Pretty fly Zany theater troupe brings meditation on life, death to Maine Center for the Arts

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cripted anarchy.

What seems like an oxymoron is actually a perfect description of a Flying Karamazov Brothers show.

A production by the Brothers K, such as the one set for 5 p.m. Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, includes music, dance, comedy, juggling and even puppets. What it doesn’t seem to contain is structure. But don’t let that fool you.

“It gives the appearance that we’re making it up on the spot,” said brother Ivan, otherwise known as Howard Jay Patterson, by phone from his home in Portland, Ore. “It’s 90 percent scripted, but we can change it whenever we want. It starts as improv, but if it works, it becomes a part of the show. It’s like a coral reef.”

Co-founder Patterson and the other three members of the troupe, co-founder Paul Magid (Dmitri), Mark Ettinger (Alexei) and Roderick Kimball (Pavel) are neither Russian nor brothers, and, to tell the truth, can’t fly. But don’t let that bother you.

So what are they? Let’s let Patterson explain: “We’ve always thought of ourselves as a theater troupe. We consider theater the queen of the arts, which includes all the others, and we try to use everything we can think of.”

Their current show, “Life: A Guide to the Perplexed,” stemmed from Magid’s midlife meditations while on a 2003 trip to Italy. The result, which has been refined over the past three years, is a poignant reflection on life and death.

Well, poignant, in a Karamazov way. This production includes Kimball’s juggling while reciting Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” speech from “As You Like It,” a Bollywood-style musical and dancing sperm cells.

Then there’s the Jugglatron, a six-octave electronic drum set shaped as a 7-foot circle, which can be programmed to play any sound the Brothers want.

“It’s unbelievably difficult,” said Patterson, 50. “You have to juggle, accurately hit the keys in syncopation with the music, under flashing lights while wearing sunglasses.”

Then there’s the Karamazov staple, The Gamble, in which “The Champ” (in this show, Magid) juggles three objects supplied by the audience for 10 seconds. The only limitations is that the objects be more than an ounce and less than 10 pounds and be no bigger that a breadbox. If “The Champ” fails, he gets a pie in the face.

Patterson and Magid started the troupe 30 years ago, while college students in California. They began as the opening act for plays. Then they discovered they could make more money as buskers playing for change, so they took to the streets.

Mostly working on the West Coast, the Brothers K went national when they were invited to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, to replace the act that went on to become Penn & Teller. They performed in the Minneapolis streets during the day and at the festival at night, refining their act. That material ended up the basis for their first show, “Juggling and Cheap Theatrics.”

“That was our Hamburg,” Patterson said.

Except for the two founders, the troupe’s lineup has changed quite a bit through the years. Ettinger (“a musician who can juggle,” Patterson said) and Kimball (“a juggler who can play music”) joined about 61/2 years ago.

One former Brother, Michael Preston, directed “Life.”

“That was such a perfect solution,” Patterson said. “He understood what we’re trying to get at, and how we needed to get there. Also, having a director who can see juggling is really remarkable.”

It’s been a Karamazov mission throughout their history to find a way to help the audience to understand juggling. Their solution in this production is to show the crowd the tricks one at a time, then put them all together at the end.

Why do they, unlike magicians, want the audience to understand their moves?

“Magic is basically lies; juggling is basically truth,” Patterson said. “Magic is all a trick. In juggling, there is no tricks. We’re saying, ‘Here’s this cool thing that anyone with enough time can learn to do. Isn’t that wild?’ We want them to come along with us.”

“Life: A Guide to the Perplexed” shows an older, somewhat wiser Flying Karamazov Brothers.

“There are moments of other emotions that come amongst the comedy,” Patterson said. “We approach the ideas of life and death with more maturity than we would have when we started.”

For tickets, visit the Maine Center for the Arts box office, call 581-1755 or access www.mainecenterforthearts.org. Dale McGarrigle can be reached at 990-8028 and dmcgarrigle@bangordailynews.net.

(Pull quote) “Magic is all a trick. In juggling, there is no tricks.” Howard Jay Patterson, co-founder of the Flying Karamazov Brothers

Hed: Pretty fly

Subhead: Zany theater troupe brings meditation on life, death to MCA