Balancing fun,
By Tim Ryan
music for a
great show
Star-BulletinTHE Flying Karamazov -- pronounced Kara-maht-soff -- Brothers aren't really brothers -- not to each other anyway. They also aren't Russian, a trapeze act, tools of the Clinton administration to discredit Russians in the eyes of Americans or a children's show.
And, warns Michael Preston, aka Rakitin Karamazov, "We are not The Brothers Karamazov, nor The Flying Kalamari Brothers, The Flying Karam ... Got it!" Other members of the group are Paul Magid as Dimitri, Tim Furst as Fyodor, and Howard Jay Patterson as Ivan.
However, they are highly skilled -- though not too serious -- jugglers/musicians/comedians who perform tonight and tomorrow at the Hawaii Theatre.
"We live in a sort of twisted musical world," Preston said. "Our show is where juggling can be heard and music can be seen. See, we use only instruments that can be played while juggling."
The Flying Karamazov Brothers dance a hip-hop ballet, a Japanese-inspired Taiko percussion selection on carefully tuned cardboard boxes, and perform Mozart's Bassoon Concerto on the baritone horn though it hadn't even been invented when Mozart was alive. And you'll hear intricate rhythms beaten out with balls and clubs on the heads of drums; Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" is pounded out on the heads of helmet wearing, radio-triggered Karamazovs themselves.
But make sure to do your homework before the show.
In a bit called "The Gamble," the audience brings to the theater whatever objects of whimsy or terror they think will prove unjuggable and put the Brothers to the test.
"The act includes three objects that must be heavier than an ounce and lighter than 10 pounds," Preston said. "Oh, and there can be no living objects or anything that would keep the juggler from being a living object."
At a Lincoln Center performance last Christmas, they were handed two dead octopi, and an iron. Then there was the time audience members handed the Brothers a pig's stomach stuffed with lime jello, and a bag filled with dead frogs.
"We want the audience to bring challenging items and bet a standing ovation against a pie in the face that it can't be done," Preston said.
The Brothers have been around since 1973. They've created and performed in their own adaptations of classics: The Three Moscowteers, The Soldier's Tale, and The Comedy of Errors.
And that name Karamazov? The group originally called itself Patterson, McGee and Nelson.
"The group ran into somebody's famous granddaughter who was hitchhiking and told them their name was terrible," Preston said. "Howard was reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and he realized the characters they played on stage were similar to the brothers in the book."
"It's a cross between the Flying Wallendas and a serious Russian book. Isn't that funny?"
'Sharps, Flats and Accidentals'
featuring the Flying Karamazov BrothersWhen: Today and tomorrow , 8 p.m.
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