Tag: Juggling
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: physical comedy is everywhere. Not just in silent films and the circus, but in dance and mime, in straight drama and in television commercials, in rodeos and —you can see where I’m going with this— in basketball. Of course I’m referring to the Harlem Globetrotters and to the great Meadowlark Lemon, a five-decade veteran who passed away yesterday at the age of 83.
Sure, you’ve all seen the “Naked Towel Dance” video that’s gone viral on YouTube, but do you know what’s behind it? Probably not, which is why you come to this here blogopedia for the full monty.
I was researching something else on Dominique Jando’s excellent Circopedia web site (which I highly recommend!) and came across this gem and thought it worth a cross-posting. After all, if I had never seen this it’s likely many of you haven’t either.
I don’t know about you, but I still remember as a kid upsetting my parents by trying the old trick of yanking a tablecloth out from underneath some dishes and glasses with, er, mixed results. I’ve also written about this trick, including an advanced variation, in this blog post. But now I can offer a more scientific explanation….
I did a post on flair bartending a while back, but have never seen anything like this. Thanks to Jeff Seal for the link.
Here’s a simple but effective comedy idea. How do you make a highly skilled but somewhat standard hoop spinning act more engaging — not to mention funny? Simply perform it while trying to fetch and drink a glass of red wine! Here’s Annabel Carberry in A Glass of Red.
We interrupt this program of free and complete books about the commedia dell arte that you probably don’t have time to read to present an emergency broadcast of a decidedly more modern diversion. Step right up and take a gander at the Robot Juggler, a product of the Czech Technical University’s Department of Control Engineering (Prague). Yes, I did say robot. Thanks to Riley Kellogg for the link!
Did you ever enjoy a great act in person and then later see it on video and find it flat and nowhere near as exciting? Yes, it’s incredible to be able to watch performances from around the world on our laptop computer or even on a telephone, but still there’s nothing like live performance.
This one’s already gone viral, but I just found out about it from colleague, poet, and fellow world traveler Martie LaBare. In fact, I’d never heard the term flair bartending until a few minutes ago! Clearly I need to get out more instead of hiding at home, sad and lonely, staring into a bottle, nobody to talk to but my imaginary blog friends…
We interrupt my onslaught of free books about medieval fools and jesters to bring you this important 50-second message from Germany’s top handyman; at least I think it’s from Germany. He’s definitely handy. I mean, sheesh, I can juggle and I can fix things, but I never thought about combining them!
Today is the 73rd birthday of Tommy Smothers and, as much as I think it’s important to honor the work of those who have passed away, it’s a pleasure to be able to salute a fine comedian who is still very much with us. Tommy Smothers was one-half of the Smothers Brothers, partnering his younger brother Dick (born 11-20-39) on their own CBS television variety show. They are still active and in fact both can be seen in cameo roles in last year’s The Informant!.
Amsterdam is known more for its street performance than its variety theatres, or as Charlie Frye forewarned me,”not too much Variete, except in the windows.” I loved the city, loved biking all over the place, but in my four days there this June I didn’t find much street performance either. Maybe I went at the wrong time or to the wrong place, but several trips through Dam Square netted me only one street performer, a British juggler/contortionist.
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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