By GRETCHEN AMMERMAN/Oregon Coast TODAY
It could be the perfect subject for a hit Broadway play, except the name is Rizo instead of Roxy. And the town? Not Chicago, but Newport.
Raised in Newport’s vibrant performing arts environment, Amelia Zirin-Brown would grow up to leave her small-town roots and move to New York City, where she took the Big Apple by storm with her adopted stage persona Rizo or Lady Rizo. She returns for another triumphant show, “Prizmatism” at the Newport Performing Arts Center this Friday, May 26, and Saturday, May 27.
An international cult favorite, her stage shows bring her powerhouse vocals together with seductive storytelling and wild hilarious audience experiments. The Guardian newspaper has described her as a “diva par excellence.”
“She’s a diva but she’s a very loving diva,” Zirin-Brown said of her alter ego. “I use the portal of glamor to express the luxury of being. I mix elements of burlesque into my show and I can seduce the entire audience by taking the role as a prism. Since I have been performing since the age of three and liked it, I do have the natural timing with jokes. The raw hours on stage have given me the ability to hold that space because I don’t have any nervousness about doing it.”
The New York Times once referred to Rizo as “Sensational … a fierce but kindhearted fusion of comedy, burlesque, performance art and rock ‘n’ roll. Rizo makes connections between performer and audience that are impossible in any other context.”
“The New York Times also called me the ‘diva with a heart of gold,’ because I am comfortable with vulnerability,” she said. “I like audience involvement, but it’s nothing scary.”
After 22 years in New York, this Oregon girl has moved back to her home state and is looking forward to performing for hometown crowds.
“In my shows, there is already a high level of vibration,” she said. “At the coast, that is mixed with the pride of the fact that I was made from these waters and went on to tour internationally and win all these awards. Riding and harnessing that enthusiasm and cultivating that with the audience creates a whole different kind of wonderful show.”
In the studio, Rizo has collaborated with Moby and Reggie Watts and was featured on the Grammy Award-winning Yo-Yo Ma album, “Songs of Joy & Peace.”
She has also received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a Time Out London theater award and a London Cabaret Award. She has starred in the role of Madame Zinzanni in the revival of the much beloved “Teatro ZinZanni” and is in development for a television project with Michael Carbonaro of the popular series “The Carbonaro Effect.”
Moving to Portland with her husband and young son happened slowly and as a result of a paradigm shift, like experienced by so many, during the pandemic.
“We had this reckoning that we couldn’t live in the city with a young child during all of that so we went to a friend’s property in Woodstock. Then I spoke to my friend and she said ‘You should go back to Oregon for a while since you have so much support there.’ I didn’t think I could stop being a New Yorker because I thrived so much there, but I’m actually doing okay. I view this state as a refuge I can return to rather than something that is a step down. Portland has kept itself pretty weird so I’m really enjoying being back.”
For the new show, Rizo has tapped into the Pacific Northwest music and theater scene to support her unique style.
“I am backed by a great quartet composed of musicians from Seattle and Portland and from Teatro Zinzani,” she said. “I would definitely say my genre is alternative cabaret style, where music, storytelling and comedy come together.”
For Zirin-Brown, live performance is something she does for her own mental health and she enjoys the positive effect it can also have on her audiences.
“I like to go from a joke to a transformative experience,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like the audience uses me as an outlet for freedom. You can feel the difference in the room at the end of the show. A lot of my new shows are about peeling back the alter ego I’ve lived with for 20 years. I’ve reached an age where I enjoy looking back on all the lives I’ve lived but am also really looking forward to the new lives I haven’t lived yet.”
- Friday and Saturday’s shows begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Newport Performing Arts Center, 777 W. Olive St. For more information and tickets, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-ARTS.
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