Music, from the Latin “moo-sick” for mad cow disease, they proclaimed. The Flying Karamazov Brothers combined such “moo-sick” with dance, juggling and jokes, leaving the audience’s sides hurting and throats hoarse from from laughing and cheering.

Saturday’s dreariness was quickly whisked away as the lights dimmed in Stephens Auditorium. The audience was quickly enveloped in a magic that only this quartet could have brought.

Picture this: Four grown men in white tutus and pink tights with little or no dance training. What followed was a spectacular ballet piece, filled with prancing, dizzy spinning and grande plies.

The Brothers did a hilarious rendition and creative new take on Taiko, a traditional style of Japanese drumming, with marimba mallets and stacked cardboard boxes.

Perfectly tuned to complement each other, the boxes quickly became recycling fodder. A fan dance followed, complete with the sissy batting of eyelashes.

The show was full of extraordinary juggling and absolutely amazing visual affects. The Brothers even juggled glow-in-the-dark clubs, catching and throwing in complete darkness with the stage a green blur of clubs whizzing past.

The Brothers played “jazz” while juggling, showing just how they can improvise their patterns from a simple beat. They played large flats with drum heads in them, juggling and banging out amazingly recognizable tunes as a percussion quartet. They juggled onto a large keyboard on the floor and onto a xylophone and played the first movement of Mozart’s Concerto in B-flat for Bassoon, minus the bassoon.

“We are now going to attempt the same thing chewing gum!” said Patterson after a juggling and tap dancing skit.

The Brothers even juggled themselves, weaving between each other in an ever changing shape that spun around and around.

During what was the most popular part of their show, “The Gamble,” Howard Jay “The Champ” Patterson was given quite the challenge. Audience members brought in various things for the Champ to attempt to juggle.

“Now there’s a steaming pile of creativity,” said Paul Magid, surrounded with items thought to be unjuggleable.

Among the rejected were a “big baseball bat” (actually a hockey stick), a stuffed lion, a Slinky, a camera case and a bottle of air neutralizer.

“Now there’s a combination you don’t see everyday,” Patterson proclaimed, as he was given the audience’s choices: a mylar smiley-face balloon filled with rocks, a chocolate cream pie and a large deer liver.

“It’s a happy meal!” said Mark Ettinger, earning him a funny look from Patterson. The Champ was given three chances to make ten passes of the objects and was not successful on the first two.

“It is amazing how fast time flies when you’re stalling,” Patterson said while wiping himself free of liver juice and whipped cream.

After a few alterations, like popping the balloon and folding the pie’s tin in half, Patterson masterfully juggled all three. In return, he earned a standing ovation from the astounded audience.

The Flying Karamazov Brothers have all been blessed with very quirky senses of humor and with the abilities to find even the subtlest hint of irony in a seemingly ordinary situation.

“Stand and ‘de-Liver’,” Paul Magid said with a vicious smile. That was exactly what the Flying Karamazov Brothers did.