The only certainty at a Dueling Pianos International show is uncertainty.
As in silly, off-the-wall spontaneity in what might be the most unscripted presentation this side of Robin Williams.
That’s what the audience can expect at “Dueling Pianos: A Third Major” musical fundraiser for Ivy Tech Community College students at 6 p.m. Jan. 18 at The Commons. The interactive event, built on audience requests for two crazed keyboardists seriously singing for laughs, sold out the past two years.
And at press time, the show where the crooning audience steals the spotlight was approaching the full-house figure of about 350 tickets, according to organizers.
The sing-along gathering raised about $26,000 last year for scholarships and other assistance for Ivy Tech students through the Ivy Tech Foundation.
And the get-together generated generous laughs. That included when the performers pulled four attendees from the crowd for an impromptu rendition of The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” One pianist said last year that the musicians specialize in the ability “to fly by the seat of our pants.”
“It’s an awful lot of fun,” said Therese Copeland, foundation executive director.
Jason Scarcelli is part of the team at Lorio-Ross Entertainment, which operates the Michigan-based Dueling Pianos International, a company of about 275 traveling keyboard artists.
“They really have to be a human jukebox, a disc jockey and a comedian, all rolled up into one,” Scarcelli has said. “Finding those characters who can do all that can be very difficult.”
Repeat business booms “because every show that we do is different.”
That includes fresh audience interaction. Fresh tunes, from rock to pop to country to you-name-it. Last year, the Indiana University and Purdue University fight songs even made it into the mix.
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What: The comic "Dueling Pianos: A Third Major" musical fundraiser for Ivy Tech Community College students via the Ivy Tech Foundation.
When: 6 p.m. Jan. 18.
Where: The Commons, 300 Washington St. in downtown Columbus.
Tickets: $55 per person, available at 812-374-5342 or connect.ivytech.edu/events/columbus/duelingpianos or 812-374-5342.
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