Pat Cashin's CLOWNALLEY.NET: 9/27/09

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

JAMES: Better, Stronger, Faster

Word is that Pootie McDiapermuffin here is doing
extremely well and may be headed home tomorrow.

MOZ'ART

Moz'ART

We exist despite the sober formality of great concert halls, despite the boredom of classical musicians' life, despite fanatic lovers of classical music, despite fans of rock, rap or pop who are afraid of classical music. We treat our Muse with a humorous irony and we're sure, she will have nothing against it!"

The names that make the moz'ART Group are: Filip Jaslar - first violin; Michał Sikorski - second violin; Paweł Kowaluk - viola; Bolek Błaszczyk - cello. They are all well educated instrumentalists who graduated from prestigious Academies of Music in Warsaw and Łódz, but they decided to play classical music in a humorous way. They created a worldwide unique musical cabaret, where the music, not the words are the source of joy and laugh.

Take a classical composition as canvas, analyze its structure and theme, surround it with musical associations, brilliant, unbelievable ideas and while listening to the final product the listener is constantly surprised, amazed, laughing and moved to tears.

The musicians of the Moz'ART GROUP have been playing together since 1995. At the beginning, they presented short musical jokes on Canal Plus Television. They gave their first debut in 1997 at the PAKA - competition of young Polish cabarets in Krakow. In the same year, they presented their first cabaret program entitled "Mozart's Still Alive" and since then, they have given concerts in Poland, Japan, China, the United States, Belgium, France and Switzerland.

The Moz'ART GROUP is a frequent guest on Polish television including international galas and concerts. The Quartet received prestigious prizes like the Grand Prix of the XVIII Festival of Satire and Comedy in Lidzbark; "Pingwin z brazu" (the Bronze Penguin) - the prize given by the cabaret community of Zielona Gora, an informal capitol of Polish cabaret. The Moz'AR Group performes together with the world-famous comic mime from Poland, Irek Krosny.

One of the most important performances was a concert with Bobby McFerrin at the Congress Concert Hall in Warsaw.

Another show of the Group, in which they took Vivaldi as their patron, was entitled "The Four Seasons à la Moz'ART GROUP". Similar subtitle has their latest CD "Creatures" where each of the "seasons" begins the same as Vivaldi's compositions. Later on, however, it runs freely in the direction of various world songs about spring, summer, autumn and winter. This show provides the listener with over 70 minutes of a sophisticated, perfectly arranged, sublime fun!

Please visit their website at mozartgroup.org.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

PETE GEIST: Television Commercial

My friend Pete Geist in a Baltimore area television commercial from 1998/99.

Monday, October 05, 2009

TOMAS KUBINEK: Italian Television Interview

Maestro Kubinek is one of my very favorite contemporary clowns. If you the opportunity to see his show, don't miss it.

JAMES: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

James will be spending today under a UV light to combat the jaundice that was giving him a George Hamiltonian-level orange tan. The news of his condition was greatly offset by the joy that his new headgear (and possible super-powered crimefighting career) has given us.

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power... James Cashin's light!

'Nuff said.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

JAMES: And Now, The Photo You've All Been Waiting For...

GINO FRANKINI

HENRY AYALA: Hungarian State Circus, Budapest

JAMES: The Scar

I'm trying to convince Terry to let me tattoo the words "THUG LIFE" around the scar, just to give James a little street cred should he ever decide on a career in gansta rapper.

"This? It's nothing! You should see what I did to the other 12 guys!"

Saturday, October 03, 2009

JAMES: Getting Better

"There's not

a word yet,

for old friends

who've just met..."

IN MEMORIAM: Ben Williams

Our deepest condolences go out today to Buckles and Barbara Woodcock and family on the passing of Ben Williams. Like Evel, Gunther, Charley and Elvin, Ben was one of the real-life superheroes of my childhood.

He was loved and admired both as a person and as a performer.

He will be very sorely missed.

LORENZO PISONI: Humor Abuse (Philadelphia Theater Company)

True, poignant tale of a child circus performer

By Howard Shapiro
Inquirer Theater Critic

To understand the power of the stage, all you need do is get to the Suzanne Roberts Theatre to see the talented, endearing Lorenzo Pisoni in Humor Abuse, his one-man master stroke about growing up a clown.

It's about pratfalls and popping out of steam trunks, about tumbling repeatedly down a flight of 15 stairs, and juggling fiberglass bowling pins that rip your skin, about balancing hats on your nose or abruptly flipping yourself backward. And even with all that tomfoolery, Humor Abuse emerges as the most poignant piece I've seen in some time.

Pisoni - 32, tall and kinetic, with movie-set good looks and a smile that doesn't flash as much as radiate - has won every kind of Off-Broadway award for Humor Abuse, which he developed with director Erica Schmidt. It played last season at the Manhattan Theatre Club and opened the Philadelphia Theatre Company season Wednesday night.

The one-act is the true story of Pisoni's life as a circus child with circus parents, the founders in 1975 of San Francisco's Pickle Family Circus. An original clown of that troupe - credited with renewing an American circus tradition and influencing Cirque du Soliel - was Bill Irwin, now a treasured theater artist (twice on Philadelphia Theatre Company's stage), and also Pisoni's godfather.

For 25 years until he stopped performing, Pisoni's father, Larry, remained a silent clown whose self-imposed demands in the service of humor broke bones all over his body. As his son tells it, the elder Pisoni nearly killed himself for laughs.

That's one form of the humor abuse referred to in the show's title. The other is more ironic, and a little unsettling. From Pisoni's infancy, his father saw him as a circus performer. The boy made his debut when he was 2 years old. A heart-tugging moment comes early in the show when Pisoni strikes a performance pose; the exact same image of a preschool Pisoni appears on a tattered white sheet that serves as a stage-rear curtain, behind him.

And so it went for little Lorenzo. At age 6, he signed an actual contract to become his dad's partner. By age 11, he was touring the country and Japan with his own act, no parent in sight. Ever wonder what it's like to be "the other" - someone who grew into a world completely different from yours? This show answers the question by presenting the experiences of one of "the others."

Humor Abuse is bittersweet - but never bitter to the point of complaint or sweet to the point of cloying. You could call it Lorenzo Pisoni's tribute to his dad - one that looks deep to reveal an almost shocking intensity about laughter.

"I can't do it!" little Lorenzo cries after trying and failing to learn a stunt. "You can't do it . . . yet," his father replies.

Well, he can do it now - all of it. The routines that pepper the show are deft; is tripping over his feet merely an alternative way for Pisoni to walk? (It apparently was for his dad.)

Pisoni is funny, fluid, and fully in the moment when he's clowning. But the real impact of Humor Abuse comes when he returns, repeatedly, to play himself, the boy who increasingly wants the opposite of what other kids want - to run away from the circus.

He finally does that, landing in high school, then graduating from college, and embracing a broader kind of performance: He was memorable in last season's Broadway revival of Equus and is a current regular on TV's All My Children. The grass may seem greener outside the circus ring, but Pisoni is his father's son. His heart is open in Humor Abuse, and you can almost hear the ringmaster calling to its beat.

HUMOR ABUSE
starring Lorenzo Pisoni
created by Lorenzo Pisoni & Erica Schmidt
directed by Erica Schmidt
September 25 - October 25, 2009

Please click here for ticket information

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL: First Clown Performance In Space

The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft carrying cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA flight engineer Jeffrey Williams, and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté maneuvered to a smooth docking with the International Space Station early Friday to close out a two-day orbital chase.

With Suraev and Williams closely monitoring the final stages of the automated rendezvous, the small capsule's docking mechanism engaged its counterpart at the aft port of the Zvezda command module at 4:35 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft sailed high above northeast Kazakhstan. Hooks and latches then engaged to pull the Soyuz firmly into place.

After leak checks, hatches between the two spacecraft were opened at 6:57 a.m., allowing Suraev, Williams and Laliberté, wearing a red clown nose, to float into the space station.

They were welcomed aboard by outgoing commander Gennady Padalka, NASA flight engineer Michael Barratt, cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, and NASA astronaut Nicole Stott.

"It's good to see you all, looking very good," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden called from mission control near Moscow.

"Hello Charlie, yeah, we had a great trip up here and we're happy to be on board, with good company," Williams replied.

"Well Jeff, Max and Guy, just want to let you all know we enjoyed a superb launch" on Wednesday, Bolden said. "Your families behaved well, they laughed all the way back from Baikonur to Moscow. You all should rest well and know they're being taken care of."

Suraev's father then congratulated his son on his first spaceflight, saying "all of us here are very happy that so far the mission is very successful...All the best to you, son, please do a good job there."

Laliberté, once again putting on his clown nose, told his family he was enjoying the trip and feeling "pretty good, actually. I'm adapting pretty good." Then he joked, "But I am staying six months, though."

A Canadian worth an estimated $2.5 billion, Laliberté is believed to have paid the Russians around $35 million to visit the space station as a tourist.

Suraev and Williams are replacing Padalka and Barratt, who plan to return to Earth with Laliberté on October 11. De Winne will take over as European Space Agency first commander in Padalka's place.

"We've had a fabulous time up here, the station is in great shape and really well supplied," Barratt said. "We're just really impressed that everything has worked so far with a couple of shuttles, the (Japanese) HTV (cargo ship), and everything worked on that thing. It was a beautiful spaceship and we're really lucky to have such visitations up here and a lot of firsts. So we're ready to come home, but it's been a great time."

"You guys enjoy all your time together this week," Gerstenmaier said. "Take good care of (the) space station."

JAMES: Tubes Removed, Breathing On His Own

James just had his breathing tubes removed and is breathing on his own.

All of his vitals are excellent!

Friday, October 02, 2009

JAMES: Has Opened His Eyes!

James opened his eyes for the first time at 9:57 PM to look around at Shane and I and thank everyone, everywhere for the prayers, well wishes and extremely positive energy sent his way from all over the world today.

Thank you.

JAMES: Resting Comfortably

James, a mass of tubes and wires, actually looks far better than what they had prepared us for. He is back in his private room, with an excellent nurse, and resting comfortably.

Mother is doing fine. Brother is doing fine.

Daddy needs a stiff drink and a nap.

JAMES: Still Waiting

He's been out of surgery for about an hour now but we haven't had the chance to see him yet.

Here's a picture from just before he left. This is Shane holding James for the very first time.

JAMES: Out of Surgery

James is out of surgery. We just met with Dr. Spray who told us that everything went extremely well and that we can see him again in just a few minutes.

JAMES: In Surgery

James left for surgery about 24 hours after he was born. Dr. Spray, one of (if not THE) very best surgeons in the world for TGA surgery, is performing the operation now.

JAMES: Still Waiting

We're still waiting for James to leave for his surgery. In the meantime he's been sitting next to my macbook, listening to Duke Ellington, Bach, Mozart, Lou Reed and Raymond Scott as we watched Sesame Street with the TV's sound off.

The above photo is James watching his very first Looney Tune cartoon, Porky and Daffy in "Baby Bottleneck", directed by Bob Clampett.

JAMES: Still Awaiting Surgery

James is still awaiting surgery. We were told late last night that he'd go first today, and would leave between 6:30 and 7:00 AM, but he's been moved to the second surgery and should be leaving here shortly.

He's all set and ready to go. He's got his very stylish powder blue knit cap and matching "wubby" set and Shane has already read him his very first book, The Cat in the Hat, and explained to him, with helpful visual aids (drawings, Lego sculpture and coloring book pages) the importance of Spiderman.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

JAMES: Good Night and May God Bless

James Roane Cashin was baptized this evening at 9:37 in his room in the ICU.

On behalf of Terry and Shane, I would like to very sincerely thank all of the friends and family around the country and around the world for sending their prayers and support today and in helping to welcome James into the world in such a special fashion.

James has been cleared for open heart surgery tomorrow morning at 7:00 to correct his transposition of the great arteries and to repair the catheterization he underwent this afternoon. If all goes right, the surgery should last no more than three hours.

It's been a long day.

I am now playing James the first song he's ever heard...

JAMES

James Ray Clark
(June 5, 1956 - December 9, 2008)

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day. ~ The Dalai Lama

James Roane Cashin
October 1, 2009

BABY NEWS: James is Back!

James is back in the ICU. He made it through the heart catheterization procedure with flying colors... most importantly, pink! He's sedated and resting comfortably.

His eyes were taped shut and, with his nose being smooshed up from his breathing tube, he reminds me of the people in the "Eye Of the Beholder" episode of The Twilight Zone...

JAMES ROANE CASHIN

A lot of drama.

Things are pretty scary. James is undergoing an emergency procedure and they are opening up his chest and catheterizing his heart.

They had a problem getting a tube down his throat that caused his vitals to drop, which sent an alarm throughout the entire ICU and brought about 50 various medical professionals into his room in the blink of an eye.