#montreal Circus Festival

[yz]

Second night of the Montréal circus festival.

July 2024.

Fujifilm XT-50 with XF-23mm lens.

[rock-and-roll-hell]

July 24, 1977

Love Gun Tour

Pacific Coliseum - Vancouver, British Columbia

According to the promoter: “The cops heard of KIϟϟ’ so-called reputation and they ordered four squads to the show. They played poker all night and billed us $8,000 for overtime” (Montreal Gazette, 8/2/77).

From a local review: “Hype? Not really. KIϟϟ promise nothing less than the greatest spectacle in rock and nothing less is exactly what they provide. From that it is easy for the unaware parent or pundit to mistake KIϟϟ for a threat to our civilized way of life. But understand this, KIϟϟ are not self-pitying, humorless nihilists like the punk rockers. If anything, they are a fantasy for an age that has seen just about everything. Of course they appeal to the escapist stripe. It would be fun to stand seven feet tall, spit fire, deafen everyone within a 1,000 yard radius and make a million bucks doing it” (Vancouver Sun, 7/25/77).

From another local review: “The KIϟϟ concert Sunday night was better than the fireworks display the Sea Festival holds annually. The Coliseum took on all the aspects of kid’s day at the PNE’s Playland with harried parents leading offspring by the hand up into the stands, plopping their plump selves down into the same seats they had at The Ice Capades or The Shriner Circus, and stopping up their ears with cotton… KIϟϟ was perfunctory as you please, well rehearsed, but musically deadening and the sound from the press box was, as usual, muddy except when Ace Frehley took off into one of his solos. Frehley appeared to be bored, or tired, or sick, or drunk, or all four, while batman, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley did their best to whip up a surprisingly complacent audience which eventually succumbed and went nuts when the hits and the gimmickry got into gear” (Georgia Straight, 7/28/77)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Good news, everyone! Excellent news. It turns out Ed Night is good at stand-up comedy. I have been waiting several years now to find this out, suspected but with no way to confirm it. But now I can finally say, I have found a way to artistically justify my decision to watch Roast Battle. Wouldn't have heard of Ed Night otherwise as he's not been on anything else I've seen, and therefore I wouldn't have have seen a very good stand-up show last night. Success! It was all worth it!

Anyway, yesterday was probably my most perfectly planned day if this festival. Look at this:

What a solid few hours. Kept exiting the venues and then going right back in, didn't have to travel anywhere, and four really really strong shows in a row. Eleanor Morton's took a little while to get going and at first I was a bit disappointed in it, but it really built up from a routine about seeing the Edinburgh Fringe as an Edinburgh native, then just kept going, second half better than the first and I loved it by the end.

The other 3 were pretty well perfect, all 3 of them. I'm so glad I saw Sarah Keyworth, after almost skipping them because I saw it filmed for Access Festival. Firstly, it was more than good enough to be worth seeing in person even though I'd heard the material before, same as Nish Kumar and Tom Ballard. Secondly, it's been 8 months and a major Australian championship win since I saw the show, obviously the material has developed. It was so, so much fun to actually see. As was Laura Davis, they're another one who's so compelling it's just worth getting into the room to experience it up close. This started strong but was another one that really built and by the end was... look, I try to be very sparing with a word like "Kitsonian" and not just compare anything good to him, but that was all I could think of with the way she got complex and poetic in throwing everything in the show back at us at the end. Reminded me of the ending of Impotent Fury of the Privileged pr Something Other Than Everything, in the best way (not in a "Laura was being unoriginal" way, Kitson doesn't talk nearly this much about dead birds so safe to say they carved their own territory). And Tom Ballard was also doing stuff I'd heard before but it sure was worth being in the room for that. Being in the room made me both enjoy it even more, and better understand why a different person might dislike it so strongly. A divisively shouty presence.

I even managed to briefly speak to Tom Ballard after the show, if nothing else just to prove to myself that I could, after the disaster of last week. And it went okay! I wasn't smooth by any means, stuttered at the ground about how I loved his show in Montreal last year and thought this one was even better and big fan of his older specials too and all his stuff, and I absolutely could not look at him while I spoke, but I think I managed to make the words I was saying understood. Managed to sound like a very nervous person who likes him, rather than whatever I sounded like when I met Kitson last week, which was nothing, because I could not remember any words. So I'm glad I managed that improvement. He was very nice, asked me my name, said he appreciated it, a sort of amusing contrast to the on-stage shoutiness.

Then I ran off to the Assembly Rooms to see Josie Long's husband (if the genders were reversed it would be problematic to define her by her relationship to him but I'm pretty sure it's fine this way around, also I'm not 100% sure they're actually married) meticulously document the destruction of arts funding and the NHS across 14 years of Tory rule, via the medium of a musical performed in what appeared to be a circus tent. That's what we some to the Fringe for, isn't it? That is exactly what I wanted out of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was a lot of fun.

Then back to the Monkey Barrel to see Ed Night, a guy I'd been Googling ever since I saw him on Roast Battle in 2021, convinced that I like this guy and I just need him to release something I can see to prove it. I've said several times on this blog that I'm supporting his career like it's a sports team, wanting him to get big just so I can see his stuff from Canada. He didn't so I had to go to him, and finally, decision to watch an awful thing like Roast Battle has been justified! I found Ed Night out of it! Seriously I thought he was fantastic, dark and sharp and packed with jokes that you could miss if you didn't pay attention because they fit so clearly into the narrative. And it helped that it was my sort of thing in terms of subject matter, he covered OCD and queer identity and some political stuff and the frustrating mental health system, talked shit about contrnt creator algorithms. At one point he got a Pokemon reference into what I think was a suicide joke - how perfectly tailored to my comedy taste is that? He also picked some more specific targets, like (spoiler alert, I guess, spoiler alert for everything on my blog all the time) going after Tom Binns for a while, earning every bit of that edgy material (edgy, to be clear, just because it's an intense topic to bring up - he didn't try edgily defending him or anything) by being very funny about it.

He hung out somewhere in the general vicinity (not nearly as far, but the vicinity is still impressive) of Dan Rath levels of presenting himself as a fucked up low status character (though it didn't seem like a that much of a character). I remember seeing someone compare his stuff to Frankie Boyle once, which I think is apt, though more personal than I've heard Frankie Boyle get, and obviously not as developed in the craft, but it was that level of dark. I also think Chortle robbed him, with only 3.5 stars, given some of the stuff that's got 4. I'm just relieved that he was good. I got so invested in the idea of him being good, based on so little. Picked one non-famous comedian, several years ago, to decide I bet that guy is good. And that was by no means a guarantee. I feel like this blog must make it seem as though I like pretty much all comedy because that's mainly what I write about. When in fact I hear or see plenty of comedy that I dislike, I just try not to be a dick about it online too often. So I'm glad this wasn't like that, because I really hate being wrong.

Then I ran off to the other side of the castle for the first time, to see Natalie Palamides at the Traverse Theatre. This was one I booked because it seemed important to take the opportunity to see in person while I can. I've seen her previous shows - Laid and Nate - on video, and I liked them, could see they were very good, but I also knew I was missing parts of it, because it doesn't translate fully to film, and I just don't have the theatre kid background to appreciate that level of clowning. Also the puppet in Dave freaked me out. I don't like puppets. Also, you know, nudity. Sex scenes (only with puppets). Artistic violence. It left me feeling weird and uncomfortable and wanting to curl up into a ball, in a sort of good but probably overall more bad way. But that left me feeling like I should try harder to develop the ability to appreciate this sort of thing. And I think it's the sort of thing that really needs to be experienced live.

So I went to see Weer live, and I had a great time. It was so much fun, probably helped that the subject matter was lighter, at least at first. More nudity (spoiler alert, I guess, for all of this, in the unlikely event that anyone planning to see Natalie Palamides is reading this) but I was prepared this time! Managed to not turn into quite such a prudish teacher from a movie, at the sight of a body displayed in the name of art. I mean it was still weird, but not quite such a shock as I'd seen it before. The violence was a bit more difficult, but it very quickly got too absurd to be scary. And the puppet stuff was mercifully extremely short.

Otherwise, I thought it was incredibly impressive. I don't have the theatre knowledge to really understand how impressive it was, but I can still recognize something really cool and incredibly complicated done very well. It was fun, it made me laugh, I could not believe the number of (literal and figurative) layers that went into it. It was very, very cool to see, definitely worth taking the chance to go in person.

So that was my day yesterday. Woke up early this morning and thought I'd go through the day. About to go back to town for my last day of shows. Which is fine, I'm not feeling any predictable rising anxiety that the only thing I've been looking forward to for a year is almost over. It's okay, I'll have another little bit in London after this and that's nice as meeting my London friend in person has been one of the best parts of this, sorry that's a weird thing to say given that he reads this. But it's hardly the most overly personal thing I've ever communicated via a Tumblr post because I don't know how to actually talk to people. Except Tom Ballard, I did a great job of talking to him.

And aside from talking to Tom Ballard, yesterday was a slower day for comedian spotting, which was probably for the best (talking to Tom wasn't so much comedian "spotting", as comedian "awkwardly waiting around until everyone else had left after his show"). Jordan Brookes was in the audience at Sarah Keyworth's show. And here's a left-field one - Dominic Maxwell, the dick from The Times who once called Andy Zaltzman "[John Oliver's] left-behind sidekick", was in Natalie Palamides' show making notes for a review. Which I only know because she called attention to that when giving him an audience participation part, she turned it into something quite funny.

Okay, now I'm going into town for the last day. I've saved some of the established Fringe veterans for last - Seymour Mace, Mark Watson, David O'Doherty. Mat Ewins, another one where I thought it important to take the chance to see in oerson since he doesn't translate to recordings well. I didn't divide it up this way intentionally, but the identity-based demographic diversity of my Fringe schedule looks a lot better if you leave out the last day.

[brookston]

Holidays 1.19

Holidays

Archery Day

Artist As Outlaw Day

Bondadagur (Husband’s Day; Iceland)

Confederate Heroes Day (f.k.a. Lee Day; Texas)

A Friend Raises Your Spirits Day

Good Memory Day

The Holocaust Day (India)

Horror Novels Are Horrendous Day

Husband’s Day (Iceland)

International Flower Day

Kokborok Day (Tripura, India)

La Tamborrada (24-Hour Drum Jam; Spain)

Laura Ingall’s Wilder Day (Wisconsin)

Little Ricky Day

Lysander Spooner Day

National Annie Day

National Conservation Dog Day

National Gun Appreciation Day

National Investment Risk Management Day

National Lucy Day

Natlisgeba (Republic of Georgia)

Neon Sign Day

New Friends Day [also 7.19; 10.19]

Poe Toaster (Baltimore, Maryland)

Puzzle Day

Rescuer’s Day (Belarus)

Robert E. Lee Day (AL, AR, FL, GA, MS, TN)

Sieve Day (French Republic)

Tenderness Toward Existence Day

Tin Can Day

Whisper 'I Love You' Day

World Day of Migrants and Refugees

World Quark Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Brew a Potion Day

International Chouriço Day

National Popcorn Day

Zay Day (Union Craft Brewing)

3rd Friday in January

Arbor Day (Florida) [3rd Friday]

Bean Day (North Dakota) [3rd Friday]

Fry Day (Pastafarian; Fritism) [Every Friday]

Hat Day [3rd Friday]

International Fetish Day [3rd Friday]

International Sweatpants Day [Closest Weekday to 21st]

National Corrections Day (Australia) [3rd Friday]

Straw Bear Festival begins (Whittlesea, England) [3rd Friday-Sun]

Thorrablot (a.k.a. Þorrablót; Midwinter Festival; Pagan Iceland) [Friday after 1.19]

Festivals Beginning January 19, 2024

Aces & Ales Winter Beer Fest (Las Vegas, Nevada) [thru 1.21]

Bean Day (Fargo, North Dakota)

Berlin International Green Week (Berlin, Germany) thru 1.28]

Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival (Carefree, Arizona) [thru 1.21]

Fringe World (Perth, Australia) [thru 2.18]

Hartford County Restaurant Week (Hartford County, Maryland) [1.28]

International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo (Monaco) [thru 1.28]

Montreal International Auto Show (Montreal, Canada) [thru 1.28]

Napa Valley Restaurant Week (Napa, California) [thru 1.28]

SC Watermelon Association (Hilton Head, South Carolina) [thru 1.21]

Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, Utah) [thru 1.25]

St. Armands Food Truck Rally & Music Festival (Sarasota, Florida) [thru 1.21]

Vacaville Restaurant Week (Vacaville, California) [thru 1.28]

Washington Auto Show (a.k.a. D.C. Auto Show; Washington, D.C.) [thru 1.28]

The Winter Wine Festival (New Castle, New Hampshire) [thru 2.11]

Feast Days

Bassianus of Lodi (Christian; Saint)

Blaithmaic (Christian; Saint)

Canute (a.k.a. Knud; Christian; Saint)

Epiphany (Eastern Orthodox)

Feast of Sultán (Baha’i)

Festival of Neith (Ancient Egypt; Goddess of the Hunt and Warfare; Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Founders Day (Kappa Alpa Order Convivium)

Harlan Ellison Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Henry of Uppsala (Christian; Saint)

Lomer (Christian; Saint)

Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum (Christian; Martyrs)

Mark of Ephesus (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Natlisgeba (Orthodox Epiphany; Georgia)

Paul Cézanne (Artology)

Pontianus of Spoleto (Christian; Saint)

Procrastination Day Tomorrow (Pastafarian)

Skip Squawk (Muppetism)

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (Artology)

Theocrats of Japan (Positivist; Saint)

Theophany  (a.k.a. ... 

Denho (Syriac Christian; Saint)

Epiphany (Eastern and Oriental Orthodox)

Great Blessing of the Waters (Eastern Orthodox)

Natlisgeba (Georgia)

Sure Tsnund (Armenian Apostolic Church)

Timket (a.k.a. Timkat, Coptic Epiphany; Eritrea, Ethiopia)

Thor’s Blot (Pagan)

Vodici (Baptism of Jesus; North Macedonia)

Water Blessing Festival (Bulgaria)

Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 19 [8 of 72]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 3 of 60)

Premieres

Avenue 5 (TV Series; 2020)

Bright Eyes, by Art Garfunkel (Song; 1979)

Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, by Camille Saint-Saëns (Cello Concerto; 1873)

Chicken in the Rough (Disney Cartoon; 1951)

Donnie Darko (Film; 2001)

48 Hours (TV News Show; 1988)

Fowl Brawl (Phantasies Cartoon; 1947)

From Dusk Till Dawn (Film; 1996)

Homeward Bound, by Simon & Garfunkel (Song; 1966)

How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, by Bad Religion (Album; 1982)

Il Trovatore ('The Troubadour'), by Giuseppe Verdi (Opera; 1853)

I Was a Teenage Thumb (WB MM Cartoon; 1963)

The Juliet Letters, by Elvis Costello (Album; 1993)

Mickey’s Man Friday (Disney Cartoon; 1935)

The Millionaire (TV Series; 1955)

Mr. And Mrs. Is the Name (WB MM Cartoon; 1935)

Operation: Rabbit (WB LT Cartoon; 1952)

Op, Pop, Wham and Bop (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1966)

Out of the Woods, by Taylor Swift (Song; 2016)

Searching For Sugar Man (Documentary Film; 2012)

Shakespearean Spinach (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1940)

The Shoemaker and the Elves (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1935)

Sick Transit (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1966)

Sock-a-Bye, Baby (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1934)

So Dear to My Heart (Film; 1949)

Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith (Noel; 1950)

Tremors (Film; 1990)

Vacation with Play (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1951)

Woman of the Year (Film; 1942)

Today’s Name Days

Agritius, Marius, Martha, Pia (Austria)

Ljiljana, Makarije, Mario, Marta (Croatia)

Doubravka (Czech Republic)

Pontianus (Denmark)

Enn, Enno, Eno, Heigo, Heik, Heiki, Heiko, Heino, Hendrik, Henn, Henno, Henri, Henrik (Estonia)

Heikki, Henna, Henni, Henri, Henriikka, Henrik, Henrikki (Finland)

Marius (France)

Mario, Martha, Pia (Germany)

Efrasia, Makarios (Greece)

Márió, Sára (Hungary)

Liberata, Mario (Italy)

Alnis, Andulis (Latvia)

Gedvilė, Marijus, Morta, Raivedys (Lithuania)

Margunn, Marius (Norway)

Andrzej, Bernard, Erwin, Erwina, Eufemia, Henryk, Kanut, Mariusz, Marta, Matylda, Mechtylda, Pia, Racimir, Sara (Poland)

Macarie (Romania)

Lidia, Maria (Russia)

Drahomíra (Slovakia)

Arsenio, Mario (Spain)

Henrik (Sweden)

Bob, Bobbi, Bobbie, Bobby, Robbie, Robert, Roberta, Roberto, Robin, Robinson, Robyn (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 19 of 2024; 347 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 3 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 25 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Yi-Chou), Day 9 (Ren-Wu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 9 Shevat 5784

Islamic: 8 Rajab 1445

J Cal: 19 White; Fiveday [19 of 30]

Julian: 6 January 2024

Moon: 68%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 19 Moses (1st Month) [Theocrats of Japan]

Runic Half Month: Peorth (Womb, Dice Cup) [Day 10 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 30 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 29 of 31)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 1.19

Holidays

Archery Day

Artist As Outlaw Day

Bondadagur (Husband’s Day; Iceland)

Confederate Heroes Day (f.k.a. Lee Day; Texas)

A Friend Raises Your Spirits Day

Good Memory Day

The Holocaust Day (India)

Horror Novels Are Horrendous Day

Husband’s Day (Iceland)

International Flower Day

Kokborok Day (Tripura, India)

La Tamborrada (24-Hour Drum Jam; Spain)

Laura Ingall’s Wilder Day (Wisconsin)

Little Ricky Day

Lysander Spooner Day

National Annie Day

National Conservation Dog Day

National Gun Appreciation Day

National Investment Risk Management Day

National Lucy Day

Natlisgeba (Republic of Georgia)

Neon Sign Day

New Friends Day [also 7.19; 10.19]

Poe Toaster (Baltimore, Maryland)

Puzzle Day

Rescuer’s Day (Belarus)

Robert E. Lee Day (AL, AR, FL, GA, MS, TN)

Sieve Day (French Republic)

Tenderness Toward Existence Day

Tin Can Day

Whisper 'I Love You' Day

World Day of Migrants and Refugees

World Quark Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Brew a Potion Day

International Chouriço Day

National Popcorn Day

Zay Day (Union Craft Brewing)

3rd Friday in January

Arbor Day (Florida) [3rd Friday]

Bean Day (North Dakota) [3rd Friday]

Fry Day (Pastafarian; Fritism) [Every Friday]

Hat Day [3rd Friday]

International Fetish Day [3rd Friday]

International Sweatpants Day [Closest Weekday to 21st]

National Corrections Day (Australia) [3rd Friday]

Straw Bear Festival begins (Whittlesea, England) [3rd Friday-Sun]

Thorrablot (a.k.a. Þorrablót; Midwinter Festival; Pagan Iceland) [Friday after 1.19]

Festivals Beginning January 19, 2024

Aces & Ales Winter Beer Fest (Las Vegas, Nevada) [thru 1.21]

Bean Day (Fargo, North Dakota)

Berlin International Green Week (Berlin, Germany) thru 1.28]

Carefree Fine Art & Wine Festival (Carefree, Arizona) [thru 1.21]

Fringe World (Perth, Australia) [thru 2.18]

Hartford County Restaurant Week (Hartford County, Maryland) [1.28]

International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo (Monaco) [thru 1.28]

Montreal International Auto Show (Montreal, Canada) [thru 1.28]

Napa Valley Restaurant Week (Napa, California) [thru 1.28]

SC Watermelon Association (Hilton Head, South Carolina) [thru 1.21]

Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, Utah) [thru 1.25]

St. Armands Food Truck Rally & Music Festival (Sarasota, Florida) [thru 1.21]

Vacaville Restaurant Week (Vacaville, California) [thru 1.28]

Washington Auto Show (a.k.a. D.C. Auto Show; Washington, D.C.) [thru 1.28]

The Winter Wine Festival (New Castle, New Hampshire) [thru 2.11]

Feast Days

Bassianus of Lodi (Christian; Saint)

Blaithmaic (Christian; Saint)

Canute (a.k.a. Knud; Christian; Saint)

Epiphany (Eastern Orthodox)

Feast of Sultán (Baha’i)

Festival of Neith (Ancient Egypt; Goddess of the Hunt and Warfare; Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Founders Day (Kappa Alpa Order Convivium)

Harlan Ellison Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Henry of Uppsala (Christian; Saint)

Lomer (Christian; Saint)

Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum (Christian; Martyrs)

Mark of Ephesus (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Natlisgeba (Orthodox Epiphany; Georgia)

Paul Cézanne (Artology)

Pontianus of Spoleto (Christian; Saint)

Procrastination Day Tomorrow (Pastafarian)

Skip Squawk (Muppetism)

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (Artology)

Theocrats of Japan (Positivist; Saint)

Theophany  (a.k.a. ... 

Denho (Syriac Christian; Saint)

Epiphany (Eastern and Oriental Orthodox)

Great Blessing of the Waters (Eastern Orthodox)

Natlisgeba (Georgia)

Sure Tsnund (Armenian Apostolic Church)

Timket (a.k.a. Timkat, Coptic Epiphany; Eritrea, Ethiopia)

Thor’s Blot (Pagan)

Vodici (Baptism of Jesus; North Macedonia)

Water Blessing Festival (Bulgaria)

Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 19 [8 of 72]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 3 of 60)

Premieres

Avenue 5 (TV Series; 2020)

Bright Eyes, by Art Garfunkel (Song; 1979)

Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, by Camille Saint-Saëns (Cello Concerto; 1873)

Chicken in the Rough (Disney Cartoon; 1951)

Donnie Darko (Film; 2001)

48 Hours (TV News Show; 1988)

Fowl Brawl (Phantasies Cartoon; 1947)

From Dusk Till Dawn (Film; 1996)

Homeward Bound, by Simon & Garfunkel (Song; 1966)

How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, by Bad Religion (Album; 1982)

Il Trovatore ('The Troubadour'), by Giuseppe Verdi (Opera; 1853)

I Was a Teenage Thumb (WB MM Cartoon; 1963)

The Juliet Letters, by Elvis Costello (Album; 1993)

Mickey’s Man Friday (Disney Cartoon; 1935)

The Millionaire (TV Series; 1955)

Mr. And Mrs. Is the Name (WB MM Cartoon; 1935)

Operation: Rabbit (WB LT Cartoon; 1952)

Op, Pop, Wham and Bop (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1966)

Out of the Woods, by Taylor Swift (Song; 2016)

Searching For Sugar Man (Documentary Film; 2012)

Shakespearean Spinach (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1940)

The Shoemaker and the Elves (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1935)

Sick Transit (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1966)

Sock-a-Bye, Baby (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1934)

So Dear to My Heart (Film; 1949)

Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith (Noel; 1950)

Tremors (Film; 1990)

Vacation with Play (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1951)

Woman of the Year (Film; 1942)

Today’s Name Days

Agritius, Marius, Martha, Pia (Austria)

Ljiljana, Makarije, Mario, Marta (Croatia)

Doubravka (Czech Republic)

Pontianus (Denmark)

Enn, Enno, Eno, Heigo, Heik, Heiki, Heiko, Heino, Hendrik, Henn, Henno, Henri, Henrik (Estonia)

Heikki, Henna, Henni, Henri, Henriikka, Henrik, Henrikki (Finland)

Marius (France)

Mario, Martha, Pia (Germany)

Efrasia, Makarios (Greece)

Márió, Sára (Hungary)

Liberata, Mario (Italy)

Alnis, Andulis (Latvia)

Gedvilė, Marijus, Morta, Raivedys (Lithuania)

Margunn, Marius (Norway)

Andrzej, Bernard, Erwin, Erwina, Eufemia, Henryk, Kanut, Mariusz, Marta, Matylda, Mechtylda, Pia, Racimir, Sara (Poland)

Macarie (Romania)

Lidia, Maria (Russia)

Drahomíra (Slovakia)

Arsenio, Mario (Spain)

Henrik (Sweden)

Bob, Bobbi, Bobbie, Bobby, Robbie, Robert, Roberta, Roberto, Robin, Robinson, Robyn (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 19 of 2024; 347 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 3 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 25 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Yi-Chou), Day 9 (Ren-Wu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 9 Shevat 5784

Islamic: 8 Rajab 1445

J Cal: 19 White; Fiveday [19 of 30]

Julian: 6 January 2024

Moon: 68%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 19 Moses (1st Month) [Theocrats of Japan]

Runic Half Month: Peorth (Womb, Dice Cup) [Day 10 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 30 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 29 of 31)

[kaifishfish]

Updates: Mar - Oct 2023

Mar - Premiere of Cat Broccoli Bed Hammer. One week in Warsaw for "Change Now" (Erasmus exchange programme) discussing change in theatre education institutions. Apr - Workshop Workshop, a 2-day workshop about workshopping. Short online performance for a digital pitching session for Cat Broccoli Bed Hammer. May - Hamburg Lollipop Club has a small performance during a concert of the Hamburg band Aulyla. (Immense thanks to Hannah Grosch who made it happen.) Jun - Hamburg Lollipop Club offers open training at Jupiter (hosted by Kanal3 Kollektiv) and at Werkstatt, Gröninger Hof. Jul - Hamburg Lollipop Club offers open training and workshops at Werkstatt, Gröninger Hof. I work with Annika Ditzer on Random Caterpillar Fights Capitalism (upcoming project), thanks to K3 helping us with space. Aug - 2-week residency "zwischen__räumen // między__miejscami" at Materia, in Lodz. Supported by Materia (Lodz) and ITI Studio 2 (Berlin). Created the 42-minute performance Concert for Disappointed Athletes. Performed Lolli and her Worries at Jupiter, hosted by Kanal3 Kollektiv. Taught a choreographic workshop at Zukunft Tanzt Festival in Frankfurt. Sep - 4-week residency at the Centre de Création O Vertigo (CCOV) in Montreal, part of an exchange programme with K3. During this residency, I did No More Solos, a workshop and performance format that included the creation of a small solo, a workshop with local artists, and a 40min performance by myself and local artists. Oct - Hamburg Lollipop Club offers workshops and open training at the circus Abrax Kadabrax. I travel to Lodz to give a presentation at the conference, "Ecologies of care in performing arts," part of the zwischen__räumen // między__miejscami programme.

[jacquievandegeer]

She’ s late/ A circus show

She's late - A Circus Show is a theatrical adventure with Nien Tzu Weng and Camille Lacelle-Wilsey also known as the Double Fantasy collective. The public is welcome to walk in and out the room of La Chapelle from 18.30 on wards until the pause at 20.00. It is a wonderful invitation  to visit the universe of Double Fantasy.

Nien Tzu and Camille exhibit their performative structures, a colorful and imaginative world where they perform random actions in an exciting installation on the stage of La Chapelle. We, the audience witness their actions, we are having the freedom to have a chat with each other and we can even enjoy a drink, the atmosphere is chatty and intimate while the installation on stage is in a constant transformation. At 20.00 the ’official’  performance begins, we are invited to watch an experimental circus, in which the performers are linking the ideas of physical performance, exploring impossible tasks, leading us through a circus parcours that often leaves us in laughter! Nien Tzu Weng and Camille Lacelle-Wilsey become soft clowns: they are very welcoming and highly amusing, on top of that they guide us into the joy of experiencing moments of complete absurdity. A giant orange balloon is one of the circus acts that stands out. The performances are often vulnerable and at the same time hilarious. Another highlight is Nien Tzu climbing up while Camille has a duet with a water filled red balloon. If you like absurdity and surprise, you will love this experience!

Camille Lacelle-Wilsey is a contemporary dance artist originally from Tiohtià:ke/Montreal and newly based in the Eastern Townships. After graduating from Concordia University with a BFA in contemporary dance, she continued her choreographic research, focusing on interference, transformation and sudden change of state. Nien Tzu Weng is a Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary dance artist and lighting designer based in Tio'tia:ke-Montreal. She aims to build bridges between disciplines, pursuing an experimental approach to contemporary performance, and a laboratory based approach to lighting design. As both choreographer and lighting designer, Weng is curious about the relationship between movement and new media practices, and plays with the balance between reality and fantasy.

Performers + Creators Collectif Double Fantasy Costume Designer Marie-Audrey Jacques Sound Designer Dae Courtney Light Designer Jon Cleveland Set Design Étienne Plante Technical Director Darah Miah Artistic coach Sylvie Tourangeau Supported by Danse-Cité + Conseil des Arts du Canada + Conseil des Arts de Montréal + RURART - art contemporain en milieu rural + CASJB - Centre des arts de la scène Jean-Besré + LA SERRE - arts vivants + Ranch Cheval de Soie + LOL Festival

She’ s late/ A circus show - La Chapelle, Montreal, 15, 17, 18 march.

Photo’s Maroushka

[skillstopallmedia]

Esencial Review | Three small turns are not enough

Montreal loves the circus, we know that. The public is amateur. Better, the public is connoisseur. He has seen the growth of companies that shine internationally, regularly attends the circus festival and is proud to see students from all over the world trained here. Posted at 12:00 p.m. Knowing this, one may be surprised to see that La Tohu has opened its doors to a spectacle as pale…

[montrealrampage]

Montreal Events and Festivals in July for 2018

Montreal Events and Festivals in July for 2018

Jardins Gamelin

May 17 to September 30 2018

Jardins Gamelin

The park and its cultural and citizen-driven activities is one of the nicest spots to chill in the city. Open every day with something happening most of the time, be certain to find out more HERE.

Piknic Electronik

Sundays, Through September 2018

Parc Jean Drapeau

DJs from around the world perform for the Sunday crowds who want to bliss…

[kendallmade]

Sabrina is in my bedroom wearing a Dress by Kendall Made Visit my Etsy shop -- link is in my profile #steampunk #circus #handmade #kendallmade #rave #burningman #queer #queerfashion #alternativefashion #festival #festivalfashion #montreal #upcycle #upcycledfashion #costume #burningmanfashion #festivalwear #festivallife #burnerfashion #montrealdesigner #creativemontreal #ravefashion #burnerstyle #etsysellersofinstagram #canadiandesigner #playastyle #ravewear #montrealfashion #altfashion #etsyfinds https://www.instagram.com/p/B6JQ-OugKhT/?igshid=1vvxfm5yyz57x

[spotev]

Do you remember this?! 🤔🤓 . . . #Montreal #quebec #canada #spotev #culture #events #music #museum #theatre #shows #dance #art #film #circus #festivals #lovers #montrealmoments #montrealart #375MTL #canada150 #love #montrealstreet #mymontreal #spotevMTL #spotevMoments #summer2017 #mural #muralart (at Vieux-Port de Montréal)

[yz]

Head like a ball. Montreal Circus Festival. July 2024.

Shot with Fujifilm X-T50 and XF-23mm lens.

[rock-and-roll-hell]

July 24, 1977

Love Gun Tour

Pacific Coliseum - Vancouver, British Columbia

According to the promoter, "The cops heard of KIϟϟ' so-called reputation and they ordered four squads to the show. They played poker all night and billed us $8,000 for overtime" (Montreal Gazette, 8/2/77).

From a local review: "Hype? Not really. KIϟϟ promise nothing less than the greatest spectacle in rock and nothing less is exactly what they provide. From that it is easy for the unaware parent or pundit to mistake KIϟϟ for a threat to our civilized way of life. But understand this, KIϟϟ are not self-pitying, humorless nihilists like the punk rockers. If anything, they are a fantasy for an age that has seen just about everything. Of course they appeal to the escapist stripe. It would be fun to stand seven feet tall, spit fire, deafen everyone within a 1,000 yard radius and make a million bucks doing it" (Vancouver Sun, 7/25/77).

From another local review: "The KIϟϟ concert Sunday night was better than the fireworks display the Sea Festival holds annually. The Coliseum took on all the aspects of kid's day at the PNE's Playland with harried parents leading offspring by the hand up into the stands, plopping their plump selves down into the same seats they had at The Ice Capades or The Shriner Circus, and stopping up their ears with cotton... KIϟϟ was perfunctory as you please, well rehearsed, but musically deadening and the sound from the press box was, as usual, muddy except when Ace Frehley took off into one of his solos. Frehley appeared to be bored, or tired, or sick, or drunk, or all four, while batman, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley did their best to whip up a surprisingly complacent audience which eventually succumbed and went nuts when the hits and the gimmickry got into gear" (Georgia Straight, 7/28/77).

[skippyv20]

Rose gardens around the world

PRINCESS GRACE ROSE GARDEN, MONACO

Few visitors notice this pretty, perfumed park tucked away in the residential Fontvielle district, but it provides those who do stray with a peaceful experience. It stands as a memorial to the Oscar-winning American actress who became a princess.

     Sheltered by palm and olive trees and studded with sculptures, the garden showcases 300 rose varieties whose QR codes allow you to find out more about them on your mobile phone.

MONTREAL BOTANICAL GARDEN, MONTREAL

There are many reasons to visit one of the world’s best botanical gardens, chief among them the Rose Garden, created for the 1976 Olympic Games. You’ll find 10,000 rose bushes that present the development of roses, up to today’s modern hybrid teas and floribunda varieties.

Where traditional rose gardens are often formal in style, Montreal’s offers a less rigid presentation, with meandering flowerbeds and pathways set among trees and ponds.

ROSETO MUNICIPALE, ROME

This overlooked treasure on the ruin-scattered Aventine Hill near the Circus Maximus has large rose collections that climb over paths and sprawl up hillsides. Varieties are arranged chronologically: follow roses from ancient wild and early Roman and Damascene varieties through to hybrids with sometimes startling colours.

The gardens host guided tours, concerts and theatre productions and an annual rose-breeding competition in May. A summer cocktail bar is popular with locals. 

SAKURA ROSE GARDEN, SAKURA

Though little more than a decade old, this nationally important rose collection 30 minutes from Narita airport outside Tokyo is charmingly old-fashioned and presents heritage rose varieties that far surpass often scentless modern hybrid varieties when it comes to heady fragrance.

The thousand variety of roses include 200 rare species donated by Seizo Suzuki, a world-renowned, twentieth-century rose breeder, and many Japanese, Chinese and other Asian varieties. 

VALBY PARK, COPENHAGEN

The rose garden at this large city park and common features 12,000 roses organised by colour into circular flowerbeds; it has some particularly lovely climbing and miniature rose varieties. Large open spaces and a playground make this one of few rose gardens agreeable to visit with small children in tow.

There’s also a café. The park is at its best in early August, when it hosts a rose show.

ZAKIR HUSSEIN ROSE GARDEN, CHANDIGARH

One of the world’s largest rose gardens, named for an Indian president, sprawls over 30 acres and showcases some 50,000 rose bushes as well as medicinal plants.

It was planted in the early days of this post-independence planned city. An annual rose festival held in late February or early March sees the garden come alive with food stalls, rides and locals vying to become the rose prince and princess. 

PARC DE BAGATELLE, PARIS

This corner of the sprawling Bois de Boulogne is far from just a rose garden, but its roses – mostly hybrid tea roses – are impressive, planted with classical French formality to create floral carpets in repeating patterns near a 1775 chateau.

Rambling roses form scented arbours. A weekend of special rose exhibitions is held every June, and in the same month a Chopin Festival sees music drift amid the blooms.

ROSEDAL DE PALERMO, BUENOS AIRES

Part of a larger park in the posh suburb of Palermo popular at weekends for cycling, jogging and street performers, this rose garden was laid out in 1914 and has a collection of 18,000 roses, seen at their best in October.

Amid the pink blooms – which clash with avenues of purple jacaranda trees – you’ll find a pretty white iron bridge and busts of the world’s most famous writers. 

ELIZABETH PARK ROSE GARDEN, HARTFORD

This Connecticut rose garden is America’s oldest public rose garden and one of the country’s handful of test gardens where hybrids are trialled before being commercially sold.

Though there are some heritage varieties, it’s mostly modern roses on show in the 475 flowerbeds, including tea roses, multi-bloom grandifloras and showy floribundas. The roses are surrounded by lawns, groves and recreation areas. Expect plenty of weekend wedding photography.

QUEEN MARY’S GARDENS, LONDON

Named for the wife of George V and occupying a corner of Regent’s Park, this classical rose garden is centred on a fountain and embraced in a meandering lake spanned by Japanese-style bridges. It’s the largest rose garden in London, with some 85 single-variety beds popping with colour, rivalled by an equally impressive selection of begonias and delphiniums. Climbing roses are looped along ropes in spectacular swathes

https://www.traveller.com.au 

So beautiful....thank you😊❤️❤️❤️❤️

[fantastica-daily]

Richard Elfman on his new bizarro comedy - Aliens, Clowns & Geeks

By Staci Layne Wilson

When it comes to cult science fiction movies, Forbidden Zone stands tall. Richard Elfman's 1980 Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo vehicle was a one-of-a-kind film zooming down on a one-way street to a whacky conclusion that’s stayed in the minds of schlock cinema fans ever since. His latest film, Aliens, Clowns & Geeks is an equally wild and expressionistic indie featuring Austin Powers' Verne Troyer in his last role, promising that Aliens, Clowns & Geeks is the antidote to mainstream and a breakneck cure for the run-of-the-mill.

“I was fortunate to have my dream cast on this one, including Verne Troyer (Mini-Me) as my demonic clown emperor–his final film role,” says Elfman. “Our ninety-minute film has seventy-five minutes of driving music by my brother Danny (Elfman) and acclaimed animation composer, Ego Plum Guerrero. Along with Danny’s to-die-for clown and alien music, Ego added a Latin element with the band we play with, Mambo Demonico.” The score was composed by Danny Elfman, who wrote the theme song to The Simpsons, the music to The Nightmare Before Christmas and did the singing voice of Jack Skellington, and won six Saturn awards.

"Eddy Pine (Bodhi Elfman) is a jaded actor dealing with the cancellation of his series," reads the official synopsis. "To complicate matters, he wakes up with the key to the universe stuck up his ass. Apparently an alien Clown Emperor (Verne Troyer) is in hot pursuit of this, as are his rivals, the Green Aliens. Professor von Scheisenberg (French Stewart) and his comely Swedish assistants, the Svenson sisters (Rebecca Forsythe as Helga, Angeline-Rose Troy as Inga), come to Eddy’s aid. If only Eddy hadn’t fallen for Helga, and then the aliens manipulate his mind to confuse her with Inga! And when the mad little Clown Captain (Martin Klebba) steps on the gas and shifts his spaceship into fourth gear, all hell breaks loose.”

We had the opportunity to sit down with Richard to ask him about his movie.

Q. To what do you attribute your enduring interest in clowns? And why do you think they’re so fascinating to people in general?

As I’ve always said: “To be born a male redhead is to be born into a clown suit.” Hence my carrot-topped brother Danny and I have always had a fascination with clowns. Coupled with our wicked sense of humor and a love of the horror genre, it was an easy morph into thoughts of creepy clowns. Just like dolls and puppets—yes, I’m speaking Anabelle—clowns can have something “surreal” about them.  Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise really nails it. And I laughed my head off at Killer Klowns From Outer Space. (And we have honk-honking shit-load of killer clowns in my new film).

Q. How did the idea for Aliens, Clowns & Geeks come about? Is it similar to The Forbidden Zone?

 Joined-at-the-hip. Yes. And no. Forbidden Zone is basically a surrealistic “human-cartoon” set to musical numbers. So I was working on Forbidden Zone 2, a thematic extension of FZ but on a much grander scale. I did a successful crowd-funder to develop the project, then, with the help of my producers, raised about half the budget. They asked me if we could do something quick (and cheaper) in the interim to keep the momentum going.

So I basically locked myself in my roof-top writing garret with a box of cigars and many bottles of whiskey and banged out my Geeks script over the next three weeks.

Geeks is utterly zany and music-driven, but it’s not a “singing musical” so to speak like FZ. It has surrealistic elements, thanks to my insane special effects department--and a little help from Hieronymus Bosch—but I would describe Geeks having cartoony elements rather than being a total “human cartoon” as FZ was…if that makes any sense. (And please don’t try!)

 Q. Tell us about the multiple roles played by your family – and do you have role as well? What was it like working with your family – any funny stories?

My son Bodhi Elfman—a serious dramatic actor with 100s of credits--did a great comic turn as Eddy, the lead; a bitter out of work actor who wakes up with the key to the universe stuck up his ass. He also played the ass-kissing clown (literally) on the space ship plus the green alien network executive who orders the destruction of Earth. My wife Anastasia played multiple roles, everything from a nun to a carny slut. She also danced and choreographed the cabaret burlesque numbers as well as played a clown…until she got sick from the chemicals inside the clown mask and had to throw up—after we got the shot, of course--committed trouper that she is. When I met Anastasia she was a ballet dancer with a “day job” at a horror fx shop. She can dance with a broken toe but seems to have developed a sensitivity to certain shop chemicals.

I played a clown as well and almost threw up from laughing. I must say Geeks was a fun show to work on (my greatest joy is creating a sense of fun) and the actors and crew had serious trouble keeping from laughing as I directed in insane clown attire. What a fucking visual!

And brother Danny—what can I say? As an independent (hence lower budget) film maker it helps when your little brother in Mozart.

Q. Tell us how you ran away and joined the circus.

Actually, The Grande Magic Circus--a French musical theatre company. 1971, I was twenty-one, visiting the Festival of New Theatre in Montreal. I ran into a scruffy Parisian street troupe. They had something though, a charisma, an élan, whatever-- it attracted me. Director Jérôme Savary needed a percussionist—et voila, that was me! I persuaded them to give me several minutes onstage at the festival doing my comedy/horror piece set to an Eric Satie’s Gnossienne. When I “killed” the pianist in a pool of blood the audience was shocked. And they loved it!

Then, back in California, I went to see Marcel Carne’s masterpiece Les Enfant de Paradise , a three hour film set in the Paris theatre scene of the 1830’s. I exited the theatre, stopped, turned around and went back in and saw it again.

A few months later I received a letter from Jerome. Peter Brook, famed director of London’s Royal Shakespeare Company was backing the Magic Circus in a large Paris theatre. Would I like to join them? Bloody hell!! Hence, I ran away and joined the “circus.”

Q. Tell us something about your time with the Magic Circus, how it influenced you and also how your brother Danny Elfman joined the show.

I might say that working with Jérôme Savary was perhaps my single greatest influence. The troupe had classically trained actors from the Comedie Francais as well as more Avant guard performers. Jerome was a genius, his material had a sense of Absurdism that really struck me. I would later develop this absurdism in my own fashion. Certainly with my own troupe, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (later Oingo Boingo). By the way, my film Forbidden Zone was essentially our Mystic Knights stage show set to film.

Danny—several days out of high school--showed up at my 5ème, Rue Descartes doorstep with his electric violin. The company violinist was from the Paris Opera. Jerome liked to improvise. The opera guy couldn’t deviate one note from the written score. I believe my brother is Mozart reincarnated. He could follow any improvisation and got the job and toured with us for the summer throughout France. He and I opened the show with him on violin, me on percussion—the first music Danny Elfman ever wrote.

Q. Any other interesting experiences that you and Danny had there?

We were in a Basque town near the Spanish border. If I may digress, I am four years Danny’s senior. I went to a high school in Crenshaw (Boyz in the Hood), Danny ended up at a school with no guns. I was a tough boxer. Danny might be described as a bespectacled science nerd. So it’s Friday night, the audience was really rowdy and restless. My “street sense” knew it was just a matter of time before the fights broke out. We had an Argentine fellow in the troupe, “Katshurro,” nicest fellow. Drunks in the audience picked up on his accent and shouted terrible Spanish insults about his mother. Katshurro stopped mid-performance, his eyes bugging out of head, and he dove right into the audience swinging away. All hell broke loose. Everyone was fighting, sets crashing down. Danny’s glasses got knocked off. Well, and not for the first time, I managed to get Danny out of trouble with both his glasses and violin intact.

Q. Tell us about the cast you assembled – which includes Verne Troyer in his final screen performance. What was he like? Who does he play in the film?

I really had my dream cast. Along with my son Bodhi we had lovely kung-fu kicking Rebecca Forsythe, versatile Angeline-Rose Troy who not only played Rebecca’s sexy Swedish sister, but donned prosthetics to play poor Eddy’s junkie/whore “Mom from Hell.”

Professor von Scheisenberg was played impeccable veteran French Stewart (Third Rock From the Sun). Another great vet was George Wendt (Cheers) as Father Mahoney. Six foot six comic Steve Agee (Sarah Silverman Show, Guardians of the Galaxy) played both a tough cross-dressing bar owner and a stuttering dufis in a chicken suit. Nic Novicki (Boardwalk Empire) played his nasty little-person boss. I was really blessed with a great ensemble to work with.

And, of course, Verne Troyer, our megalomaniac Clown Emperor. What a wonderful talent to work with! He was funny on set, insisted on doing things in spite of physical limitations and he gave us hilarious comic improvisations. Little body. Big spirit. I will certainly miss him.

Q. The music is by Danny and you also have great animation… please give us some details what it’s like to create worlds through music and manufactured imagery.

Danny, along with my band mate--award winning animation composer Ego Plum (Guerrero)—really gave it to us. Seventy-five minutes of music in a ninety-minute film. ♪ ♫ La, tee-da and a boom boom boom! ♪ ♫  Music is essential to everything I do—especially setting the tone of my films. I even play music before I start writing.

As soon as Danny saw our surrealistic Bosch dream sequence and goofy clown rocket ships he agreed to do the score…after he stopped laughing. I play percussion in a quirky Latin band, Mambo Demonico, led by Hollywood’s top tv animation composer, Ego Plum. He and Danny work with the same people, including Oingo Boingo lead guitarist Steve Bartek, who subsequently has done every one of Danny’s film arrangements. Steve and the original Oingo Boingo members all played on our sound track. I must brag that we do have great fucking music!

You know, Danny was a bespectacled science nerd growing up, basically stayed out of trouble. That was my department. Oddly, he wasn’t really into music. No bands, no concerts, no big music collection. Life is funny how things turned out. I showed him a rough cut of Geeks, he laughed his ass off and offered to do it. Yes, I’m very lucky to have “Mozart” as my little brother!

Q. Who is Aliens, Clowns & Geeks for? Do you think movies like this are more likely to find a mainstream audience?

Forbidden Zone may be a “cult” movie but it still plays all over the world--after forty years. Just this past month FZ played festivals in France and South Korea. Geeks is certainly not for everyone—no one falls in love then dies of cancer. But it will find an audience I am sure. Anyone who had fun with Killer Klowns From Outer Space, liked Rocky Horror, even What We Do in the Shadows in terms of a quirky, wicked sense of humor. I also think it will play well in mental asylums…it certainly shall send people there in any case.

Geeks doesn’t fit into the scheme of “modern films.” Actually, the shooting style and underlying three-act story structure harkens back to classic comedies (says the son of a former English teacher turned novelist). The trappings though, are insane and off-the-wall. You might say it’s just my own, goony creation. Love it or hate it, the humor is balls-out outrageous, definitely not for everyone--no one dies of cancer. Geeks is simply meant to be fun for essentially the genre audience.

Q. What’s your proudest moment associated with making the film?

Proudest moment? Maybe finally paying the actors. People say I’ve embraced the indie spirit. I don’t know how much I “embrace” it, so much as am fucked by it, having to work on such a modest budget. Although I’ve been a “hired gun” and directed scripts written by others, Geeks is really the first time since my 1980 Forbidden Zone that I’ve really done purely my own vision. Per John Waters, well, I’d hope he’d have something strong to drink and/or smoke and then laugh his ass off watching it! That’s what it was like creating the film: Drinking scotch and smoking cigars in my rooftop writing garret, laughing my ass off! The green aliens have a totally high-tech ship, except for the automotive steering wheel and four-on-the-floor to shift gears. For the clowns we went for an absurdly updated version of Flash Gordon. And when our tiny clown emperor takes possession of an earth body, he has little dummy of the earthling sitting in his lap, their heads connected by electrical wires. Absurd and ridiculous, and that’s my middle name.

Want to see a double feature of The Forbidden Zone and Aliens, Clowns & Geeks? You can! They will play at The Regency in L.A. as part of The Valley Film Festival on 1/30/21. Get tickets here.

Look for our review of Aliens, Clowns & Geeks here soon!

[elizadoolittlethings]

Graves is a prime example of the coda “action is character.”

Rupert Graves as Harold Guppy in Philip Doodhue’s Intimate Relations. Photo by Sally Miles. Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures. [x]

Rupert Graves  by

Nicole Burdette

BOMB 61Fall 1997

full interview

[MORE]

Whether he’s sucking on hard candy, contemplating suicide, or limping slightly in boots two sizes too big, Rupert Graves is ever graceful. At once a mixture of the violent and the poetic, Graves’ film characters are compared to the kings of the tortured handsome, Montgomery Clift and John Keats. It’s an odd and wonderful thing to spend the afternoon with a stranger speaking of the near obscurity and perfection of Robert Donat, Che Guevara’s hands, and what exactly it is to be brave.

Graves is a prime example of the coda “action is character.” He, like all great actors, is highly physical. We can see his characters—literally we recognize them. In Intimate Relations, Rupert as Harold Guppy clings to Julie Walters, feeding himself sugar cubes like a child. In Mrs. Dalloway, his Septimus Warren Smith stumbles through life; again, literally and emotionally. It is all the way Rupert Graves turns his characters inside out, so what you see is what you get. He manages to become Virginia Woolf’s subconscious—he materializes the description of his character, Septimus: “…with hazel eyes which had that look of apprehension in them which makes complete strangers apprehensive too.” Graves has five films coming out this fall: Mrs. Dalloway with Vanessa Redgrave, Different For Girls, The Revengers’ Comedies with Kristen Scott Thomas and Helena Bonham Carter, Bent, and Intimate Relations with Julie Walters, for which Graves was awarded the Best Actor Award at the 1996 Montreal Film Festival. But that is just this year, his other credits include extensive work on British television and other films: Louis Malle’s Damage, Nick Hytner’s The Madness Of King George; and Merchant Ivory’s Maurice and A Room With A View. In addition to his film work, Graves has consistently worked on the London stage, where he is returning this fall to do Hurly Burly.

Nicole Burdette Now, how did you grow up?

Rupert Graves I grew up in a little English town in a poor-ish family. I went to a comprehensive school which is the same as public school here, I think. My father was a bit posher than my mum, who was a working-class girl from Wales. He’s a pianist.

NB How did they meet?

RG My mum used to sing in amateur shows. They met at a choral society that my dad used to conduct. She saw him, and she can’t have thought, “What a beauty,” so it must have been, “What a genius,” because she loved the music.

NB Were you musical as a kid?

RG No, no. I was brought up quite religiously Catholic and was a choir boy and an acolyte. I used to sing, but it’s a horrible sound.

NB I read that you were in the circus.

RG Yes, I joined when I was 15. I had just left school.

NB How did that idea come to you?

RG It didn’t. It came through the city employment bureau. I knew a girl whose mum used to work there—it was a small town I come from—and she knew I liked acting. And so when the circus came into town and their clown disappeared, I became a trainee. A trainee clown through the job center.

NB Were you a good clown?

RG No, not really.

NB Could you do flips and jump off high things and do daredevil stuff?

RG I didn’t jump. I did slackwire. Do you know slackwire?

NB Tightrope?

RG It’s lower than most tightropes and it’s not tight. It’s very loose, about 15 feet high, and it’s harder to do. It’s like walking across a chain.

NB And you were good at it?

RG I was a clown. I would practice in the ring during the performances, and everyone would laugh because I fell off—but I was actually seriously trying to get across.

NB I ask because I got to see three of your movies in one week, and I noticed that in each one you have a different walk. Your body changed completely. But it wasn’t like method acting where one, say, gains fifty pounds and obviously one’s walk changes. With you it’s subtle. There are an actor’s usual bag of tricks—beards, haircuts, accents… Yet, in all three movies your voice, your haircut are all intact, but you are completely unrecognizable—that’s quite an accomplishment. You don’t rely on the visual—you actually act, imagine that!

RG You do have to understand what your part is, and it’s difficult to intellectualize that. But you can feel it and you know it the moment you see it. It’s accessing some part of your own. I’m completely uneducated, untrained, as an actor, but I do have a fundamental belief that one is capable of pretty much anything. That’s a first principle: One is anything. So I kind of feel that I’ve got George Bush and Che Guevara in me.

NB I’ve been thinking about Che Guevara, just so you know.

RG Are you into The Motorcycle Diaries? They’re great. Guevara went around South America and up to Mexico on this terrible old Enfield motorbike with this other doctor, they were specializing in leprosy. And you know, Castro has Guevara’s hands in his house. They found his body in Bolivia just in the last few months, and it’s gone home to Cuba. But it was handless. The story goes Guevara’s hands were sent to Castro to prove it was him, and Castro kept them. Anyway, that gets back to “One is anything.”

NB So that’s your theory for acting?

RG I think you access different parts of the brain. It’s slightly different for different things. For example, for Intimate Relations I wore shoes that were two sizes too big. I wanted to feel clumsy.

NB I read that in explaining your role (Harold Guppy in Intimate Relations) you said, “I think it’s dangerous as an actor to ever judge a character as stupid.” It seemed to me, watching you in the film, that you played against Harold’s violent tendencies—constantly trying to play down his destiny. You are so powerful at this that even though we can see this story (based on a true murder case) turning dark and darker, we still are hoping that tea and sympathy will win out for Harold—which of course it doesn’t. How did you create such a layered portrait of a possibly less layered person?

RG My starting point with Harold was a lack of will. What happens when your will is taken from you, when you become quite suggestible? It’s not that he’s very innocent. I don’t think he’s an innocent person, but I do think he was institutionalized and his will was taken. He had this blood-sugar problem and when the levels went down he would get violent; but he hadn’t really done anything, it was just a behavioral problem. So I imagine from an early age he didn’t have much love or comfort. Nobody would want to hug a child who would head-butt you. His mum threw him out because she couldn’t cope with it. So he’s been in this kid’s prison—not like a home, a prison for bad children.

NB A reform school.

RG Yeah.

Rupert Graves and Steven Mackintosh in Richard Spence’s Different for Girls. Photos by Luis Lazo. Courtesy of First Look Pictures. image not loading :(

NB What was it like working with Julie Walters in the film?

RG Fan-fucking-tastic. She’s a genius. She’s a very working class girl, and she used to work as a nurse and now owns a hog farm down in the south of England. But anyway, she’s a really lovely lady, deeply, all the way from her toes to her head, and she has a great facility at getting the saucy aspects of people. She’s kind of naughty, so mischievous. At the time of Intimate Relations, I had been doing a lot of work and I was getting a tiny bit cynical as an affectation. I thought the more films you did, the more you had to pretend it was boring. And I kind of started to believe it. But she came along and she was like this gremlin, a little troll living under the bridge. Any cynicism that comes over the bridge, she’ll get it. It’s so infectious. She completely gave me my love for doing stuff back.

NB She gave it back to you?

RG Well, only by example, because she’s no time for any of that cynicism.

NB Would you say she’s your favorite person to work with so far?

RG Yeah. She’s great. She really is, she’s so lovely. That’s my Julie Walters rant.

NB If you were for example—and this is hypothetical, obviously—given you as a character, you the man, not the actor, how would you prepare? What qualities would you consider important to examine under the surface?

RG God knows. I’d look at the environment of myself.

NB Which is?

RG Which is London theatricality. Psychologically I would look into background, and try and determine what he was missing or wasn’t missing.

NB Would you want to play you? Would it be interesting?

RG I don’t know. Everyone is interesting in their own funny way.

NB What I noticed in these three characters, and this really sounds corny, but you seem to love these people. It’s old fashioned, to love your characters; Michael Redgrave, the sort of actors I really love, they loved their characters. Did you ever see The Browning Version?Michael Redgrave plays this really tortured, almost bad person, but you can tell Redgrave loves this man and it is the most bizarre thing to watch because he loves this person who is ruining everything. You also give your characters the benefit of the doubt, and you give them nobility. Is that something that just comes to you?

RG I find it difficult playing a part that I don’t have any empathy with at all.

NB Is there such a part?

RG Well, I played a Nazi in Bent. It was a very, very small part but I researched like fuck, because I couldn’t understand. I couldn’t get my head round what it meant to be a Nazi. Here’s a guy taking Jews and homosexuals in the trains to Dachau, the camps. They were just brutal. How do you get to that place? So I researched, what does Nazism mean to Germany, and what state was Germany in that a leader like that could take them in? Not all Germans were bad, but a collected evil gathered speed. And when I played that character, I realized that for him it was just efficiency, that this was the practical thing to do. And somewhere in my soul I had to find something that could understand that.

NB If you were to play Richard III, which you very well might do in your lifetime, what then? That’s pure evil, from beginning to end. Would that be the ultimate challenge?

RG Certainly, with Richard III, there’s an awful lot more context and more individual motivations and desires. Rather than just here’s a nasty guy who’s killing somebody, whacking them up and beating them. The part’s so damn small in Bent, there’s not much actually in there. Whereas Richard III is very articulate about what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. You’ve got to have a reason to be the character. I like mess. That’s why people become so intellectual, because it’s all a damn mess.

I did a funny thing the other day. I’ve got a friend in England who’s an actor and he bought a new house in the countryside, right on the foot of this steep hill which is made of slate and flint, so the ground is really hard. It’s got this path which is almost vertical coming down and which is covered by trees so there is no moon at night. We went to the top and got absolutely stoned out of our faces—and it’s darn hard getting up there, and if you fall the flints can rip you open—and then he said, “Come on, we’ve got to go back, we’ve got to be really careful.” And I said, “No, let’s just run. Let’s just close our eyes and run down this path as fast as we can. Just trust that we can do it.” He said, “No, no, no,” and I said, “Come on.” We were all right, but it was just this moment of going, “Waaa!” into this sheet, which was quite dangerous. I know it’s quite a mild story really, but I’m not really given to wild things.

NB You’re not?

RG No, normally I’m not. But it’s an interesting thing to me, to just trust it. To just go with the message that if you fall over and you cut your hand you’re not going to die. If you cut your fucking hand, so what? Be brave. It’s like in Mrs. Dalloway — the young clerk who says, “Take the plunge.”

NB Are you brave?

RG I can be, and I can be hugely cowardly. But if I’m deeply pissed off or deeply offended I can be brave.

NB Sometimes it’s the opposite with people. When they’re relaxed they can be brave, and when they’re upset that’s when they find that they’re cowardly.

RG That’s true of me too. Maybe I was being disingenuous there.

NB No, I think you’re better off if you’re brave when you’re angry.

RG Yeah, but now I don’t know if that’s true.

NB It’s complex. But you have some braveness in you.

RG Yeah, some. I break things. I’m a good breaker of things.

NB Do you feel better?

RG No, because I only break my things, which pisses me off. Sometimes, I think I do it because I get tongue tied. When I was a kid I used to have a bad stammer, it’s probably one of the reasons I went into acting, because I had to go to elocution lessons to get over going, “Uh-uh-uh.”

NB And that’s how you got into acting?

RG Do you know an actor called Robert Donat?

NB Oh my God! One of my favorites.

RG What strikes me about him is a kind of grace.

NB The Winslow Boy.

RG Isn’t that the most beautiful portrayal of any character ever?

NB That’s what I was trying to explain to you about the love of the character, and that is the most beautiful…

RG His mood is so moving. You can watch him doing Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Thirty-Nine Steps… He has such deep grace. Even The Winslow Boy, that is such a hard part. But there’s this absolute nobility, and it’s not to do with class, but with human nobility.

NB It’s so funny that you bring up that actor. As I was watching your movies I was thinking: Robert Donat. That’s my favorite era of films, English films of the ’30s and ’40s, and you hearken back to that.

RG He was my hero. I’ve always thought, if I could tune into that, if I could take whatever that man was taking, I’d be a happy boy.

NB But that’s a different legacy. It’s just a different kind of acting.

RG Yeah, it is. I did a very bad film called Damage, which Louis Malle directed. And Louis Malle, who was a lovely man and has made some great films, was always going on about grace. You know, (imitating a French accent) “Rupert, there is something of a big grace in you, something that is very beautiful.” But at other times he’d say, “You can’t do acting, forget it!” I looked at his old films and you can see that sensibility, that grace, in some of his really early films.

NB Absolutely, he had a wonderful sense of grace.

RG It’s an overworked word now, grace.

NB No, it’s not. It’s an underworked word.

RG Is it? I’ll fight you for it. (laughter)

NB Let’s get back to Robert Donat. It’s very important.

RG It is, because it’s like having a bag full of nudie magazines in England. You can’t refer to him, because it’s old-fashioned.

NB But old-fashioned is where it’s at.

RG But England is very admiring of American, brash acting.

NB If you could play anybody, or a couple of people, who would it be? This is not an acting question. For instance, I asked a jazz musician what he would be, and he said, Abraham Lincoln, Bobby Fischer, the chess player, and Seymour Glass, a Salinger character.

RG I would like to play Caligula, in Camus’ version. Do you know the Camus version?

NB No.

RG It’s interesting. It’s not a great play, but you can do it if you open it up. You have to really put a bomb under that thing. There’s a lot of existentialist “yadda-yadda-yadda.” It’s about corruption, I suppose, the corruption of a soul.

NB And who else?

RG That’s it. I’d like to play a great sports person. With a kind of absolute grace and ease. (laughter)

NB If you were to come back as an inanimate object, what would you be? You have to say what came to your mind instantly.

RG A stone.

NB A stone? Why a stone?

RG I don’t know, you said whatever came into my head. I don’t know why I said a stone…

NB What does it look like?

RG It’s smooth…

NB What color?

RG I don’t know, do you need me to define it?

NB Yeah.

RG A large pebble.

NB A large pebble. What color?

RG It’s a bit blondish, kind of ash colored, beech-wood color.

NB And where was it, was it alone?

RG It was on a dusty road. On a road with smaller little pebbles around, but it was…

NB You knew that was you?

RG Yeah.

Rupert Graves as Septimus Warren Smith in Marleen Gorris’ Mrs. Dalloway. Photo by Roberta Parkin. Courtesy of First Look Pictures. pic not loading :(

NB What about your work in the theater?

RG I’ve never trained at all. I mean, I did things like ‘Tis Pity, She’s a Whore at the National Theatre in The Olivier when I was 21. Which is a fucking hard play to do. It’s a lovely, hard play, but it’s a really tricky one. And I really fucked up on that. I didn’t know about Jacobean drama, I didn’t know how to speak. I don’t know if you’ve been to The Olivier in London, but it’s massive, an open theater in the round. It’s huge, like three thousand people, and I just ran down this corridor onto the stage and thought, “Ahhh…,” and forgot my lines. I wanted to say, “Come back in five years.”

NB And then what happened?

RG I fell over. I started shaking and then fell over. I got the first word, and then I just stood up and shrieked. (shrieking) I did the play like that.

NB But you got through it?

RG I got through it, but…

NB What did your other actors think? Were they mad?

RG They were just like, “Rupert, what are you doing? Hello!!??”

NB Well, there comes the bravery thing again. That was brave at least.

RG No, that was ignorant, that wasn’t brave. Brave is different, brave is trying to push as many different things, take risks, being open.

NB Playing Septimus in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, what was that like?

RG It was great. I read the script and I didn’t know what the hell it was about. Septimus suffers from a lot of abstracted neuroses, and I needed to find out what that was about. I went to speak to a lady at the Hospital for Psychological Disease. She worked with people who were in the Gulf War and had post-traumatic stress. But it didn’t really help, in that I knew you could be brave with shell shock or post-traumatic stress disorders, it’s not an internal thing. PTSD is actually a physical manifestation. So I wasn’t lacking in confidence, but I didn’t understand what the dialogue meant, things like, “The birds, they’re speaking in Greek to me.” So I looked at everything that Virginia Woolf wrote. Her letters, and biography, and I realized that a lot of her personal trauma had been put into her male characters. That kind of threw me a bit, as she’s acknowledged as a feminine, or feminist writer.

NB As a female writer I do it all the time.

RG But interestingly, I do it as a male. When I used to write songs, and I still do write sometimes, I often have a female character, and put my truth into a female. Woolf puts it into male characters. Things that Septimus says connect very directly to things in Woolf’s life. For example, “The birds are speaking Greek to me.” She was abused when she was a girl during Greek lessons. And when she had a breakdown when she was older she used to hear Greek birds talking to her, or birds talking in Greek. Finding out about those pieces of her life gave me the emotional plane to work on. So it didn’t have to just be, you know, jabber.

NB Actors rarely realize that the playwright or the writer is in all of the characters.

RG Yeah, the most honest stuff and her most personal stuff went into her male characters. Because Septimus is the other side of what Mrs. Dalloway would have been if she’d taken the plunge, like what she said she should have done when she was 17…

NB And married Peter? He would have been the brave choice.

RG Yeah. She took the easy route and married Dalloway. And the day in which the story takes place is her looking back, and thinking, “Am I where I had hoped to be when I was seventeen? Was I brave, or did I do the easy thing?”

NB How do you relate to that? In your life?

RG I don’t know, I’ve never had a plan. I mean, I wanted to act and I’ve done that. And I’ve gotten better as I’ve gotten older, so I’m progressing. I don’t feel I’m getting worse. Sometimes I do, sometimes I think my experience has overcome my naiveté and my naiveté is interesting in a certain way. Do you know what I mean?

NB Yes, I do.

RG You want to know what you’re gaining and what you’re losing, don’t you? Every time you take a step somewhere. That’s what I do anyway. Maybe that’s why running down the hill was so important, because normally I’m looking at stuff pretty carefully. And sometimes you just need something like that. And you can do that onstage sometimes, you can just dive—Bang! it might be into a nest of snakes or it might be a lovely work. It’s essential. I did one play which I loved doing. And the reviews came out, and I’d meet people after the play, and it was like the embodiment of everything that I’ve wanted to do with acting. It was really intense. They were going, “That was the most fucking intense thing. I never had that feeling before.” And then the reviews came out saying, “What a crock of shit.” And in one way it seemed like people were saying, “Oh, I’m so sorry about the reviews.” I was saying, “No, honestly, I don’t know what’s happened, but it’s just fantastic. People love it. People fucking love it.” You would go through the bar, and people were actually shaking sometimes, and that was so wild. It was the wildest thing I’d ever seen.

NB Sure, and the opposite happens too.

RG Yeah, absolutely, all the time. Unnervingly often, too often.

Nicole Burdette is a writer and an actress based in New York. This fall her short stories will appear in Jane magazine and the QPB Literary Review; as an actress she appears in the upcoming Digging to China directed by Timothy Hutton.

source:  bombmagazine [x]