Sunday, April 13, 2003
The Genius List, man. #020: Kumar Pallana.
Actor. Comedian. Father. Magician. Juggler. Safecracker. Groundskeeper. Family butler. Plate-spinner.
BLVR: What was one of your first big performances?
KP: Long Beach, 1955, '57. There used to be a very good television program called You Asked For It. They got a letter saying that somebody kisses snakes. [Laughs]. Some people wrote that about me, I don't know. So, this program, they said, "Well we'd like to have you."
So they have a big stuido, and they build very high, way up fifty feet or a hundred feet high, they build up a little platform. And I'm up there with four bottles and two chairs. One chair here and another chair there and two legs on and two off.
BLVR: And you stand on top?
KP: And then I do a handstand.
BLVR: On the chair! Where are the bottles? You're holding the bottles?
KP: No.
BLVR: You balance the chair on the bottles?
KP: Yeah. You go up and lift the other chair and then you do the handstand. Then you drop the chair and then you come down and you pick up one bottle and now the chair is on three bottles. Then you go up again and pick up the chair and you hold it out, all they way out on the side.
In America they have a lot of very good actors. But all the circuses here, the Ringling Brothers and all those kind, most people are the Europeans or the Asians. Here you can get by because it is a different culture. You can have a nice tuxedo, a bow tie. You can get by.
BLVR: If you have a nice bow tie, that's all you need.
KP: Yeah. [Laughs.]
posted by Linus |
10:39 AM
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