Beat Magazine interviews the Captain

[Captain Frodo] puts on a master class of physical comedy, as if the black and white films of Buster Keaton had come alive and actually were funny.  

JACK FRANKLIN, Beat Magazine

The following is from an interview with yours truly from Beat Magazine in Melbourne in preparation for La Soiree's season in Melbourne starting October 11th with its first preview.  (reading the direct transcription of my words from an interview they do sound convoluted... They would benefit for some editing...)

David O'mer from La Soiree.

"La Soirée (rebadged from its Spiegeltent days of La Clique) is an absolutely wonderful, horrifying, impossible, astounding joy. It is a circus to stretch the sensibilities, a sideshow that has been given a full reign. It is as bawdy as it is sinfully beautiful. It is a true cabaret, not some grubby burlesque but a good old-fashioned variety show with full frontal nudity, coarse language and adult concepts are all expected, sometimes before you even make it to your seat. A rotating cast of miscreants form the rogue’s gallery that passes for a cast, each bringing a unique talent to bare in front of an ever more shocked and shrieking (with laughter or approval) audience. From the famous Bath Boy with his tight, wet, denim acrobatics through to the corpulent showstopper in spandex, Le Gateau Chocolat – no two acts are the same or even remotely similar to anything you have seen.

The show is about the personality of each performer: Captain Frodo, Frodo is his real name by the way, could be called just simple contortionist but that would be huge undersell. He first performed aged ten alongside his father, a magician, and the years of performance and showmanship shine brightly. He puts on a master class of physical comedy, as if the black and white films of Buster Keaton had come alive and actually were funny.   

“I had been doing contortion stuff for a long time and you need to find your own angle on everything,” he says of his act. “Because of the stuff I have been given by nature, my act is a very visceral experience for people. People find it very challenging to watch. When you are doing it as a street show and people haven’t paid and are committed to sitting through something, then if what you do is too challenging to watch they cover their kids’ eyes or walk away. So to develop a character that is a bit slapstick in they style of Chaplin is a good thing since in that context ,if somebody gets a brick in the head it’s funny where as in real life it is a tragedy. So I have found a way to present something that by its very nature makes people uneasy and makes it palatable.
If you can get the crowd on your side, they will go with you much further than they thought. When you do take the crowd with you, when they give up their apprehension, their pleasure and excitement is shocking and exciting to them.   “There might be people that disappear hankies, squeeze through tennis rackets or juggle knives better than us but the acts in this show transcend their talent so that it becomes about a story and a character, transporting the crowd to places they wouldn’t even have thought they would enjoy – it might have sounded vulgar or repulsive to them – but we change the rules to make it safe to enjoy.”   BY JACK FRANKLIN

La Soirée will be delighting those brave enough to attend at The Forum Theatre from Thursday October 11 through to Sunday November 18.

On a personal Note

I do love to arrive into a new town to meet up with my fellow carnies. As I exited the spiegel tent last night and walked to the porta loos It struck me just how much I love the back stage areas of festivals. I spend a substantial amount of time of my life in these temporary places. Empty carparks or gravelly sportsfields gets transformed as techies, roadies and roustabouts pull tents, carousels, the Ferris wheel and bars off the back of rickety old trucks.
Within days the non-descript place is transformed into a brand new thing, an area where different rules apply - it becomes a Carnival.
A perimeter fence is put up to delineate the transfigured space. Like a church contains one type of sacred space, the carnivals edge marks another. A place where everything which is human is flaunted and celebrated.

The backstage area here in Brisbane has a spot in the fence where it is possible to peek over. Every time I see someone raise up on tippy toes to catch a glimpse of the magic world behind the scenes it warms my heart.

Watching this little boy sneak a peak at the English Gents melted my heart.

 I also wonder what they see.
For the world of the circus that they normally see is the shiny facades the ornate paintings and colourfull banners and posters. This is the beautiful side. Backstage we sit on plastic chairs, eat take away food, drink powder coffee from styrofoam cups. The artists are warming up on a children's puzzle play mat laid down on a dusty almost grass-less little patch. Temporary structures and gaffa tape holds up a fat plastic hose coming from the noisy industrial sized air-conditioning unit.

I wonder if the Crowds peeping in are disappointed or if they realize that it is in environments like this the Carnival Dreams presented out the front, inside the Spiegel tents and Big Tops are born. In the dirty, chaotic and temporary world where artists are cramped in. Minds both similar and and very different meet. Fleeting encounters with other creatives. People with open minds, but (mostly) not so open their brains fall out do their art, get drunk and talk about ideas as if they were already real.

It is from this stuff dreams are made.

The Front

The Back

Interview with me...

I was asked a little while ago to do an interview with Map Magazine for our La Soiree season in Brisbane. It turned out that it was an email interview, which means they send me some questions and I write down the answers. Then they cut and past those into something. To the right is what they printed and this is what I wrote...

Q&A for map magazine

Please answer the questions with approximately 20 word answers where applicable. Thank you!

NAME: Captain Frodo

OCCUPATION: Incredible Rubberman

WEBSITE: theilluminatedshowman.blogspot.com.au

age?

36

where were you born?

In the beautiful fjord lands of Norway.

what was the performance that first made your world come alive?

My father is a Magician. With a dad that actually could do anything made me want to be like him.

describe yourself in ten words?

A philosophically minded Showman making people laugh and think.

what gets you out of bed in the morning?

At the moment my 4 week old daughter Saskia.

what is something you discovered this month?

Having a baby changes everything you ever thought about the world, yet the world goes on as if nothing happened.

the last thing that made you smile & why?

All these questions asked at this particular time in my life begs just one answer – my little girl.

what is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?

As above, Chaplin’s The Kid, Chaplin’s grandson James Thiérrée’s Au Revoir Paraluie, The Black Rider with music by Tom Waits.

 

what’s your idea of complete happiness?

Going to bed with a book, falling asleep before finishing page one. Dreaming the book and later realizing my dream was better than the book.

 

when was the last time you did something for the first time?

I have been paving our bush property with rock from our own quarry. Mixing cement, using a scotching hammer and feeding my baby.

tell me about passion … ?

It’s the fire in your heart that illuminates your journey. It’s contagious. The job of a Showmanis to pass on enthusiasm.

what makes you different?

I make a living squeezing myself through two tennis rackets and sitting on a tin can.

what scares you?

At the moment, America.

Imagine going to work in a flight simulator controlling a drone bomber on the other side of the world. You kill a bunch of people, destroy a neighbourhood then rush off to pick up your daughter from drama class…

I find it truly frightening.

what’s worth fighting for?

A meaningful life, and (as the beastie boys reminded us) - the right to party.

tell me about creativity …?

To be creative seek out inspiring art, ideas and experiences and then express what that makes you feel and think in whichever way you can.

your biggest inspiration?

Those that do stuff others call impossible and the guy that carved an Eiffel towers that fit inside the eye of a needle.

what is the world you imagine?

A world where Illuminated Showmen plant Seeds of change crowds and show by show they make the world a better place.

what are your words of wisdom?

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams it is still a beautiful world.