BS: Are mime artists shite?

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 01:17 PM

As with any other profession, there are likely to be good and bad ones and I have seen examples of both. I once saw a "Marcel Marceau" dressalike in Paris, who had a crowd laughing uncontrollably for over 5 minutes, which in itself is no mean feat. Have seen many others who are good at what they do but one in particular stands out..who stood in a City Centre square with a crowd which was fluid...he was so bad that people were joining the crowd beacuse it was a crowd, realising he was rubbish and going...so many were doing the same that he seemed to have a large crowd...no-one was staying for more than perhaps a minute though. He probably thought he was great and I'm sure his Mum loved him.
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Nerd
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 12:33 PM

Not shite, but mainly white!

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: GUEST,Mime Artist Protesting this thread!
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 11:46 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Blowzabella
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 06:03 PM

I have seen some briliant ones and some crap ones - the brilliant ones make up for the crap ones.

At it's best mime transcends language and tells a story in the simplest and most graphic way. It is eternal.

At other levels it can easily be pretencious(?) shite...!

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 02:40 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: alanabit
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 02:16 AM

You must admit that mimes in general are easier on the ears than bad singers...

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Teresa
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 02:12 AM

FB, that's pretty funny. Heeheeheeheeheehee. :d

Ok, this might be one of those "you had to be there" moments, but i'll give 'er a try.

In my high school in the early 80s, we had an assembly. it was the master MM himself. Well, I didn't like assemblies much, but I really didn't want to go to this one.

I sat and I listened. There was silence. There was laughter. all kinds of interesting laughter--chuckles, guffaws, ha ha ha's, tee hee hees. And being a blind person, I had no idea what anyone was laughing at ... but I'll be darned if I didn't start laughing, too! And I laughed and laughed and laughed, and some friends asked later: "What were you laughing at?" And I had to tell them about how contagious all that laughter was.

Despite that, I don't think mimes are shite. They're just not very accessible. :)

T

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 01:42 AM

Hello, i seenn a mine artist in YOrk , a few years ago, and people was giving him money, i don't know why, he was shit, just stood there not saying nowt, rubbish.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 23 Aug 04 - 02:40 PM

I hear that at Marcel Marceau's funeral there was a minute's noise.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 09:24 AM

A couple of years ago I was in Covent Garden, on a warm Sunday afternoon.
A crowd of tourists casually circled a mime artist. He was one of the 'silver suited' ones. Human cuiosity I spose made us wait and watch.........
A Downs syndrome boy of about 16yrs of age slowly made his way to the front of the crowd and stood face to face to the mime artist. The artist's face was covered in a tight fitting silver mask, but his eyes were still visible.
The boy stared into his eyes and the mime artist stared back. This went on for a couple of mimutes and the rest of us in the crowd were somehow drawn to this stand off spectacle.
From nearby classical music could be heard....they regularly have the most wonderful 'buskers' there.
Suddenly the mime artist began to dance, contorting his body into fluid shapes that matched the music. The Downs syndrome boy copied his every move.
We all stood very silently as the dance progressed. I felt honoured to be able to witness this impromptu communication. And when the music faded away the boy returned to his mother. There was hardly a dry eye in that small crowd.
So no mime artists aren't shite. They do often only move and do their thing when given some cash....don't we all?
But the boy on that day, showed all of us how we can enjoy ourselves when we lose our inhibitions and open our minds.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 12:23 AM

Didn't you know, that if you put some money in their hat, most of those 'statues' move and do something, usually thanking you?

Most likely you have never contributed, or at least spent a little time sitting in a corner watching the world go by. The reaction from people, especially little kids, is well worth sitting down and watching for a while!

That is the sense of humour (and the whole point of their admittedly one-trick pony act) you are missing out on!

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Aug 04 - 04:39 PM

NO!! They may be rubbish, they may even be talentless wannabees, but they are not fecal matter.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 21 Aug 04 - 04:28 PM

To give a full, yet concise answer to Martin Gibson's question

"Just curious.
Are most male mimes straight or otherwise?"

YES!

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: The Walrus
Date: 21 Aug 04 - 04:28 PM

I just wish they'd learn the words.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 10:31 PM

Not, are we any relation?

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: JennyO
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 10:30 PM

Oh, I never realised he was Humphrey. He was very good. For many years Humphrey B Bear never said a word, then for some reason, they decided that he would "talk", or at least make a few noises. After that, he lost a lot of his charm, to my way of thinking. It just didn't seem right, somehow.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: alanabit
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 06:01 PM

To answer the question at the head of this thread, the answer has to be "No". However, it sounds as if the ones being discussed are neither artisits nor mimes.
   Mime is not exactly my taste, but to learn to do it properly is bloody hard work and requires a great deal of training. One person who actually did it - and was an excellent street performer in his day - was the Australian comedian Glynn Nicholas. (You Aussies know him from the Humphrey B Bear Show and The Big Gig).
   I think the people being described by previous posters could better be described as talentless pests. I regret to say that I have seen more of these than I would like to have.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Nick
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 05:59 PM

*** Beware. There's a troll about! ***

What about all the people who frequent this forum and never post?

Now what's that all about?

*** Troll alert over ***

Normal service resumed.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Once Famous
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 05:57 PM

Just curious.

Are most male mimes straight or otherwise?

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 05:50 PM

Absolute shite. They give real street performers a bad name.

The worst are the guys who paint themselves all over with metallic gold or aluminum/silver and pretend to be statues, i.e., do nothing. The old-style Marcel Marceau wannabees may have been annoying, but they at least put on some kind of performance, pretending to be stuck inside a box or whatever.

Subject: RE: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: Once Famous
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 04:17 PM

A few years or so, the City of Chicago had a hearing in the city council chanbers about licensing street performers. It was quite chaotic with most of them in the gallery shouting their displeasure at the same time. The nightly news focused on one mime in full white face who was perhaps shouting the loudest.

Our Mayor Daley, who can have a riotous sense of humor, pointed at this guy and said, " ....and you! You aren't supposed to talk at all."

You had to have been there.

Subject: BS: Are mime artists shite?
From: GUEST,Not from hull
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 07:57 AM

I was just in Edinburgh as the fringe is going on, and the number of times some annoying little mime walked in front of me attempting to be amusing, was ridiculous. Finally I just took to walking into them with my kids buggy and running over their feet.

Not so silent then.