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Your Physical Comedy Christmas Stocking Stuffer
[post 344]There's no big present this year, but here are a few items for your Christmas stocking. They're small, but if you click on them they get bigger!A Hallmark card by way of Karen Gersch:By way...
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Upcoming Workshop: Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival, January 8, 9 and 10. Click here for complete information.
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My Excellent European Circus Weekend
[post 345]To us Americans, Europe can seem the Promised Land for all things circus, clown, and variety theatre. Some of my quests there for the holy grail of physical comedy have ended in...
View ArticleJohn Cleese on Creativity
[post 346]Food for thought for the new year: two versions of a lecture on creativity by John Cleese, the silly-walking Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star. The first (and stronger) video is a...
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Book Report: Scapa's Clowns
[post 347]Clowns make great subjects for paintings, but what I like about the clown cartoons of Scapa is that you get the clown in action — perfect for a physical comedy blog. I discovered these over...
View ArticleLes Salvadori
[post 348]This clip of the Italian "Les Salvadori" clowns is from a Hollywood Palace broadcast dated January 4, 1964 and, yes, that is Bing Crosby introducing them. Lots of physical comedy moves,...
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Superman 100th Birthday Salute
[post 349]We are of course talking about my childhood hero, the original television Superman, George Reeves.Reeves was no physical comedian, but he couldn't "fly" without knowing how to do a tiger leap...
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The Playful and Paper-full World of Mimirichi
[post 350]The prize-winning Mimirichi clown troupe from Kiev is best known for the amazing visual effects they create with large sheets of white paper, but everything they do combines acrobatics and...
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Cut to the Chase: The Police vs. Rémi Gaillard
[post 351]Just over 100 years ago ago, Mack Sennett hit cinema pay dirt and spawned American silent film comedy when he introduced audiences to the hapless Keystone Cops, forever the butt of the joke....
View ArticleSibling RIvalry
[post 352]When I use the term "physical comedy," I'm usually thinking full-body involvement, and I often cite not only comedians such as Buster Keaton and Bill Irwin, but dance troupes such as...
View ArticleContemporary Eric's Contemporary Dance Tutorial
[post 353]Thanks to Jef Johnson for the link!
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Eccentric Dance: Jack Stanford (and Hal Sherman)
[post 354]Another scrumptious treat from our resident eccentric dance expert, Betsy Baytos. I don't know much about Jack Stanford, but the Pathé site where this 1935 clip comes from at least explains...
View ArticleChristian Spuck: Le Grand Pas de Deux
[post 355]This very funny parody of a ballet pas de deux, choreographed by Christian Spuck of the Stuttgarter Ballet, has apparently become a repertoire favorite. Here are two versions. The first, from...
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Sid Caesar (1922–2014)
[post 356]The king is dead. You can read the whole NY Times obituary here and my personal reminiscences and tribute here. Long live the king — on DVD, streaming video, and technologies yet to be invented!
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Your Valentine's Day Physical Comedy "Chocolates"
[post 357]It was fun throwing some of my favorite physical comedy visuals at you in my Christmas Stocking post back in December, so here are 14 (get it?) more recent goodies that I've exclusively...
View ArticleGeorge Campo, the Continental Eccentric Dancer
[post 358]If you've ever taken a class with me, you know I'm fond of physical comedy involving chairs, tables, doors, stairs, etc., so you can imagine how happy I was to see this comedy chair piece...
View ArticleParents Urge Son To Invest In Improv Comedy Education
[post 359]Heh heh.....from The Onion.
View ArticleJames Thiérrée: On the Difficulty of Sitting Down
[post 360]After my post on eccentric dancer George Campo's incredible chair routine, which came by way of Betsy Baytos, I got a link by way of Ted Shapiro to a chair piece performed by James Thiérrée....
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The (Very) Physical Comedy Institute
[post 361]This is a project I'm producing this summer. It will involve nine or ten top teachers and a maximum of 20 students (10 in any class), and I think it will be excellent, exciting, and a lot of...
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