writing technical manuals. In the late 1980s, Ms. Lee returned to Seattle to attend UW Law School. After gaining her J.D. in 1990, she clerked for Judge Coughenour in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, as well as for Judge Beezer of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She joined Schroeter Goldmark & Bender in 1996 and established her own law office in 2010. Ms. Lee lives with her husband in West Seattle, and spends time hiking and backpacking, tending her garden, traveling, and supporting some of Seattle’s thriving circus and new vaudeville performance organizations.

Rhonda Sable
Rhonda has been involved in professional theatre for close to 40 years, both as an administrator and a performer. She was the Company Manager for world-renowned juggling/ theatre/ comedy troupe, The Flying Karamazov Brothers from 1990 through 2006. Since 2007 she has been the Guest Relations Manager for The Seattle International Film Festival. Rhonda helped to build and grow The Moisture Festival as their Director of Smooth Operations until 2013. She is a member of that wacky vaudeville troupe known as The Royale Famille Du Caniveaux and the founder and original choreographer of The Flordigan Can Can Girls. Rhonda firmly believes in the benefits of making people laugh, inspiring joy and sparking creativity in unpredictable ways. She is committed to creating unforgettable experiences for diverse groups of people through established and not-yet-envisioned art forms.

Key Staff

Ron W. Bailey, Artistic Director
Victoria Watts, Executive Director
Tim Gonzalez-Wiler, Director of Development
Rhonda Sable, Artist Liaison
Jenna Richter, Marketing Manager
Sarah Haskell, Operations Manager

Riley Nuske, Food Maven
Jamie Marshall
Bar Manager
Ed Lammi,
Front of House Manager
Robin & LJ Purtee
, Transportation Coordinators
Susan Miller, Artist Housing Coordinator
Cathy Johnson, Flight Coordinator
Katherine Ransel, Comp Coordinator
Stefan Freelan, Variety Stage Manager
Matt Baker & Louie Foxx, Podcast

 

Photographers

Michelle Bates
John Cornicello
Rob Falk

Videographers

Alan Plotkin
Charly Castors
Michael Falcone

Booking Teams

Dream Frohe, Aerial
Sadye Osterloh, Aerial
Harry Levine, Variety
Randy Minkler, Variety
Charly Castors, Variety
Louie Foxx, Variety
Matt Baker, Variety
Ron Bailey, Show Bands
Stuart Zobel, Pre-Show Artists 

Financial philosophy

The financial structure of the Moisture Festival reflects the philosophy of its producers, and differs in many ways from other festivals around the world. The purpose of the festival is to present live Comedy/Varieté performance in the upper left-hand corner of the United States, to give performers a chance to interact with each other, and to educate audiences and performers about the history of Comedy/Varieté from its roots in Europe through American Vaudeville to its present-day resurgence. The festival is organized by performers – for performers and their audiences.
To view our most recent IRS Form 990, please visit The National Center for Charitable Statistics.
One of the things which makes the festival’s financial structure unique is the “share” system, wherein all the performers receive the same amount of money per show ($40 per share last festival). For each show in which someone performs, they accumulate one share.

The festival finances are dealt with as a whole, not on a show-by-show basis. Thus the total income of the festival is pooled, and after the expenses have been paid and some money is put aside for the coming year, the balance is divided among all the performers on a per-share basis. One result of the system is that the amount of each share is determined by the overal financial sucess of the festival, and each performer receives the same size share whether they perform in a sold-out Saturday night show or a casual Wednesday show.

For a more in-depth look at our share system, read our blog post here.

The festival is incorporated in Seattle, Washington, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. As a community-based organization, it depends on the generosity of volunteers and seeks sponsorship from local businesses to help defray the production costs. 

Ticket sales cover roughly half the expenses of the festival. This reflects our desire to keep ticket prices affordable. Our tickets range from $11 to $30. As a result Moisture Festival relies heavily on fundraising and community support. To donate or sponsor click here.

Moisture Festival is also very dedicated to giving back to the generous community we are a part of in Seattle. In past years the Moisture Festival has proudly donated benefit shows to”Aerlift” an aerial show presented by The Aerial Army of Love, B. F. Day School Foundation/ B. F. Day Elementary School, Backbone Campaign, Cascade Leadership Challenge, Circus Contraption, Clowns Without Borders, Experimental Education Unit, Fremonstor Theatrical, Fremont Arts Council, Hands for a Bridge, Phinney Neighborhood Association, Room Circus Medical Clowning, SANCA (School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts), The New Old Time Chautauqua, Vashon Youth & Family Services, and Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.

History Of The Moisture Festival

The seeds for the festival were planted at the Oregon Country Fair, and the vaudeville/circus/music/burlesque scene in Seattle added the Moisture that made it grow.

In 1996 Tom Noddy – the “Bubble Guy” and a regular vaudeville performer at the Oregon Country Fair – brought Ron W. Bailey to a comedy/varieté festival in Berlin, created by Hacki Ginda, a notorious German clown. Every day and night there was unique and wonderful entertainment in two tents, one large theater known as “The Chameleon” and several smaller venues in mid-town Berlin. Tom, Ron and Hacki dreamed about someday bringing a festival like that to the people in Seattle.

Enter Maque DaVis of Cirque de Flambe, The Fremont Players and ex-President for Life of the Fremont Arts Council. Maque had helped organize the Fremont Solstice Parade and created “Trolloween”. He and Ron had often talked about bringing some acts from the Oregon Country Fair to Seattle. In 2003 they joined ideas. Understanding the grand scope of producing a festival they brought in Tim Furst, aka Fyodor Karamazov of The Flying Karamazov Brothers, along with Sandy Palmer and Simon Neale of the Fremont Players to help organize the event. In 2004, with the help of Fremonstor Theatrical, Du Caniveaux and the contributions of many artists and sponsors, they created “The Moisture Festival” to bring comedy/varieté to the center of the universe and the greater Seattle area.

The first festival was only five days long and was held in a tent in Fremont, rented at a discount from His Reverend Chumleigh. Fortune was on the festival’s side when many of the organizers favorite artists responded to their call to perform and christen the first shows. It has continued to be the generosity and willingness of the comedy/varieté/burlesque artists and musicians that keeps the festival alive. There have always been many gracious, hard-working volunteers who share in the fun of making it happen.

Local small businesses and individual sponsorship played a major role. That very first year, an unassuming guy delivering the kegs from Hale’s Brewery to the tent turned out to be Mike Hale. After bringing his wife Kathleen to an evening show, they offered to help in any way they could. This led to the brewery’s warehouse being converted to Hale’s Palladium. The Palladium has served as the home of the festival ever since. Additional sponsors have continued to come onboard because they like the sense of joy the festival brings to the community.

In 2005, Cathy Sutherland invited the Seattle burlesque community to perform in some late night shows at the festival, giving birth to our extremely popular cabaret/burlesque series. It became known as Moisture Festival’s Libertease Cabaret in 2006. These shows traveled to ACT – A Contemporary Theatre in downtown Seattle. We consider ourselves fortunate to have collaborated with ACT, under the fun loving artistic direction of Kurt Beattie and his staff.

In 2008, Moisture Festival celebrated its 5th anniversarry and achieved 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.

In 2009 (through 2012) another new collaboration was born with Seattle International Film Festival. Together we created a film program that ran during Moisture Festival and highlighted films in the comedy/varieté/burlesque genre, with a festival artist performing live before each film.

In 2010 two new venues presented varieté shows. On Vashon Island, Open Space for Arts and Community, a beautiful 400-seat warehouse space transformed into a flexible events venue and in Georgetown, one of Seattle’s great arts-oriented neighborhoods, the festival presented shows at The Georgetown Ballroom, a truly gorgeous venue tucked away next to the railroad tracks with its own mini villa. In 2011 we produced a late night Burlesque show for Georgetown’s April Fools weekend.

In 2012 the Libertease Cabaret shows debuted at Broadway Performance Hall on Capitol Hill. 

2014 and 2015 saw a new co-production with Seattle’s premiere dinner cabaret show, Teatro ZinZanni. “Mish Mash Circus Bash” was presented at Teatro ZinZanni’s antique Belgian spiegeltent and featured a special cast of Teatro ZinZanni and Moisture Festival artists. 

In 2016 Moisture Festival travelled to Glasgow, Scotland to help raise funds for the restoration of the world’s oldest surviving Music Hall – the Britannia Panopticon, where Stan Laurel debuted.

2018 marked the 15th anniversary of the festival.

Moisture Festival has always believed in the good will our festival artists bring to the community, a treasure shared by the artists and the audiences alike. Those of us at the heart of this theatrical adventure very much appreciate the way in which the Seattle community has embraced Comedy/Varieté/Cabaret at Moisture Festival, our month long, one-of-a-kind celebration of spring and the variety arts in the great Northwest.

Comedy/Varieté today is an intriguing assortment of entertainment. It is highly skilled performance mixed with many bizarre talents, often humorous, with no limit to the imagination. Presented as a variety show, each act or artist performs their routine within a 3-15 minute time slot while being accompanied by a live show band.

Aerialists, jugglers, magicians, comedians, dancers, rope acts, bubble acts, clowns, acrobats, can can girls, strong women, strong men, tap dancers, drill teams, musicians, the weird and the wonderful all keeping the tradition of Comedy/Varieté/Vaudeville alive.

The festival’s Comedy/Varieté home and main theater is Broadway Performance Hall on Capitol Hill. In 2024, a limited number of shows will be presented at Emerald City Trapeze Arts in SODO (exact schedule TBD). 

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