{"id":2249,"date":"2010-09-20T11:34:59","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T17:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=2249"},"modified":"2011-03-04T10:46:53","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T16:46:53","slug":"blued-revue-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/09\/blued-revue-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Blued: Revue Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The performance in Fayetteville of Blue Man Group<\/a> filled my mind too full to write about immediately. A deadline would’ve been wonderful.<\/p>\n

So now it’s time to free up to brain cavity. Past time. We saw the third of its eight shows at the Walton Arts Center<\/a>, during the first week of September. The company — part of it, because it has permanent stages in five U.S. cities and a traveling international troupe — developed a “bus-and-truck” smaller-venue tour here, rehearsing through August at the WAC, under the direction of two of the three founding “blue men.”<\/p>\n

Imagine: Blue Men walked among us at the Farmers Market<\/a>, ate at our restaurants, and without the paint we did not know. It’s a large group, a full pop band backs them along with innumerable technicians and stagehands. Hope they enjoyed their sojourn.<\/p>\n

Because I’d only seen them on TV and YouTube<\/a>, all I knew was drumming, technobeat music and perhaps some clowning.<\/p>\n

What one sees in person is surreal mime, a current manifestation and merger of several classic theatrical techniques, like Commedia dell’arte<\/a>, Harlequin<\/a> and Pantomime<\/a>. And Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers and improv of The Second City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The blue fellows have a meal skit<\/a> that could be straight from Chaplin’s The Little Tramp character. Two of them reprise Groucho and Harpo’s mirror scene<\/a> in Duck Soup<\/em> (a fake mirror is a longstanding gag, but down to the number of hops, is a Marx homage).<\/p>\n

Parts of their show seem to be longstanding Blue Man Group pieces, like drumming with telescoping PVC plastic pipe and, famously, rhythmically splashing paint poured onto drum heads. New for this year was an extended series of skits mocking Apple’s keyboardless iPad computer. The Marx mirror send-up was part of this.<\/p>\n

The meal scene, with props like Twinkies, a vacuum cleaner and hanging on the wall Andrew Wyeth’s famed Christina’s World<\/a><\/em>, painting, used a female volunteer chosen from the audience. A male volunteer was chosen for a large wet-paint stunt. Given their skills, gullibility and timing, I suspected the audience members were plants and really part of the company. An usher confirmed that for me: The same woman and man had been selected the previous two shows.<\/p>\n

The Wyeth, the Groucho, the harlequin — those make me sound like a cultural historian. Not close. These elements are just what flew through my mind sitting there in the dark. Of course I took notes. The journalist in me won’t let up. The child in me loves any kind of circus, like the Blue Man Group. The slightly older boy in the mirror, who religiously on Sunday mornings watched Camera Three<\/a><\/em> and its successor CBS Sunday Morning<\/a><\/em> lives on, too, and sees past the face and drum paint.<\/p>\n

The thing I don’t understand is how appealing their bizarreness is. People increasingly clamor for “real,” thus the appeal of so-called reality shows and a decline in interest in fiction. But Blue Men have been clowning and hitting drums for 23 years. They don’t speak. Their acts are not particularly sequential. If their routines were just slightly less accessible, they’d be abstract”performance art” funded by grants not tickets.<\/p>\n

I’d buy tickets for them again. Perhaps next fall in Fayetteville, if they’ll give my town a fresh coat of blue?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The performance in Fayetteville of Blue Man Group filled my mind too full to write about immediately. A deadline would’ve been wonderful. So now it’s time to free up to brain cavity. Past time. We saw the third of its eight shows at the Walton Arts Center, during the first week of September. The company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-2249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture","tag-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":181,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/04\/color-coordinating\/","url_meta":{"origin":2249,"position":0},"title":"Color coordinating","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock Let's start here and now: Red states are blue, and blue states are red. The cause of red standing for Republican was what, a conspiracy? Still, this is America. This is the reverse. It's confusing, and it's wrong. Red equalling commie or at least leftist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/07\/no-blue-light-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":2249,"position":1},"title":"No blue-light special","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a blue-light special Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, July 1, 2004. Again proving my personal theory about Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is this week's news about the Springdale Sam's Club seeking a a permit for package liquor sales. Oh, the theory is that Wal-Mart is conservative economically, not politically\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6314,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2019\/03\/truth-in-arkansas-stars\/","url_meta":{"origin":2249,"position":2},"title":"Truth in the Stars","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The symbolism of the four blue stars on Arkansas flag is explained. It\u2019s been embarrassing. The state flag of Arkansas includes an explicit reference to the Confederacy. The\u00a0overall design\u00a0can be seen as having similarities to the Confederate battle flag of the American Civil War. The early 20th-century legislation establishing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Four blue stars on Arkansas flag defined","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Flag-of-Arkansas-1280x853-annotated-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Flag-of-Arkansas-1280x853-annotated-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Flag-of-Arkansas-1280x853-annotated-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Flag-of-Arkansas-1280x853-annotated-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Flag-of-Arkansas-1280x853-annotated-1.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":119,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/08\/mock-of-the-mockingbird\/","url_meta":{"origin":2249,"position":3},"title":"Mock of the Mockingbird","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock \"[Russ A. Charif, a research biologist at Cornell Lab of Ornithology,] said after his talk that the 'kent' sounds alone were not conclusive because scientists could not completely rule out a blue jay mimicking the sound of an ivory bill. ...\" -- The New York\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/11\/plaid\/","url_meta":{"origin":2249,"position":4},"title":"Plaid","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Rented a DVD for the other night. Perfect for blue-staters. Well-made movie. It's called Reds. -30-","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4806,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2014\/06\/fingerholds-on-slippery-slope\/","url_meta":{"origin":2249,"position":5},"title":"Fingerholds on a Slippery Slope","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a business meeting with two 30-something women I've never met, the wrong place to bring up anything personal. I know that. The hour is nearing an end. Nearly all the serious stuff is done. This is actually a delicate moment. Things can be screwed up moments before all is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Accent Nail Ideas\" from 2014 Nail Designs Ideas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Accent-Nail-Ideas-325-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2249"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2740,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions\/2740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}