Last Saturday Moves To New Venue

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Doug Shields performs during the Word War at Last Saturday. Shields has performed at all but two Last Saturday events.

A Fayetteville arts variety show is upgrading to a bigger venue to accommodate its growing audience.

Last Saturday Fayetteville, Northwest Arkansas’ monthly vaudeville variety show and poetry slam, will be moving to its new permanent home on Dickson Street at Ryleigh’s.

This month celebrates three years and 35 shows for Last Saturday at its previous venue, the Fayetteville Underground. Despite the move in location, the show format will remain the same. Four variety acts will perform 10 minute sets in addition to an audience-judged slam poetry competition.

After this month’s show, more than 120 acts will have performed at Last Saturday. All but two of the acts were Northwest Arkansas based.

“I think coming to a new venue will free us up to focus even more on the technical side of making the show awesome,” said Houston Hughes, Last Saturday’s host. “We’re pleased as could be to have David Embree running our lights and sound, which takes a huge load off of our shoulders – but giving me more time just means I want to find even more crazy things to put into the show.”

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For this month’s show, Last Saturday will play host to local rock band Witchsister, comedian Chealsia Summers, magician Michael Weiss, and folk/Americana group Truman Rail Boys. While moving to the new location has necessitated limiting the audience to 18 and up, the show will remain free.

Every show also includes the Word War, which is an audience-judged slam poetry competition. Fifty different people compete in the Word War at some point or another, Hughes said. Doug Shields and Molly Sroges have competed the most, each having competed in all but two of Word Wars.

The winner of the Word War, picked by popular vote, is awarded a cash prize. The show has given away $1,750 in prize money throughout its lifespan. Two-thirds of that was before Last Saturday joined Northwest Arkansas Creative Arts Network and helped fund the prizes, otherwise Hughes paid for it out of pocket.

Ryleigh’s bigger stage and event space allows for bigger acts, such as acrobats, jugglers and other performance art will be able to use the space better. Louder music acts and full bands will also be able to perform without needing to quiet down, as many needed to for the Fayetteville Underground.

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Jackson Jennings performs a solo set at a special Last Saturday located at local DIY venue Syc House.

The bar also provides a place to hang out following the show.

“(At the Underground) we’d have to shut down and lock up pretty quickly,” Hughes said. “We’re working with Ryleigh’s on hosting food for every show too – having a local food truck or catering service set up shop inside the bar.”

The show is always looking for new, diverse, and weird talent to show off. Anyone interested in performing (or with questions about the show) should contact their facebook page: facebook.com/LastSatFay.

The idea for Last Saturday came to Hughes after performing and touring as a slam poet following graduation at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark. He soon found a small humble scene in Fayetteville with the Ozark Poetry Slam.

Taking inspiration from a variety show in California he’d attended once, Hughes was determined to start his own style of show at The Fayetteville Underground, who allowed him to use the space for free — so long as the show was free.

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Local jugglers Jugglology perform during a Last Saturday variety show.

“I wanted each show to have as much variety as possible,” Hughes said. “This is why each show we have, along with the slam, a comedian, two musicians, and a fourth act which I try to make as weird as possible – we’ve had burlesque, jugglers, magicians, belly dance, and more, though sometimes we have to resort to a third band.”

The first Last Saturday was June 29 in 2013.

“The audience was small, made up mostly of my close friends and members of the groups themselves,” Hughes said. “But we got positive feedback from everyone involved, and word about the show began to spread.”

The positive word of mouth spread quickly throughout the course of the next two years. In 2015, Last Saturday joined forces with Fayetteville’s New Year’s Eve party Last Night Fayetteville with Hughes as the programming coordinator.

For more information on future shows and acts, visit facebook.com/LastSatFay/.