Mime for Laughs

Polish mime Ireneusz Krosny opens with what amounts to a combination of homage and dismissal of the Marcel Marceau school, running through all the staples of walking, carrying a weight, hitting a wall and the like, as if to say “I can do all that, now let me show you my style."

That turns out to be the type of mime that relies heavily on music and sound effects, so that the humour frequently lies in the actor’s reactions to noises or voices rather than in the reality he creates through mime. Thus, for example, a scene about having to listen to a child’s attempts to play a viola leans as much on the sound of sour notes as on Krosny’s mugging of pain, and a burglar sketch consists largely of his mimed clumsiness and the banging and crashing it generates.

Of course there are precedents for this too, and some will be reminded of certain music hall comedians or American physical clowns like Red Skelton.

If one gets past the sense that Krosny is sometimes cheating by not doing it all himself, there are clever and inventive moments, like the quick fencing and basketball gags, a longer scene as an overeager bodyguard, and especially the silent direction of the audience in the mode and timing of applause.