I believe you are thinking of "Mummenschanz." Here is a description
from a newgroup post about the Big Apple Circus. Although this post
has misspelled "Mummenschanz," the description of the act is good:
"Mummenshanz is a Swiss troupe which might be described as clowns or
might be described as puppeteers, but neither would be terribly
accurate. The distinguishing characteristic of their acts is their
costumes which mostly hide the fact that they are humans underneath.
As various points in this show, they were dressed up a large white
gloves (one person was the left hand, the other the right), large
slinkys (playing with a large balloon), and a slinky creature (four
slinky like appendages attached to a slinky torso)."
Newsgroup Post, rec.juggling
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=9411082153.AA02457%40bou.shl.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain
Here is another description:
"If you hate mime, then you'll love Mummenschanz. The brilliant and
whimsical Swiss company (whose name means "masquerade") brings its
amazingly elastic shapes, blobs, puppets and masks to life in what may
be the most delightful silent show you’ll ever see."
Pepperdine University: Mummenschanz
http://www.pepperdine.edu/cfa/artists/mummenschanz.htm
The Mummenschanz group has its own Web site, with lots of information,
posters, video, and a T-shirt:
http://www.mummenschanz.com/
I first saw this charming performance-theater group back in the '70s
when they appeared on "The Muppet Show." Kermit the frog introduced
them as "distant cousins to the Muppets," which seems apt. I suspect
that they may be distant cousins of Blue Man Group, too!
My Google search strategy:
Google Groups Search: "big apple circus" + "costumes"
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22big+apple+circus%22+costumes&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en
Google Web Search: "Mummenschanz"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Mummenschanz
I hope this helps! If anything I have said is unclear, or if any of
the links do not function, please ask for clarification.
Cordially,
pinkfreud |
