Comic Tomáš Kubínek to make Maui debut
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Billed as a "certified lunatic and master of the impossible," Tomáš Kubínek is an acclaimed comic performer, vaudevillian and theatrical innovator whose one-man shows have delighted audiences around the world.
Making his Maui debut Sunday, Kubínek has been described as a zany combination of Monty Python and the "Ed Sullivan Show" variety artist as seen through the eyes of the creator of "Stupid Pet Tricks." He combines comedy, physical theater, magic, mime, music and audience interaction into a unique live experience that has earned rave reviews.
"His very appearance has the audience giggling uncontrollably before he even opens his mouth," praised The Irish Times. "Mr. Kubínek is a charmer, sweet and funny, and the combination left us all silly-putty in his hands."
The Louisville Courier-Journal noted, "Kubínek creates a humor based on artful dodges and poetic bamboozlements performed with feline virtuosity and devilish wit. His performance elicited abundant, at times uncontrollable, laughter, and sent the audience home cured of blues, blahs, and melancholic tendencies."
"I'm really good," Kubínek told Allentown's The Morning Call. "It's kind of a mixture of things. The sort of stuff I do, sort of the vaudeville comic, has a very wide appeal to all ages. I'm a pretty accessible performer. They warm up to me pretty quick."
His act can include plucking a ukulele while singing like a chicken and doing backward somersaults with a glass of water balanced on his forehead. In his "Dance of the Six Feet," Kubínek dons an overcoat and goggles and a contraption called a "continuous tri-foot walking machine."
Born in Prague, he was smuggled out of the country at age 3 by his parents to escape the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. After two months in a refugee camp in Austria, the Kubínek family was granted asylum in Canada.
As a 5-year-old, he witnessed his first circus, and became interested in clowns, circus, theater, and magic, with his parents taking him to see every show that passed through town.
By age 9, he was doing a magic-comedy act, mostly simple tricks, such as linking rings, along with some improvisation, and he became the youngest member from Toronto of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
"Partly because we left the communist regime of Czechoslovakia, my dad was quite open-minded about making your own life rather than being stuck in what the state told you to do," he told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "Even though I don't think he understood it, he saw that I was quite interested in all this stuff. He was a bit of a revolutionary."
At 13 years old, he had an agent and was entertaining in coffeehouses and taverns. Kubínek added theatrical elements and clowning to his act, and he became an agile acrobat.
Over the years, Kubínek has studied and worked with many notable theatrical luminaries like French mime and acting teacher Jacques Lecoq. He was also inspired by Boleslav Polivka, a Czech actor, mime and playwright.
With Britain's The Right Size theater company, Kubínek created "Moose," a surreal comedy about three men braving the elements of the Arctic tundra. The play toured Europe and received Time Out Magazine's top Critics Choice Award.
With director and clown Jim Jackson, Kubínek co-created and starred in "BED," a surreal solo show about the nightmarish adventures of an insomniac cabaret artist imprisoned in his hotel room.
He also appeared with the U.S. Circus Flora as a guest villain, famously engaged in a comedic sword fight on the high wire with legendary tightrope walker Tino Wallenda of the Flying Wallendas, and falling 40 feet into the ring. He also masterminded an elephant kidnapping while terrorizing spectators.
"We need laughter and absurdity to let us see things in a different way and to constantly gain new freedom and open eyes and open heart," he said. "Vaudeville, Commedia dell'arte, medieval court fools, and today's clowns and comedians of all stripes are all part of this deep, important societal function."
Kubínek will perform at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Tickets are $35 to $55 at MauiArts.org.