COINCIDENCE'S

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

[This message has been edited by Lucky Diamond Rich (edited 12-21-2001).]

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Lucky Diamond Rich ]</p>

[nick nickolas]

Yeah I got one mate...
Is it that most circle acts have come from poor,dysfuntional families of one sort or another....???

NN

[This message has been edited by nick nickolas (edited 12-21-2001).]

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Lucky Diamond Rich ]</p>

[firegirl]

i used to 'date' a lot of jugglers/magicians/escape artists/fire manipulators...

now i eat fire for a living. i realized that i've had worse things in my mouth than a flaming torch.

~firegirl --&gt; who was raised in the woods by a pack of wild variety artists.

[Rex Boyd]

I don't know what you are talking about but I grew up in a single parent family and my well-off wife had a go at face painting.

And to top it all I spent 6 weeks in a tiny room with the artist formerly known as Richie Rich and happily lived to tell the tale without too much trauma.

Love,

Rex

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Lucky Diamond Rich ]</p>

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Lucky Diamond Rich ]</p>

[firegirl]

standing still for that long lets me think too much...

my artistic skills are lacking...

hell, i can't even twist balloon animals.

thanks again for the suggestions ldr, but i think i'll stick to what i've got.

http://www.performers.net/ubb/wink.gif

~firegirl

[le pire]

Saw a drunk homeless guy in Padova Italy try to be a statue once. He could barely even stand up let alone stand still. These 8 year old boys started to make fun of him until finally he couldn't take it anymore. Picture a statue shouting "Va f'en CULLO PICOLLI MERDI!!!" then falling over.

The best statue I ever saw.


étienne

[firegirl]

in new orleans there is a statue on every corner... and, most of them will talk to you when you pass by asking for ciggarettes or a tip... interesting.

~firegirl

[Julia]

San Francisco is full of cratesluggs, the dirty type... nasty, no statues though I would say, just the crackheads.

MMM. I have never had a boyfriend turning into a statue or a facepainter, it would feel really weird I think... but then I never turned into anything else than a swordswallower and escapologist/ streetshow, that wasn't due to a boyfriend, it all started earlier... i promise..

Take care all ya boys and girls.

Julia/ Jewels

[firegirl]

yeah ~ cratesluggs... i like that. and, what is with them all being silver?

i saw an amazing woman all in white w/leaves and stuff attached to her... kind of fairy-ish (if there is such a word) performing in cambridge one time... i must of sat and watched her for an hour or so while waiting for a friend... never moved, not once ~ no one was tipping her so i went and gave her a buck... she changed poses & then didn't move for another hour... then my friend and i took turns watching her for a while, to see if she eventually would give up and leave... finally around six o' clock we were bored and cold ~ so we went to common ground to get dinner. when we were walking back to the t station we noticed that she had gone... just vanished. when we came back the next day to go to work (at the common ground) she was there... in the same pose as the evening before.

spooky.

~firegirl

[Prof Willie B]

Some-one else once used the term "crateslug" here. I both loved and hated it.
Some years ago I watched Tony Campbell (Livingspace, where are you? Pls contact this part of the universe) doing a statue show. It was fascinating but also may have been why we have so many copies (here in Melb. anyway).
He would turn up in a particularly daggy track suit carrying a suit case. With meticulous care he would then lay out his suit, socks, shoes etc. about him. In his unique way, he would keep people. Not a word. He'd then strip to boxers and proceed to move into character. First the face and head. A good image, sitting on a suitcase, putting on make-up in his boxers, on a major intersection. Each move was/seemed choreographed until, 30 mins later, he draped a matching cloth over his case and stood on it. Within 5-8 mins and a couple of moves, he would made a good hat out of the crowd he had built (150), then he got bored and finished. He would undress and wipe off the make-up while they threw more money in the hat and this was the only bit when he talked. Then he went to wash off completely.

5 mins later he, meticulously, started again.
The show was not about the statue but the theatrical transformation from reality to suspension of belief. I was spellbound and watched him do it 6 times that day and each was different enough to make me want to watch again. The crowd understood as well and the hats showed it. Marcel Marceau would perhaps have been horrified. Tony himself was very depressed at the time and felt as though he was scraping the bottom of the barrel doing this sort of stuff but to me it was something that still tells me "It's not what you do but how you do it". It was special.
Dave Sheridan's "Captain Cook" show (and it is a show) is also an example of brilliant use of the concept. Fantastic costume, props and attention to detail. I've seen people in tears watching him.

But, shit, there really is some crap out there. I wonder how many Lenins or Peter the Greats are working Moscow (or St.Petersburg)as we speak.

[This message has been edited by Prof Willie B (edited 12-27-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Prof Willie B (edited 12-27-2001).]

[le pire]

Prof,

Marcel would have the LOVED it, he was all about theatre and subtext. Marcel was a ballet dancer who loved Chaplin too much. He was the star student with precision meister Etienne Decroux and moonlighted on the streets to developed a form of mime that has since been ripped off, watered down, bastardized and destroyed. Decroux hated what he had done to mime, by the way, and never forgave him.

Marceau also has lamented that the character "Bip" for which he has become most famous, also blocked him in his career. After Bip, nobody wanted to see any of his more challenging routines such as "the eater of hearts" or "the creation of the world." Everyone wanted happy-clown mime.

Back to statues:

There is a scupltor here in Paris who made a statue of himself as a statue. He used some kind of latex for the flesh and used his own hair for the eyebrows, lashes etc (the eyes are closed). It's wearing a costume and he used real make up on the face. It really looks like a guy as a statue. He puts his creation out on the bridge where the pitch is with a little bucket for coins and sits back and watches the crowd gather and try to make the statue move.

He'll then go over and let the audience in on the joke (and collect a nice hat). People will stick around to watch other passerbys get fooled.

étienne

[firegirl]

i just want to say that i've loved the past couple of stories on this thread.

*big, warm, fuzzy hug*

~firegirl

[nick nickolas]

There were a lot of statues in Covent Garden, who will move for 20p,
hey I just give 'em a fiver and say move, move and keep moving 'till your well away from here!

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

I roomed with Albert Stone from Melbourne in Singapore. He took the statue act quite seriously, and did well with it. He had this fake black foam which really looked like rock, and he was forever making improvements. He was designing a series of postcards when we worked that fest.
I did the Halifax/ St John /Sydney tour with John from invisible circus a few years ago, and he did transport onlookers to a different reality. He did a dreamlike look, with conical hat. Always made the papers. He induced quiet. John and I went to the bars, and when people asked him what he did for work, he would look 'em dead in the face and reply "Fuck All".
I'll take the fiver to move along now, Nick.

[le pire]

Most of the statues in covent garden are shite, it's true. That clockwork guardsmans for example...

I do like the act of the guy who has the sqweeker in his mouth and the long tube arm and all that. He's not really a statue, he's more like a costume character on the street. He's good for about 2-4 minutes and then you move on.

Then again, I also like Kylie Minogue...

étienne

[nick nickolas]

Is it a coincedence that Taxi keeps calling me Jesus and then I find this article

HOMELESS YOUNG MAGICIAN FINDS CHRIST

Daily, the Blitz team would go out to the streets of Queretaro and hand out flyers for the festival. Some of the group met a homeless 19-year-old street magician called Juan who had been living on the streets for three weeks. One of the team explained, "He offered to help hand out flyers even though he did not know what the purpose of them was. During our lunch break, and with Margie Dean translating, seven team members shared the Gospel with Juan in a direct way. In God's perfect timing, Juan accepted the Lord. The team laid hands on him and prayed. Then he joined the team in street witnessing and the team then provided him with a shower and change of clothing and a place to sleep. They are now connecting him with a local church.

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

multiplying loaves and fishes:
multiplying tennis balls
healing lepers:
wheedling volunteeers,
water into wine:
wine into, well, waterish substance.

Its all right there if you know where to look.

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Lucky Diamond Rich ]</p>

[Rich Potter]

Hey, there are times I've been on the road that I would have sold my soul to the Jesus for a hot shower and a warm toilet seat.

--Rich

P.S. Nick, didn't you hear that this year's convention for children of functional families was cancelled due to lack of enrollment? Buskers don't have a monopoly on dysfunctionality. Just go to a Peta rally and kick a puppy. You'll see.

--Rich

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

[This message has been edited by Lucky Diamond Rich (edited 01-17-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Lucky Diamond Rich (edited 01-17-2002).]

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Lucky Diamond Rich ]</p>