For the last 25 years, this vaudeville tap dance group has performed over 1,700 shows across the Cleveland area.

McMahon was the child of Vaudeville dancers and grew up on the road. One might say he was born for this role and this job. “I didn’t have much of a choice, because I couldn’t do anything else.

So the title of Trinity Irish Dance Company’s new piece, Taking the Mick, is both a bold reclamation of that slur and a sly nod to the inspiration behind the work: American vaudeville.

The New Vaudeville Band was the creation of Geoff Stephens, a London songwriter and producer who wrote big hits for some of his country’s most middle-of-the-road stars in the ’60s.