The new vaudevillians seem fascinated by the exploits of their Elizabethan counterparts.

The new vaudevillians, however, challenge the voice of scholarship on this point.

The new vaudevillians' growing audiences "are not so much increasing in sophistication as learning to lose pretense," said Mr. Eisenberg.

As "new vaudevillians" like Bill Irwin, Penn and Teller, and the Flying Karamozovs have shown, profundity and play need not be incompatible.

Some, like the "new vaudevillian" Bill Irwin, who consider television work an artistic detour, can devote themselves to the stage.

In the other corner is the talented, if mild-mannered, new vaudevillian Bill Irwin, whose George should be a decided underdog.

It has daredevil fliers and deft-handed jugglers, and even the animals could qualify as new vaudevillians.

The Adaptors are perceived as exemplars of "new mime," just as recent clown acts (Avner the Eccentric) have been labeled new vaudevillians.

The Wright Brothers, a group of zanily athletic new vaudevillians, are on at 8:15.

The so-called new vaudevillians Bill Irwin and David Shiner are currently appearing in "Fool Moon," a silent clown duet on Broadway.