Gallery
FKB Photos that weren't included in Jester Prince
Oregon Country Fair, Chumleighland stage, 1976
l to r, Roberto Morganti, Molly "Molly Guena" Mason, Howard "Ivan Karamazov" Patterson, Peggy "Spike Wilder" Wendel, Maida Belove (?), Paul "Dmitri Karamazov" Magid, Randy "Alyosha Karamazov" Nelson, Tim "Fyodor Karamazov" Furst
reprinted from Fair Family News
The Apple Trick, at a San Francisco street fair, 1976
l to r, Howard Patterson, Paul Magid
We just graduated from UC Santa Cruz and moved to San Francisco with Randy and Tim. We're juggling two apples and an Italian throwing hatchet, while eating the apples. Hatchet is in the air far left, Apple 1 mid-air left of center, Apple 2 in Paul's hand.
reprinted from San Francisco Chronicle
"The Question Game", from Rosencrantz and Guildentstern are Dead by Sir Tom Stoppard,
while juggling, on the Path at Oregon Country Fair, maybe 1975
Publicity photo at Kezar Stadium, right next to our apartment in San Francisco, 1976
l to r, Randy Nelson, Howard Patterson, Paul Magid, holding some of the hardware we juggled
Like early Beatles, we thought we needed to dress alike onstage: berets, scarves, vests
A ridiculous industrial, in Florida, for Adidas
They gave us a bag full of weird shoes that kept us shod for years
At the Santa Cruz Spring Fair, 1978
l to r, Howard on Euphonium, Randy on Alto Horn, Paul on clarinet, playing "Over the Waves"
We're accompanying Tim, who is manipulating cigar boxes center stage
A lot of costume evolution in the last two years – we're wearing Stupid Hats instead of berets, but are still wearing Navy pants instead of the trademark Stupid Pants that we'll soon adopt. Renaissance Fair shirts.
I've grown a beard and gotten contacts, and we all realized we were good enough as performers that we could stop cutting our hair to try to be less unacceptable to the general population
At Dudley Riggs' ETC, Minneapolis, Minnesota, our first regular theatre gig, 1978
Hair is longer, Stupid Hats and Stupid Pants, vintage tailcoats from Ragstock.
l to r, Howard Patterson, Paul Magid. Dudley's is where we first got to do a full evening stage show "with all the bells and whistles," moving things around and messing with the variables night after night until we really had it at full power. We were still playing the Renaissance Festival during the day, driving an hour into town to do the show, then driving back that night
After our first Karamazov exploration of the Mysterious East Coast, Seiza and I drove Rebo's Volvo station wagon Wohlberg west across the country. Stopping in Louisiana, Seiza snapped this polaroid portrait, which I've always thought would be a fantastic album cover.
The swamp is on fire!
Drawing from the Wall Street Journal's front page article about the "New Vaudeville movement." December 6, 1985 top row l to r, Paul Magid, Howard Patterson. bottom row l to r, Randy Nelson, Tim Furst, Sam Williams
At some point in the early or mid '80s, we stopped the bus somewhere in North America and our stage manager, Peter Dansky, took some portraits in front of a brick wall. New Alchemy Institute was a big part of my inspiration to go into The Show Business, as the most available route for finding the funding to follow their lead and found a civilization.
Judging from Randy's relaxing perm, it was not long after a run of Comedy of Errors,
in which we attempted to match his long straight hair to his "twin" Sam Williams' fuzz fest.
Paul Magid
Sam Williams
One of my favorite photos ever. From the Lincoln Center run of Comedy of Errors, the wonderful New York Times review. Those faces!
Sarah Krulwich's photo is truly world class. Not identified in the caption are bottom row, l to r, Danny Mankin and Karla Burns.
From the very generous Time magazine review of Comedy of Errors.
l to r, Howard Patterson as Antipholus of Ephesus, Sophie Hayden as his wife Adriana. He's about to beat her with that rope's end, he thinks, but Shakespeare and Robert Woodruff have other ideas. This photo is from a dress rehearsal, before I got the signature black leather string tie that finishes off the ensemble.
From the New York Magazine review of Comedy of Errors. The moment when the twins are revealed.
l to r, Karla Burns as the Duke, unfortunately obscured by Danny Mankin as Aegeon (who we're about to learn is the father of the Antipholi), Paul Magid as Antipholus of Syracuse, Alec Willows as both Angelo the Goldsmith and Walter the Second Merchant, Howard Patterson as Antipholus of Ephesus, Ethyl Eichelberger as both the Abbess and Aemilia the mother of the Antipholi.
Randy left the troupe, we went on as four. l to r, Paul Magid, Howard Patterson, Tim Furst, Sam Williams.
In this piece, Tim did fancy solo club juggling while the rest of us played Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine." As Sam lifted his horn to his lips, it knocked off his elaborate and very inappropriate sombrero, and he spent the rest of the piece trying to pick it up in endlessly hilarious ways. I don't think anybody ever watched what poor Tim was doing.
Paul (left) and Howard in white tie and tails, the most dressed up a male human can be.
For safety's sake, Paul generally performed with his ridiculously abundant hair in a braid. This was no easy task, and generally our sound guy/driver, Mr. Andrew of Canada, had the responsibility of getting the wildness under control. In emergencies, I was also able to do it.
As shows became more theatrical and less juggle-focussed, Tim left the troupe and was replaced by actor Michaels Preston.
top row l to r, Paul Magid, Sam Williams. bottom row l to r, Michael Preston, Howard Patterson
Club Sandwich was a sort of noir detective piece in which we played 14 characters, including this bunch of low-lives.
l to r, Sam Williams as seedy detective Shifty, Howard Patterson as portly Sidney Greenstreet lookalike Villiers, Michael Preston as chanteuse femme fatale Desireé, Paul Magid as sniveling Peter Lorre clone Borgia
The deus ex machina conclusion of Room Service, in which we transmogrify into the original '30s characters.
It was a deconstruction of the original play, doing our best to ignore the Marx Brothers' version, a play within a play within a play where we as Karmamazovs, locked in a hotel room we couldn't pay for, tried to figure out how to perform a play about a theatre company locked in a hotel room they couldn't pay for.
l to r, Howard Patterson as dapper director Harry Binion, Sam Williams as avenging hotel inspector Gregory Wagner,
Michael Preston as richest man in the world Gill Bates, Paul Magid as conniving producer Gordon Miller
Room Service at the Mark Taper Forum in LA's Music Center finally gets us on The Tonight Show.
l to r, Paul Magid on the couch, guest Lea Thompson, Howard Patterson having just won the Gamble, Jay Leno
Paul juggles the sun in L'Universe, our collaboration with MIT's Media Lab
Sam left the troupe to deal with family and health issues, Michael left to have a real life, we found new crew for L'Universe.
We opened the show as rock band Black Lab. l to r, Paul Magid on Beatles bass, some guy on electric guitar,
Howard Patterson on drums, Rod Kimball on keyboard
The Juggletron, our most sophisticated and flexible juggling instrument.
Six octaves of chromatic Dauz pads, on which we could theoretically play any musical composition.
From L'Universe
The Pendul Piece, one of the most unusual and beautiful - and, surprisingly, dangerous - things we ever did. To demonstrate principles oa Newtonian physics in L'Universe, we played five pendula made of tuned scuba tanks and struck with rawhide mallets. At first they hung still, then we swung them, played them as they reached us, ran back and forth to follow them, and finally walked through the pattern playing them as they passed. They were so massive, a misplaced knee could have been badly mangled. The tune was an ethereal melody by Doug Wieselman.