Today I was at the Danny Kaye theatre located in Hunter College. It is a very warm and beautiful theatre. The sunday show was a benefit for MAKING HEADWAY. The audience was very receptive to the Hey-Ya Brothers. Joel Jeske, Christopher Lueck and Michael Richter. An amazing mixture of chemistry with these ‘brothers’. I was so moved by the show and the performers extremely sensitive and hysterically funny relationship to the audience ‘volunteers’. They had them all playing and clowning around with smiles from ear to ear. A performer’s ability to communicate with an audience member while performing and making that person relate with belief… is a note worthy quality of a seasoned professional. I did hope to see the variety show I had heard about and they delivered with such ‘gusto’.
The Hey-YA Brothers © 2010 Jim Moore / All Rights Reserved
The show had many different little adventures that the audience suddenly realized they wanted to go along with. A pie throwing piece was hysterical when the ‘Brothers’ convinced a loving dad to accept the fact that his 6 year old child was going to have the privilege and pleasure of throwing one pie into their face. I think it would have been one of my most memorable moments had it happened to me.
The slack wire act by Michael Richter was delightful and well crafted. Rings, unicycle, comedy and the hard to imagine feat of walking on a slack wire.
The show was paced well and the ‘Brothers’ used an easel and titled placards to keep the show going. I enjoyed the ‘STALL’ card as one of the brother’s had to prepare for the next segment.
If you have any ideas about variety and slapstick that ring true to your heart then make sure you see the Hey-YA Brothers when they are in town!
- Joel Jeske and Barry Lubin (Grandma) ©2010 Jim Moore
Had fun at the Big Apple Circus and found Joel Jeske after the show chatting with BAC’s favorite grandma!
I was told by my wife that she was taking fiddle lessons with a really well known New Orleans based fiddle player.His name was David Greely. I did some research and found out that he plays with an amazing group ‘Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys’. They have been around for 20 years and have won numerous Grammy nominations. According to the Mamou Playboys site “David Greely is one of Cajun music’s most eloquent voices on the fiddle, and has been a human search engine and musical bloodhound for the Mamou Playboys since the day that he and Steve Riley formed the group. Consumed with a hunger for knowledge and harmony, he revels in archival research, rare melodies, linguistic arcana and historical prose and poetry with which he can create songs that marry the distant past to the future, and then sing them in a rich, full baritone. His fiddling is inventive and witty, searching out and flowing into each opening and angle in a song that needs a splash of color or a blues inflection.”
Last week David and fellow New Orleans fiddle legend Joel Savoy had a performance scheduled in Brooklyn. My wife insisted I go and see David play. I haven’t been a fan of cajun music or bluegrass until recently. The location for this performance was a studio located in an industrial building in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The studio belonged to percussionist Scott Kettner. He has an amazing resume of work as well. Thats another blog entry later. Scott performed a few songs with the duo as well. Amazing musician!
A friend once introduced me to DelMcCoury Band at BB Kings. This was an experience to see that group play. It could have been jazz. It could have been Bluegrass. It was amazing Bluegrass! All the players were virtuoso musicians. That brings me back to David and Joel. Virtuoso fiddle!
David and Joel sang songs from his new album SUD DU SUD and other original cajun classics. It was an great evening of incredible musicianship and talent. I was fortunate enough to get a few songs on video that night. I look forward to seeing David perform again in the near future.
This past month there was a wonderful show which actually happens every month. The New York Downtown Clown Revue. When most people think about ‘clowns’ they have this image pop into their head.
Bozo the Clown
The American public has had almost no exposure to the true ‘european’ style clown. This Bozo image has been popularized by the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus and other American circus shows traveling the country for almost 100 years. Most graduates from the Ringling Brothers Clown College (no longer in existence) are required to wear a certain type of clown costume if they make it to the ranks of the Ringling Bros.& Barnum and Bailey Circus. The impression one gets is that this is either ‘family’ or ‘child’ entertainment. Unlike Europe where they have beautiful theatres devoted to serious ‘clown theatre’ where adults attend without the little ones in tow. There is a tradition of ‘types’ of clown which goes as far back as the greeks. Author/historian/professor John Towsen could tell you more about ‘history’ of clowns in his wonderful blog and his book CLOWNS. In this interview with the trio Le Fromage Royal all three participants talk about their influences on this ‘new’ old skit.
Le Fromage Royal - ©2010 Jim Moore / All Rights Reserved
Joel Jeske, Christopher Lueck and Michael Richter of “Le Fromage Royal” .
Interview with the cast of Le Fromage Royal at the Krane Theatre, NYC
The evening wasn’t by any means just the Fromage Royal dudes.
Check out the NY Downtown Clown Revue BLOG to see.
On the first Monday of the every month BINDLESTIFF VARIETY SHOW is held at Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The host Keith Bindlestiff attempted to complete the Kendama Blockhead this past Monday. I have been videotaping all his attempts all the way back to August ‘09. I am sure he will get it one day!
Here is a video where he provides the unknowing audience members with a short education on what the ‘Human Blockhead‘ is and then attempts the Kendama Blockhead. The variety show is a mix of acts ranging from singing to burlesque to trapeze and back to Kendama Blockhead. All for $5.00. Well worth the visit and time. This show included the likes of Baby Seals, Jan Manke, Kitty Cockpit, Coney Island Chris, Magic Brian, Zero Boy, The Maestrocities, and Mika.
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Paul Zaloom had much experience performing before he started his one-man shows. He was the ringmaster for the Bread and Puppet Circus in Vermont every summer for years. He started performing with them at the age of 19 and still does when he is in Vermont.
Paul Zaloom and I started working together on making pictures for his puppet shows in early 1978. The first of the shows we worked on was “The World of Plastic”. Paul has a very individual style to his work and it wasn’t difficult to carve photographs out of his shows that were very representative. His bulging eyes and expressive face lend themselves to very funny and theatrical images. It seems that the New York Times and other papers in NY were very appreciative of my style since they could use them in any way they wanted graphically on the pages of their paper.
Show titled WORLD OF PLASTIC. © 2009 Jim Moore
Our next project was for his show in 1981 titled ‘Zaloominations‘. We decided to be a little more playful and use some more drastic lighting to accentuate the event at hand. The piece is called Industrial Park. Here we have Paul with a semiglobe hat and plastic exhaust piping that has a puppet lobster claw with binoculars. A stunning image that was used many times in the media.
Show titled ZALOOMINATIONS © 2009 Jim Moore
The next show was titled CRAZY AS ZALOOM and the piece we did this photograph for was “In The News“. A few of the topical issues in the news in 1982 included pollution, internet and garbage. Paul was savvy in using found objects that reflected these issues in his shows. We wanted to get across the absurd and yet important issues by using these objects from the show in the photographs. A lot of times these visual images never appeared in the show in the same configuration as they did in the photographs. They were created custom for the photographs with Paul and I brainstorming for hours together to get the right look.
Paul Zaloom in his show CRAZY AS ZALOOM./© 2009 Jim Moore_All Rights Reserved
The following show Paul ask that we do a specific image for the flyer. He knew exactly what he wanted for the show and we set out to create a visual that worked for his concept. The show titled CREATURE FROM THE BLUE ZALOOM was presented in 1984. We set up a table top and seamless paper on top of it so Paul could ‘cross the desert’ in the studio. With pith helmet and the dehydrated look on his face we came up with this picture.
Paul Zaloom in his piece THE FUTURE from his one man show CREATURE FROM THE BLUE ZALOOM/© 2009 Jim Moore
At the same session we did another series of photographs for his piece titled BASIC INTELLIGENCE. Here Paul dressed up as a Russian soldier with cigar and moustache drinking a glass of ‘whoknowswhat’?
Paul Zaloom in his piece 'Basic Intelligence' from CREATURE FROM THE BLUE ZALOOM/© 2009 Jim Moore_All Rights Reserved
As we worked more and more together we really did get good at making wonderful potent images that sold the show and his ideas.
In 1986 we worked on his show THE THEATRE OF TRASH. This photograph was from his piece In America. I really liked this image as it had a feeling of horror mixed with scifi.
Paul Zaloom in his piece 'In America' from his show THEATRE OF TRASH / © 2009 Jim Moore
In 1991 we worked on his show MY CIVILIZATION. Here we used many different techniques to create the images. Backscreen projection, and other technical changes from our usual bag of tricks. Here is Paul with student learning and READING the ABC’S.
Paul Zaloom in his show MY CIVILIZATION/ ©2009 Jim Moore_All Rights Reserved
Paul moved to Los Angeles around 1998 and started working on a new TV show called BEAKMAN’S WORLD. It was a delightful cross between Mr. Science and Pee Wee Herman’s. Of course Paul was Beakman. Based on a very successful comic strip of the same name. It was very successful show and there is a ‘Best of Beakman‘ on DVD.
Today Paul is creating more wonderful shows and hopefully we can work again on some inspired images. Here is a excerpt from one of his shows posted on YouTube.
The performing artists of NYC would not be who there are today without the help of one very brave and unstoppable woman. Ellie Covan. Starting as a salon in her Paris apartment in 1985 she found a way to have performers show their new work without the worries of critics and the press. A laboratory for performing and literary artists. Since 1985 she has had a Dixon Place on East 1st . and on the Bowery and became the resident company at the Vineyard Theatre’s 26th St. Space. The overwhelming support and success of this venue convinced Ellie and her board to secure a permanent home in New York City. Tonight (12/2/09) she along with hundreds of supporters and performers celebrated the OPENING of the new permanent home of DIXON PLACE. A custom built facility with 2 stages and a community space for neighbor events. Located at 161A Christie Street in New York Lower East Side. The sponsors, foundations and Corporations that have made this new space possible goes on for several pages. The evenings festivities included performances by Regina Nejman & Company, Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, Vivian Stoll, R. Sikorykak, David Michael Friend and Nicky Paraiso. The audience joined in for a song with Nicky Paraiso and the Hot Keys.
When I was photographing the top of the WTC for Philippe Petit in preparation for the upcoming ‘artistic crime of the century‘ I also wanted to take some photographs that weren’t needed by him in his preparation. I decided to lean over the edge of the tower and look down. This was a very decisive moment to make me realize I wasn’t afraid of heights. I knew before I did this that I did not have this fear but when I looked over the edge and didn’t flinch I was convinced.
Looking Over The Edge of the Tower © 2008 Jim Moore
I was delighted to be able to video tape Jango Edwards’ clown workshop at The Brick Theatre in Williamsburg. It was held Nov. 9th thru the 11th 2009 in association with Jef Johnson’s CLOWN LAB. I have edited a short excerpt of the workshop and posted it here. Jango hasn’t been in the US for over 27 years. He was delighted to teach both in New York and Baltimore. He has started the Nouveau Clown Institute in Barcelona and will be having month long workshops there starting in March 2010. Many professional clowns and movement teachers will be doing workshops and performances. Jango started the FESTIVAL OF FOOLS in Amsterdam in 1975. Now Jango’s focus is on the NCI and teaching, performing worldwide. I will be working on the Jango Interview and post it here later next week.
While I was doing some research photography on top of the South tower of the World Trade Center (for his upcoming coup) I got Philippe to hold my camera while I did a handstand on the edge. I wasn’t really afraid of this as I had my handstand down and I am not afraid of heights. It was an amazing moment to be on the NY’s tallest building and be doing a handstand on the edge of the roof. No one was around and it was a serene and tranquil moment. The photographs that I took that day became the documentation that was eventually used in the Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire.
Jim Moore doing handstand on top of the World Trade Center @1974
