Comedy

The great James "Buster" Brown once told me that what he really enjoyed seeing when going to, or performing in, vaudeville/variety shows were the comedy acts. Of course, Buster was a great tap dancer but he also had a flair for comedy. Whether through telling jokes or moving in a physically playful way, many tap dancers know how to get a laugh and engage the audience. Having done clowning and mime, I know what it's like to make the audience have a good time. In fact, when I was on The New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day we put on a show at Town Hall in 2000 called, The Elegance of Tap & The Comedy of Tap". Buster was one of the performers and it was hosted by Bill Irwin, not a bad tapper himself! So, here are just a few examples of tap and comedy.

Buster loved telling jokes. One of his favorites was telling the audience he was going to do the "Elevator Dance", then he would just stand there and then say, "No steps". But those of us who knew him always waited for the joke he was best known for. Here he is with The Copasetics in a performance I recorded in 1988, telling his "Light Bulb" joke.

Another member of The Copasetics was Leslie "Bubba" Gaines. Here he is from the same performance as above doing his "Fishing" joke.

One of my best friends is someone I know from the world of clowning and physical comedy, John Towsen. He is a clown, author, educator, and all round good guy with a blog called, "All Fall Down: The Craft & Art of Physical Comedy".  A few years ago, he posted about a performer named, Georges Holmes and even shared it with me, in case I knew more about him, since Holmes was a tap dancer, in addition to his other variety skills. At the time I didn't know of him, and assumed, as did John, that he was French because he briefly speaks it in the clip and it appears to be in France. I recently decided to do some internet investigation and did find something on a "Rubberneck" Holmes. Looking at the few clips of "Rubberneck" from the 1930s and comparing it with John's clip from the 1950s I saw enough similarity to believe they were the same guy. He was not French, and may have been from Boston, but probably moved to Europe like a lot of African American artists of a certain era. Click here to see the 1959 clip of Holmes posted on John's blog and look below to see a younger Holmes in action. The clip is from the 1938 "Duke Is Tops" also known as "Bronze Venus", and Holmes shows up @4:17. By the way, Lena Horne is featured in this film.

Here is a multitalented showman, whom I happened across in my YouTube surfing, named Marcel Peneux.  He was born in South America but studied in the US and has evidently toured extensively in Europe.  I also just discovered that a clown colleague and artist, Karen Gersch, knows of his work and even painted a large portrait of him!

One of my tap friends is Rod Ferrone, who is definitely cut from the vaudeville "cloth". He dances, sings and is known for his relationships with hats...

When I googled "Tap, Comedy", one of the names that came up was George Wallace. Now, I'm of a generation where that name conjures up an image far removed from tap dancing or comedy, to say the least (if you don't know what I'm talking about, talk to an elder). But it turns out this George Wallace had a long career as one of Australia's top comedian's. This is him in 1931. Unfortunately, the film it's from was not indicated on YouTube.

Speaking of comedians, when he was at his peak as a comedian, Steve Martin did a TV special in 1981, with Gregory Hines as one of his guests. The two do their tap version of "Fit As A Fiddle", a tune famous for its use as a dance number with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in the film "Singin' In The Rain."

In 1978, I was one of the stage managers on Sesame Street and the show, Eubie, was also on Broadway. One of the Sesame cast members, Alaina Reed, was in Eubie and managed to get Gregory and his brother Maurice, who were also in Eubie, to do some bits on Sesame Street. I happened to be working that day and remember well the shooting of this and some other bits that they did.

This last clip is also from Sesame Street when Shuffleupagus learns to tap dance. I actually helped in some of the staging of this. It was challenging to work with Snuffy on some simple tap, but he got it! You'll see. Also, check out Ruth Buzzi who was a regular on the show at one point. This is from 1996.

OK, have fun and laugh when you can!

Music: Part 3

I remember hearing Brenda Bufalino once say that tap dancers should know a lot of tunes and also know the lyrics to those tunes, the knowledge of which would inform their dance. Tap dancers are inspired musically in many different ways, depending on their culture, influences, individual tastes, and any number of other reasons. There are some standard tunes that traditionally have been used by tap dancers and there are some tunes that have been closely associated with some dancers. Following are just a few examples of music and tap. In the comments section below, or on social media, let me know what tunes you like to use!

"Liza" is a tune that was written by George Gershwin. I've heard it used mostly with a short tap routine called "The BS Chorus", that was often done by The Copasetics. Here is a version of the tune performed by Jimmie Noone and his Orchestra. Click here to see Chuck Green and Ralph Brown dance to this recording. Click here to see The Copasetics do the BS Chorus.

Another vintage standard is "Bye, Bye Blues" by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray. Tap dancers would use it in stop time. Here is a fun rendition of the tune by a group called Blazin' Banjos. At about 2:39 in, they go stop time and you can see how easily tap could work with the whole tune done that way!

Here's another use of stop time on a tune, which became associated with a tap dancer. The dancer was Peg Leg Bates and the tune is "Sleep" by Fred Waring. This is a 1928 recording of Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians doing it "normally." Click here to see Peg Leg use it in a whole other way!

There are some artists whose music tap dancers find easy to work with. Two such artists are Count Basie and Oscar Peterson. They are liked because when they play, space can be left in the music for dance. In a class I once took with Dianne Walker, she used the tune, "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)", played by Basie and Peterson. I wound up using it a lot when I taught. Imagine how you'd move to this...

I believe, if you really pay close attention and listen, you can tap to any kind of music. If you've never seen Leon Collins dance to Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow's, "The Flight of the Bumblebee", you will now be in for a treat. The music also segues into "Begin The Beguine" by Cole Porter.

I have an appreciation of many genres of music but, as a Baby Boomer, there is just some stuff from Motown that hits me in a special way. I had a idea to do a tap piece to a Stevie Wonder tune I love and got a chance to do it at the 4th Annual NJ Tap Festival in 2013. 

So, go find "your" music and dance!!!!

YouTube finds: Part 2

Two posts ago I talked about roaming YouTube. One of the things that happens is my discovery of dancers of the past I am unfamiliar with. It's great knowing that there is always something new to learn. Here are some examples of tap dancers I found. If you know more about any of them, let me know!

The first is from the 1938 film, God's Step Children directed by the pioneer black filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux whose career spanned about 30 years. Usually, he found ways to include nightclub dance sequences in his films. This dancer is identified as Sammy Gardiner.

This is Cora La Redd with the Noble Sissle Orchestra from That's The Spirit, a one-reel musical comedy made in 1933. The film also includes the great Mantan Moreland and Flournoy Miller, who collaborated with Sissle and Eubie Blake to create the 1921 stage musical Shuffle Along.

I got really intrigued by this dancer, Lorraine Krueger, because I liked the rhythms and steps she was doing. It had me wondering who influenced her, and I felt pretty sure it had to be a black dancer. Well, in doing research and viewing more clips of her, I found my answer. The first clip, from the short 1940 film, Tickled Pinky, is what I initially saw. The second clip is from the 1944 film, Career Girl, and gives me my answer. Her introduction of her dance in that clip reveals those times and I think it'll be pretty obvious who her influence was!

I'm always fascinated by dance acts, and found this act called The Steiner Brothers from a 1958 television show. What I usually do, when I run across something I don't know much about, is look it up quickly online. In this case, I found an article about these brothers. Turns out they were from Canada and, as of this 2016 article, are still around. Click here to read the article.

This last one is for you Baby Boomers out there. It's not really of someone I never heard of, but is someone I didn't realized tap danced (should have been in my Part 1 "YouTube finds" post!). One of the stars of the 1950s sit com Father Knows Best, was Elinor Donahue, who played the oldest daughter of the characters played by Robert Young and Jane Wyatt. I knew she had been a dancer, but didn't know she tapped. Here she is doing it in an episode of that show.