5.11.08
What I'm Reading
Martin Amis, Bob Dylan books, Richard Price
5.11.08
How I'm Feeling
Need a replacement for lower back
5.8.08
Weekend Highlights May 9-11
THE ROGOVOY REPORT
5.6.08
[PRESS RELEASE] Pinchas Zukerman daughter Natalia to headline at Club Helsinki
Coming to Great Barrington, Mass., nightclub on May 18
5.2.08
Singer/composer Jenny Scheinman at MASS MoCA is weekend's top pick
Preview by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
4.25.08
[FILM REVIEW] Shine a Light (The Rolling Stones)
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
4.17.08
[FILM REVIEW] The Counterfeiters
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
4.11.08
Klezmatics do Woody Guthrie's Jewish songs
Weekend highlights, April 11-13
3.17.08
GOLEM returns to Club Helsinki for PURIM this Friday night
Press Release from Club Helsinki
7.1.07
[PERFORMANCE ART REVIEW] Aurelia Thierree at Jacob's Pillow
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING
2.25.08
Richard Thompson, America, and Madeline Peyroux added to Mahaiwe lineup this spring
Mahaiwe press release
2.25.08
Dennis Prager to make the case for Judaism at Berkshire South
Simulcast of lecture at NY's 92nd St. Y
2.24.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Urban vs. Pastoral Music at the Mahaiwe courtesy of Close Encounters with Music
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
2.18.08
[THEATER REVIEW] TRUMBO at Barrington Stage
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
2.18.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Sarah Aroeste's neo-Ladino at Club Helsinki
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
2.18.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Sarah Aroeste's neo-Ladino at Club Helsinki
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
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[COMEDY REVIEW] The Flying Karamazov Brothers at the Mahaiwe
2.11.08
THE MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
GREAT BARRINGTON, MASS.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2008
THE FLYING KARAMAZOV BROTHERS
Review by Seth Rogovoy, editor-in-chief and critic-at-large, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
(Great Barrington, Mass., February 10, 2008) -- They didn't fly. They aren't Russian. And they certainly aren't brothers. In spite of misrepresenting themselves thusly, the Flying Karamazov Brothers delighted a sold-out Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, packed to the gills with a crowd ranging in age from newborn to long-in-the-teeth, with their crazy, funny antics.
At its heart, the ensemble is a juggling troupe, but no ordinary one. In fact, the Flying Karamazov Brothers are a juggling troupe for people who don't really like juggling. While they are truly magnificent jugglers, they take the craft into a different realm, one where the juggling itself is merely a visual vocabulary for comedy and emotional expression.
As such, the Brothers can get away with the occasional dropped bowling pin. Life has its disappointments, and we all learn how to deal with them. Same with the Brothers. A dropped pin is merely an opportunity for greater awe and entertainment. Drop a pin? What are you going to do about it? The show must go on, and the Brothers make the most of this sort of spontaneity.
The Brothers offered other comedic routines, including musical numbers (several in which instruments are played by more than one person, sometimes while juggling), brief sketches (including one about a Polish immigrant family that finds itself in Appalachian coal-mining country and pass the time by practicing their unique style of Polish-Appalachian clog dancing), and plenty of tossed-off puns and one-liners. Early on, the group acknowledged its debt to England's Monty Python's Flying Circus comedy troupe, when one member came onstage riding a mop like a horse followed by another clapping two halves of a coconut together.
Highlights of the show included a portion where Paul Magid, aka Dmitri Karamazov, juggled several items contributed by audience members, in this case including a pat of butter and a brick of quickly melting chocolate ice cream. And the show built to a climax with the juggle of "terror," in which the members juggled and passed to each other items including a flaming torch and a meat cleaver.
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