Monday, September 24, 2007

Don’t Blame It On The Sunshine, Blame It On Marcel

The world is today quietly mourning the death of Marcel Marceau, the world’s premier mime artist (though I defy anyone to name another mime artist, premier or otherwise).

No more will he struggle to make headway against an imaginary wind or pretend to be confined in an invisible box (unless he wakes up six feet under and there’s been some terrible mistake). One can only imagine his silent death throes, clutching at his heart in a theatrical manner to the admiration of hospital staff believing they were witnessing another trademark performance. I don’t think he had any final words.

Marcel is actually indirectly responsible for one of the worst films of the ‘80s as Michael Jackson reportedly copied his moonwalk directly from the aforementioned ‘wind’ routine. Had there been no moonwalk, there would be no Moonwalker - a motley collection of self-promoting tat masquerading as a film from the monkey-loving weirdo. In it he plays a hero with magical powers and is chased by drug dealer Mr. Big, finding time to save three children and shoehorn a number of his music videos into proceedings. He even copied his white pasty face…

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