Kenny Raskin gambling on Everyman Essay Example For Students

Kenny Raskin gambling on Everyman Essay The world was spared another lawyer and got a world-class clown instead when Kenny Raskins mother suggested he take an acting course while waiting to go to law school. Now the only U.S. performer in Cirque du Soleils Nouvelle Experience, hes nightly charming vacationing families, lone-wolf gamblers and the occasional Hollywood superstar who wanders into the Montreal-based companys distinctive blue-and-gold tent, attached by umbilical passageways to the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Playing a mute Everyman who stumbles into the pastel world of contortionists, jugglers, trapeze swingers, et al., Raskin calls his part the throughline of the show. Hes the guy in the baggy suit who, by shows end, is absorbed by the troupe and reborn as a youngster. Raskin says, Its a very precious themethe child in all of us. (For those who feel a retch coming on, be reassured that the Euro-flavored circus handles the potentially cloying subject with remarkable grace.) Raskins caping routine is a recital on musical bells playing them himself first, then recruiting audience members to ring out the tune while he conducts. I try not to assault them, the 40-year-old Atlantan says of working with the audience, but get them to enjoy the process of playing with me. I wanted to be noticed   A Savannah native bornappropriately enough on April 1, he cant explain where he got his comic savvy. His mother is an antiquarian book dealer and his father is yes a lawyer. Where did it creep into my genes? Raskin wonders. I have no idea. One clue might be his height (56): I was the shortest of all my friends, and I was always trying to keep up, he says. I wanted to be noticed, so my humor was ingratiatingly funny. Still, performing never entered his mind. After high school, he majored in American studies (which he calls a nice, generic, pre-law dilettantes major) at Brandeis University. Following graduation, he was working in Atlanta as an intern for the Department of Natural Resources when, feeling socially out of touch in his new city, he took his mothers advice and enrolled in a class at the Academy Theatre. It was a good fit: At the Academy there was a real emphasis on transformational, physical, improvisational theatre, where if you didnt have a prop you created it out of your own body or somebody elses. Like others in the field, hes had to deal with plenty of misconceptions. When most people think mime they think Marcel Marceau, he says. But Ive gone to mime conferences for the last six years, and almost no mimes perform in white face, and almost no mimes do illusionary mime. With clowning its the same thing. People think Ringling Bros. What they dont realize is that Lucille Ball was a clown, Jonathan Winters is a clown, Dick Van Dyke is a clown. To this day, every time Dick Van Dyke flips over that divan when he walks into the living room, its still the funniest thing Ive ever seen. Raskins own definition of a clown: Somebody who looks for solutions more through his or her sensations rather than through his or her intellect. I dont want to talk about the clown as a child because I dont believe that. A clown has childlike qualities, but mainly a clown is a problem-solvera pretty lousy problem solver, actually, who goes from A to B but never on a straight line. Last fall, Raskin dealt with one of the more poignant problem-solvers in childrens literature, adapting and directing The Little Prince at Theater Emory, the professional theatre of Atlantas Emory University. I tried to stay as faithful to the book as possible, he says about his production, which featured a mix of professional and student actors with a female student as the Prince. The hardest thing was keeping the Little Prince honest and direct. You dont want the audience to go, Oh this kid is too sweet.' Atlanta theatregoers know Raskin less as a clown than as an ingratiating comic actor. At Theatrical Outfit he was the romantic pickle-vendor in Crossing Delancey, the loquacious old man of Im Not Rappaport and a ukulele-strumming, Yiddish-yammering Polonius in HamletThe Musical. As an administrator, he created two nights of new vaudeville for the Arts Festival of Atlanta, then served for four years as the festivals associate producing director of performance. It was in that capacity that he made contact with Cirque du Soleil. When the company pegged Atlanta for a visit last December, Raskin offered to help find a location for their tent. All I was really doing was trying to get a couple of free tickets, he admits. Instead, he was encouraged to send a tape of his clowning work to the Montreal office. What he assumed was a bit of professional courtesy led him to where he is now: $20 or so in debt to the blackjack tables, performing two 90-minute shows a night, six nights a week. .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf , .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .postImageUrl , .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf , .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf:hover , .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf:visited , .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf:active { border:0!important; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf:active , .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uf85728458cb6637e61dd32789fa03cbf:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Last-chance dance Essay Too romantic for Las Vegas   The Cirque troupe is mainly French-Canadian (with a smattering of English, Russian and Polish performers), so Raskin spends time pumping up his schoolboy grasp of French. The biggest surprise hes had so far is how out of shape I was, he says. I didnt expect it to be so physically demanding. I had to spend three weeks letting my body go through a checklist of pains, but now everythings fine. We have a masseuse on staff. And Ive lost about 12 pounds in all the places I needed to lose it. In a Las Vegas show already brimming with the fanciful, Raskins signature routine, which hes worked on for 12 years, was deemed too romantic by Cirques artistic director. In the routine, Raskin plays a down-on-his-luck fellow who sits on a bench, propping his hat and coat on his crutch. When he sticks one arm through a sleeve of the coat looking for matches, this makeshift hat stand becomes a second character, a fantasy friend who slaps the cigarette out of Raskins hand, teases him and ultimately gives him the strength to carry on. The six-minute piece is a metaphor for my life, Raskin says. For me its about reconciling the artist with the workthe artist with the more straight side of me. Its about getting to like all aspects of yourself.