MIME ARTIST

A 'mime artist' is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art.

Contents

Mimes in Film

Mimes in popular culture

Well known mime artists/movement theatre artists

Trivia

See also

External links

Information

Mimes in Film

Silent film comedians like Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton learned the craft of mime in the theatre but through film had a profound influence on mimes who work in live theatre even decades after their death. Indeed, Chaplin may be the best documented mime in history.
The famous French comedian, writer and director Jacques Tati achieved his initial popularity working as a mime, and indeed his later films had only minimal dialogue, relying instead on many subtle expertly choreographed visual gags. Tati, like Chaplin before him, would mime out the movements of every single character in his films and ask his actors to repeat them.
Mimes have often appeared in science fiction and fantasy films. The physical training of the mime when combined with a well designed costume can result in a fantastic, yet believable creature. In this regard, the distinction between mime and puppeteer has become blurred.
More recent developments in computer animation such as motion capture or ''mocap'' technology allow for actors' movements to be used in creating animated characters. As a result, some mimes are beginning to work with animators in creating characters.
Mimes have also been portrayed in film, most notably in ''Les Enfants du Paradis'', which featured both Jean-Louis Barrault in the role of Jean-Gaspard Deburau and Decroux as his father. However, when mimes are portrayed in film, it is just as common for filmmakers to have actors with little mime training to perform a stereotype of a mime as it is for a skilled artist to either perform or choreograph the performance on screen.

Mimes in popular culture

★ In the popular imagination, mimes are thought of as having a uniform costume that includes black and white horizontal striped clothes, suspenders, a formal black top hat or beret, formal white gloves (to highlight the motions of the hands), and white face paint (similar to that used by a clown), with some accents in black. However, mimes, like other theatre artists use a diversity of costuming ideas. This uniform has become so iconic that many experienced artists explicitly reject it.

★ Some breakdancing routines, such as the moonwalk, have been borrowed from mime.

★ While it is often thought that playing the party game of charades amounts to mime, charades is a guessing game, while mime artists seek a certain theatrical clarity.

★ Bobcat Goldthwaite's movie ''Shakes The Clown'' dealt with the alleged rivalry/hostility between mimes and clowns. This antipathy is largely mythical. Clowning schools have long considered mime essential to clown training. In addition, clowns and mimes often rever many of the same artists and traditions as sources of inspiration.

★ Michael Jackson was good friends with well-known mime artist Marcel Marceau and used pantomime regularly in his concert performances; in 1995, Jackson and Marceau jointly choreographed a concert for HBO, but the project never got past the rehearsal stage.

★ In the music video for Panic! At the Disco's 5th single, Build God, Then We'll Talk the main character is that of a mime who performs various sex acts on stage all in mimery.

★ In Paris, Je'Taime, a movie of 18 love vignettes, a mime meets his mimemate.

Well known mime artists/movement theatre artists

★ Alejandro Jodorowsky

★ Achille Zavatta

★ Adrian Pecknold

★ Bill Bowers

★ Bill Irwin

★ Buster Keaton

★ The Chameleons, Keith Berger & Sharon Diskin

★ Carlos Martínez

★ Charles Chaplin

★ Claude Kipnis

★ Corinne Soum

★ Damir Dantes

★ Dan Kamin

★ Daniel Stein

★ Dario Fo

★ Eberhard Kube, popular mime artist of the former GDR

★ Ennio Marchetto

★ Etienne Decroux

★ Gene Sheldon (banjoist)

★ George L. Fox

★ Gregg Goldston

★ Harpo Marx (The Marx Brothers)

★ Henryk Tomaszewski

★ James Donlon

★ Jacques Lecoq

★ Jacques Tati

★ Janet Carafa

★ Jean-Gaspard Debureau

★ Jean-Louis Barrault

★ K&K Mime

★ Kate Bush

★ Ladislav Fialka

★ Marcel Marceau

★ Michael Lee

★ Miguel Chispa Gonzalez

★ Mikael Rudolph

★ Michael Slodki

★ Mummenschanz

★ Newoka LaShelle

★ Oleg Popov

★ Pablo Zibes

★ Pan Tau

★ Samuel Avital

★ Samy Molcho

★ Shields And Yarnell

★ Stanley Laurel

★ Stefan Niedzialkowski

★ Steven Wasson

★ Teller (magician) (Penn and Teller)

★ Thomas Leabhart

★ Tik and Tok

★ Tony Montanaro

★ Yanci

Trivia

★ David Bowie studied mime with Lindsay Kemp in 1967 to add another element to his performances.

See also

★ Clown

★ Corporeal mime

★ Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns and clown-like characteristics (inc. mimes)

★ Etienne Decroux

★ Floating (dance)

★ Liquid dancing

★ Popping (dance)

External links

Information

★ Classic Mime Artist Characters

★ Physical Theatre Live Journal A community containing information of Physical Theatre [and everything similar and connecting to it], Physical Theatre performers, companies, books, schools, reviews, tour information, discussions, [you don't have to have a Live Journal to read or comment].

★ International corporeal mime school in Barcelona

★ Information on Etienne Decroux's Corporeal mime

★ The World of Mime Theatre International mime theatre information, including a library, resources, performer contacts, and events calendar.

★ The School for Mime Theatre A school for mime located in Gambier, Ohio.