Klarinet Archive - Posting 000636.txt from 2000/07

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] 'Fest antics
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 14:28:41 -0400

<><> Neil=A0Leupold asked:
Alright, now this is hardly fair. Now I'm REALLY jealous of everybody
who was able to go to the Fest. What did he do?! Do tell!

He did a classic time-honored comedy routine, but it was the
*manner* in which he performed it, and the way that he adapted it to a
clarinet audience, that brought the house down. I am mostly a
non-demonstrative person (in the flesh), and his performance was the
first time in 20 or 30 years that I have laughed so hard that I cried
openly.

The key to it was that Carbonari (sp?) is what the ladies would
term "a hunk" who dressed immaculately in black, radiated virility, and
played the most serious music in (IMO) the most beautiful manner. There
was absolutely no hint whatsoever that this fellow could engage in
shenanigans of any sort.
After his third standing ovation, he consented to play one more
piece -- Saint Saens, if my memory serves -- and then the accompanist
began to do everything wrong. After trading scowls and shamefaced
expressions and starting over again several times, Carbonari's clarinet
fell apart; and then everything else went wrong. Carbonari went into
satirical antics (with just a hint of truth in them) about adjusting his
reed, blowing out the holes -- at one point, it actually looked as if
his lips were going to fall off his face and he was going to slobber on
the floor because he was blowing on the holes so maniacally. Then he
tried to give his now-dripping-icky reed to the accompanist in hopes
that the accompanist would put everything right -- that was the moment
when I tipped over the edge and began to howl uncontrollably.
The entire routine lasted 2-3 minutes, and when it was over,
Carbonari resumed playing his encore seriously. Then the pianist
decided (once again) to upstage Carbonari and hammer out some 'ffffff'
chords, so Carbonari pulled out a pistol and shot the accompanist.

It was classic vaudeville, a la Jimmy Durante and Victor Borge, but
it was done to perfection. As they say, t was worth the price of
admission by itself.

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