Chelman on Genii

For those of you used to the secrets of conjuring, may be interesting give a glimpse to the October issue of Genii, perhaps the world's most prestigious magicians magazine. Here you can read my cover story interview "A Shaman among Magicians", that I wrote about about performer and collector Christian Chelman from Bruxelles. Cover and article are graced with photographs by talented Belgian artist Anne-Laure Jacquart.
Mr. Chelman interests are a bizarre convergence between theatrical magic, cryptozoology, supernatural, gambling, lost civilizations and fairy tales. We posted about him on this blog exactly (and strangely) one year ago, Oct.20, 2006.: you can search about him at that page of the blog; or, far better, visit his unique Museum of Supernatural History at www.surnateum.org.
My guarantee, you've seen nothing as it before.

Sunday Gallery: Postmodern Pantomime Phenomenon

James Thierrée and the ghosts of Sadler's Wells

Sadler’s Wells in London is one of the oldest theatres in the world. Originated as a pleasure garden around 1660, it is the witness of that fascinating era when, without categories or laws, performers and audiences made no distinction between singers, acrobats, dancers, musicians, equestrian vaulting masters or actors, in the name of fantasy and amazement. It was the birthplace of pantomime: the theatrical discipline that, to show the realms of unknown and magic, had as pillars early stage transformations and machinery, conjuring, clowning and Commedia at his bests, impossible acrobatic skills, water spectaculars, ballets and oversized props and costumes. It was the house of Joe Grimaldi, ancestor of modern clowns, that struggled onstage against giant animated vegetables when not dissapearing into mid-air traps.

Finally, at the end of XVIII century, three great modern genres simultaneously emerged from that world: opera, ballet, and circus.

Today, Sadler’s Wells is still surviving on the same place: a modern building, temple of contemporary dance. Next week, a show will unsuspectably bring back the surreal tradition of early pantomime, even in all his modernity: it is due to James Thierrée’s company, with his third acclamed show “Au Revoir Parapluie” (literally: “farewell umbrella”). The perfect nightmare for the Halloween weekend.

If you don’t know James, he is one of world’s foremost visual performers: writer, director, acrobat, mime, dancer, actor, etc. Just as his father Jean Baptiste and his mother Victoria Chaplin. Just as his grandfather Charles Chaplin. Who, at his turn, was the most talented son of the London victorian pantomime stage, being at turn was the direct artistic heir of the Sadler’s Well’s ancestors. So the circle today closes, going back for a couple of week to the Grimaldi era and his absurd nightmares and transformations.

We devote to this bizarre coincidence today’s gallery.

If you live on the other side of the Ocean, this very same show will be presented in early December at Brooklin Academy of Music.

Sunday Gallery: James Thierrée's "Au Revoir Parapluie" (1)

Au Revoir Parapluie 2

Au Revoir Parapluie 3

Au Revoir Parapluie 4

Au Revoir Parapluie 5

Acrobats...

The Nicolodis and
the golden age of music-hall acrobats

Nothing is for man closer to real flight than the purety of acrobatic. In a time when acrobats tends to sophisticate their gifts with elaborate coreographies and boutique presentations, we wish to remember the recent but gone era of night clubs and classical circuses. An era when acrobats graced the surreal twists of their bodies just with simple smiles, gazes to the girls in the house, or a bit of humor in real contact with the audience. They presented themselves as normal peoples, supported by a live band, seemingly enjoing the frenesy and the apparent easiness of their instead incredibly hard tricks.

This is the case of the Nicolodi, a family that for five generation have been performing in each corner of the globe, in front of admiring crowned heads, distracted jet-set tourists, or amazed family audiences in european villages.

I happened to spend for few years, the late 80s, nights after nights in the Moulin Rouge dressing rooms: hearing the audience and band during the acts, then seeing appearing the calm, sweating performers, as coming after a trip in an unreal world. The Nicolodi act was costumed as a kind of gala italian waiters, serving the most energetic acrobatic specialities ever compacted in the law of the seven minutes. Everytime you felt their act was finished, you had more.

Today this kind of acts just doesn’t exist anymore; but we can still gaze for seven minutes into the past.
Ladies and gentleman: the Nicolodi Troupe.

Circus Busch bizarries (6 and last)

Desperate escapists

Circus Busch bizarries (5)

Machines and Mysteries

Circus Busch bizarries (4)

Weimar years occultists

Circus Busch bizarries (3)

Delikatessen
(Morten and McMorton)

Circus Busch bizarries(2)

Modern Samsons
(Marino and Breitbart)

Circus Busch bizarries(1)

Human volcanos and living hydrants

Sunday Poster Gallery: Circus Busch in the 20s

The imponent Circus Busch in Berlin marked the beginning of XX century as the last great European circus building. Opened by Paul Busch, it resisted the advent of the movies with his wagnerian-size pantomimes on historical and mythological themes.

In the 20’s, when the screen took the crown for the visual spectacle, Busch turned toward the strange, the inusual and the dark, reflecting the uncertain athmospere of the Weimar years.

So, from the predictable trained monkeys, the barnumian freaks or acrobatic prodigies, Busch promoted a series of more disturbing acts, emphasizing the domination of the natural forces or offering a glimpse on the supernatural ones (after all, Houdini was often a Busch feature). The man eated animals, survived sadistic challenges, turned himself into a radio, an hydrant or a volcano, celebrated the jewish masculinity or the feminine ability of seeing the future.

The Busch posters, almost often printed by Friedlander, began to reflect the unique stylized and often hallucinated of the German graphics in the 20s. In those years Busch was the temple of celebrated Hanussen the clairvoyant, killed after predicting the Reichstag fire.

Under a later conflagration, the Berlin bombing of 1945, human hydrants or death-defyng strongmen sadly were not there, to save Circus Busch from his final destruction. And his world of demons, rigurgitators, and magicians on the edge of suicide disappeared forever.

Today’s gallery is dedicated to the last era of this German cahtedral of the strange, when live entertainment could still give the thrills of the dark and unknown.

Mermaids...

A nostalgic curiosity about the noble and estinguished art of hoax

In 1841, P.T.Barnum discovered a curiosity brought from the South Seas called, as we know, the "Fiji Mermaid", becoming one of his greatest successes in the art of hoax.
Grace to a time still prived by photography, peoples was obliged to believe in drawings, and impresarios could speculate about their promises. Here, you see how the mermaid was announced (left), and the later famous artifact that you in reality saw once inside (right).


But less is known about the origins and previous iconography of the creature we know as "Fiji Mermaid", before Barnum revealed it to the world. Here is a japanese drawing, far older than Barnum himself.



You can learn more about the oriental origins of mermaids, from a wonderful documentation of Takeshi Yamada, "visual anthropologist", recently posted on www.sideshowworld.com.

Indian posters 5

"Every magician is the greatest magician in the world", said Orson Welles.
And that's the end of this Sunday's poster gallery.

Indian posters 4

Indian posters 3

Indian posters 2