VAUDE_VISUALS

The American Mime Theatre is a professional performing company and training school. It was founded in 1952 and has performed continously since then, under the direction of Paul J. Curtis, who created the medium.

On April 7th they celebrated the 60th Anniversary and invited students and admirers from all generations.

I had studied with Paul J. Curtis beginning in 1973. I was to become their primary photographer for many years to come and document shows, classes and rehearsals. It was a great treat to see my friends that I had shared class with back in the 70′s. The new company displayed wonderful technique and stage presence.

Here are a few photographs from the evenings festivities.

The evening started with an OPEN REHEARSAL.

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MUSIC BOX

Pictured above – Mario Bruau, Bryan Fernandez, Carissa Toro, Simona Popescu.

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THE LOVERS

Pictured here -Mario Brufau, Carissa Toro, Simona Popescu, Forrest Seamons, Bryan Fernandez

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HURLY – BURLY

Mario Brufau, Forrest Seamons, Bryan Fernandez

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PEEPSHOW

Pictured here – Mario Brufau

Pictured here – Mario Brufau, Jean Barbour

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SIX

Pictured here – Mario Brufau, Bryan Fernandez, Jean Barbour, Matt LeClair, Carissa Toro, Forrest Seamons.

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Curtain Call

Jean Barbour receives flowers from the cast of The American Mime Theatre.

The audience cheers on the performers.

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The 60th Anniversary Cake

Founder and Director Paul J. Curtis observes the cake and considers blowing out the candle.

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Fresh fruit, cheese and crackers, wraps, and good sparkling wine. Great PARTY!

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Here is a video from the 50th Anniversary taken by Joseph Citta. Thanks for letting me post this!

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The night had just gotten started and already the Co-Hosts Andy Sapora and John Leo were beside themselves with laughter.

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Glen Raphael singing sweetly, trying to get some action.

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Gio Gaynor reads sweetly about chestnuts.

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The Community Plug brings the tinyDANGEROUS community together.

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Who’s needs the Community Plug next?!

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Kate Brehm with her AMAZING poof!

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Andy Sapora attempts to ‘tongue kiss’ his cohost John Leo.

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Laura Lee Bahr scares us all with an excerpt from her dark, erotic novel HAUNT

John and Andy want some.

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Cohost Andy Sapora goes ballastic with facial expressions during the show.

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The 13th Act

The 13th Act perform Too Soon.

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Jeff and Buttons are funny.

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Karim Muasher finishes the night off with a birthday party and wedding for himself!

John and Andy celebrating Karim’s B’day party!

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NEXT MONTH’S LINE UP IS GONNA ROCK!!

BE THERE! APRIL 24th, SYCAMORE BAR AND FLOWERSHOP.

How A Mime Saved Paul Verhoeven’s ROBOCOP

Actor Peter Weller and mime artist Moni Yakim recall the time when production on Robocop came grinding to a halt, and it took the help of a mime to overcome a major obstacle.

(Reproduced from ComicBookMovie.com)

SFX Magazine recently put out a great article about the making of the 80′s classic Robocop. They spoke with the director Paul Verhoeven who at the time was incredibly nervous to be making his first big American film. They also spoke with stars Peter Weller, and Miguel Ferrer, who played the creator of Robocop. Miguel admits that he was extremely worried that the film wouldn’t be any good, but took the role out of desperation. The gamble paid off and Robocop is one of the few films that he is very happy to look back upon.

What really caught my eye was the tale of how Peter Weller’s struggles with the physical movements for Robocop almost shutdown filming. And the only one that was capable of solving this issue was mime artist and choreographer, Moni Yakim.

WELLER: I’d taken mime. I was a mediocre one. I had taken a lot of dance, but I said, “This is going to take athleticism.” And I’d met with a lot of mimes who just wanted to do the usual pantomime. But I’d met with Moni Yakim, who also had studied with the greats. He knew the work of Etienne De Croux and Jean-Louis Barrault, and was with Marceau. And he said, “What we want to do here, I think, is have some sort of liquid movement with a staccato on the end of it, so it’s like butter, but then with a big, hard definition at the end of the movement.” And we started working on it, and I said, “This is the guy for me.” And he designed it, and I just worked on it for four hours a day, that stuff. It was tough, man, but fun.

But after four months of training with Moni, Peter Weller was having difficulties with the movements once he put on the Robocop costume.

YAKIM: It was not the hero that they had in mind. They didn’t know what to do, and, basically, they stopped the shooting. And Peter told them, “Call Moni and he might find a solution for us.” Of course, they rejected the idea because they thought that they were very smart, and if they can’t find the solution, how would I find the solution? So they resisted, like, for a day, but they couldn’t go on shooting, and they were desperate. So the producer called me and asked me to come over to the set. Which I couldn’t because I had a commitment here (in New York). And another day went by in which they did not shoot, and they were losing a lot of money every day. Finally Peter got on the phone, because he felt that this was something that would launch him into stardom, and he didn’t want to give up on it. So he called me and tried to get me to delay the job that I had here and to come over to the set. And since I’d become extremely friendly with Peter, I couldn’t resist him.

So I went, they flew me over there. A car came and took me over to the set. Nothing was happening. Everybody was depressed, especially Paul Verhoeven, who was going absolutely crazy. It was his first chance at doing a big American movie. I came to an extremely depressed place. I had met Paul before that, because we discussed the character, but he hardly looked it to me when I arrived there. And I saw Peter, and Peter said, “How do we go about it?” I said, “I can’t do anything unless you put on the costume.” So he went and they worked on him, again, for a few hours, to put on this costume that was not easy to deal with. He appeared with the costume, and I laughed, because he did indeed look like a huge toad. So I asked him to walk a little bit, and then I realized that it needed just a small adjustment. I asked everybody to leave the set and to give me about an hour to work with Peter.

And I worked with Peter and found out that all was in the rhythm, that we had to throw away everything that we’d done, rhythmically, over the four months, and to create the rhythm that would fit that costume. That, instead of having the bulk as a negative thing, to use it as an asset. So we started to move slower, and to walk slower, the motions were slower. And we worked Peter’s body into the weight of the costume, rhythmically. And, after about an hour, I called Peter, Verhoeven, and the guys, and told them to look at what he can do. And everybody got excited, and they started shooting. That’s the real story. And it was in the papers because Peter Weller actually said it that if I hadn’t come to the set that day, there wouldn’t be a RoboCop.

In the current hit WAR HORSE several of the actors performing are trained in the mask/mime technique created by french master Jacques Lecoq as taught at Movement Theater Studio in New York.

Here is Richard Crawford (r) pictured in “WAR HORSE” as Sergeant Thunder yelling at Albert Narracot (l) played by Andrew Durand.

Richard Crawford (r)with Andrew Durand.   Photo by Paul Kolnik

I interviewed Richard Crawford in his dressing room.

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Last year I photographed an amazing collection of young variety artist that came to NY to perform in the show “Mr. Aviner’s Variety Hour’.

It was one of the best shows of young and fresh talent I had come across in a while.

Next month Josh Aviner is producing the 2nd edition of this show. I had a chance to sit down with Josh and the show’s MC Book Kennison with his associate Mike Dobson.

They spoke about the show in different ways and as such I have broke up the interviews in three parts.

Here is the link for the upcoming show! Get your tickets early as I am sure it will SELL OUT!

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Book Kennison talks about the upcoming “Mr. Aviner’s Variety Hour”.

Mike Dobson talk about “Mr. Aviner’s Variety Hour”

Josh Aviner talks about the upcoming “Mr. Aviner’s Variety Hour”.

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When I first became aware of Tom Murrin and his ‘aka’ The Alien Comic he had been performing for many years.

His work in the ‘performance art’ community is very significant and he has many admirers and friends to prove it.

This is a photograph I took of Tom at Dixon Place when it was located on East 1st Street.

Tom Murrin performing at Dixon Place in the alternate persona “The Alien Comic”.

I got to know Tom and as my work developed I began doing interviews with performers I liked.

Here is an interview broken into two parts that I did with Tom on Oct. 10th, 2008.

Part 2

In this last year I photographed many of Tom’s show and always had trouble focusing my camera because I really wanted to listen and absorb Tom’s delightful, heartfelt, political, funny, intelligent and aspiring stories.

Here are  few shots I did in the last year during Tom’s shows.

Tom Murrin performing in the Full Moon Show at LaMama

Everyone I  know who knew TOM MURRIN will miss him dearly. His love for the art, community, friends and family are still with us.

Thank you Tom Murrin

R.I.P.

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New York Times Obit for Tom Murrin

Kinko gets the show rolling by ‘begging’ to the audience for ‘food’ and other niceties.

Kinko the Clown (Keith Nelson) does some amazing tricks with the ‘diabolos’.

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MARK HAYWARD

Mark Hayward performing one of his many amazing top tricks.

Mark Hayward continued to amaze the audience with his top skills.

Mark Hayward had a really crazy finale with 4 different objects and things to do.

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MS. EKATERINA

Appearing out of a satin clam shell Ms. Ekaterina was a beautiful and skilled performer.

Amazing body control and gymnastic skills.

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THE KING CHARLES UNICYCLES TROUPE (KCT)

The King Charles Unicycle Troupe was great in their athletic control and the skills on the unicycle.

Two ropes and a unicycle jumping in the ropes..great skills are needed here for sure!

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JEFF HESS

Jeff Hess performed a very funny and startling strange piece of physical comedy.

Jeff Hess was able to contort his face in so many different ways.

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STEPHANIE MONSEU

Stephanie Monseu was handling the sword pretty good for a Ring Mistress.

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SABRINA CHAP

Sabrina Chap performed as the evenings musical accompanist and was great!

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MARK HAYWARD

Mark Hayward made this contraption fling 3 juggling balls at him at the same to in order to juggle.

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KEITH NELSON

Here is where Keith Nelson borrowed 2 bucks from me to cut in two pieces with his sword.

Keith Nelson swallowing a sword.

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MS. EKATERINA

Ms. Ekaterina performing a body bend while hanging from the ceiling on a silk.

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Stephanie Monseu was terrific as the hostess of the evening.

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The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus is performing EVERY THURSDAY this Month of March!

Next one is MARCH 15th! Come and enjoy a great Cirkus Experience!

Check HERE for the Schedule.

Jeff Hess has been living in Germany for quite a few years now. He has a family and performs and teaches.

He was a regular in NYC 15 years ago and many of his peers and admirers came out to see him perform at the Bindlestiff Open Stage and Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at Dixon Place last week.

I had a chance to catch up and do a Clown Un_Mask portrait.

Jeff Hess during his recent visit to New York City.

Jeff Hess performing at the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at Dixon Place last week.

Jeff Hess performing at the Bindlestiff Open Stage Variety show at Dixon Place.

A studio portrait of Jeff back when he lived in New York.

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Here is a review from a wonderful show “A Circus One Dream Theater” that Jeff was part of in 1992.

To contact Jeff visit his website here!

Al Duval – The Monotone Baritone sings some original songs for the audience of Vaudephone.

Vaudephone is a co-production of Vaudevisuals.com and the American Vaudeville Theatre/Travalanche.

vaudevisuals.com
travsd.wordpress.com/

Recorded at Bar 82 on February 26th, 2012

Starting the evening off are the host John Leo and Andy Sapora

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The BJS

Becca Bernard (Left) and Jennifer Harder (Right) rock out Bon Jovi’s music Big Time!

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A Wonder Minute with Tanya Soloman!

Tanya Solomon wows us with her monthly magic  minute!

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Slash Coleman

Slash Coleman tells us endearing stories from his one-man show Big Plastic Heroes

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Stephen Bracco

Stephen Bracco’s marxist-clown striptease brought down the house!

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Lily fills in with a beautiful song!

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THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

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Song and Dance Man

Billy Bedlam, Song and Dance Man: He sings, dances AND RAPS!

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Ukulele Orchestra of Great Brooklyn

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Brooklyn, (AWESOME!) will be performing at Sycamore on March 14th! Check out video of them HERE

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TORKOVA

Torkova. Blew. Us. Away. WOW.

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NEXT SHOW IS Tuesday March 27th!

Come and over and enjoy some real ANTICS!

MORE INFO!

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