HORSING AROUND

The Wiere Brothers… Harry (Born Berlin 1906-1992), Herbert (Born Vienna 1908-1999), and Sylvester (Born Prague 1909-1970)… appeared as live performers from the 1920s to the late 1960s, and in films from the 1930s to the 1960s, including ‘Double Trouble’ (1967), with Elvis Presley.

In 1962, the threesome made their way into television on their own series called “Oh, Those Bells!” which aired on CBS, and contained slapstick comedy.

They continued to perform up until the 1970s, however following Sylvester’s death in July 1970, the remaining two brothers, Harry and Herbert, discontinued their act.

Forget the dancing, it would take too long to get to that standard, but there are some marvy moves that you might use from the pantomime horse bit, which starts at 1 minute 4 seconds into the video ... providing you practice of course.

Forget the dancing, it would take too long to get to that standard, but there are some marvy moves that you might use from the pantomime horse bit, which starts at 1 minute 4 seconds into the video ... providing you practice of course.

ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE…

Here is some information from the website of a small amateur drama group based in one of the southern counties… but then, where I live, most counties are in the south, so that’s not giving much away, is it? To further preserve the anonymity, let’s call them the 'Pastope Players'. It was apropos their forthcoming pantomime production, and it appears here exactly as writ... warts and all.

There may not be parts for everyone, but as you know it is our usual approach to try to fit most volunteers into the production, by re-writing the script or as appropriate.

The are many parts that are there to fill, from treading the boardwalk, (be it to act or sing), help with backstage work from sorting props, designing, building and painting scenery as well as 'on the night' help with scene changing, lighting and sound, to the dressing room to help with make-up and costume design. Everyones role is as important as the other, It is all part of being invloved in a production.

I remember “Under the Boardwalk”, but "treading the boardwalk"? Oh, dear!

Of course people are perfectly free to join amateur dramatic and/or amateur operatic societies, and put on pantomimes. Let’s just be grateful they don’t take up architecture, or surgery, otherwise the graveyards would be full of unfortunate individuals who received inadequate medical attention after having had a building fall on them.

They include a quote from a review of their previous production, which appeared in a local rag…

… a funny script with so many local and topical references – just what panto should be.

Well… no! Panto should be well-acted, well-sung, well-danced, well-staged, well-dressed, well-lit, etc. with a decent cup of tea or coffee during the interval.

Why do I persist? Here’s a quote from Harrison Ford, speaking about his early clashes with film directors/producers indifferent to performance standards… “From the beginning I believed that staying the course was what counted. I outlast the bastards. The sheer process of attrition wears the others down. That was my belief then. It still is now.” ‘The Sporting  World’ (Lynam and Teasdale) BBC Books. 1994

I am not against amateurs by the way. Over the years, I have been in quite a number of shows with some very talented amateurs, and I have also appeared in productions with professionals who acted more off stage than they did on.

EXIT STAGE LEFT…

A quote from Will Rogers: "He (Texas Jack Jnr.) had a little Wild West aggregation that visited the camps and did a tremendous business. I did some roping and riding, and Jack, who was one of the smartest showmen I ever knew, took a great interest in me. It was he who gave me the idea for my original stage act with my pony. I learned a lot about the show business from him. He could do a bum act with a rope that an ordinary man couldn't get away with, and make the audience think it was great, so I used to study him by the hour, and from him I learned the great secret of the show business – knowing when to get off. It's the fellow who knows when to quit that the audience wants more of."

The youngest of eight children, Will Rogers was born in 1879 at the family ranch in Oologah, Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma). His first real job was in the livestock business in Argentina. He transported pack animals across the South Atlantic from Buenos Aires to South Africa for use in the Boer War (1899-1902), and it was there that he joined ‘Texas Jack's Wild West Show’, where he drew upon his expertise with horse and lasso. Returning to America, he brought his talents to vaudeville, and by 1917 was a Ziegfeld Follies star.

Roger’s cracker-barrel philosophy; folksy humour, and pithy comments about the government appealed to the average American citizen.

He starred in 71 films and several Broadway productions. In 1934, he was voted the most popular male actor in Hollywood. His career broadened beyond the realm of show business. He became a prominent radio broadcaster and political commentator, and wrote 4,000 syndicated columns and six books.

Tragically, in 1935, his life was cut short at the age of 55, when he died in the Arctic crash of a plane piloted by the world-renowned, one-eyed pioneer aviator, Wiley Post (in which Post died as well).

Texas Jack (Jnr.) c.1860-1905, was the adopted son of frontier scout, actor and cowboy, Texas Jack Omohundro, who in 1872, appeared with "Buffalo Bill" Cody in one of the original Wild West Shows, in Chicago.

LET THOSE THAT PLAY YOUR CLOWNS…

Robert L. Mills writing about a sketch he wrote for Bob Hope and George Gobel, who plays a Polish American Football player…

"Since I know not a word of Polish, while writing the dialog, I came up with what I thought sounded like passable phrases. George, being the consummate pro he was, didn’t make up his own gibberish but memorized mine! That’s the ultimate example of an actor’s faithfulness to the written word. Would that they were all like that."

Hear, hear!

Perhaps you have heard of Bob Hope, but George Gobel is not as well-known. He was born in Chicago in 1919, and started in show business at the age of eleven, singing on radio as ‘Little George Gobel’. Later, he became ‘Lonesome George’, guitarist and singer of cowboy ballads. From 1954 to 1960 he starred in NBC’s ‘The George Gobel Show’, for which he won an Emmy in 1955.

His films include, ‘The Birds and the Bees’ (1956), and ‘I Married a Woman’ - with Diana Dors! (1958)

He died at the age of 71, in 1991.

Here is George Gobel on the ‘Liberace Show’, singing with the ‘chromium-plated’ pianist, and Trisha Noble. It’s a good number, which I think I will try and work into a pantomime.

MAKING THE BEST OF A BADDIE JOB

Via this blog, I try to offer assistance to people presenting pantomimes, whether they are using one of my scripts or not. Also, whenever I send letter to a group that has decided to produce one of my pantos, I conclude the communication with… “If you require any further help or information, please do not hesitate to contact me.”

Well, someone took me up on that recently, and it was for a non-pantomime presentation as part of their company’s season. They asked if I knew where they could obtain the villain’s ident music that was played on the piano over silent films. It’s the one that goes… “Dah-dah-dah-dah-daaah-ra-ta-ta-ta.

I had a reference for it on – freesfx.co.uk – where it is listed as ‘Cartoon piano riff – sneaky sounding’, but it ends rather abruptly.

Then I remembered that I had it on an LP entitled, ‘Music from the Silent Films’, played by one Mike Napoli. When I found the dusty disc in a cupboard full of vinyl, I discovered there are no sleeve notes, and the record label simply lists the track as ‘The Villain Theme’. However (CUE FANFARE) a Google search, ‘Villain Theme’ brought up the website – soundandthefoley.com/2013/04/04/villains- theme – which solves the mystery.

It’s available on – amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001GITW8G/ref=oss_product

Always glad to be of assistance, or as the French say… knobblyknees oblige.

HANDS UP

English pantomime owes its origins to Commedia dell’arte, presented by travelling players in 16^th century Italy. It was a very physical type of theatre that used dance, music, tumbling, acrobatics, and buffoonery (good word!).

Commedia gave us the term slapstick, which comes from the "batacchio", or "bataccio", a flexible pair of paddles fastened together with a spacer at one end. It was literally a stick for slapping. Actors could strike a blow to a person with a loud clapping sound but without causing any physical damage. Of course, as Sir Isaac Newton so accurately put it, “To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction… “ So, the actor being whacked, must react accordingly, to punch the gag.

In the 17^th century, the Commedia characters Arlecchino (Harlequin), Columbina (Columbine), Pedrolino (Pierrot), Pantalone (Pantaloon) and Clown, found their way into the English harlequinade. The great Joseph Grimaldi expanded the role of Clown, and the rest, as they say, is hysterical.

However, the most famous character to emerge from Commedia dell’arte, at least as far as those of us based in Blighty are concerned, is Pulcinella, whose name was anglicised to Punchinello, and then abbreviated to Punch.

On the 9^th of May 1662, Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary, that he enjoyed "...an Italian puppet play that is within the rayles there, which is very pretty, the best that ever I saw..." So, Mr. Punch, the prince of puppets, the manifestation of the Lord of Misrule, and Trickster figures of deep-rooted mythologies, has survived for over 350 years, despite the invention of the cinema, television, computer games, and political correctness. Long may he continue!

Which brings me to The Muppets, who have carried on the tradition of both slapstick and Mr. Punch. My regular reader will know of my affection and admiration for these premier puppet performers and their style of humour. Way back in June 2011, when I started this blog, I referred to a journalist who reviewed my version of ‘Ali Baba’, and  described it as “… infectious anarchy… “ I was as chuffed as the aforementioned Mr. Punch. I hadn’t deliberately set out to achieve that result, it just came out in the wash... so to speak. There were probably quite a few influences that brought me to that point… the Marx Brothers, the Goons, Frank Randle, Mad Magazine, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Black Adder, and most assuredly The Muppets. However, from then on, I decided that if I thought it was funny, it could go into a pantomime.

I came across some quotes from the English-born James Bobin who directed the 2011 film, ‘The Muppets’. He says…

“They are so strong as characters, so fantastic. All we need to do is be true to what they were originally true to."

“It was just still nice to know that there was something still left out there that kids could find funny without adult humour that adults could find funny too.”

And, from a review of the film on the GIZMODO  website…

“It would be easy to ruin the Muppets: Just make them modern.”

“‘The Muppets’ is very much, an island out of place in time.”

“But while it makes nods to the present day, it doesn't use our time as a plot mechanism.“

I couldn’t have put it better… and I’ve been putting it for some time about pantomime!

If you want to learn how to do pantomime, you could do a lot worse that look at The Muppets. 

Here's some Muppet mayhem and merriment. Sucre bleu!

GIANT STEPS

Presenting the pantomime ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ creates two major problems for amateur groups, particularly those with limited resources, performing in church halls and the like. The first is that just prior to the interval Jack must start to climb the beanstalk, waving to everyone, as he sets off on his quest.

Short of using a rope ladder or something similar, which would of course, need to be very securely fixed to a strong anchor point above the stage, this can be achieved by means of a small step ladder hidden behind a fence, or a ground row of foliage etc. Just two or three feet elevation, accompanied by dramatic music, is sufficient to set up the second half of the show.

The other problem is the Giant, which need only make a brief appearance, but the big guy must be mobile, and even attempt a brief sword fight with Jack.

Reclining atop a shelf of books in my office, wearing only a pair of combat boots, is an Action Man figure, which has been there for quite some time. Please don’t get the wrong idea, because I acquired it from a charity shop to serve as a scale model that I could dress up as the Giant from said pantomime. I would then photograph it, and along with some construction ideas, make my efforts available to groups who decided to use my script.

However, now there is no need, as I have come across a crackerjack creation built by one Bald Brain, who describes himself quite correctly, as a designer, inventor and dreamer. Have a look at his website – baldbrain.com

Click on ‘Costumes’ in the column on the left, and go to ‘Page 3’. Under the heading ‘Freakshow Jester Halloween Costume 2010’, you will find illustrations of the original sketches, the design process, and the finished costume, plus a video, presenting a pièce de résistance.

The end product is a humdinger design that looks so easy to wear, and manoeuvre. I reckon that with the variations of an appropriate head and costume, it could be a jolly keen giant.

Since BB has published pictures of the production stages, and states “… I've got some how-to's for Halloween costumes and haunted house props.” He obviously has no objections to amateur groups copying the basic design. I checked with him via e-mail, just to be sure, and he gave his approval.

Maybe the metalwork might prove a touch tricky, but perhaps plastic tubing, or willow withies, could  do the job just as well.

There is certainly ample inspiration provided by the building sequence, and demonstration of the final result.

On the same page as the Jester, under the heading, ‘Oversized Costume Starters’, the follicularly challenged chappy offers “… some quick and easy designs to make shoulder harnesses for oversized costumes,”, and there is another brilliant biggie featured under the heading, ‘Jumbo the Clown Halloween Costume 2008'.

The whole site is an Aladdin’s Cave. Come to think of it… I would like to see his sketches for that setting.