Literary vaudeville: Lennie Lower's comic journalism
(63) Jenkins notes the influence of vaudeville on such diverse avant-garde phenomena as Italian futurist theatre and Russian cinematic montage: 'The fragmented, frenetic, and emphatic style of variety performance spoke to modernists of all nationalities, to many seeking alternatives to the conv...
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| Published in: | Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature : JASAL 2016, Vol.16 (1), p.1 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | (63) Jenkins notes the influence of vaudeville on such diverse avant-garde phenomena as Italian futurist theatre and Russian cinematic montage: 'The fragmented, frenetic, and emphatic style of variety performance spoke to modernists of all nationalities, to many seeking alternatives to the conventionality of theatrical realism and the banality of the commercial cinema' (62-63; (one might also add Brecht's episodic, metatheatrical 'epic' theatre here). [...]Jenkins references F.T. Marinetti, who could write of 'The Variety Theatre' as generating 'what I call "the Futurist marvellous", produced by modern mechanics,' whose elements include: (a) powerful caricatures; (b) abysses of the ridiculous; (c) delicious, impalpable ironies; (d) all-embracing, definitive symbols; (e) cascades of uncontrollable hilarity; (f) profound analogies between humanity, the animal, vegetable and mechanical worlds; (g) flashes of revealing cynicism; (h) plots full of the wit, repartee, and conundrums that aerate the intelligence; (i) the whole gamut of laughter and smiles, to flex the nerves; (j) the whole gamut of stupidity, imbecility, doltishness, and absurdity, insensibly pushing the intelligence to the very border of madness . . According to Douglas Fowler, Perelman also drew on an American Jewish tradition that included Yiddish theatre-with all its vaudeville elements-as well as the figure of the shlemiel, later famously embodied by Woody Allen both in his stand-up and cinematic roles (Fowler 98-99, 103-05). [...]by now Australia's Foremost Humorist had another favourite mode. Besides his fairy tales, he would also take on different imaginary personas, seeming to experiment with a range of comic identities from phrenologist to bushranger, exhibition dancer to radio announcer: I have a confession to make. ENDNOTES 1 Prion, an English publisher of humour books, brought out an edition in 2001, replacing the previous Angus & Roberston edition of 1993. Since 2000, however, the most readily available copy of Here's Luck has been Sydney University's SETIS (Sydney Electronic Text & Image Serice) electronic version, followed in 2001 by another produced by Project Gutenberg. |
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| ISSN: | 1447-8986 1833-6027 |