Frank Oden's performance style is a long-seasoned blend of professional skills gained through a 40 year career as comic actor, musician, lyricist and entertainer. He has written and directed several award winning musical comedies for long running productions and received regular commissions to create and perform his concert length “lyrical narratives” with orchestras across the US and Canada. As a solo artist he tours colleges, clubs, cowboy gatherings and slam events to delight every kind of audience with his signature style of rhyming entertainment.
Full Bio & Media
"Perfect!" -- Marvin Hamlisch
A life-long Westerner with family roots to four generations of cattle folk and characters on both sides of the law, Oden was raised on their stories as well as his own generation's TV and Hollywood version of the Wild West, from the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers to Gunsmoke and Clint Eastwood. "Cowboy Jamboree" is a collection of old west character stories told through performance poetry bringing humor, narrative arc and theatrical values to symphonic repertoire of the American West and the Hollywood Western.
Details & Media
"Frank Oden is a vivid presence in front of an orchestra...laugh out loud funny...
a great melding of music, story, comedy, tragedy, verse and character."
-- Adam Flatt, Music Director, Newport Symphony
Modern Halloween events may emphasize violence and gore, but Frank Oden's vision is classic spooky fun by way of Poe, Karloff, EC Comics and 1960's trick-or-treating. In "The Haunted Symphony" G(host) character, Ezekiel McCobb welcomes you late-night visitors on a haunted house adventure told by multiple characters through performance poetry bringing humor, narrative arc and theatrical production values to powerfully dramatic classical repertoire. Details & Media
Frank Oden's performance was brilliant, he captured the ridiculous, elegant, sublime and slapstick.
He is a rare actor who effortlessly connects with with a complex symphonic score."
-- Dan Kellogg, Composer, "Pyramus and Thisbe"
"Song of the Earth" merges lyrical humor and verbal acrobatics with stunning visual images and evocative orchestral music to explore the grandeur and frailties of our little blue planet, and the timely need for effective stewardship. Hosted by a whimsical "Earthropologist," embark on an entertaining and educational tour of earth's essential systems and wonders, including a literally breathtaking feat of recitation, a rhymed catalog of the entire animal kingdom in under three minutes. Details & Media
" Oden has a real talent for unself-conscious characters with big egos but good hearts.
You laugh at the characters, but you like them, too." -- Westword
A funny thing happened on the way to the podium ... a cellular biology professor and mucus expert turns out to be the wrong person to host an educational concert about music, but the mixup isn't discovered until the show is underway. Refusing to accept defeat (or leave the stage) he takes command of the orchestra and recruits the antagonized conductor as reluctant assistant in a ridiculous yet perfectly apt explanation of all things musical.
SOLO PERFORMANCE
Oden's signature style of humorous, story-driven character poetry takes the form of first-person direct address to the audience. In addition to and including works created for orchestral performance, he has a concert-length repertoire of comic lyrical monologues that are a perfect fit for cabaret and small venue comedy performance. With a stand-up comic's gift for building rapport through interaction and a hypnotist’s skill with group dynamics, Frank is fully at ease with any size crowd.
VIDEOS
~ THEATRICAL COMEDIES ~
Book, Music & Lyrics
The Winter Rose
Frank Oden
Gumshoe
Oden & Goodale
Secret Agent Guy
Oden & Goodale
The Pecos Pest
Oden & Goodale
The Fatal Glass
Frank Oden
Blackbeard
Oden & Goodale