LAMP FOLLOWERS

There are reports that the recent West End launch of the Disney musical 'Aladdin' was broadly welcomed by critics, with a number suggesting it shows "panto has come early this year".

Well… it ain’t a panto, is it?

However, the review in one leading newspaper begged to differ, stating, "…little registers emotionally…"…

Wherever possible, in my scripts, I try to inject some pathos into characters such as the Dame. It is a quality of an experience that stirs up emotions of pity, sympathy and sorrow. Pathos can be expressed through words, pictures or even with gestures of the body. Haven’t I said that you’ve got to play the character? So, you ego-trippers need to add a third dimension to your portrayals.

The same review stated that the show… “barely rises above the generic…”

If by “generic”, the critic meant, “Lacking imagination or individuality; predictable and unoriginal”, then… wow! But then of course, this is the Mickey Mouse outfit!

A  CLOTHES CALL (1)

My regular reader will know that I am not keen on actors who do a ‘paint-by-numbers’ makeup job when playing a dame in pantomime. Nor am I fan of outrageous costumes which most likely take months and a mound of moolah to make, for just the one laugh. These are two dimensional dames, we never believe it's a real person... not for one second.

I have also referred to pantomime costumes, the like of which have never been worn by anyone since before Methuselah was a lad!

It occurred to me that I might do the occasional post about costumes, and so here goes with the Chinese policemen (or women) from ‘Aladdin’. Numero uno.in a series of... who knows?

             
The  costumes illustrated above show the kind of garb I am not keen on. I have obliterated the faces so that nobody need feel badly done by. Yes, I know it’s all a matter of taste, but I reckon I have the freedom to offer an alternative. After all, each one of these is different from the next. "Broad-minded is just another way of saying a fellow is too lazy to form an opinion." (Will Rogers - "The Cowboy Philosopher")

For me, number one and number two are far too fussy. I don't like the checks with the stripes, and the guy in number two looks somewhat overwhelmed by the outfit. Number three looks more like a prison uniform, and number four has the addition of what I presume to be the local football club's team colours, in some sort of scarf attachment... heigh-ho!

My solution (illustrated left) aims for simplicity and comfort. It's a good old-fashioned union suit, which would require the addition of large silver buttons, boots (clown shoes might look good), and a helmet. Flashing police helmets are available, but you will require some means of controlling the light, perhaps just for entrances and exits, and maybe when one or the other gets annoyed or flummoxed.

Add epaulets, and two breast pockets (which needn't be practical), with buttons. Self-cover buttons would be the cheapest. They are available in large sizes, and being made from bright metal, they would pick up the light. What you do is attach them without any covers.You could experiment with a stiff collar and a bow tie. 

I accept that there is no Chinese aspect, but if you didn't know about the costumes illustrated above, would you associate them with the Orient? Keeping the costume simple and easy to wear gives the actor more freedom to act. He or she needs to think about affecting a way of walking, an appropriate stance, and other ways of establishing a character. With this approach, the costume doesn't get in the way.

A red nose, a walrus moustache, exaggerated eyebrows or the Harry Langdon look (see right), with white makeup, heavily outlined eyes, and thin lips,might add the finishing touches. Use contrasting makeup for the two characters.

“Character is an important aspect to the clown. Much more important than the makeup and costume. Anyone can dress as a clown, but it takes a special person to have a character.” (Clown Education Online)

“Perhaps my definition of comedy is at odds with current trends, but I just believe that to gain the sympathy of the audience for your character, you have to maintain a sense of reality, no matter how fantastical the situation becomes.” (Kenneth Williams quoted in - ‘Carry On Laughing’ Adrian Rigelsford: Virgin Books 1996)

“…in my impersonations, for example, I seriously study the person I wish to imitate and rehearse the impersonation many times in the serious vein, before I even attempt to give it a humorous twist. Then I try to insert the humour while still in the character of the person I am portraying. Thus, the basis of actuality is given to the impersonation." (Comedian Willie Howard, regarded as one of the giants of American Vaudeville.)

LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

When I have a session surfing the net…, wearing my Bermuda shorts, sleek silicone swim cap, and natty nose clip... of course, I often go off on tangents from tangents… they can’t touch you for it! Well, to cut up a long story sideways… earlier today I came across the website ‘Instructables’ (instructables.com), which describes itself as “specialising in user-created and uploaded do-it-yourself projects,”

It’s got gazillions of good ideas for purposeful pantomime people, including a castle stage set, a recipe for theatrical slosh, costumes, wigs, a genie on a flying carpet, and a skirt that lights up… fantastic for fairies…

Small amateur dramatic societies won’t be able to use hologram effects that the professional are including in their shows. Most likely they won’t be able to use scenic trucks, or fly in flats, and Shetland ponies are not likely to be pulling Cinderella’s coach. However small effects such as the day to night-light skirt could look quite good on your stage, providing of course it is presented with panache. Effects are only a means to an end, and they should not overshadow the acting, singing or dancing.

Light up skirts are available to buy, via eBay, but it’s mush more fun making your own, isn’t it?

The Glow Company (glow.co.uk) in Doncaster has a host of “practical, fun and innovative products that glow, flash, shine or glow in the dark”, including “one-size fits most”, Flashing Police Helmets with an elasticated chin strap, which feature their very own flashing blue light, and a “Mystical Lantern with a twinkling light”.

I have no connection with any of the company’s mentioned, 

''RIGHT... '', SAID FRED*

I watched the TriStar Pictures 1992 production ‘Chaplin’ again, the other night. Early in the film, Sydney Chaplin (played by Paul Rhys), who was a member of Fred Karno’s London Comedians, introduces his younger half-brother, Charlie (played by Robert Downey Jr.), to ‘The Governor’, as Fred Karno (played by John Thaw) was known. Karno says to the fledgling comedian, “You know what comedy is? It’s knowing who you are and where you come from. And… it’s got to be perfection.” Wise words.

Fred Karno was born Frederick John Westcott, in Exeter in 1866, but soon afterwards the family moved to Nottingham, where he grew up.

He began his stage career as an acrobat, and then joined a touring circus where he was required to work with other acts, including the clowns. From them he learned the skills of physical comedy and slapstick, which were to become his trademark. 

From these early beginnings he went on to become one of the greatest impresarios of the music hall age, with troupes touring all over the world. 

He turned a row of houses in Camberwell into his ‘Fun Factory’ from where an army of writers, scenery builders, props makers, etc. operated. He branched out into theatre management and produced pantomimes and reviews as well as his sketches, of which he had over eighty in his repertoire.

The great Stan Laurel was also a member of ‘Fred Karno’s Army’, and he once said, “Fred Karno didn’t teach Charlie and me all we know about comedy, he just taught us most of it. Above all he taught us to be supple and precise.”

Comedy and precision! It sounds like a contradiction of terms, does it not? Aye, there’s the rub!

Budding comedians, take note. If Fred Karno and Stan Laurel say that comedy is about precision, then that is what it’s about. And if you watch Stanley at work you will see that every action and every reaction is very precise. In my book, he’s the best that ever was, or ever will be.

Apparently, Karno also preached that laughs came when the performer didn't know what was going to happen to him but the audience did. Now there’s food for thought… and action.

“Every routine is reduced to its basic components, all the better to 'sell' the gags, both visual and spoken.” Review of Laurel and Hardy’s ‘Way Out West’ – Internet Movie Database

* The title of a song which was a Top Ten hit for Bernard Cribbins in 1962

HAPPY NEW YEAR...
to all or reader!

To spice up the season, here's a novelty number entitled 'GIT UP OFF'N THAT FLOOR HANNAH!' ('A Bitter New Year's Eve'), written by Red Ingle, Joe ‘Country’ Washburne, and Foster Carling.

It is a pastiche of an American folk ballad, ‘Fair Charlotte’ (or ‘Young Charlotte’), which is based on a poem by one Seba Smith, first published in 1843 under the title ‘A Corpse Going To A Ball’, which has its origins in an incident recounted in an 1840 ‘New York Observer’ article.

Ernest Jansen "Red" Ingle (1906 - 1965) was an American violinist, saxophonist, singer, songwriter, arranger, cartoonist and caricaturist.

In his late teens, he was touring with jazz legends Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer.

After he failed an eye test for the Air Force, he joined 'Spike Jones & His City Slickers', where his talent for comedy came to the fore. An example appears in Paramount's 1945 film  'Bring on the Girls' (youtu.be/y02l0ZZht1U), where he spoofs the vaudeville song, 'Chloe'.

In November 1946, following a salary dispute, Ingle  branched out on his own, and the next year, he made 'Tim Tayshun', a spoof recording of the then-popular Perry Como hit, 'Temptation', with Jo Stafford (using the name 'Cinderella G. Stump'). The single went on to sell three million copies, and a new band... 'Red Ingle and the Natural Seven'... came into being. Their hits included 'Moe Zart's Turkey Trot' (based on Mozart's 'Rondo Alla Turca'), and the classic, 'Cigareetes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women'.

The Mudcat Café  (http://mudcat.org) has more information on 'Get Up Off'n That Floor Hannah' It is a very useful site for information about folk songs, comic songs and parodies.

This version is by a Strine band.

HAMLET

ye Pantomime

By the pricking of my thumbs, something wacky this way comes. Yes, it’s ‘Hamlet ye Pantomime’…the show they said couldn’t be done, shouldn’t be done… and most likely won’t be done! 

Bill the Bard’s biggie has been given a good going-over by this son of York. That it should come to this! Spoofing Shakespeare? O, what men dare do!

Yes, I know I have mentioned certain texts that should be untouchable as it were… a recent film version of ‘Peter Pan’ has been panned… so is this an about turn then? No, it’s about putting the lid on it. One can but live in hope? All men, I hope, live so.

Hamlet is just your basic boy-meets-ghost, with bodkins, fardels, slings and arrows added for good measure, but this version is a silly, slapstick saga of Scandinavian skulduggery… a quirky, perky pastiche of probably the most puzzling play on the planet. It’s very much an ensemble show with something for everybody… even the audience.

Here’s more matter for a May morning… or an evening any time throughout the year… this script could be performed as part of a regular drama season, even by societies who don’t present an annual pantomime. It does you good to let your hair down once in a while… providing you can still see where you’re going of course!

See – www.gwizzpromotions.co.uk – for details. I double dare you!

Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t... and I ain't talkin' Stanislavski!

TRY... TRY... AGAIN

It appears that Rugby Yawnion fans are up in arms about the World Cup theme music, sung by a certain Paloma Faith (Who she? Ed.).

Opinion is hinting that the songstress has drawn a blank, as it were… Una Paloma Blanca? Hotcha… hotcha… hotcha!

I gave it a listen for a few seconds, and it came across as pretentious, tuneless screaming… so what’s new in popular music?

However, Faith has shrugged off the criticism, saying: "I mean I'm quite pleased with it, so that's all that matters really.”

Well… no it doesn’t actually…  as all you amateur Thespians out there know, because you pay attention to what the class acts have to say about performing, don’t you?

We did work – and worked extremely hard at our routines – so that the final result appeared effortless, and the audience appeared merely to be eavesdropping on us having a good time.' Ernie Wise

 If you're a comic you have to be nice. The audience has to like you. Fanny Brice

I'm honest with my audiences. I never fool them… the public has learned that I will be there with every ounce of entertainment I can give. I respect my public. May Irwin

Entertainment is about people, on both sides of the footlights – performers and their audience. Al Read

A joke makes people laugh. An entertainer performs for people. The audience is supreme.

Gene Perrett

Let a fellow try to outsmart his audience and he misses. Stan Laurel

An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark… that is critical genius. Billy Wilder