Feel the variety vibe at eclectic Hypnotic

Here's something you'd be hard-pressed to find outside of the Northwest: an evening of holistic entertainment, conceived by a former Miss America pageant contestant. In a lounge.

It's called the Hypnotic, an art showcase that packed the white-on-white Bada Lounge to the Bing two Mondays ago. Young men peeled from the pages of GQ, many sharing a table with a suave female or two, sipped cocktails and nibbled the chic eats as the lovely creative director and founder Toyia T. Taylor (Miss District of Columbia 1999) introduced spoken-word artists.

Later, a comedian named Isiah Anderson Jr. tested a joke or two, and Reyshard, an ebony-skinned singer with satin-shiny hair, pumped up the evening with some funk. A projection on the glass screen in the center of the room allowed the sight-blocked a view.

And I, your humble party girl, slumped in the Belltown joint's rosy-lit Sexy Room to watch henna tattoo artists paint curlicues on the small of a young lady's back for an extra fee.

All right, truth be told, I was also a little distracted. Craning my neck to see, I struggled with the fuzzy sound. The format was off and the fashion bugs huddled around the bar talked loudly, drowning out the acts.

This, in turn, leeched energy from the performers — so much so that a week later, when the same comedian opened for Musiq and had the crowd in stitches, I didn't recognize him until after his set.

When I shared this with Taylor and media art and marketing director Lowell Henderson later, they acknowledged the dissonance muddling the vibe.

"Everything that could go wrong did," Taylor said. "But that's good — that's out of the way now."

Besides, there's no question the Hypnotic is an original. Poetry for your ears paired with incense for your olfactory. Live music and mehndi. It's like a summer festival, except inside and with cocktails.

The first evening, paintings by local artist Elmore Williams greeted patrons as they walked through the door, package of incense in hand as proof of paying the $8 cover charge. Tonight, organizers are adding two masseuses to the mix, supplanting incense with a door prize of handmade soap. They've also moved the performance space to the center of the room and tinkered with the format so the headliner, Felicia V. Loud and The Soul, will go first and pump up the place.

Something like this is long overdue, considering that the acts it exposes, mainly local black performers, have honed their craft for years in the area without much publicity.

Loud is a prime example. Having performed in plays around Seattle for the better part of the past decade, she has earned opening gigs for Patti LaBelle and the Fugees, as well as a prominent spot with Lillith Fair in its prime. Even with all of that, chances are that tonight will be the first time many Hypnotic attendees will hear her.

That fact is one of the reasons Taylor chose the popular and centrally located Bada, where a varied cross-section of nightlife crawlers tend to mix on any given evening. She says it reminds her of the spoken-word places on the East Coast.

"There were so many amazing performers on the East Coast, and I felt like coming back to Seattle, I was going to miss that," she said.

"But then I started going to the Baltic room and seeing Jambalaya, and going to the Sit N' Spin, and there were so many amazing local artists. And it just sparked this passion in me like, 'Yo, we need to be supporting these people.' These people have been doing it for, I promise you, 10 or 15 years, and nobody knows who they are."

True, an artist not in a rock band is in for a struggle in this town; an unknown drawing 250 to a venue is unheard of. That's why the variety format is picking up steam as an urban trend. It's the promise of a little something for everyone, and a safe entry for artists testing their craft in the safety of numbers.

These shows aren't presented as mere talent showcases, naturally. They're carnivals, circuses, extravaganzas that promise seat-of-your-pants entertainment. Savvy packaging is the key.

Taylor and Henderson are still tinkering with the wrappings. Henderson is particularly keen on adding projections by digital artists to the lineup, utilizing the plentiful white space in the Bada to the fullest. As long as it works, however, Hypnotic's mission remains constant.

"When you walk in here, I want for it to be this euphoria of music. Art. Just this place where everything that's happening out here" — Taylor points toward the reflected metal hallway leading to the street — "everything that's chaotic and filled with stress and negativity, doesn't happen in this space."

So it will be the second and fourth Monday night of every month at the Bada, 2230 First Ave. Doors will open at 7 p.m., but if you can't make it, streaming recordings of the event will be made available at www.lowellhenderson.com.

Thought bubbles: Speaking of the variety-show surge, Fox is returning the midsummer special "30 Seconds to Fame," a modern take on "The Gong Show" without the gong or that lovable alleged CIA assassin Chuck Barris, to its lineup.

"30 Seconds to Fame" returns Thursday at 8 p.m., and, sometime in November or December, Seattle-based opera singer Samuel Vijarro will either sing his way into the $25,000 grand prize or be publicly humiliated by a mean-spirited studio audience. Let's all watch!

Send your biz to the Fizz at mmcfarland@seattletimes.com.