List of Posts
I wasn’t in London at the right time to see the smash hit, One Man, Two Guvnors, but that didn’t stop me from writing about it in this post, and I did subsequently catch a broadcast of it here in NYC as part of the National Theatre Live program. The title of that post was “Commedia Conquers London — Is Broadway Next?” and the answer is yes! — it begins its Broadway run on April 6th. Finally I’ll get to see it live on stage, and I’m hoping many of you will too. Highly recommended!!
I know, I know, yet another post on The Artist — but this article from London’s Guardian newspaper is actually about some new film and stage projects that now have a better chance of success thanks to all this new interest in silent movies.
These look great, especially that last one!
I suppose I could write a post about the virtues and limitations of mime training, but this isn’t it. Sure, I took a smattering of classes, studying with Reid Gilbert, René Houtrides, Tom Leabhart, and Moni Yakim (and salivating over Children of Paradise), but I never really took to mime. (Translation: I sucked at it.) So instead of a treatise, just a few hopefully amusing snapshots of mime’s public image over the years.
Maybe you’re getting tired of my obsessive enthusiasm for these two movies about the silent film era currently competing for best-picture Oscar, but I figure I better enjoy it while I can, just in case neither of them wins. (Personally I’m rooting for The Artist.)
Sunday’s Super Bowl had a couple of moments of unintentional physical comedy, which of course is the best kind, at least if it’s happening to someone else. First we had Madonna’s near-pratfall, as she stumbles during her half-time show extravaganza:
Apparatus such as unicycles and trampolines are built for stunts. They’re cool and all, and excellent comedy has certainly been done with both, but I’ve always been more drawn to physical comedy that uses objects commonly found in the real world — chairs, tables, doors, stairs, etc. Maybe that’s why I also like parkour and flair bartending, living proof of the appeal of circus techniques applied to everyday life.
“Contrasto! Constrasto!” Carlo Mazzone-Clementi used to holler. Comedy teams have traditionally relied on contrasting characters, the stronger the contrast the better. Laurel is skinny, Hardy is pleasingly plump. Keaton had Joe Roberts, Chaplin had Eric Campbell. Harpo Marx is said to have stopped talking to differentiate himself from his yackety-yak brothers. The Odd Couple’s Oscar Madison was a slob, Felix Unger a neat freak. Contrast gives you something to play off of, but you still have to have a good act! With great serendipity, I recently stumbled upon these three entertaining examples.
James Agee once wrote a famous book called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which was about tenant farmers who were in fact guys but certainly not famous, so I was going to title this post Let Us Now Praise Three Guys Who Aren’t Famous Either but Should Be for All the Cool Work They do Promoting and Chronicling Clowns and Variety Artists — but that title was already taken.
If you combined the physical contortions of Janik & Arnaut (post 231) with the loony inventiveness of Brooklyn’s own Rube Goldberg (post 230), the result might be Leo, the unique one-man show playing at the Harold Clurman Theatre in New York through Feb. 5th.
Brian Bernhard recently did a Facebook post sharing this funny Sesame Street Elmo’s World video of Bill Irwin as Mr. Noodle. With the help of Mr. Wiggles and Leon Chesney, the milquetoast Noodle overcomes his inhibitions and embraces his inner hip-hop dancer. I especially like how Wiggles & Chesney wave their dance rhythm directly into Noodle’s body.
Ernest Albrecht, author of The New American Circus, has been getting the circus magazine Spectacle into print for the past fourteen years. In addition to publishing and editing duties, he has done much of the reporting for the magazine. It will not come as news to you that the circus does not get nearly the same respect in the United States as it does in Europe, so Mr. Albrecht’s labor of love serves an important cultural function.
TRANSLATE THIS PAGE
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