Must be seen to be believed

[vettecat]

May be the most impressive mime performance ever... I have no idea how this was done.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Think muppets. The hand holding the staff is fake. (I have 5m to go. If I'm wrong, I'll post again. :)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Mmm, maybe... though some of those moves don't look quite possible.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

(Ok, he then switches his hand from the head to the arm. The blacklight trick is, well, a blacklight trick… mask under the mask..

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That one I figured out, but it's still a cool effect.

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

I agree that the hand holding the staff is a fake. That is until he drops the staff and then his real right hand takes its place and now he is holding the head in both hands.

The real genius here (if you look at it this way) is the incredible choreography involved in keeping your mind off thinking that the right arm is holding the head, sort of like a magician getting you to look at something else. He did amazing work in choreographing moves that enabled him to move with the staff and "hand" holding it staying consistent. He really only lets the fake arm and staff move a couple of times at the end but it is carefully done.

But of course this is just my opinion :).

Very elegantly done.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I could see that being the case for a lot of it but not all... must be several things going on.

[dda.livejournal.com]

...sort of like a magician...

I think this is the key; this is a magic act, complete with indirection, disguised as a dance performance. And very well done, too! :-)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Well put! That's a good way to look at it.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

As others have pointed out, if you watch, you can see just how it's done. The hand holding the staff is fake, up until the switch where it's turned away from you. The blacklight effect and no head is a mask under a mask. It's all done with misdirection and choreography.

But why analyze it like that? It's beautiful!

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's kind of how I felt too... I was too busy enjoying it to analyze it too closely.