Hurricane Hugo Festival returns to Davidson College

Steve Langley is emcee of the Vaudeville Extravaganza. Ed Haponik will demonstrate his yo-yo prowess. The annual Hurricane Hugo Festival returns to Davidson College Friday and Saturday Sept. 2-3, featuring the Vaudeville Extravaganza family variety show and a community effort to set a new Guinness world record for the most people using paddle balls at one time, on the Davidson Village Green.

The Vaudeville Extravaganza begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, in Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall. The Great Fettucini (aka Steve Langley) will emcee the show and introduce a lineup of talented and mirthful entertainers.

They include two local stars of object manipulation. Austin Bruckner, a 15-year-old tenth grade juggler who attends the Community School of Davidson, will perform a fast-paced juggling routine with as many as seven objects. Star yo-yo tosser Ed Haponik, a science and physics teacher at Davidson Day School, will demonstrate equally fast-paced possibilities for manipulation of that prop.Others expected to perform include legendary and championship-winning juggler Tommy Curtin and mutiple award-winning comedy Magician Craig Stone.

General admission tickets for the family-friendly show are $10 for adults and $5 for youth under 12. Tickets can be purchased online anytime at www.davidson.edu/tickets, or by phone at 704-894-2135 from 10-4 weekdays. Proceeds from the show will benefit the Davidson College chapter of Building Tomorrow, a charity which builds schools in Africa.

Another highlight of the weekend will be an attempt on Saturday morning, Sept. 3, to establish a Guinness World Record for the largest crowd of paddleballers in one place at one time. Langley, also known as “The Paddleball King” because he holds a Guinness Record for most paddleballs manipulated at one time, will orchestrate the effort. The attempt will be made at 11 a.m. on the Davidson Village Green, and those interestedshould be on the Green at 10:30.

The first 250 people to sign up will be provided a paddleball and instructions on its use courtesy of sponsor Active People Toys. Participants can take the $12 paddleball home with them at no charge at theconclusion of the event. The record attempt will be part of a festival on the green from 9 a.m. to noon. Juggling balls and lessons will be available to all.

The weekend’s events are sponsored by the Lake Norman Jugglers, the Davidson College Union, and Ben & Jerry’s of Davidson.