realm of the blue man

When Marc Roberts first heard about Blue Man Group, it was from his mother. Her description was vague. "She saw it and told me, 'They're blue! And they do things!' " Roberts said.

As a high school student, Roberts was involved in model UN, international club, lacrosse, cross country and college summer programs. "I never did a show," Roberts said. "I was really shy and reserved and terrified of it." But when, as a criminal justice major in college, Roberts finally saw Blue Man Group, he changed his major to theater performance and spent 2 1/2 years auditioning before becoming a Blue Man.

"The instant I saw the guys, I just thought, 'I have to be a part of this,' " Roberts said.

Having performed in Blue Man Groups in New York, Chicago and in Las Vegas at the Luxor, Roberts is now a part of the nightly show at The Venetian.

The benefits of being back in Las Vegas as opposed to New York or Chicago? "Well, it's warmer," Roberts said. The Venetian also boasts the biggest house of any Blue Man Group theater, with 1,760 seats, which, according to Roberts, "is a trip to go out onstage (when) there are so many people."

Regarding the size of the theater, marketing assistant Erin Tischendorf said, "With so many people, there's a lot of energy, and the audience really feeds off of that energy. When that happens, it adds a lot to the whole experience."

And it's not just the number of seats -- almost everything is bigger in Las Vegas. There's a larger staff and a larger crew, creating more of a spectacle. "The family is larger, and you make more friends," Roberts said. "Plus, it's Vegas. And did I mention it's warmer?"

Similar to day care operators, gourmet chefs and rodeo clowns, it takes a special kind of person to become a Blue Man. Although the role is not gender-specific, requirements include a height of between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot-1, an athletic build, drumming skills, the ability to relocate or travel, a collaborative work attitude, and the ability to communicate nonverbally, as, during the course of the show, the Blue Men never speak. Blue Men also need good eye-mouth coordination (also known as the ability to catch things with your mouth), but management will work with you on that one.

However, as in any production outside of Dick Van Dyke's one-man band from "Mary Poppins," there's more than one position to fill in the Blue Man realm. The show also features drummers, percussionists, bassists and guitarists as a part of the band, in addition to staff and crew who work behind the scenes and in nearby offices.

You don't watch Blue Man Group; you actively participate in it, whether by creating your own recycled-paper ninja-turtle mask or learning basic rock concert movements such as the head bob or one-armed fist pump. Even while you're sitting in the balcony, watching the action onstage, the experience is far from what you'd find upstairs at "The Phantom of the Opera." It's not just a show; it's something the Blue Men and the audience experience together, something that is so filled with excitement that it almost leads to exhaustion.

"I love doing it, but it's a marathon every show," Roberts said.

For Roberts, the best part about being a Blue Man comes immediately after the show, when he gets to meet the audience members in the lobby.

"I give everything I have out there onstage, and then I get to come mingle with people," Roberts said. "People want to hug, or high-five or just touch you. They want that physical contact, because we just went through something."

For the purpose of giving someone who has never seen the show an idea of what Blue Man Group is like, Roberts keeps waiting for that one show that he'll be able to compare it too. "It'd be really easy to say 'Have you seen this? Well, it's like that.' But I haven't found it yet. It's literally the closest thing to indescribable you can get."

There really is nothing like it. What other show includes a glow-in-the-dark band, giant Cap'n Crunch boxes, more than 100 custom-built drums, 64 speakers, and, most notably, three guys covered in blue paint banging on things? What other show goes through 60 Twinkies, 996 marshmallows and 75 gallons of Jell-O every week? What other show will be the reason you never look at PVC pipe the same way?

Described by its creators as a simple way to experience the joy of being alive, Blue Man Group is an experience for the audience's senses. You won't necessarily be tasting anything, but you'll definitely be hearing, seeing and touching. And if someone forgets to refrigerate the egg-based colored paint used in the famous paint drumming seen on billboards, you'll be smelling, too.

Blue Man Group is, according to Roberts, "one hour and forty-five minutes of an experience," and one that you'll find nowhere else.

The experience begins before the Blue Men enter the stage, even before you reach your seat. The lobby of the Blue Man Theater gives new understanding to Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light," with white walls, floor and ceiling that make you squint. However, upon leaving the lobby and heading down the halls and into the theater, your pupils re-dilate, adjusting to the darkness that creates a world where colors (like blue) stick out with an almost surreal brightness.

"The contrast is definitely intentional," Tischendorf said. "It's sort of our way of taking you out of the outside world and bringing you into the Blue Man world."

The hallways feature remakes of famous paintings. Blue Men are hidden within the artwork. "They might seem kind of odd when you're first going in, but they'll make a lot more sense after you've seen the show," Tischendorf said.

Understanding the paintings in the hallway isn't all you can gain from the show; there are a lot of things that you can learn from Blue Man Group: You could leave thinking that the show was a lesson in nonconformity, or you could leave having learned that a romantic dinner consists of Twinkies and an N.C. Wyeth painting. There isn't a clear moral of the story, but, as Roberts said, "Whatever you take from the show, that's the theme of the show."

Roberts also stressed that the experience each audience member has during the show will be unique depending on the person's knowledge or expectations. "It's different every night, and people just see things differently."

Regardless of an individual's view of the show, it's almost easier to describe Blue Man Group before entering the theater than after exiting. Before seeing the show, it's easy to peg Blue Man Group as performance art or a percussion show infused with humor, but afterward, those labels just don't seem to fit.

Roberts said, "The most articulate and well-read people in the country have just said 'See it,' so I don't know what else to say."

So, in the spirit of accurate description: They're blue! And they do things!