Tuesday, April 22, 2008

DEVIS VASSALLO: Orchestra Gag


"Mr. Vassallo, Mr. Larible's legal team is on line two..."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do hear more laughs here than I've ever heard from a Larible performance.

Raffaele De Ritis said...

Done already. Few years ago, Mr.Vassallo was one of the first to be contacted by Mr.Larible's lawyers. As fare as I know, the case is still pending.
If Mr.Anonymous hears more laughs here, in the very intimate Budapest circus building, I'm very happy for him.
The only problem is that Mr.Larible performed the original version in that same place one year ago, for the same audience.

Pat Cashin said...

It's not just a case of it being a similar bit. It's a case of it being the SAME bit, the EXACT same bit!

I would love to dress like Otto and juggle pie plates, dress like Lou and step out of a tiny car, dress like Rivel, Galetti, Shiner, Irwin, the Rastellis, George Carl, Joe Jackson, Paul Jung or any one of a number of clowns that I admire and do their material.

Who wouldn't want to stand in those shoes if only for one show?

Do you honestly think that wearing a tux and learning his hat moves will make you George Carl? There's a lifetime of work behind that act. You could try to ape it, you might even entertain audience with it, but it will never make you one one hundreth of the clown that George Carl was.

That won't get you to where you want to go. You'll never earn the laughs, respect or the paycheck that the original did.

Better (albeit much harder) to create your own character and build your own routines with your own material.

Having said that I have to send my Lou Jacobs tie out to be duplicted because it will look perfect with my Tom Parish shoes when I perform my version of Jung's Adam Smasher with the long shirt blow-off that I saw Bobby Kay do ; )

~P

Anonymous said...

I wasn't trying to imply it was correct for him to steal the act... I just thought it interesting that this clown got more of a reaction.

While he may not be a better writer, I think this clown may be a better performer.

That's a major problem I have with many clowns performing today. They are doing 'classic' bits that are supposed to be funny... but they never really make the audience laugh.

That's the major difference I find between Shiner and Irwin. Irwin does things that are 'supposed to be funny' but Shiner actually makes me laugh.

There are MANY clowns, but very few are funny.

Raffaele De Ritis said...

Dear Mr.Anonymous,
did you watched carefully that video? And did you remember well Mr.Larible performing qualities?.
Beside the fact that the loud laughs here comes from peoples close to an amateur camera, on what basis do you call this guy a BETTER PERFORMER?
Do he seems here to you show some special pantomime gift? And, if it is the case, how better than Mr.Larible's or others?
I think that performing qualities rarely comes without originality in the performed material.