Thanks to the magic of photography, people can find themeselves mysteriously nostalgic for time periods in which they never lived. We frequently find ourselves daydreaming about the days of E-tickets at Disneyland, first-run episodes of Gunsmoke and ambrosia salad stains on our brand new Hawaiian shirts despite the fact that most of us were born in the latter half of the 20th Century. Charles Phoenix understands this longing and has been fulfilling retro desires for some time now, collecting primary source documents in the form of old slides and then projecting and commenting on them onstage. Phoenix has a real love for the time period and a sharp wit and his shows are always huge successes. He brings his mouse-ear hat to the ultra-modern city of Brea today. Just try not to stress about how much time has passed since Eisenhower swung a golf club.
Sat., Aug. 23, 8 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 24, 2 p.m., 2008
