Stage Reviews : Fun Fails to Appear in ‘Dr. Silkini’ Show

There are only two reasons to see “Dr. Silkini and His Original Great Ghost Show” at the Las Palmas Theatre, and neither has anything to do with ghosts--or Dr. Silkini.

They are the so-called “special acts”: The juggling Villams and the unicycling Volantes.

The sequined Villams from Hungary--a husband and wife team?--are a sparkling breath of fresh air in a show otherwise as musty as a coffin. They’re real entertainers who know their stuff and do it with elan and minimal talk, which, in this context, is a relief.

The Volantes from Las Vegas are gabbers as well as doers, and while their physical routines are more skilled than their patter, there’s a shamelessness to their punning and lounge act humor that somehow manages briefly to win you over.

It’s more than we can say for the smoothie Doctor whose stage presence is as limp as a corpse and whose portion of the show should be embalmed. His brand of sexism and the third-grade level of his toilet humor have been long dead. His magic tricks were old in 1933 (when this show reportedly began). And his “effects” are at least as clumsy and transparent as his showmanship and ploys.

If you like a performance that keeps asking, “Wasn’t that fun, folks?” this one’s for you.

It has card tricks, ESP, levitation, scantily clad dancing girls, trunk stunts, a guillotine and loads of audience participation.

It is padded, silly and overextended and invariably delivers less than it promises. The costumes, tricks, dancing, patter and chatter are second rate. And if the first half is pat and predictable, the second plummets to sheer idiocy, with some phony hypnotism, lots of terrible running gags (in which shills run up and down the aisles) capped by a big, noisy, blinding and meaningless Frankenstein scene.

All promise, no payoff.

(Be warned: Explosive lighting effects in this scene will cauterize the optic nerve.)

A previous finale with someone burned at the stake was scrapped in previews, a casualty of Fire Department codes. We were probably spared--literally and figuratively--but the ending now is decidedly anticlimactic.

At 1642 N. Las Palmas Ave. in Hollywood, Tuesdays through Thursdays 8 p.m.; Fridays, 7:30 and 11 p.m.; Saturdays, 12:30, 3:30, 7:30 nd 11 p.m.; Sundays, 12:30, 3:30 and 7:30 p.m., until Jan. 29. Tickets: $10-$21.50; (213) 469-7758).