The new Nickelodeon Live stage show called “U Pick Nick” could have been created by Julia Child on a sugar high.
When the show’s performers come to Chicago, lots of cream will be whipped before they go on stage in order to create gallons and gallons of whipped cream to make pies to be used by participants from the audience in stunts from such TV shows as “Family Double Dare,” “Nickelodeon GUTS,” “What Would You Do?” and “Legends of the Hidden Temple.”
The host of the live show, Bryan Stinson, explains, “Sometimes a kid smashes a pie in his own face, but we have `Dueling Pies’ where two kids smash pies in each other’s faces and `Cymbal Pies’ where a person smashes a pie on either side of their own face and we have a `Smash-in-a-Smoosh’ where they smash the pie in their face and then smoosh it over their head.”
But the gourmandise doesn’t stop there. There is also a gourmet product called GAK, which is used to slop around in and slurp. It may be chunky or smooth, and the color may vary, but the basic ingredients are always sweet. The recipe calls for a mixture of all the dessert foods that kids love to eat.
Best of all, though, is ready-made slime, which the members of the show bring to town with them. It comes on stage in the “Sliminator,” which douses kids with the edible substance. “It’s Nickelodeon’s greatest honor to be slimed,” says Stinson.
In order to be picked to participate in these stunts, audience members come to the show dressed in outrageous clothing and wigs and they bring signs such as a recent one that said, “Pick me, not your nose.” “You can just tell who wants to get picked to get up on stage because there’s a special look in their eye,” says Stinson. “You won’t believe the energy. It’s like a kids’ rock concert.”
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`Nickelodeon Live! U Pick Nick,” 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday, Skyline Stage, Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave., $15-$20, 312-595-PIER; 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday, Star Plaza Theatre, I-65 and U.S. 30, Merrillville, Ind., $13-$15; 312-559-1212.
