Based on the excerpts I’ve seen (including their appearance in ads for Intel), they appear to be a sort of quirky mime/percussion/performance art thing, which sounds right up my street - can anyone tell me a bit more about them?
I’ve seen the show at the Luxor in Las Vegas twice and it’s hard to describe. I think you got the general idea, and I can’t add much except to say that the show is a pretty amazing experience.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
It’s like jazz with mimes. It’s like silent Monty Python. It’s like being back in kindergarden and they’re playing with the finger paints.
These people are good. I don’t know what it is, but it’s art. Like a painting of a fish.
Blue Man Group is unbelievably great.
I saw it about 5 years ago now (is it that long ago?) in Chicago. There are the aformentioned “Blue Men” guys on stage ( I think it’s always 3). There is also a weird Day-Glo kind of band hanging in the rafters providing most of the music.
The Blue Men never speak, and in fact never change facial expression. They do a mix of mime comedy and oddball percussion. Often there is food involved and things can get slightly gross.
The best part is they do take a couple of audience members up on stage for different skits (Yes, I was one - in the “backstage jello” gag. It rocked! ). The finale also had a whole audience participation aspect.
I do not know how different the show is in different locations, or how it has changed over the years. I think it’s all run and planned out by the original Blue Men in New York, so there might not be much variation.
I can’t recommend it enough, and it’s appropriate for all ages.
The last time I was in Vegas, they had Blue Man Group commercials in the cabs. My friends and I had a long involved conversation trying to figure out how we would describe them to a blind person if we were accompanying them to the theater.
The general consensus was that the blind person would think we would be completely lying to them, and possibly on drugs.
I saw them for their “Complex Rock Tour” and it was fantastic. I highly recommend the DVD.
That bit was hilarious! (I saw them a few months ago in Vegas.)
I’d describe them as a mix of mime, Gallagher-esque physical comedy, and musical experimentation. It’s very good.
Just remember: if you want to apply for membership, you’ll have to blue yourself.
(A character’s attempts to join the BMG is a running gag on Fox’s Sunday show Arrested Development).
The best description of the music I heard was to imagine a cargo cult. There are these guys from a different planet stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific. A cargo plane crashes on the island. The plane contains some oddments of PVC pipe, some wires, tubes, and other miscellaneous bits and pieces. It also has the (now dead) co-pilot’s CD Walkman with some synth music. Drum & Bass dance music, that kind of thing.
The aliens then try to use the bits and pieces to re-create the music once the batteries of the Walkman run down.
Late arrivals are shamed as they deserve; rather than interrupting the show, they become a part of it. Don’t show up late.
Who would have thought that Captain Crunch, Twinkies, and percussion instruments large enough to stand inside could be so terrifyingly hilarious.
Nothing like it. GO.
Blue Man Group’s NY show, Tubes, is the funniest thing I have ever seen, literally.
They have two albums, The Complex and Audio, which use the weird homemade percussion instruments from their show. Very cool music. But the real joy of them is the visual, bizarre comedy.
I was wondering if I should treat myself to the DVD of the Complex Rock Tour; from what you’re all saying, it shounds like I won’t be disappointed.
You can see a full clip of one of their numbers recorded from last Summer’s tour, here.
Indeed. I was somewhat shocked to find out that my 71 year-old father loves them – he’s seen them live twice and has their DVD, which we had to watch when we visited for Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago. Of course part of that may stem from the fact that his best friend’s son is one of the drummers (the one who swings his ponytail around in the above-linked video), but still, he does like the music and the show, which is pretty cool, I think.
FWIW, I first heard about the BMG from two deaf friends of mine.
The show is UNBELIEVABLE.
We are going to go for the second time, next year, in Boston.
This was by far the funniest part of a show that I found to be incredibly overrated. Though some of it was fun, some was repetitive and self-consciously clever.
The physical comedy was the best, but the business with the separate posterboards (repeated later with the separate LED boards) was too full of itself, as if alternating between pseudo-philosophical ramblings, punctuated with bad words for “comic effect”, is the height of sophistication. It’s not.
There’s no doubt that it’s an original premise executed skillfully, but I was more impressed with Cirque de Soleil, and am constantly astounded by how much people absolutely love BMG (though I know I’m in the strict minority in my viewpoint).
Ah, now I do intend to see the Cirque du Soleil next time they come to the Albert Hall. Dunno if I’m going to get to see BMG though, as they don’t appear too eager to burst upon the European scene.
http://www.blueman.com/about_bmg/faq.shtml#theatrical
Will Blue Man Group open a theatrical production in Europe?
Yes, Blue Man Group, in association with Stage Holding, an international entertainment company, have recently opened the first Blue Man Group production in Europe. Blue Man Group opened at the Theater am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on May 9, 2004.
(Granted, I don’t know how close Berlin is to the Kingdom of Butter, but still…)