Slapstick Comedian – Krämer

It’s always interesting to see how many actors and actresses started off in theater, particularly in vaudeville in the early 1900s. There were so many vibrant vaudevillian acts that Hollywood recruiters swarmed around the show houses. Many of the actors translated well onto the screen with slapstick routines or comedy. Buster Keaton is an obvious example, and the article points out how he was so hesitant to go into movies at first. This is such an interesting anecdote taken into consideration his ultimate success in film. Audiences at that time were a huge draw to the vaudeville stage; they made up a large part of the shows with their applause and laughter. Without the audience being directly in front of them, the Keatons had trouble envisioning a successful or fruitful career.

This is one huge difference between the world of cinema and that of theater. Though both involve a certain amount of audience participation, the performers are not there while the spectators are reacting and therefore cannot draw from the audience’s influence on them during their performances. This is a very important difference between theater and film performance: the direct influence of the audience. Though fan mail and interactions make it easier for film stars to gain access to their audience, they film on set and are therefore not privy to audience reaction. I never thought about this, but it was probably a huge worry to people who were used to an audience in vaudeville to try and make it in the film industry.

Laterna Magika – Burian

I do not know what to think about this article because it was so factual and based on chronology that it didn’t really add that much insight except for the detailed description of an entire half-decade worth of performances. The only thing that I can take from this article and connect to the class is the idea of spectacle as a universal draw to a show. Toward the end of the article, Burian mentions that Svoboda’s new shows are aimed toward an international audience, and are thus less rich in dialogue and more based around aesthetic pleasure. Ultimately, what a producer or director wants is to please his/her audience.