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Clown is to physical comedy as what is to what?
I have the honor of turning my 300th post (!) over to eccentric dancer Betsy Baytos, whose documentary film project, Funny Feet: The Art of Eccentric Dance (see two posts ago) draws upon this dance background and her work as an animator with Disney Studios. A twin threat! Betsy has graciously agreed to favor us with a few guest posts on eccentric dance. For starters, she’ll share some of her own work with us and explain how she came to straddle the worlds of animation and eccentric dance. (And by “straddle” I mean a full split!)
It seems every time I take a bike ride I make an interesting discovery. Yeah, I know I said I wouldn’t be posting until I got back to New York next week, but there I was in Switzerland on Thursday, cycling the loop around Lake Zurich, and as I entered the town of Rapperswil, this is what I saw on the other side of the road:
In my next life I’m hoping to come back as an eccentric dancer. I wants me some rubber legs. I’m sure you feel the same.
But not exactly your typical music video. This is another recommendation from Leonard Pitt, whose mask performance we saw two posts ago. (You should definitely friend Leonard on Facebook, he shares some cool stuff!). This demo is by master wood carver Sheri Tharp of Berkeley, Ca., who writes “it took 2 weeks of carving, 37,000 photos, and a lot of patience.” If you ever wondered how this is done, here’s your answer.
And I wasn’t. After a few years of following the re-emergence of Pierre Etaix, my plans of seeing him live were derailed by a Friday night bike repair class. Priorities, priorities. (Yes, we were actually working on derailleurs.) Luckily, intrepid blogger / photographer / videographer Jim Moore was playing Superman to my Clark Kent and covering the event for his required-reading blog, vaudevisuals.com. Here’s the video he shot.
On my last post I welcomed Leonard Pitt to the blog as he introduced us to a great documentary on Mel Blanc. The 20-minute video below is How I Learned to Write by Learning How to Move my Body, which he performed at a monthly conference called (coincidentally) Leonardo, an evening of art and science presentations. In it Leonard touches on different aspects of physical theatre, with topics ranging from the work of Etienne Decroux, to poetry, to Balinese masks. A special delight is an excerpt from his widely-acclaimed show, Doppo, Clown of Yesteryear. Truly a must-see!
I am honored to have Leonard Pitt contribute his voice to this blog. Leonard Pitt is a world-renown performer and teacher, not to mention being the author of several books on historical Paris. Please allow me to quote from his bio at length: “Leonard Pitt was born in Detroit in 1941. He attended The Art Center School in Los Angeles and at age twenty got a lucrative job in an advertising agency as a graphic designer. Staring into a creative dead end he quit his job and traveled to Europe. He landed in Paris in 1963 and took a few mime classes with Etienne Decroux. After a few days he was hooked. He spent four years with Decroux and seven years in Paris. He returned to the United States in 1970 and settled in Berkeley, California where he opened a school of physical theatre, attracting students from around the world. Leonard’s one-man shows have received critical acclaim. He has performed and taught at theatres and festivals throughout the United States, in Europe, Brazil, New Zealand, and Australia. In 1973 he attended a concert of Balinese dance and music. Turning to his friend before the curtain went up, he whispered, “If this is boring, let’s leave in the middle.” Stunned by what he saw, he closed his school and traveled to Bali to study mask theatre. While there he performed with the Balinese in their village and temple festivals. He returned to Bali in 1978 to study mask carving. In 1986 he co-founded Life On The Water, a contemporary theatre in San Francisco presenting new work.
Yahoo! The Film Forum here in lower Manhattan is launching a Pierre Etaix film series, and the famed actor, clown, and filmmaker will be making a personal appearance this Friday evening.
Here’s a sweet Frank Sinatra rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s Send in the Clowns, the lyrics illustrated by physical comedy bits by many of the great television and film clowns. Odd and treacly afterword from Orson Welles.
This is the last of four posts in remembrance of the life and work of Ken Feit, “itinerant fool.”
This is the third of four posts in remembrance of the life and work of Ken Feit, “itinerant fool.”
This is the second of four posts in remembrance of the life and work of Ken Feit, “itinerant fool.”
This is the first of four posts in remembrance of the life and work of Ken Feit, “itinerant fool.”
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Workshops & Other Events
My first book (1976)
My book Clowns has long been out of print, but you can borrow it for two weeks at a time from the Internet Archive. More information is available here.
My second book (2015)
Visual and verbal humor for the cognitively and artistically curious! Available here.
“A book to treasure!”
—Bill Irwin