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It was fun throwing some of my favorite physical comedy visuals at you in my Christmas Stocking post back in December, so here are 14 (get it?) more recent goodies that I’ve exclusively licensed from the finest internet vendors for your Valentine’s Day gift. (Click on any image to enlarge.)
This very funny parody of a ballet pas de deux, choreographed by Christian Spuck of the Stuttgarter Ballet, has apparently become a repertoire favorite. Here are two versions. The first, from the year 2000, features Julia Krämer and Robert Tewsley , and is performed in front of a live audience. The second, with ballerina Alicia Amatriain (male dancer not identified), has no audience but better lighting and tighter camerawork. Spoiler Alert: Neither has a dancing cow, much to my disappointment.
Another scrumptious treat from our resident eccentric dance expert, Betsy Baytos. I don’t know much about Jack Stanford, but the Pathé site where this 1935 clip comes from at least explains that he is dancing to the Hungarian Rhapsody (Franz Liszt)… but the web version is just a “preview” without the audio.
(Click image to play.)
When I use the term “physical comedy,” I’m usually thinking full-body involvement, and I often cite not only comedians such as Buster Keaton and Bill Irwin, but dance troupes such as Pilobolus and Momix. Lately I’ve taken to calling it “(Very) Physical Comedy” to distinguish it from certain clown work that, though mostly non-verbal and often making very imaginative use of objects, is more static, less kinetically explosive.
Just over 100 years ago ago, Mack Sennett hit cinema pay dirt and spawned American silent film comedy when he introduced audiences to the hapless Keystone Cops, forever the butt of the joke. Chaplin and Keaton and their fellow silent film comedians likewise mocked police incompetence and, more politically, condemned at least implicitly their treatment of the underdog. Nowadays such attitudes are rarer in film comedy, but certainly not in the work of French prankster and provocateur Rémi Gaillard, whose YouTube videos have had over a billion hits.
The prize-winning Mimirichi clown troupe from Kiev is best known for the amazing visual effects they create with large sheets of white paper, but everything they do combines acrobatics and slapstick with a joyful playfulness. Three examples:
We are of course talking about my childhood hero, the original television Superman, George Reeves.
This clip of the Italian “Les Salvadori” clowns is from a Hollywood Palace broadcast dated January 4, 1964 and, yes, that is Bing Crosby introducing them. Lots of physical comedy moves, mostly involving costumes, and I suspect they had tons more in their repertoire than they got to show in the 3½-minutes allotted them. Thanks to Raffaele De Ritis for the link, and be sure to visit his Novelties & Wonders blog right here!
Clowns make great subjects for paintings, but what I like about the clown cartoons of Scapa is that you get the clown in action — perfect for a physical comedy blog. I discovered these over thirty years ago, at the time in the form of a coffee-table book, which has long since gone missing. I hadn’t been able to find a copy since then, but was thrilled when my sweetheart Riley surprised me with a new (smaller format) edition of it for Christmas.
Food for thought for the new year: two versions of a lecture on creativity by John Cleese, the silly-walking Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star. The first (and stronger) video is a full-length 1991 talk. The second is from the 2009 Creativity World Forum and may just be an excerpt of a longer presentation.
To us Americans, Europe can seem the Promised Land for all things circus, clown, and variety theatre. Some of my quests there for the holy grail of physical comedy have ended in disappointment, but this fall I managed to put together, between teaching engagements, a long weekend encompassing Paris, Budapest, and Vienna that was as marvelously circus-rific as you can get. A few notes, photos, and videos:
There’s no big present this year, but here are a few items for your Christmas stocking. They’re small, but if you click on them they get bigger!
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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