Issue #69
Last Update October 31, 2010
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Review Flying Karamazov Brothers by David Katz July 28, 2010 America has produced some great comedians and comic actors, but the Brits have always led the way in inspired, intelligent silliness. Not since the days of the Marx brothers (and perhaps Gallagher in his better moments) have we even approached the silliness levels of Monty Python or The Goon Show. With the world in a mess, and looking like it will get worse before it gets better, the need for silliness has never been greater. Fortunately for us, we have the Flying Karamazov Brothers.
They do not fly, they are not brothers, and Karamazov is just their stage name. What they are are jugglers, comedians, musicians and dancers, and, above all, silly. The four brothers, Pavel (Roderick Kimball), Dmitri (Paul Magid), Alexei (Mark Ettinger) and Zossima (Stephen Bent), juggle a variety of objects (some of them dangerous) with consummate skill, make bad puns, take pratfalls, dance (sometimes in drag, as in their excellent ballet spoof), and play instruments really well (piano, clarinet, trumpet and trombone during their Dixieland number). And they invite the audience in, asking for suggestions or samples of objects to juggle, threatening the front row participants with flying objects (and liquid), and soliciting audience groans for some of their worst puns.
The thing that holds everything together is timing. It is what music, dance, comedy and juggling have in common. The rhythm of music, of joke and punch line, and of catching and returning objects hurtling though the air in a complex pattern, when mastered, makes mundane things into magic. The visual effects of four people juggling in apparent random patterns, tossing objects to each other as the whimsey strikes each juggler, leaves the viewer awed and gasping for breath. The Brothers almost never drop anything, no matter how complex the pattern they weave.
Two items in the show are stock: the Terror Trick and the Gamble. All during the show, pauses occur in which odd objects (a cleaver, an egg, a block of dry ice, a torch, a skillet, a ukulele, a time bomb (actually a bottle of champagne), a fish and a salt shaker) are introduced as components of the Terror Trick. At the end of the show these are all successfully juggled, with the torch being used to cook the fish and egg in the skillet, and the unwired champagne bottle erupting like a geyser. In The Gamble, the audience is asked to hand up objects to be juggled. The ground rules are that the objects must weigh more than an ounce, but less than ten pounds, must be smaller than a bread box, and must not be a live animal. The Champ, the Brother selected to do the gamble, is allowed to make the final selection from among the audience contributions, and can make some small adjustments to them. The stakes of the gamble are: if the Champ can successfully juggle the selected items for ten throws, he receives a standing ovation. If he fails in three tries he gets a pie in the face. On the night we attended, he succeeded on the first try. The standing ovation was well deserved.
The Flying Karamazov Brothers can be found through the end of November at the Minetta Lane Theater in Greenwich Village, with short breaks for road trips. The Minetta Lane is the perfect venue for them: it has a roomy stage, allowing plenty of room for flying stuff, and it is large enough to hold a decent audience, while retaining a sense of intimacy. If you need a spirit lift, go see them.
New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com