Let Loose with The Flying Karamazov Brothers

Mild-mannered mayhem will be on display Friday as the masters of juggling take over The Granada

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The Flying Karamazov Brothers will bring their act — of comedy, theater, music and, of course, juggling — to The Granada at 8 p.m. Friday. (The Granada courtesy photo)

By Vincent Coronado | Published on 10.22.2009

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They’re not amazing tenors. They won’t wow audiences with dizzying pirouettes. They’re not even related, nor are they from Russia. But on Friday, you’re not likely to care where you are or what you’ve signed up for, as The Flying Karamazov Brothers will grab you and release you at their whim — and yours.

The crowd-favorite and family-friendly enTRANCE! The Series returns to The Granada at 8 p.m. Friday with the first of four shows this season, The Flying Karamazov Brothers.

The mesmerizing masters of juggling and mayhem will keep you on the edge of your seat and in the palms of their hands with their trademark antics. If diversion and relief is what the world needs right now, then this act needs a Nobel Peace Prize, or at least some alternate humanitarian version of it.

4PLAY is the latest show by the troupe. The original production is directed by Brothers’ founder Paul Magid (aka Dmitri). The show is a unique blend of nouveau cirque, visual music, dance and theater.

The brothers mix visual fireworks, visceral physicality and theatrical innovation, combining skill and scope to form a work that is kaleidoscopic and passionate. The objects, both musical instruments (traditional and invented) and their bodies, are transformed into a fresh polyrhythmic performance. Groundbreaking and provocative, the brothers use their many talents to demonstrate that chaos and unexpected events in our lives are what make us human.

Named after a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Flying Karamazov Brothers emerged from nowhere in 1973 at a Renaissance Faire in California. It was there that founders Magid and Howard Patterson performed a simple juggling trick and found, much to their surprise, that someone had put $1.65 into one of their hats that had been tossed to the ground. Upon seeing the unsolicited money glinting in the morning sun, art, body and soul melded into one, and the rest is simply “family” history.

The troupe describes itself as a continuing experiment in comedy, theater, music and, of course, juggling.

“From the beginning, it has been our intention to blend the worlds of performance art, improvisation, word play, harmony, emotion and — above all — virtuosity into a unique form of theater and entertainment,” Magid says. “We mean to entertain. Taking our cue from Shakespeare, we bring art and accessible entertainment to the stage. Comedy is our bread and butter, and we layer it on so that children of 2 or 92 will laugh at the same moment for very different reasons. We play at the edge of our ability but to a purpose. Our intention is to expand the horizons of comedy and entertainment, and our main contention is that errors make us human, but by working together we approach the divine. For us, juggling is dropping.”

Ticket prices are $25 to $55, with children age 15 or younger receiving a 50 percent discount. To purchase tickets, visit the Granada box office at 1214 State St., call 805.899.2222 or click here to order online.

— Vincent Coronado is the marketing director for The Granada.

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