Mikael the Mime
July 29, 2008 By: almostgotit Category: Mikael the Mime, Mime, Uncategorized, audition, failure, humor, rejection, video
Mikael Rudolph is a college buddy of mine. That was back in the stone age, but even then he was a fabulous mime. Come to think of it, that’s also probably when he got so good at taming rocks — but more about that in a minute.
Mikael is also a cancer survivor, having had a fairly miraculous cure of a tumor that appeared in a rather undignified location, and as a result is currently writing a play called (ahem) Cancer, My Ass.
You may not have heard of Mikael, but I bet you’ve heard of the world’s most famous mime,Marcel Marceau. Marceau once said of Mikael that ”In this style… he is a master. Absolutely. It could not have been done any better.”
I KNOW. Wow, right?
But mimes don’t get no respect, and Mikael wanted me to share what he CLAIMS to be a possibly-fictional tale of his disastrous journey to Chicago to audition for an “America’s Got Talent” casting director.
REJECTION. Oh, if only he had bouncing breasts, was married to someone who bites the heads off of live bats, or had apprenticed with Donald Trump.
But here: judge for yourself, and don’t miss the pet rock.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Wow. This was so lovely. I have to admit I’ve always thought mimes just made fun of people in big city parks. I watched this video a couple times, and still can’t figure out how he made the suitcase and the rock do that. Are any wires involved?
July 29th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
He is excellent. I had to take mime classes in performing arts school; it is Exceedingly Difficult. Your friend is a classical artist; I’ll bet the AGT casting director did not have time or patience for that, or perhaps decided America would not. See my post from June 6 (”SYTYCD = DMB”); same thang.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I hope Mikael is checking in to hear the nice things you’re saying about him! All true, of course. I will look again at that post, Deb. Too bad re the AGT directors — which “America” are they speaking for, do you suppose??
July 29th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
They are speaking for the Pop Culture Junkies; these are the people who occasionally turn out to see a touring company production of a Broadway show (in a small- or medium-sized town) wearing wife beaters, because they have no freaking clue that they should DRESS for the theatre.
July 30th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Wow! Everything is so seamless. A very talented mime indeed
July 31st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Thanks for all the nice things you have all said:
One small clarification from the paragraph:
“But mimes don’t get no respect, and Mikael wanted me to share what he CLAIMS to be a possibly-fictional tale of his disastrous journey to Chicago to audition for an “America’s Got Talent” casting director.”
It seems to lead to the impression that I just went to Chicago (or didn’t), when I actually was (maybe) successful through two layers of auditions in Chicago (or not) and then got flown to L.A. for a filming in front of Sharon Osborne, David Hasselhoff and Piers Morgan (or maybe that wasn’t me?).
So the (hypothetical) trip to Chicago was fantastic – so fantastic that I pooped out my tumor in a Janesville, Wisconsin restroom – but the trip to L.A. was… stupid (hypothetically, of course).
February 28th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
[...] Rest in peace, friend Mikael. [...]
March 1st, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Mikael! (Now here’s a trick I want to learn!)