Dan Kamin Visits Olin Fine Arts Center

Dan Kamin Courtesy Photo from his website

 Dan KAMIN presented his new show this evening at the Olin Fine Arts Center on the W& J campus in Washington. I believe he said it was the debut of his new show, which includes a lot of video clips of himself interacting with . . . himself. The show was rife with comedy, magic tricks and impromptu witty remarks made to the several audience members who joined him on stage as volunteer assistants. The hour-long show ended with a Q&A then headed out to the theater lobby where he mingled with the crowd answering more questions and modestly listening to the raves of his fans, who showered him and his new show with praise.

For those who might want to know more about the Pittsburgh performer, here's a clip taken from his website:

ABOUT DAN KAMIN

Dan Kamin performs worldwide for theatres, colleges and symphony orchestras. On film, he created the physical comedy sequences for Chaplin and Benny and Joon, and trained Robert Downey, Jr. and Johnny Depp for their acclaimed starring performances. He played the vengeful wooden Indian that came to life in the cult classic Creepshow 2 and created the Martian girl's weird movement for Tim Burton's alien invasion spoof "Mars Attacks!" Closer to home, he was a guest on several episodes of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

Despite his impressive stage and screen credits, Dan's artistic beginnings were humble. He began performing as a boy magician at the age of twelve, struggling to entertain audiences of hyperkinetic, sugar-crazed children at birthday parties. Seeking a less stressful way of making a living he attended Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University to study industrial design. But when he saw the eye-popping movement illusions practiced by master mime Jewel Walker, then teaching in the school's famous drama department, Dan's hopes for living a normal life evaporated.

The great silent comedy films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin added more fuel to his fire, and soon Dan was touring the country with his own comedic creations. Undeterred by the fact that vaudeville was long dead, he cobbled a new vaudeville circuit out of colleges, theatres, and corporations, for whom Dan often appears as a keynote speaker who falls apart. His Comedy Concertos, blending comedy with classical music, have become popular with symphonies worldwide. And as Mr. Slomo, he strolls through crowded public places in eerie slow motion, terrifying the very children who tormented him as a youth.

Dan returned to his comedy roots to write Charlie Chaplin's One-Man Show, revealing the secrets of Chaplin's comic art. Hailed as a breakthrough work, the book boasts a preface by another Chaplin fan, Marcel Marceau. The Comedy of Charlie Chaplin--Artistry in Motion, updates his earlier book and features an account of how he trained Downey for his Oscar-nominated performance as Chaplin.

During recent seasons Dan has toured his solo shows throughout America and performed Comedy Concertos with many symphonies, including Montreal, Cleveland, Dallas, Shanghai, Singapore, and Malaysia.

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