What an original gag! Absolutely brilliant!
But I can't help feeling as though I've seen it done much better somewhere before ; )
If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to work right now on my very original Charlie Chaplin on trapeze impersonation and I still haven't worked all of the kinks out of my very original 4 pie plate come-in gag yet but my midget car gag with Frankie Saluto is all ready for next season.
Unless he was working for Cirque du Soleil and directed by Shiner at the time this was filmed, Suso should probably have done this gag in a black and white striped shirt and a little black mask so that everyone would know he was SUPPOSED to be a thief.
You Tube is the perfect place to find plenty of clowns that should perform in striped shirts and black masks.
ReplyDeleteyeah wright,
ReplyDeleteand everything you guys do is 100% your own material??
there is no clown who has a program that is completly new.
there will always be somthing borrowed.
larible and the spotlight: he borrowed it from popov ( possible did he borrow it from emmet kelly)
anyone how does the mirror entree: a thief??
anyone how does a boxingentree: a thief??
true this suso guy does almost exactly the same thing as shiner.
but this is a roncalli act: in roncalli other clowns have performed it: peter shub was at roncalli with a movie gag, before him another clown did it:
forgot his name
burt shiner got famous with it because he performed it with cirque du soleil.
is it originally from shiner: NO!!
every clown in the world has something of other clowns.
In europe it is common to borrow stuf or entrees from other clowns.
so this whole tirade against thievery is a little overdone!!
Now this gag does fatigue me!!!!
ReplyDeleteIs everything in my show original?
ReplyDeleteYes.
When I perform a 45 minute show it is, for better or for worse, 45 minutes of my material.
Is everything that I've done in circus original?
No.
Some of it is and some I've adapted and reconfigured some classic routines that I've seen but I have never performed someone else's whole act verbatim, beat for beat, especially WHILE THAT PERSON IS ACTIVELY OUT EARNING A LIVING PERFORMING THAT MATERIAL.
Would I love to perform Shiner's Movie Gag? Sure! There is material from Barry Lubin, Greg & Karen DeSanto, Mitch Freddes, Jeff Gordon, Tom Dougherty, Tomas Kubinek, AGA-BOOM, Slava and many others that I'd love to take a crack at...but I won't, because it belongs to them.
I can listen to Jimmy Page play Stairway to Heaven. I can watch a video of Jimmy Page playing Stairway to Heaven. I can learn to play Stairway to Heaven. I can learn it note for note and go out and play it for audiences EXACTLY the way Jimmy Page played it.
But that is NEVER going to make me Jimmy Page and Stairway to Heaven will still belong to him.
Page learned (and ripped off) many blues artists on his way to writing Stairway to Heaven as part of his learning process but if he had never trancended his influences and created his own memorable material he'd be just another 60s era British guitar player instead of...well, Jimmy Page, the guy who played guitar on Stairway to Heaven.
That said, I don't even LIKE Stairway to Heaven, but I thought that it made for a good example.
~Pat
Having seen Juan Suso (he's Spanish) more than a few times, I have to say that he's not my favourite clown, and nor is he my favourite person. But he's efficient.
ReplyDeleteJohn.
well it isnt very polight that he exactly copied it.
ReplyDeletehe studied every move with a video
once I saw a clown performing laribles orchestra gag and he also copied every move of larible.
I guess I spoiled the hole gag to the audience sitting next to me because I said to my mother who was sitting next to me and now the bell of the tuba is flying off on his head and now his going to turn the bass drum and the guy beats trough it.
it was copied perfectly only a few things werent ok: he didnt improvise as good as larible and didnt know how to react at his volunteers: off course they did other things then on the video and he didnt study that.very stupid of him
and he didnt had the charm an personality that larible has.
Yes copying somthing beat by beat is stupid.
I think the same:
you can borrow a frame or a prop from another clown but you cant copy a whole act.
because your style and personality is different and doesnt match the act.
when your audience knows the original act they notice that!!
Its great you dont steal material of others. thats the wright spirit and it tells your a creative clown with own ideas.
but the truth is there are lots and lots of clowns ho borrow most of there acts.
And in europe it is even common!!
with the reprise clowns it changes a bit but the entree clowns do things that are very old and you can see everywhere.
you can go to 10 different cicusses in europe and see 8 put of ten times the mirror entree or the boxing machine. and it varies very little.
and no clown complaines about that.
they stand out when they perform those routines a little different and with original ideas of there own in it.
Strange, yes very strange:
but that is part of a tradition.
European circaus has more traditions and old habbits than american circus
you can compare european entree clowns with cover bands:
they all play the same stuff and try to be as close to the original.
but when you've got a good coverband they do something with the song that is refreshing and original but yoy still recognise the master version in it.And sometimes they create a song of there own that is going to be copied again by others.
( and guess what: I play the drums and sing in one off the best cover bands off belgium and the netherlands)
so over here it is the question at clown acts: who did it first?? who did invent the material??
with most old entrees you even don't know that anymore.
bill irwin said steal from the best. that being said you also have to " be your own clown" suso looks awkward doing most of these moves. it kinda painful to watch. steal from the best? yes! but then make it your own, or your just painful to watch because it doesn't come from wihtin you. people can tell!
ReplyDeleteWell, actually the movie gag by shiner it's a version itself of an old european circus gag. I've seen Carlo Colombaioni perfom a version of an Italian Tragedy were the public had to play the part of the actors at a tragedy. Of course David Shiner made his own version but it comes from old european circus tradition too.
ReplyDelete