Phroobar
Well-Known Member
Some people would spend good money to see that at the strip club down the street on Ball.
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Worst Street Shows
- Thread starter CaptinEO
- Start date
Kram Sacul
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
The DJ show was a lot fun and brought even more energy and life to the land. Them moving it to DHS with a static DJ and no cute female dancers is pathetic. It’s missed and should be brought back.
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TP2000
Well-Known Member
I remember a few years ago I had family in town and we all went to Disneyland. I was putting stuff in a locker while they walked down the street and I caught up to them just as the trolley rolled up and they stopped to watch that Newsies show. I had to literally pull them away and say "You really don't want to see this, it's horrible!" and I saved them.
As if mass transit didn't already have a bad enough reputation in Southern California, they had to do this!
Mickeyboof
Well-Known Member
I really am the only one who absolutely adored this little show!
Oh well, I miss talking Mickey and I love Newsies- best of both worlds.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Oh, is that where it went? DHS?
I am the first to admit I'm a grumpy bachelor, but when any theme park show encourages the children to come down and dance in the show I automatically check out and look for the nearest exit. It's always been a real turn off for me, and often reminds me that I should try a new hobby.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
You are the fan! They needed a fan, and they are lucky to have you. Just ignore us and go with it.
Simba’s Mom
Active Member
The Disneyland All American College Band is truly wonderful! Not only is it a wonderful street show, I consider it a national treasure! If your son was in it, I can only imagine how much fun your son had the summer he was in it, and how happy those memories will be for him for the rest of his life.
Something tells me he'll be bringing that topic up at Thanksgiving dinner for decades and decades to come, to the strained yet patient delight of his immediate family.
Thanks-I'll tell him that. When the counselor met him at the airport at the beginning of the summer, he told DS, "Get ready for a summer you'll never forget". Boy, was he right!
As far as bringing up the topic at the dinner table, even during the summer, Mom [me] had the reputation as the Disney-fanatic. So whenever anything unique happened, they'd call me. So the night that Tinkerbelle got "stuck" in her flight and had to be rescued by the fire department (in darkness so that hopefully, little ones wouldn't have their spirit destroyed-"You mean Tinkerbelle can't really fly by herself?" ), the day a float caught on fire during the parade and had to be carted off-stage, even the night they rehearsed in the empty park and got to see all the "after hours" stuff as they marched down Main Street, waving at the lamp posts- yup, "Let's call your Mom and tell her-she'll get excited." And I did.
Mickeyboof
Well-Known Member
Shows always block a bit of traffic.
Who cares! I would hate to see Disney gut the parks from streetmosphere because 15 minutes of *minor* inconveniences.
Five and Dime blocks traffic, as does the March Down Main Street...
SSG
Well-Known Member
One of my favorites is a quick show that could objectively be considered 'bad' but I think is delightful. That is the amazing lighting of the neon in Cars Land. Every night, as dusk falls in Radiator Springs, the colorful neon lights up to the sound of Sh-Boom by the Chords and accompanied by bad dancing from cast and guests. It's great.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
But I like those shows! They are heavy on music and light on bad acting.
In my opinion, what makes a bad street show is when they try and saddle it with some contrived plotline and dialogue. The Newsies show was all about these scrappy young newsies who had a dream in their heart and a song on their lips and they wanted to tell you all about it. To be blunt, I couldn't care less about their dreams.
The Newsies thing was cute and fun when the trolley was just rolling by and they were singing California Here I Come! out the windows with Mickey waving at everyone. That's all that show needed to do to add zest and character to the already wonderful Buena Vista Street environment.
But instead the trolley came to a stop in the middle of everything and they would do a 12 minute long show that was 10 minutes too long. With dialogue and character development and all sorts of annoying and cloying acting. Dumb.
The Dapper Dans are wonderful when they stand on the back of a Horse Drawn Streetcar and serenade the passengers and pedestrians as they ride up Main Street USA. Truly fabulous stuff and quintessential Disneyland! But if the Dapper Dans shut down the Streetcars for 30 minutes so they could do a 14 minute long show heavy on dialogue and character arcs and cheesy dialogue inbetween songs, that would be crap.
Apparently they didn't learn that lesson over in DCA with the Newsies show. In just my opinion, of course.
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Mickeyboof
Well-Known Member
I can’t really fathom how the Disneyland Band playing in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle for a few minutes could possibly be seen as bothersome. It’s so dang epic and beautiful! Classic Disneyland, something you can only experience at Walt’s original Magic Kingdom.
The Disneyland Band does play elsewhere throughout the day.
Mickeyboof
Well-Known Member
Woof, sounds like you’re in a WDW state of mind.
Don’t worry about your dining reservation. You’ll have to stand around waiting to be sat for another 10 minutes anyway. And screw fastpass, enjoy the band! They’re only out front of the castle once or twice a day, always at 12:30p. I guess you should get out of line when a ride breaks down so you can get to your 12:30 fastpass and 12:35 lunch reservation.
(also, tip, don’t use the castle tunnel if you’re in a rush. It’s usually quite congested. Use the Fantasy Faire or Tomorrowland side paths. Much, much faster.)
Mickeyboof
Well-Known Member
Solid nope. Sorry you’re experiencing Disneyland like that.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I realize I am about to insult the mothers of America with this next one, but I just have to do it...
The march of tiny tot dancers in town for a dance convention. They all wear similar outfits and do the same low-impact hand choreography as thousands of them march down the parade route to some horrible pop song stuck on repeat. And if you are waiting for the real parade you are trapped there as Dance Moms scramble over you as they chase their darling down the street screeching Wooooooo! Go Mackenzie! Woooo! Woooooooooo!
It's apparently called Dance The Magic. (You don't want to know what words I searched for in Google to find these videos, but it's hysterical that it popped up immediately)
There is also a Christmas version. Woo.
The march of tiny tot dancers in town for a dance convention. They all wear similar outfits and do the same low-impact hand choreography as thousands of them march down the parade route to some horrible pop song stuck on repeat. And if you are waiting for the real parade you are trapped there as Dance Moms scramble over you as they chase their darling down the street screeching Wooooooo! Go Mackenzie! Woooo! Woooooooooo!
It's apparently called Dance The Magic. (You don't want to know what words I searched for in Google to find these videos, but it's hysterical that it popped up immediately)
There is also a Christmas version. Woo.
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Mickeyboof
Well-Known Member
Lets hear it for Britney with the broken foot. I bet she’s never cried so hard before in her life when she found dancing down Main Street was out of the question, and a big shout out to one of the dance moms for throwing her on the rope!
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Strongly disagree. Maybe I've gotten lucky but anyone stressing hardcore about getting most DLR reservations or FPs is doing it wrong.
WDW there is genuine pressure that seems like it's only getting worse. Unless you or others can make a compelling case I simply don't see it in CA.
Curious Constance
Well-Known Member
I heard she bit the arm of the doctor who broke the news to her that she couldn’t dance on Main Street.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Way to go Britney!
And I love that she was paired with two other adults on that rope line; the 34 year old dance academy co-owner from Tucson on the right who has had parking lot arguments with at least three Dance Moms in the past month, and the 37 year old dance academy choreographer and confirmed bachelor from San Jose on the left who auditioned for America's Got Talent in 2007 and 2009 but will explain to anyone who will listen that he wasn't selected because "they didn't want people with obvious talent".
Britney is actually a real trooper for putting up with that. The show must go on!
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Tanna Eros
Well-Known Member
Okay, I got the flashlight and went out to my lemon tree and plucked a gorgeous fresh lemon off, brought it into the house and made myself a Sidecar and am sipping and enjoying.
TP2000 Sidecar Recipe (healthy portion version);
Juice of one fresh squeezed lemon
2 Shots of Cognac
1 Shot of Cointreau
Pour all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice, ask Siri to play Smokey Robinson's "Going To A-Go-Go" and shake vigorously while also doing the Jerk to the music in that dorky way only older white men can do, pour into chilled cocktail coupe, garnish with lemon peel, savor and enjoy.
Thinking back, some of the absolute worst street shows appeared when Disney's California Adventure burst onto the scene in February, 2001. This was the park that Disney executives openly claimed was supposed to be "hip and edgy", from a 2001 Disney executive point of view. Unsurprisingly, it was disastrous.
One of my most vivid memories of DCA's opening was of this early 1950's Mercury station wagon they had acquired and painted a deep purple and then hooked a flatbed trailer onto the back of it for a band to play from. So far, so good, right? Except the band was... not good. It was like the band that might perform in the cocktail lounge on a Saturday night at an Airport Sheraton in a small Midwest city. And this old Mercury drove all around DCA with this band on a trailer, a band made up of creepy middle aged men, playing bad cover versions of what were once good songs.
It surprised me how quickly I found an example of this awful street show on YouTube, but here it is from an Annual Passholder Preview day on February 3rd, 2001.
Meanwhile, there was also this horrible street show called Le Feet!
It consisted of hip young kids in baggy 2001 clothes (but fashion-wise it was still the late 1990's in '01) who would walk out into the mostly empty park and set up these giant drum things on the ground trying to act nonchalant. Then they would proceed to start stomping on the drums and jumping around, in their Old Navy clothes someone in TDA bought for them. The kids had talent and physical coordination, bless them, but the result was more baffling than entertaining. It was painful to watch.
And since DCA in the spring and summer of 2001 was mostly empty, it was one of those awful street shows that you would randomly stumble across and accidentally make eye contact with one of the performers and then have to stop and smile tightly and pretend to be entertained by them because you felt bad that no one else was caring about them. Le Feet!
I'm so grateful you included a video of the Flatbed Band. Your description matched the video perfectly.
That's a band not to have in a bar if you want people to buy drinks. Two songs in, one gets what they think is a cheap beer headache and heads on home.