VAUDE_VISUALS

Caroline as 'RATAPUCE'.

Laila - Poster Child for NY International Festival of Clown Theatre 1983

Poster Shot for Festival

Caroline had seeked out the ‘masters’ and studied in Paris with acrobat Tudor Bono, mime Etienne Decroux, and music teacher Betsy Jolas and Michel Debost.

In 1971, in Paris, she co-founded ‘The Palace of Wonders’ with street performer, eccentric Jules Cordiere. Her character Ratapuce traveled the globe for 10 years with The Palace of Wonders. After coming to New York she started ‘Pandemonium and the Dragonfly’ performing as a singer, musician, clown and actress.

In 1988 she joined the Big Apple Circus and began a love affair with Clown Doctoring.

Dr. Josette Giraffe was born!

Dr. Josette Giraffe

Being awestruck by Baudelaire,and Camembert she (with a few grants) moved back to Paris to create Le Rire Medicin, the first group of it’s kind in Europe. This highly improvisational team was interactive with the healthcare professionals and had ongoing medical and artistic training. (Read more about Clown Doctors in France  here!) Today Le Rire Medicin is present in 15 French hospitals and employs 80 specially trained professional hopiclowns. Caroline and Le Rire Medicin are presently creating a school to train future hospital clowns. Caroline co-wrote with Dr. Bernie Warren The Clown Doctor Chronicles (Albin Michel 2001, Rodopi 2003and Les Editions Rire Medecin in 2008). She also received one of France’s most prestigious awards in 2002 The Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

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Like I said she is a hard act to follow.

Keep  up the great work Caroline!

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!

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.