Chautauqua provides a ‘surefire antidote to cynicism, pessimism and depression’
Paul Magid, a founder of the New Old Time Chautauqua and the Flying Karamazov Brothers, wants his audience to bring objects — nearly anything! — for him to juggle at the New Old Time Chautauqua show at 7 p.m. April 19 at the Bellingham Circus Guild, 1401 Sixth Street.
At the show, he’ll be his alter ego, Dmitri Karamazov.
“(Objects will) have to be heavier than an ounce, less than 10 pounds and no bigger than a breadbox,” he stipulated.
“If I win, I get a standing ovation,” he said. “If I lose, I get a pie in the face.”
Never seen Chautauqua?
Chautauqua is an idea, or more a recipe, Magrid explained, “where you add ongoing learning, entertainment, traveling, laughter, adventure and, above all, community, under a single (bohemian) roof.”
Founded in 1874 on New York’s Lake Chautauqua, the Chautauqua idea took off like wildfire, he said.
Revival
The New Old Time Chautauqua is a revival of the turn-of-the-20th-century Chautauquas.
“The show is a potpourri of defiance of gravity, comedy, heartfelt music, unexpected thrills, audience participation, beauty in motion, silly toe-tapping band music, real magic and a display of how a community working together can accomplish anything,” Magrid said.
Bellingham poet Kevin Murphy got involved with Chautauqua in October 1996, performing his original poetry — mostly humorous, sometimes accompanied by drumming — in a Chautauqua show at the Mount Baker Theatre.
The Chautauqua family invited him to participate in a couple more shows that weekend, and he’s been a member ever since.
Murphy said Chautauqua brings culture and a spirit of celebration to places not often visited by touring artists — small towns, rural communities and reservations.
This mission is advanced by the yearly summer tour but also by the benefit shows — like the upcoming Bellingham show — which raises money for the summer tours in which he performs.
Anything can happen
Murphy describes Chautauqua as a variety show where anything can happen.
“In Chautauqua,” he said, “the silly and the profound exist in close overlapping proximity. A cello sonata might be followed by a slapstick gag involving a rubber chicken by the end of the show.”
In addition to the shows, New Old Time Chautauqua has a service element and offers workshops in prisons, juvenile detention centers, senior centers and hospitals.
Murphy said that on their own, Chautauquans tend to be interesting, upbeat, imaginative individuals, and bringing them all together in the spirit of fun and celebration is irresistible.
He loves that he’s been able to run away with the circus — as a poet, no less.
Karl Meyer, who works in outreach at Bellingham’s Community Food Co-op, joined the troupe in 1990.
Like Magrid, Meyer has an alter-ego, Carlo Noodlini, when he performs. He attended a show in Port Townsend when he was in college and said “you could just feel the love and fun dripping from these folks and some good old love connecting with the audience.”
Joining the Flying Karamazov Brothers and Murphy at the April 19 show will be Port Townsend’s Artis the Spoonman, illusionist Matthew “Poki” McCorkle, trapeze artists the Bunion Sisters and more. Leading the show will be the eclectic marching band the Fighting Instruments of Karma.
Magrid is looking forward to this summer as the troupe goes on tour, with an “Aqua Chautauqua” called “Eau Canada.” They’ll be traveling through the Canadian Gulf Islands by sailboat, visiting remote off-the-grid communities and first nations in what he calls “a grand tour, all in Canada, to join with our brothers and sisters just north of the border in friendship and spirit.”
Murphy speaks from experience when he says that “Chautauqua is a surefire antidote to cynicism, pessimism and depression.”
Learn more about the show and get tickets at the event page.
— By Margaret Bikman