09/30/2026
Aww shucks! 🤭🤍🤍🤍
In 1977, two Austin performers threw an April Fools' Day party that never really ended. Shannon Sedwick and Michael Shelton had just leased a narrow little bar on Sixth Street, and during that first party the whole cast broke into a campy dance tribute to swimming star Esther Williams, sprinkler and all. The bit got such a laugh that they kept it, and named the whole show after her. 🎭
For the first while, there wasn't even a ticket price, just a hat passed around the room. Then a cigarette fire burned the original theater to the ground. Most shows would have folded right there. Instead, the cast picked up and moved across the street to the old Ritz Theater building without missing a single scheduled performance, and by 1991 they'd settled into the space at 525 E 6th Street where the show still runs today.
What makes Esther's Follies different from almost any other stage in the country is that big storefront window facing the sidewalk. Performers have spent decades doing bits for whoever happens to be walking by on Sixth Street at that exact moment, tourists and regulars alike. It's political satire, magic, and old-fashioned vaudeville all mixed together, and it's billed as the longest-running comedy show in Austin. ✨
Have you ever caught a show at Esther's, or gotten pulled into one of those window bits without meaning to?
