Now imagine you're entering a building in the fair, behind a number of eager fairgoers you hear the sound of Vaudevillian tunes resonating through the small theater. And as you are guided inside you finally catch a glimpse at the source of the sounds.
Four metallic people singing. Hydraulics blast and motors hum as the robotic quadruplet begin to snap into automated movement, their metal maws barking songs, jokes, and outdated pop-culture references.

These are the robots of Steam Powered Giraffe. Four of them in total, each with their own quirky look and personality. 
 
Behind the brass and sass are four of San Diego's local up and coming Pantomime artists, trained in the art by the mime of Seaport Village fame, Kazoo (aka Jerry Hager).
This act combines the amazing visual of ROBOT PANTOMIME with improvised comedic dialogue, music, and song. That's right! Mimes no longer need be silent!

The Robot Band plays a collection of original Vaudeville inspired music covering a wide range of different eras, fused with modern mentality.

The Origin of the Act

In 2006, Jon Sprague, Erin Burke, Christopher Bennett, and David Bennett were taking acting classes at Grossmont Community College in El Cajon, California. One of the instructors offered a mime class. His name was Jerry Hager.

December 2006. Seaport Village, San Diego. Jerry Hager performs his final show at Seaport.
(Photo by Josh Freeman - http://www.joshfreeman.net)

Hager had been teaching beginning acting and mime, and directing shows at the college for a number of years. But he also performed professionally at Seaport Village as Kazoo the mime. Generations have enjoyed Hager's whimsical character who incorporated shtick, puppetry, magic, and clown into his acts. It was when the four students were invited to attend Hager's last show at Seaport Village where a spark started, and inspired them to take Jerry's mime class and indulge in the seemingly forgotten art form of mime.

Sure enough, the four took the class and found they had a knack for miming. Already performing together in an improv troupe, their friendship blossomed in the class. While attending, for fun David, Chris, and Jon threw together two music videos with themselves in whiteface, using songs David had written. Love World of Love, and Scary World. They took the mime class two more times in fact, and then began trying to find a way to use what they had learned.

Jon suggested they try being mimes down at Balboa Park as street performers. Though hesitant, a quick visit to the park inspired the rest to do it. A talk at a Denny's later, the skeletal outline of the robot act came into play.

It started out simple enough. Some cheap metallic makeup and what black clothes they could find to look uniform. David suggested playing some songs while being robots, and the group started with playing "Moanin' for You" by the Mills Brothers and "Mr. Roboto" by Styx (which they quickly realized was too cliche and stopped performing after the first time playing it).