|
What got you interested in the type of stuff you do? I'm overly susceptible to movies. As a kid I saw the movie Houdini with Tony Curtis, and I promptly became a boy magician. In college I saw a Charlie Chaplin film, and I became physical comedian. Your readers will be relieved to know that I've never seen The Boston Strangler. How did you learn magic? I grew up in Miami, a notoriously crime-ridden city then as now. I was taken under the wing of various shady criminal-types who liked to show off their skills at cardsharping and such to a goggle-eyed kid. I became fascinated with the mechanics of deception, which naturally enough led me to a career in show business. Why did you want to be a performer? I was desperate for money, and I couldn't get the job I really wanted, which was to be a bagboy or stock clerk at the local supermarket. Those guys had cars, and girlfriends. The best I could do was magic shows at the birthday parties of hyperkinetic, sugar-crazed children. Unfortunately, I soon learned that girls tended to be repelled by magicians. When I was sixteen my gambler friends offered me a job as a dealer on the cruise boats, but somehow I couldn't see myself as a boy criminal. Instead I tried to find fame by performing at local talent shows. I never won a single one, but I did make it onto The Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour, the American Idol of its day, on which I lost on national TV to a group of four sailors who sang "Blue Moon." After you saw that Chaplin film in college how did you go about learning to do physical comedy? At first I had no idea. I read some books about Charlie Chaplin, but they didn’t help. Then I met a man named Jewel Walker, a world-class mime artist who taught in the world-class drama department at Carnegie Mellon, where I was studying industrial design. I realized that mime was where silent movie comedy had gone, so I attached myself to Jewel like a leech, becoming the sorcerer’s apprentice. Just as I once spent hours learning how to manipulate coins and cards, now I learned how to create illusions and tell stories in movement, thus completely ruining my chances of leading a normal life. Is it just you in your performances? Usually there's an audience as well. In fact, I refuse to go on if I outnumber the audience. I’m very firm about that. You sometime perform with symphonies. Do you play an instrument? I play the buffoon. Symphonies are so desperate to attract audiences that they turn to charlatans like me. By adding visual comedy and silent storytelling, I cheapen the classical experience and make it great fun for everyone except for the conductors, who hate and fear me. What can the audience expect at Comedy in Motion? A lifetime of regret. You often do residencies in town before your performance. What does that entail? I freak people out by strolling through public places in slow motion. I offer bogus stress-management tips to business groups. I visit schools to combat the influence of rational thought. What was it like working with Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp? It was a dream come true. Classic movies inspired me, and I came full circle by adding classic visual comedy to modern films. By the way, I taught Johnny Depp how to roll the coin around his fingers the way he does at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean. He became my magic apprentice while we were working on Benny and Joon. But does he call? Never. Do you think it takes a certain person to be able to pull off the type of performance required for these roles? All it takes is the willingness to endure public ridicule. How often do you come up with new performances? I come up with new ones whenever I'm artistically inspired, or someone offers me money. Which may be the same thing, come to think of it. What other types of places do you perform? I’ve performed in just about every imaginable setting—factories, the streets of London and in mental hospitals. I’ve performed in just about every imaginable setting—factories, the streets of London and in mental hospitals. For the patients, I hasten to add, not as a patient. What makes these different than performing for a huge audience in a theatre? I love performing for hospital patients or old people because they can't run very fast. Large audiences tend to turn into angry mobs of screaming, torch-bearing villagers out for my blood. Have you ever been in any movies yourself? I did cameos in Chaplin and Benny and Joon and played a wooden Indian that came to life in the film Creepshow 2. I also played a small, uncredited role in D.W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation. Wait, wasn’t The Birth of a Nation made in 1915? Don’t quibble. Do you have a favorite performance? The next one. Do you have any suggestions for anyone interested in this type of performing? Seek counseling at once. Back to Dan Kamin's interview with SKSM |