EMLENTON, Venango County — People bustled around the auditorium Tuesday in Emlenton's Crawford Center, where an annual variety show will be staged next week.

A vintage bicycle prop was balanced near the stage, where men moved about in wigs and ballet skirts.

Not far away, Niles Powell stood shirtless while Patty Russell painted eyes and a nose on his belly with a bright, red mouth around his navel.

"That's good. Now whistle," she instructed, then watched Powell puff his stomach in and out as though the mouth was exhaling a tune.

Powell then tied a shirt and jacket around his waist, sufficing as a neck, and slipped into an oversized hat that hides his head and arms.

Also created by Russell, the hat was pulled out of storage after well-received past performances by a group that goes by the name Whistling Midgets.

"We're coming back by popular demand," Powell said of the group, which will "whistle" the 1957 movie theme song "Bridge on the River Kwai."

"The Whistling Midgets is always ... let's call it a belly buster," laughed sound and stage manager Tina Zychowski.

As part of the show, Powell will also join Ken Hanby in ballet wear as the men serve as backup dancers for Nathan Bowser, who will impersonate Tiny Tim, a 1960s ukulele player noted for his hit "Tiptoe Through the Tulips."

Although the community variety show goes by the name Showboat, it adopts a different theme each year.

The theme this year is "By Land, Sea or Air," Hanby said.

"That means that all songs and acts reflect some form of travel, (even) like walking."

One of two people who have participated in all 31 past Showboats, Hanby has served as a coordinator, director and performer, watching and participating in countless acts.

"Some of the stuff gets pretty zany from time to time," he said, describing skits akin to Monty Python episodes and impersonations of Johnny Cash and Sonny and Cher.

One skit featuring "topless dancers" illuminated the stage with black lights while dancers performed in white bottoms and dark tops. "So all you saw was legs," Hanby said.

Zychowski, in her role for the past four years, said some performances also mimic commercials.

Some spoof actual television ads compatible with the chosen theme, while others acknowledge businesses that help to support the annual show.

Zychowski recalled one such skit featuring undertakers carrying a coffin. Before the commercial was over, audience members were told McNany Lumber, a local store, had built the coffin solidly. And a "corpse" emerged to acknowledge two funeral homes also listed as sponsors.

"The poor woman in the coffin had to stay in there a few minutes and sweat it out," Zychowski recalled.

A fundraiser for the Emlenton Civic Club, the show is open to anyone who wants to participate, with organizers never sure until show night how many performers will arrive.

"There are probably 50 people involved by the time it's said and done," Hanby said, guessing they come from a 30-mile area.

Shows typically last close to two hours said Zychowski, also a member of the civic club. About 300 people attend each night.

Proceeds support the club's scholarship fund, Easter egg hunt, Halloween parade and July fireworks display, she said.

<B>WHAT: </B>32nd annual Showboat, a community variety show<B>WHEN: </B>7:30 p.m. March 28 and 29<B>WHERE: </B>Crawford Center auditorium, Hill Street, Emlenton<B>TICKETS: </B>Available at the door for $7 adults, $5 seniors and $3 students.