"You gotta love the sweat on K. Brian Neel's face as he perform his one-man ukulele operetta, VAUD RATS. He sings in Jolson-like overdrive, and with a grin and gaze that recalls the creepy ventriloquist dummy in Magic, it's clear this character is desperate to entertain... With his gangster smile and that wee little instrument together throwing off a kind of gritty sentiment, Neel's onto something." - Washington Post

"Cool, quirky, kinda dark. Neel is very engaging and the songs are each their own captivating little tale with a real air of the Vaudeville circuit. This is a MUST-SEE offering." #1 pick of the Capitol Fringe Festival. - Washington (D.C.) City Paper Blog

"NEEL ROCKED. I never imagined that a guy and a uke would hold my attention for 90 minutes. But -- I was riveted." - National Public Radio

"Funny, dark, and occasionally a little heartbreaking; a little whistling, a good bit of warbling, and naturally some hoofing. K. Brian Neel creates a winsome hero in Cecil B. DeUkulele, a plucky little Vaudevillian reduced to entertaining the vermin in an abandoned warehouse after a long stretch of bad luck. Cecil's tale includes sketches of his childhood (there's a sweetly lovely little tune that includes the graceful lyric "shy as a daylight moon"), scenes from the circuit (a gripping bit about a too-accurate psychic) and of course the story of that ill-fated love affair with the midget. (Sock puppetry is involved, and hilariously, too.) There's a terrific bit involving Cecil's musical wooing of his short-statured love with a duet from Don Giovanni--and when the inevitable trouble with the strongman arrives, it's convincingly brutal. Bonus: Neel's researched his Vaudeville history thoroughly, so VAUD RATS plays like quick and lively overview of the rough-and-tumble world that dominated American entertainment, then crumbled under the onslaught of Hollywood. See it if you want a solo show that's not all about the performer's life, or you don't know how expressive a ukulele can be." - Washington (D.C.) City Paper

"Funny, charming, poignant... charisma and exuberance... the show was awesome." - DanN. Blog

"A sure thing." - DCist