VAUDE_VISUALS

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.

Francis and Lotte Brunn joined Ringling Bros. show in 1948 when they first came to this country.  They worked the Ringling show for 2 seasons and then went to the Pollack Bros. Circus. Lotte met her future husband at the Pollack Bros. Circus in 1951 and then left Francis with the circus and went off to get married and start their own careers. Here is a picture of Lotte with Ringling clown Emmett Kelly. (Thanks to Michael Chirrick for this!)

Emmett Kelly and Lotte Brunn at Ringling circa 1949. (Photographer Unknown)

In this interview Michael Bongar explains his views on clown, theatre and his creation of the BongarBiz.com empire.

Christopher Lueck of the New York Downtown Clown Revue interviews Michael in the dressing room of the Kraine Theatre.

This monthly show is on the third Monday of every month and presents a wide variety of eccentric and comedic acts that all are derivative from clown. Michael has had years of performing experience and speaks of the art with knowledge and passion.

A couple for the New World Order

This is a variety show for all of you out there that need to see something NEW! The New York Downtown Clown Revue is presented every third Monday of the month at The Kraine Theater on East 4th St. in NYC’s fashionable Lower East Side.  For more information go to The New York Downtown Clown Revue site.

Michael Bongar is well known amongst the clown community because he gets a lot of performers work. His agency aptly called BONGARBIZ has a great reputation for booking some of the most talented and eccentric acts available. Michael shed his suit on Monday night to perform and excerpt from his one-man show MAGIC MIKE. A hysterical sendup of magic gone wrong. The mediocre magician and his delightful lack of awareness is perfectly portrayed by MAGIC MIKE. Check out the New York Downtown Clown Revue web site for next month’s featured performers.

After nearly 30 years in Europe and having established the “Festival of Fools” in Amsterdam in the late 60′s Jango Edwards returned to NY to spread the word of the Nouveau Clown Institute (NCI) which was recently formed in Barcelona, Spain. While in NY Edwards taught a class in conjunction with Jef Johnson’s Clown Lab at The Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was a delightful excursion into the soul of clown and also technique. Jango invited Nikolai Terentiev to teach pantomime on the last day of the workshop. I was there for 2 of the 3 days and was able to document the workshop with a video and some stills. Here is one of the class after an exercise in minimal costume.

CLOWN: Formulas and Theory Workshop ©2009 Jim Moore