Peppermint larry laugh12/26/2023 ![]() The team’s early career went on to include work in circuses before breaking into burlesque and vaudeville. Quite a journey from the young, tumbling mute! Clark’s development as a comedian would be at the expense of McCullough, however, whose role would gradually regress over the years to be almost minimal by the mid-30s. As his comic asides expanded, Bobby Clark developed into the driving force behind the team, ultimately becoming a superb rapid-fire patter comedian never lost for words. This was at the instigation of Bobby Clark, who began adding little comic introductions to their acrobatics and stunts, such as “I will now perform an imitation of a Bulgarian Weasel giving his mating call”. As the team realised that there was “no future in acrobatics,” they began to add in comedy bits, and small bits of humorous speech. As the team developed, these roles did a complete 180 degree switch. While many such acts stood painfully still, Clark and McCullough would literally run all over stage or movie sets while delivering their lines.Īnother surprise for those familiar with the team is that Paul McCullough was initially the dominant force in the act. ![]() For an act that would later flourish with verbal humour, this is at first surprising! Actually though, this foundation in body control and movement helped them to transfer a fluidity and motion to their crosstalk acts. They would maintain this act for several years before gradually adding dialogue. They learned to clog dance and tumble together, developing a mute act of intricate pratfalls involving chairs and tables. Accordingly, before we get to those films, we need to go way, way back…īoyhood friends, Bobby Clark (born 1888) and Paul McCullough (born 1883), met through a shared love of dancing, circus and acrobatics. Actually though, these came right at the end of the team’s career, and they themselves thought of them as only a minor addition to their body of work. Today, Clark and McCullough’s lasting legacy is a 5-year run of two-reelers for RKO between 19. What one can say with certainty is that they were the leaders of this type of comedy in the two-reel format. It is important to realise that Clark and McCullough were not Marx imitators per se, rather relatives from another branch of the same, richly fruiting comedic vine. The Marxes were the most successful of these, yes, but far from the only ones. Vaudeville and burlesque begat legions of comedy teams ploughing similar furrows of wild, racy, high-pressure humour. Yet, it does Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough a disservice to think of them as a watered-down version of the Marxes. It’s a valid comparison, both visually (Clark’s painted on glasses and cigar) and stylistically (anti-authoritarian mayhem). If they are mentioned at all today, it is usually only in comparison to The Marx Brothers. In fact, their mad, leering grins made it clear that they loved it! In fact, this wasn’t far from the truth! One-time circus performers, they mixed visual humour and slapstick chaos with the erudite wit and lack of conformity of college humour. Clad in ill-fitting, mothball-stuffed overcoats, they accessorised with painted-on glasses and crepe hair moustaches, resembling nothing so much as a couple of circus clowns who’d bluffed their way to college. ![]() For a more accurate impression, perhaps nothing sums up their comedy better than their appearance. However, such words have become platitudinous clichés to describe anything vaguely unconventional, and scarcely do justice to their fresh and fiery comic approach. Words like ‘madcap’, ‘surreal’ and ‘zany’ are often bandied about when describing them. Clark and McCullough were a mistral wind whirling through the world of two reel comedy in the 1930s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |