It’s a numbers game

Delightfully dowdy clowns—one a pixie, the other a ribald ringmaster—hand out vintage bingo cards. A band of homespun vaudeville escapees claims the stage. A theremin wobbles notes high and creepy above the scraping of a toy saw. And from behind a golden tenor saxophone, a sharp-dressed, needle-haired piper lifts a bullhorn to his lips for a battle cry loud and distorted as it cuts through the smoke to the ears of each and every spectator: “Does anybody wanna beeeeee … a winnah!?!”

This how most audiences are introduced to the Bingo! Show, the experimental multimedia lounge act in 2002 that shot out of songwriter Clint Maedgen’s mind and the collective unconscious of the underground arts community orbiting Lower Decatur Street like a bullet from a gun. In some ways experiencing Bingo! is like tasting a time warp back to the early 20th century—but a haywire one in which the circus is always in town, and in fact, it’s taken over. Like when Marty Mc-Fly returned to 1985 from 2015, only it was an

alternate 1985 because Biff had stolen the sports almanac and traveled back in time to become Donald

Trump. Bingo! Show is neither retro nor thoroughly modern. It’s a madcap eff ort, a post-modern

mash-up of sight and sound, experimental films, battery-powered toys and heartfelt lyrics.

Oh, and the music is just great the way it leans out over Maedgen’s tunes always looking for, but

thankfully never quite finding, a tipping point into the absurd. Maedgen’s voice itself is soulful, dexterous, and swampy. It’s the kind of voice you’d always expect to be telling amazing stories, and it got a lot of attention in 2006. In the past 18 months, the Lafayette native has performed as resident vocalist for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in front of thousands across the world, sung a gorgeous “You Are My

Sunshine” for President George W. Bush and a swinging version of U2 hit “Vertigo” with the Edge rocking by his side.

In the fall the line-up of the Bingo! Show closely resembled that of Liquidrone—the eclectic Baton Rouge

band Maedgen formed in the late 1990s—only with Ron Rona’s emcee Ronnie Numbers and Matthew Black’s prankster The Turk on hand to douse the proceedings with a carnival’s touch. But just before Christmas, guitarist Michael Miller and drummer Scott Campbell told Maedgen they would soon be

leaving Bingo! to concentrate on their blues duo Bones, as well as the other band Campbell drums

for, indie rock outfit Harlan.

“Bones has been getting lots of attention,” explains Casey McAllister, Bingo!’s keyboard and theremin specialist under the name Calhoun Macalouso. “They were kind of a smash at Bonnaroo, then followed that up with a bunch of touring. Scott has been in Bones longer, and feels more comfortable there.”

Now after a stellar showcase at New Orleans’ Contempory Arts Center, its last with Miller and Campbell, Bingo! Show rolls into the Spanish Moon this month with a new drummer and a bag of old tricks.

While Maedgen and McAllister compose the music of Bingo!, Ron Rona oversees the theatrical and video aspects of the performance. One music video he directed features Maedgen riding his bicycle past choreographed scenes and cameos from friends in one continuous shot through the streets of pre-Katrina New Orleans.

From the homemade fi lms, the pageantry, the obscure instruments and the ambush street theatre the band

uses to promote its shows, it seems like Bingo! works harder than just about anybody to entertain its audience. Maedgen for one sees the benefits of the hard work.

“It’s all about fun,” Maedgen says. “That’s what people are looking for, and they can tell how much fun we have together when performing and that translates to the audience.”

Obviously Bingo! is not your brother’s typical bar band, but Maedgen’s sights are set even farther afield. He would love nothing more than to have a small theatre in Manhattan or Brooklyn host the New Orleans Bingo! Show several nights a week until he drops dead.

“I want a run off -Broadway,” Maedgen lays out. “We’ve come close in the past, but it’s remained an unfulfi lled goal. I’m not going to quit till we achieve it. It’s hard for me to lug around my 1800s pump organ on the road. It would be nice to have a place to keep all of our toys.”

The Bingo! Show performs live at the Spanish Moon Friday, Feb. 10. myspace.com/bingoshow.