Learning Link
The Flying Karamazov
Brothers
Monday, March 10, 2014
9:30am & 11am
The Flying Karamazov
Brothers (Special Student Performance)
April 30, 2015
- 12:00
Monday,
March
10,pm
2014
May 1, 2015 - 10:00 am
9:30am & 11am
The Capitol Theatre
The Flying Karamazov Brothers
(Special Student Performance)
Learning Links presents
The Flying Karamazov Brothers
April 30,March
2015 -10,
12:00
Monday,
2014pm
9:30am
11am
May 1, &
2015
- 10:00 am
The Capitol Theatre
“Each toss is a flirtation with failure.”
— “Dmitri” (Paul Magid)
Connecting to Curriculum and Students’ Lives!
Arts: physical theater, music
Science: balance, physics
Students’ Lives: athletics
The Work
Flying? Karamozov? Brothers?
Well, they don’t in fact fly at any point in this, or any, show. Neither are they in any way related – let alone brothers.
And the coup de grâce? There’s nothing faintly Dostoveskian about them, apart from a penchant for adopting names
for themselves from that redoubtable Russian worthy’s most voluminous work! Instead, get ready for a rollicking
band of jugglers, the likes of which you may never yet have seen. So distant are they from the steppes of Russia that
in fact they emerged in embryonic form over forty years ago from that other exotic location – Santa Cruz. In those
early stages they busked – that is to say they performed on the street for what passersby were willing to toss in
their proffered caps.
A madcap melange of music, mayhem, farcical humor, and daring acts of juggling virtuosity, today’s show incorporates Indian clubs (they look like bowling pins and are part of the juggler’s basic equipment) and kilts. It’s just
that kind of bracing juxtaposition of one thing with another that gives this act its unique profile. Consider a couple
of the main events which form a part of every Flying Karamazov Brothers show: The Terror Trick and The Gamble.
The Gamble is predicated on the idea that the brothers will take on the task of juggling any doggone thing the
audience may happened to have smuggled in with them. As one peruses the list of items which have materialized
in past performances, the suspicion arises that at least some members of the public are hip to the trick and come
armed with the most outrageous objects they could scrounge up. These have included unwrapped cubes of butter,
slabs of bacon, a bag of flour, and a crème cake. In case your thoughts are already turning toward contraband you
might secrete in your Gucci bag or inside the panels of your jacket – a pet armadillo? Kitchen Aide equipment?
– let us quickly add that FKB impose rules and limits on just what they are willing to toss up into the air in The Gamble.
Said items must weigh more than an ounce, less than ten pounds, and cannot exceed the size of a breadbox.
Positively no live animals – and nothing the juggling of which might, as the Brothers’ website specifies, endanger
the juggler’s status as a “live animal.” So apparently stressful is this daring display of skill that brother Ivan, who
formerly was the one to perform The Gamble, has been strictly forbidden by his doctor to continue. His retirement
has thrust Dimitri into the spotlight. And scarcely any wonder the medical community has taken a dim view of the
practice! The Gambler is obliged to accept any three items – assuming they fall within the approved guidelines
– which the audience collectively selects for him by applauding loudest. He may make only three modifications
to those items, for manageability. Then comes the test. If he keeps his objects aloft for a series of ten continuous
throws, his reward is a standing ovation. If he fails to maintain fewer than three throws, he receives a pie in the face
instead. Ah, the performing life is not for sissies... This particular trick was formerly called The Challenge. Perhaps
they’ve renamed it in honor of one of the brilliant Fyodor’s other novels, The Gamblers.
Then, there is the Terror Trick. Here we are introduced not to a mere three items but to nine. And what a terrifying
selection it is! In short order these are layered in one at a time until all nine are aloft: a cleaver, a torch, a salt shaker,
a ukulele, a skillet, a fish, an egg, a block of dry ice, and a bottle of champagne. Well, we’re not sure how much actual
terror resides in an egg – or fish. But the objects have been chosen with care, for subsequently the fish and the egg
get cooked in the skillet, and the brothers get cooked on champagne. Well, maybe not cooked exactly – but they do
take a swig. It’s all delirious fun, part variety show, part vaudeville, part circus. And there is the occasional moment
that hovers on the edge of the divine: as for example when the pins tumbling through the air create oddly beautiful
patterns overhead, almost in slow motion as if time itself were holding its breath. And let no one deny the level of
skill these men must muster! Just watch Pavel go ambling through the maze of flying pins – untouched – to retrieve
a wayward club!
The Creators
Back in 1973, the first incarnation of the Flying Karamazov Brothers featured exactly two jugglers: Ivan and Dmitri.
Ivan has since retired; his name was actually Howard. Well, it still is. Dmitri’s real name is Paul and he remains the
eminence grise of the company today, which by the way boasts (approximately) 10 members. Dmitri’s a little grayer
these days and a bit thicker around the waist but he’s been along for the whole ride and knows where the bodies
are buried. Typically he offers running commentary throughout the shows. In talking about where FKB get their
inspiration, he says, “life experiences, adventures, and all the people that have been involved in the show for many,
many years. We’re also inspired by works of the past – literature and plays. We come up with material based off
that and we come up with things that we think are funny. We’ve been working on the idea of juggling with music.
As for objects, sometimes it’s the usual things, like clubs and balls. Sometimes we juggle with ‘danger’ objects, such
as torches, sickles, knives and machetes. We also juggle while playing the marimba at the same time. We actually
do a street show outside before the show starts so the audience is going to get a great sense of what we’ve done.”
When queried about the collaborative spirit in group work like this, he opines, “One great thing about juggling with
other people is that it teaches cooperation. It’s not a competitive sport where you’re trying to best the other person.
You’re trying to do everything you can for the other person so that you both can survive. You don’t want the balls to
fall on the ground, so you give the best pass you possibly can. It’s about communicating, reconfiguring, criticizing,
and ultimately the goal is to work in sync to complete the design. Juggling teaches a completely different message
than what we see on TV. We’re not trying to be better than the other person or get on top. What we’re trying to do is
cooperate on all levels.” How many other pursuits in life could benefit from these sage words? Then again read how
Paul Magid (Dmitri’s full civilian moniker) draws some distinctions between juggling and magic: “Juggling in itself
isn’t a subversive act. It opens up the brain and gives you a new sense of reality. There has always been a tension
between a magician and a juggler, because a juggler presents the truth. A magician as a performer is about deceit.
He’s hiding things. He’s not doing anything that he’s saying he’s doing, it’s all about what he’s getting away with. A
juggler is going, ‘Look! I’m really doing this! Honest, I’m doing this, oh my God, please believe me, I’m really doing
this!’ A juggler spends a lot of time to accomplish what he or she is showing you. It’s real magic. It’s something
going on in front of your face that’s true.”
While specifically on the subject of juggling, he had the following to say, as well. We were so struck by the thoughts
he expresses, we just had to share with you: “Basically, you have to practice and remain calm. It’s when you get
nervous that juggling goes haywire. You have to remain calm and look at everything as a whole. If you’re thinking
about something individually, it’s going to happen too fast for you to think that fast. You can’t think that fast – the
mind process turn out is incredibly slow. You need to maintain a certain Zen attitude. Juggling is a great exercise in
being able to be there, to actually be present.”
Some additional Karamazov Brothers include: Harry “Boom Boom Sweets” Levine, whose “Russian” name is Kuzma;
Chen Pollina, also known as Chenovski; and Kiyota Sage, Kiyotov to adoring audiences. Possibly appearing too:
Nick Flint “Maximov,” Stephen Bent “Zossima,” and Randy Nelson “Alyosha.” Most Karamazovs are conversant
with a wide range of musical instruments, principally in the woodwind and brass families – and they bring these
skills to the fore in performances. They can even play drums without breaking their juggling patterns! The greatest
skill on tap however is surely the juggling itself. Troupe members must rehearse around ten hours every day. And
particular shows are rehearsed intensively for months prior to unveiling.
Shows can be rather widely varied in nature. Some, for example, are built around symphony orchestras. Others may
consist of conventional narratives in which juggling helps tell the story. The company has had gigs in New York’s
theater district and taken roles in a major Hollywood film, Jewel of the Nile. They’ve been featured on Late Show
with David Letterman, Seinfeld, Ellen, The Tonight Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Mr. Rogers’
Neighborhood. Their own inventive and riotous version of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors was broadcast coast to
coast on PBS’ Live From Lincoln Center series. You can view parts of that production on YouTube. Here’s a partial list
of the celebrities they have shared stage and screen with: Frank Sinatra, Placido Domingo, The Grateful Dead, The
Who, Dolly Parton, Robin Williams, Patrick Dempsey, Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Ken Kesey,
Allen Ginsberg, Kenny Rogers, Los Lobos, The Smothers Brothers, and Dr. Joyce Brothers. Venues have included
Chicago’s Goodman Theater, The Guthrie, London’s West End, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
Want to sign up? Has your taste for running away from home to go juggle been sufficiently whetted? Well, Dmitri
would like you to know that “a lot of people want to do it. But we don’t hold auditions that often. The training
process can be a long time. Not that many people can do it. There are various skill levels. And people have to be able
to sing, play music, count, understand rhythm, and most important, have to be theatrical and funny.”
“Amazing amounts of precision are necessary for it to be
presentable, on time and in rhythm, and to make the
whole theatrical end of it work.”
— Paul Magid
Contexts
Juggling is simple, right? You toss stuff up in the air, let it start to drop, catch it, and toss it back up. The point
is to keep your objects in the air, never letting them plummet to earth, and you keep this up as long as your energy
and desire don’t give out. A simple concept perhaps, but as anyone who has actually tried it will attest, it’s just a
bit harder than it seems. We don’t know about you but the greatest number of objects we can keep aloft hovers
somewhere between 0 and 1. Clearly some folks are better at it than others, and we know that practice is a huge
component. Actually, as it happens, juggling can involve tossing as few as one item – but generally the goal is getting
as many things flying as possible. In addition to toss juggling, there is also bounce juggling and contact juggling.
The former was made possible by the wide-spread manufacture of rubber items, including balls, in the Industrial
Age. Prior to that, balls used in juggling were made of twine, wood, leather, or metal – not ideal for bouncing. It isn’t
just balls that get juggled, of course. There is the ubiquitous Indian club (or bowling pin). Rings, too. And if you’re
a bit of a daredevil, which jugglers by vocation generally are, you can manipulate “danger” items – like chainsaws,
knives, and torches. In the case of contact juggling, the items remain in constant contact with the performer’s body.
Nowadays venues for juggling include circuses, casinos, theaters, festivals, fairs, and on the street or in parks.
The very earliest image anyone has found of juggling appears on an ancient Egyptian tomb of an unknown prince
dating back some 4,000 years. Various civilizations recorded instances of juggling: Roman, Greek, Indian, Chinese,
Polynesian, and Aztec. Juggling was especially big in Rome. However with the fall of that great civilization, juggling
took a terrific tumble too. Throughout the Middle Ages, history was notated primarily by religious clerics who tended
to view juggling as decadent and possibly satanic. Throughout this vast swath of history, jugglers – in Europe
anyway – plied their trade in markets, fairs, and other lowly establishments. Occasionally we read of jesters in the
courts of kings skilled in the art of juggling. But it took till the 1700s and the creation of the first modern circus
for juggling once again to rise in visibility and popularity. During the 19th century, juggling infiltrated the world
of theater as part of variety shows, and by logical extension passed then in the first years of the 20th century into
American vaudeville. German performers like Salerno and Kara were on the rise, so-called Gentlemen Jugglers.
As vaudeville declined, and movies and radio took over, juggling declined anew. How could you juggle on the radio?
Later with the advent of television, juggling enjoyed a brief upsurge in popularity. But again as variety shows
diminished in number so did juggling wane. It’s been only since the 1970s that juggling has again risen and this
time made quite a strong and sustained showing. There’s an International Jugglers Association, various conventions, juggling clubs in most cities, and even a World Juggling Day!
We wondered how you would notate juggling pattern. Turns out, notation for juggling can be kind of complicated.
We’ll just say that sometimes it involves diagrams and sometimes sequences of numbers.
“The soul is healed by being with children.” So wrote one of the colossi of world literature, Russian novelist Fyodor
Dostoevsky. His most famous works are Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, and The Brothers
Karamazov. Throughout these works, children occasionally appear as characters – simple, vulnerable, and innocent
– to contrast with the cruelty abundant in society at every level. Certainly his works, brilliant as they are, are not at
all designed for young readers. A deeply devout man, Dostoevsky offered in his highly-readable stories an unflinching
look at mankind’s excesses and failings – as well as its occasions of grace.
The Brothers Karamazov was his final work. It took him two years to complete – and came out in serialized form (like
the works of Charles Dickens, who heavily influenced him). Although it is a massive work on its own, Dostoevsky
actually intended it to be part of a bigger work still, plans which his death four months after publication brought
to a screeching halt. The four brothers are named Dmitri, Fyodor, Ivan, and Alexei.
To get ready for the performance, students could research these:
— juggling, how to
— juggling in history
Here’s a lesson/project you could teach
to help prepare students for this work:
Line of Inquiry* How do The Flying Karamazov Brothers create patterns in the air by
(*A line of inquiry is a question that generates a lesson.)
tossing objects up & catching them?
Ask: What is juggling? How is it done? What sorts of things are commonly juggled? When have you seen a juggler?
Context: Share with students some of the information above about juggling, filled out with other information you
feel will be especially useful for your students to know. How can a consideration of size, weight, material, and
shape of objects juggled, as well as numbers of objects juggled, fit into your curriculum?
Art making: Have students create drawings of jugglers in the act of juggling. Urge them to think how they could
show the pattern the objects would make in the air. Could they achieve this by making 4 drawings on the paper,
each one showing a different position of the objects in the air? What about one image in which each object occupies
several different places in the air? Ask students to be imaginative in coming up with the objects to be juggled.
Have them consider, too, what period of history and in what culture their juggler lives – and show that through
costuming and background elements. Can students research these last elements a bit on the classroom computers?
Reflection: Students display these drawings in a “gallery” format. They view each other’s work. You guide their
noticing as a whole group of one particular drawing. Ask them questions about what they see to elicit close noticing.
After coming to the theater, students could research these:
— Russian folktales
— Russian fairytales
Here’s a follow-up lesson you could teach
after students have experienced the work:
Line of Inquiry* How do The Flying Karamazov Brothers draw upon Russian literature to
establish identities for themselves in their art form?
Question: What did you see and hear in the performance? What were the big moments? What objects were juggled?
How many at a time? How were music, spoken word, and humor used? What skills did the FKB need to have in
order to do what they did? Why are they called Karamazov Brothers?
Context: Share with students a little bit about the background of the group. Some information can be found
above – and more in the Look It Up! Internet segment toward the end of this Learning Link. Share a bit about
Dostoevsky as well. Then, have students read several Russian fairytales in synopsis. There is a nice sampling here:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Fairy_Tales)
Art making: Have students select a name from one of the stories as their “juggling name.” In other words, if they
were going to join the FKB troupe, what name would they adopt? Have them consider why they would choose that
name. Then, students write a paragraph detailing all the things they know about that character in the story; what
kind of person, what sorts of things that person does, etc. And finish off by writing why they chose that particular
name.
Reflection: These are read aloud. A couple of good open-ended questions after each reading will help students to
reflect on the choices they’ve made.
“Each person has to know their business and be relaxed.
You have to get thought out of it. You can’t thinking about
what you are doing.”
— Paul Magid
What do YOU think?
How would you answer these questions — and how could these questions be adapted for student use?
Describe the show. What are the different things that happened?
How many performers were there? Who did what?
What were the different items juggled?
What was the greatest number of items juggled? What was the smallest?
How did the size of objects seem to impact how they were juggled?
How was spoken word used?
How about music?
How were the various acts sequenced?
What were the different items juggled in The Gamble? How did that work out? Did the performer get a
standing O or a pie in the face?
How was humor a part of this show? Where did it stem from?
How did the Terror Trick go? What were the items juggled? In what sequence were they layered in?
How did you find yourself responding – and why?
What are some things you learned about juggling? About The Flying Karamazov Brothers?
What do you still want to know?
Look It Up!
Internet
Juggling for kids
www.teachcircus.com/juggling1.html
At Teachcircus.com, youngsters learn a bit about juggling. Lesson plans show students how to do the most basic
juggling maneuvers.
The benefits to kids of juggling
oddballjuggling.com/juggling-for-kids/
There are so many benefits of juggling for kids that it’s hard to list them all. But here’s the dozens of ways your
kids can benefit from juggling.
How to teach juggling: 10 steps
www.wikihow.com › ... › Tricks and Pranks › Juggling
When teaching younger kids, it is often best to start with scarves rather than balls.
Juggling history for kids
www.kidzworld.com/article/5846-juggling
It’s a skill that combines incredible balance, skill and strength. Kidzworld looks at the sport of juggling. Check out
this look at juggling history, tricks and...
Flying Karamazov Brothers website
www.fkb.com/
All things FKB.
Books
Juggling for the Complete Klutz (30th Anniversary Edition)
By: John Cassidy
Reading Level: 8 and up
Publisher: Klutz (August 2007)
ISBN-10: 1591744482
By taking the book’s instruction, someone who’s never picked up a juggling ball in their lives can learn the basics
quickly. The inclusion of bean bags adds significant value to the product.
Juggling for Beginners: 25+ Tricks to Astound Your Friends
By: Cassandra Beckerman
Reading Level: 8 and up
Publisher: Sterling Innovation (October 2012)
ISBN-10: 145490349X
This is one in a series of books that looks into the daily life of different creepy crawlies. The series also includes
ants, dragonflies, bees, snails, butterflies, and more.
Juggling Step-By-Step Book & Gift Set
By: Bobby Besmehn
Reading Level: 9 and up
Publisher: Main Street Books (April 2007)
ISBN-10: 1402704569
This well-designed book shows children how to juggle, beginning with scarves and working up to balls, socks,
apples, rings, and clubs. Each exceptionally clear, full-color photograph features a close-up of a young person
juggling.
The Clown of God
By: Tomie dePaola
Reading Level: 4 - 8 years
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (September 1978)
ISBN-10: 0156181924
In this retelling of the old French legend, a juggler offers to the Christ Child the only Christmas gift he has. “The
full-color pictures with subtle tonal modulations are an integral part of the design of the luminous pages full of
movement and vitality.
VHS
The Flying Karamazov Brothers-Video Scrapbook
Studio: Alan Plotkin Productions
ASIN: B000UYCEAK
This is a unique video scrapbook covering 28 years pf performance highlights from 1973-2001 gleaned from the
personal video archives of the Flying Karamazov Brothers.
Enable People with Disabilities and Computers with the Flying Karamazov Brothers
ASIN: B000PVBVY8
“It happens in less than a split second,
so it takes a lot of thought.”
— Paul Magid