Mimes; The art of Silent Entertainment

 

Mimes are silent entertainers, who use their bodies to captivate and illicit laughter from an audience.  Mimes movements, gestures and facial expressions rely on the audience using their imagination to fill in the gaps that are missing due to the silence. Mime is incredibly physical and mimes are very fit and limber.

The art of miming has been around for thousands of years and dates back to Greek times. In the early nineteenth century miming received notoriety after the actor Charlie Chaplin appeared in several silent films.  The success of his miming and his iconic look are still seen in movie and TV clips today. Though rarely used in film today, mimes have made a comeback in the high end circus show the Cirque du Soleil

Instead of using words mimes use their body and facial expressions to “speak” to the audience.  Mimes generally where white make up on their faces to emphasise expressions and wear white gloves to focus the audience on the hands and to emphasise movements.

Mimes are common street performers and many mimes also incorporate being a living statute into their routine.  To the untrained eye, miming looks easy.  However, try standing in front of a mirror and perform your own mime and you’ll soon realise that being a successful mime takes plenty of practice.

For mimes the focus of the performance is their very own imaginary world.  Mimes will create fake walls that they will press their gloved hands against, almost as if it is glass that they simply can’t reach through.  The precision of the way they place their hands on the imaginary wall creates this most amazing illusion.

Leaning is another popular miming trick.  When performing a leaning activity mimes plant their feet firmly in one place, and it’s as if they are anchored up to their knees in concrete as they can bend to the most astounding angles. Mimes will also lean against imaginary objects such as a bar and pretend to have a cocktail.  It’s amazing how realistic this looks.

Mimes will also create imaginary objects.  Some choose to host an elegant but imaginary tea party, you can almost picture them holding the dainty china and they take such care eating their imaginary cake, it’s as if you can see the crumbs falling to the ground.

Rope climbing is another favourite.  Mimes will pretend to have a rope dangling in front of them. They’ll often look to the audience for encouragement to climb the rope.  Once they receive this encouragement mimes will pretend to climb to the top of the rope, sometimes slipping many times before they reach the top and celebrate.
Mimes can be incredibly comical as well.  They will take all the acts above, such as rope climbing, leaning and the wall and pretend to make mistakes, like not realising that their fake glass wall exists and take running leaps to try and get into the audience, only to be rebounded back by the wall.  Mimes are truly gifted performance artists.

 

 

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