The Staller Center at Stony Brook hosted a mini-circus last Sunday that entertained people of all ages. Squirm Burpee: A Vaudevillian Melodrama was a show comprised of stunts, jokes, comedy and drama that left children laughing and parents with a headache.

The night began when the giant purple curtain hanging in front of the stage rose. Immediately the screams and shrieks of excited children filled the auditorium. Then the evil Baron Vegan Von Hamburger, as he was so creatively named, rode out on a giant bicycle that seemed to be something out of a Tim Burton film, as it had a large horn and an umbrella with a skull on top of it.

The characters were introduced early on. The dynamic duo of the Handsome Little Devils were Mike the Handsome and Dashing Dave; two brothers who “were the greatest Vaudeville performers in the world,” as they said in the show. Their nemesis, Hamburger, sought to thwart their show and regain his place as the best circus act ever.

The show then slowly progressed following a love story between Mike the Handsome and The Lovely Little Lolo, the last of the four person cast. The show continued with its up downs, literally as the characters flipped, jumped and danced, as Dashing Dave assisted his brother Mike the Handsome in winning Lolo over again.

The show was more of a series of juggling acts and mediocre comedy than anything else. Yes, there was some slapstick comedy that kept the children amused, and mild adult humor to keep the parents from falling asleep, but not much else. The actors seemed to stumble their lines and drop their props a little too often for it to seem on purpose.

However, the show was successful in keeping the children amused, as was evident from all the high pitched laughter and screams. They brought attendees onto the stage and used them as assistants in the show, a great move to make any parent blush. Al Carini, a Long Island local, brought his daughter to the show. “It was very entertaining, a good kids show,” Carini said. “I liked the mix of music and dancing.”

Valerie and Rich McMahon brought their son Ian to see the show along with family friends. “I liked the juggling and all the contraptions they had,” Ian said. To the cast’s credit, they did include an impressive collection of contraptions. One was a Giggle-o-meter, which can best be described as a dressed up helium can as it absorbed the laughter of the crowd and filled balloons with it, even further promoting the children to scream at the top of their lungs.

The show ended with Lolo and Mike the Handsome reigniting their love and the Handsome Little Devils able to cease the plans of Hamburger. The audience clapped as the actors took their final bows before the curtain dropped.

After the show the cast had a meet and greet with the audience, signing autographs and entertaining the children as they remained in costume. The children ran around from actor to actor asking questions and giving high fives. Jimmy Slonina, who played the Baron Vegan Von Hamburger, said that this was actually the first time that they had performed this show.

“We have worked on variations of the show,” Mike Huling, or Mike the Handsome, said. “We had a similar previous show, its half new.” The actors looked to take the show in a new direction, adjusting the script and their performances. While the show last Sunday seemed to have a few errors, maybe it will come together as they keep performing. They continue on tour performing their show in New York.