Too Much Fun

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Yes, it may in fact be possible to have too much fun. I never would have thought so before last Sunday, but now I’m convinced it just might be. We took a walking tour of a neighborhood in Brooklyn, shopped at my favorite camera store in the entire world, and topped the day off with a Broadway show. To make the whole day even better, the show wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill Broadway show. We saw ”Slava’s SnowShow”, an extravaganza of beauty, imagination, and just plain fun.

(I had never heard of Slava before, but he is a famous clown from Russia, known around the world. You would think that as a former clown I would have known, but no… Anyway…)

It’s the kind of show that’s really hard to explain, since it lacks all the “norms” of clown acts, like balloon animals, cheesy magic tricks, and tiny cars. Instead, it goes from random silliness, to poignant introspection, to surrealism, to outright, fully abandoned fun. Imagine a theater filled with a wide variety of ages, nationalities, and walks of life, all becoming childlike and having one giant, colossal “snowball” fight, as well as creating a ginormous work of performance art. Here’s a promo video for the UK tour to give you an overview of the experience.  (Gotta love YouTube!)

Yes, that’s really what it’s like, only moreso. The “blizzard” near the end of the show is made up of little rectangular pieces of tissue paper and one mongo fan, pointed straight at the audience. You know those balloons that came through the backdrops near the end of the video? They are something like eight to twelve feet across, and were bounced around the theater by the crowd for at least half an hour at the end of the show, along with a couple dozen three foot balloons. You kinda hate to leave while there’s still fun, after all! Besides, the urge to get your hands on one of those giant balloons is quite overwhelming!

To give you a feel for the scope of things, here’s a shot of the theater floor after the show:

After the Blizzard

Fortunately, for us the fun didn’t stop when we left the theater.  After heeding the signs that asked us to please not track “snow” out of the theater by dusting ourselves off (which was tons of fun on Brian’s suede jacket!) we headed out into the frigid night to catch a cab back to our car. After paying the cab driver, Brian hopped out of the cab and a small burst of paper snow went POOF! from a crease in the bag he was carrying, decorating the street and sidewalk. As we started the trip home we decided it would be a good idea to stop to get some caffiene to keep us awake, as well as to use the restroom. When Brian came out of the men’s room, he laughed and said, “Well, that was amusing!” It seems that while he was adjusting his clothing there were two separate mini snowstorms,  each leaving a pool of paper snow on the floor.

We finally got home at almost midnight and began to get ready for bed. Brian removed his shirt and POOF!, yet another decorative moment had occurred. This time I was ready for it. Here’s a shot of our bedroom floor:

Snow

The next day I was cleaning house, and here’s what I found in the bathroom:

More Snow

Meanwhile, Brian was at work and reached into his shirt pocket for something (he was wearing the same shirt as the day before) and, you guessed it: POOF! Twice. He sent me this picture message:

Office Snow

Once I finally had all the aftermath of the show cleaned up, I turned to my project for the day: printing some photos using the awesome paper I had bought in New York the day before. I reached into the shopping bag to get one of the packages of paper, and here is what came out:

Even More Snow

Ah, yes. The show that keeps on giving! In case you haven’t had enough fun yet, here’s one more video to help you out.  It’s not as good as being there, but it’s the next best thing!

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Filed under Just for Fun, Random Ramblings, Uncategorized

Tags: Just for Fun, Random Ramblings