Before Harpo Marx performed it with Lucille Ball on I LOVE LUCY, before he performed it with his brothers in DUCK SOUP, "The Mirror Entree" was a European circus classic. Here it is, in the ring, being done by Les Gotys at Circo Massimo in 2002.
13 comments:
Anonymous
said...
it is a classic indeed: the chickys did it all there career.
the gotys do it witout make up: because they are brothers this works well. now they work as a duo but before they worked as a trio with there father. the oldest son as white face and father as pricipal august and jorge as contre auguste.
they've got more versions of this entree: in one they huse a top hat. offcourse the white face puts in normal on his hat but the august flat en there is some water involved too. sometimes they smoke too. the wf has a cigarette etui the auguste affcourse not goes trough the mirror and takes a cigarette. this entree is to well known to be succesfull enymore. our it has to be performed veeeeeery original.
do you have something of toni alexis?? I think you would like his style in america.
I think the difference in the routine makes it difficult to compare this act & Chickys. The difference in make up sort of hurts the Chicky number, but it is still good.
The only thing I criticize here is the dance at the end of the water bit was a tad long, as a whole this is a great number, and I wholly disagree that it is too well known to be successful, good comedy never wears out. After all how many years have we been asking, "Who's on First:????
I wish Pat had a video Tony Alexis doing the spaghetti gag, it should rank high on the list of the funniest routines ever done.
A little off subject, but while searching celebrity obituaries I ran across one dated March 9th for John Inman, age 71, his best known role was Mr Humphries, on the English Comedy "Are You Being Served"
for the rest they do the entree very well. chicky's also but indeed the make-up of white face and august has less effect then two brothers.
but good comedy never wears out: hmmmm: if you see a joke coming from miles away because you saw it about 25 times the same way is it stil funny for you then??
the same thing with laribles orchestra gag and the opera entree: they are very nice entrees: but he did them soo much and they have been shown on tv soo much that I can say them by heart: the suprise effect is tottaly gone!! and other clowns have taken it over and do it the same way. I saw it once identically performed by 6 different clowns in one season!!! where is te creativity?? it looked as they studied a video of david very very well and copied everything. offcourse the original still stands out: none off them had the charm and style off david.
but when you are suprised and when you don't expect something: you laugh.and that isnt possible anymore when you see the same thing over and over again: or it has to bee wreally strong.
Toni and jeanette in the spaghetti entree is killer material. but also the musical entree is fine.
about john inman from are you being served ( great serie!!!) he died last month. he was a great comic actor and mister humphries stays in the memory off lots off people with the funny walk and costumes. currently the serie is running on belgian tv again till thursday. It's about 11 a clock but I always watch it.
Re: Good comedy wearing out, perhaps I was generalizing too much, I do agree there are some things that you get tired of seeing over & over. I have to admit when I see the orchestra gag, or the movie making bit coming, I do want to get up & leave until it is over. I guess it is up to which entree & who is doing it.
However we sometimes fail to realize, the audience doesn't see the things as many times as we do.
Regarding the Alexis family, I would love to see Johnny recreate the BoBo Barnett routine, when we were together on Krone I wanted him to play, "Peg O My Heart", but could not find sheet music for it. He did a similar solo with "O Mein PaPa", which was great.
wreally nice and also pctures of the past still with their father!!
www.losgotys.com
they did the mirror routine also as white face and august but that changed only a year or five back.
they didnt look that similar untill then. because the august became fatter and also older they started to look more alike. And they use t in their advantage.
they are traditional entreeclowns but they dont wear the wigs, red noses and costumes anymore.
you can see a whole evolution in it: from full wardrobe and make over only the august with make. then even he starts wearing less and less until completly none.
tells us a lot about the evolution off european clowning and the taste of the audience. the traditional circusclown is disapearing in Europe. In knie they didnt have them for a few years ( now les rosyans are there) they had tv actors doing some kinds of reprises. if you didn knew what was going on on suisse tv you couldnt follow the act!!
I dont like that.
the wreally good traditional clowns are getting rare. a pitty.
Often it is the ald acrobat with an injury how does the clowning bit. and he does that without a soul or knowledge of his profession. thats why it is nice thety have a clown college in America!!
And now I'm sure that the current Zippo is neither of the gentlemen you mention, Pat. OK, I mentioned the Mirror Entree without seeing this posting. Must try harder. John Inman died in the early hours of March 8. I read of his death as I ws flying out to Munich to see Circus Krone.
24 hour-man, sir (does that make you a day bill?!?), you've saved me asking you a question. Clearly I did see you in Ostend, Belgium in 1996!
toni does a restaurant entree with his wife jeanette. he is the waiter and she the restaurant visitor. and a lot off funny stuff happens: the waiter serves wine and gets drunk. she wairs a wig and looses it because the waiter is so clumsy, the spaghetti is flying around a lot etc....
every move has to be well timed and he has to be skillfull to juggle the spaghetti.
and also funny: in real life toni doesnt like spaghetti!! he never eats it
John, That must have been when my wife was doing the Tiger Act, I have to say, being with Krone was the high point of both of our careers. The only problem,(in my opinion), "Where do you go after Circus Krone"!
Two things in Tony's spaghetti number, when he sits on the ground wiping each piece of spaghetti with the towel, and puts it bsck on the plate, & the wine bottle between the legs, I laugh till I cry!!!!
Bill - that's what I thought! At the performance I saw, Tony and Jeanette only did the clown act, and not the spaghetti number. Some 3 years ago, I saw them at Den Haag, Holland and they just did the spaghetti. But there had been a 2 hour delay because of a flooded back door, so there were lots of cuts. At present The Alexis Clowns are back with Krone, young Totti doing the run-ins. Where do you go after Krone? Knie!
I saw the spaghetti in the Winter program, in fact I think I saw it every show for the whole month.
Did you know that once when Tony was ill, Claus Lennart,(who in my opinion is Krone's right hand when they are on tour), filled in & they say he was quite good.
At the risk of making this seem like a private conversation (and Pat does have my e-mail address) I certainly didn't know that Claus depped. And from what I've heard of the man, I find it difficult to believe that he even went in to the ring as a clown. Maybe I misjudge the man - whom I've seen but never actually met.
Returning to general conversation, Krone's current ringmaster told me that he felt that the best spaghetti act he'd ever seen was by a guy called Tandarica, who did one season with Roncalli ages ago, although I think that Butch Tovarich saw him way before that.
13 comments:
it is a classic indeed:
the chickys did it all there career.
the gotys do it witout make up: because they are brothers this works well.
now they work as a duo but before they worked as a trio with there father. the oldest son as white face and father as pricipal august and jorge as contre auguste.
they've got more versions of this entree:
in one they huse a top hat. offcourse the white face puts in normal on his hat but the august flat en there is some water involved too. sometimes they smoke too. the wf has a cigarette etui the auguste affcourse not goes trough the mirror and takes a cigarette.
this entree is to well known to be succesfull enymore. our it has to be performed veeeeeery original.
do you have something of toni alexis?? I think you would like his style in america.
I think the difference in the routine makes it difficult to compare this act & Chickys. The difference in make up sort of hurts the Chicky number, but it is still good.
The only thing I criticize here is the dance at the end of the water bit was a tad long, as a whole this is a great number, and I wholly disagree that it is too well known to be successful, good comedy never wears out. After all how many years have we been asking, "Who's on First:????
I wish Pat had a video Tony Alexis doing the spaghetti gag, it should rank high on the list of the funniest routines ever done.
A little off subject, but while searching celebrity obituaries I ran across one dated March 9th for John Inman, age 71, his best known role was Mr Humphries, on the English Comedy "Are You Being Served"
I agree on the waterdance is too long.
for the rest they do the entree very well.
chicky's also but indeed the make-up of white face and august has less effect then two brothers.
but good comedy never wears out: hmmmm: if you see a joke coming from miles away because you saw it about 25 times the same way is it stil funny for you then??
the same thing with laribles orchestra gag and the opera entree: they are very nice entrees: but he did them soo much and they have been shown on tv soo much that I can say them by heart: the suprise effect is tottaly gone!!
and other clowns have taken it over and do it the same way. I saw it once identically performed by 6 different clowns in one season!!!
where is te creativity??
it looked as they studied a video of david very very well and copied everything. offcourse the original still stands out: none off them had the charm and style off david.
but when you are suprised and when you don't expect something: you laugh.and that isnt possible anymore when you see the same thing over and over again: or it has to bee wreally strong.
Toni and jeanette in the spaghetti entree is killer material.
but also the musical entree is fine.
about john inman from are you being served ( great serie!!!)
he died last month.
he was a great comic actor and mister humphries stays in the memory off lots off people with the funny walk and costumes.
currently the serie is running on belgian tv again till thursday.
It's about 11 a clock but I always watch it.
Re: Good comedy wearing out, perhaps I was generalizing too much, I do agree there are some things that you get tired of seeing over & over. I have to admit when I see the orchestra gag, or the movie making bit coming, I do want to get up & leave until it is over. I guess it is up to which entree & who is doing it.
However we sometimes fail to realize, the audience doesn't see the things as many times as we do.
Regarding the Alexis family, I would love to see Johnny recreate the BoBo Barnett routine, when we were together on Krone I wanted him to play, "Peg O My Heart", but could not find sheet music for it. He did a similar solo with "O Mein PaPa", which was great.
I found out the gotys have a site:
wreally nice and also pctures of the past still with their father!!
www.losgotys.com
they did the mirror routine also as white face and august but that changed only a year or five back.
they didnt look that similar untill then. because the august became fatter and also older they started to look more alike. And they use t in their advantage.
they are traditional entreeclowns but they dont wear the wigs, red noses and costumes anymore.
you can see a whole evolution in it:
from full wardrobe and make over only the august with make. then even he starts wearing less and less until completly none.
tells us a lot about the evolution off european clowning and the taste of the audience.
the traditional circusclown is disapearing in Europe.
In knie they didnt have them for a few years ( now les rosyans are there) they had tv actors doing some kinds of reprises. if you didn knew what was going on on suisse tv you couldnt follow the act!!
I dont like that.
the wreally good traditional clowns are getting rare. a pitty.
Often it is the ald acrobat with an injury how does the clowning bit. and he does that without a soul or knowledge of his profession.
thats why it is nice thety have a clown college in America!!
And now I'm sure that the current Zippo is neither of the gentlemen you mention, Pat.
OK, I mentioned the Mirror Entree without seeing this posting. Must try harder.
John Inman died in the early hours of March 8. I read of his death as I ws flying out to Munich to see Circus Krone.
24 hour-man, sir (does that make you a day bill?!?), you've saved me asking you a question. Clearly I did see you in Ostend, Belgium in 1996!
John.
How does Toni Alexis' Spagetti gag compare to Fredi Codrelli's?
they dont!!
toni does a restaurant entree with his wife jeanette. he is the waiter and she the restaurant visitor.
and a lot off funny stuff happens:
the waiter serves wine and gets drunk. she wairs a wig and looses it because the waiter is so clumsy, the spaghetti is flying around a lot etc....
every move has to be well timed and he has to be skillfull to juggle the spaghetti.
and also funny: in real life toni doesnt like spaghetti!! he never eats it
John,
That must have been when my wife was doing the Tiger Act, I have to say, being with Krone was the high point of both of our careers. The only problem,(in my opinion), "Where do you go after Circus Krone"!
Two things in Tony's spaghetti number, when he sits on the ground wiping each piece of spaghetti with the towel, and puts it bsck on the plate, & the wine bottle between the legs, I laugh till I cry!!!!
Bill - that's what I thought!
At the performance I saw, Tony and Jeanette only did the clown act, and not the spaghetti number.
Some 3 years ago, I saw them at Den Haag, Holland and they just did the spaghetti. But there had been a 2 hour delay because of a flooded back door, so there were lots of cuts.
At present The Alexis Clowns are back with Krone, young Totti doing the run-ins.
Where do you go after Krone? Knie!
John.
I saw the spaghetti in the Winter program, in fact I think I saw it every show for the whole month.
Did you know that once when Tony was ill, Claus Lennart,(who in my opinion is Krone's right hand when they are on tour), filled in & they say he was quite good.
At the risk of making this seem like a private conversation (and Pat does have my e-mail address) I certainly didn't know that Claus depped. And from what I've heard of the man, I find it difficult to believe that he even went in to the ring as a clown.
Maybe I misjudge the man - whom I've seen but never actually met.
Returning to general conversation, Krone's current ringmaster told me that he felt that the best spaghetti act he'd ever seen was by a guy called Tandarica, who did one season with Roncalli ages ago, although I think that Butch Tovarich saw him way before that.
John.
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