For You Blue

Their hairless heads and hands painted a high-gloss acrylic blue, three silent men/aliens/droids (?) wander the stage, moving with the grace of flamingos and the curiosity of meerkats through a landscape filled with undiscovered wonders to be picked up, joined together, pulled apart, ponder and hit – yes, hit a lot – in various ways and combinations, to the pulsing sounds of rock, as light dazzle and bedazzle. Welcome to the world of Blue Man Group.

“It constantly develops,” Blue Man 'Captain', Callum Grant, explains of the performances that began in New York City in 1987 when three young friends put together a strikingly unusual “salute to the '80s”. Spotted as part of a variety show hosted by Tom Murrin in his guise as the Alien Comic, the trio were commissioned to create a full-length show.

“There are still elements that have existed since the beginning,” Grant continues. “The original started as Blue Man and now it's Blue Man Group, so it's much wider and has a lot more artists to gather inspiration from. Most of our work is trial and error.”

Anyone who has experienced their performances would agree that the idea of their being built on a series of 'happy accidents' is perfectly apt, a perfect reflection of the childlike wonder with which the Blue Men approach everything they do in those performances. How best to describe those performances? “You can expect a form of entertainment you haven't really experienced before – there isn't another comparison out there.

“I'm looking forward to seeing how the Australian crowd react to this show. Australians always like to have a bit of fun. I suppose… it's just a very different reaction. In Tokyo they didn't have the same gestures or connotations that they did have in America. And also the first time we performed in Germany, I thought we sucked because nobody said anything for the whole show, and then we got a standing ovation at the end!”

Music is an integral part of the Blue Man Group shows, and over the past 14 years, Blue Man Group have released three albums – 1999's Audio, 2003's The Complex and 2008's How To Be A Megastar Live! – as well as a dozen singles and EPs, the most recent last year's Shake Your Euphemism. Along the way, Blue Man Group have become underground cultural icons.

“We never imagined we would appear in things like The Simpsons or Arrested Development,” Grant chuckles.