What do you get when you put a pair of Flying Karamazov Brothers into a room together?
Some practical advice on how to get to Carnegie Hall.
“Juggle, juggle, juggle,” advised Mark Ettinger, who is known as Alexei Karamazov when he is wearing a tutu in public.
A talented musician and composer, Ettinger has released two albums of original songs and written a chamber opera, The Triangle. But he made it to New York’s most famous spot for music on the strength of being to keep a number of clubs in the air.
His career as a juggler began after he joined FKB as the musical director in 1999. “Tim (Timothy Daniel Furst or Fyodor) was trying to retire and started to teach me the routines,” he recalled.
“It’s tough to retire,” added Rod Kimball, who performs as Pavel Karamazov. “They keep calling you back for one more show. So sometimes you have to find your own replacement.”
Kimball is the junior Karamazov to Ettinger. “I’m senior by ten shows, I think,” said Ettinger, “but Rod’s definitely the better juggler. He’s a fantastic soloist, something you don’t get to see in the current show.”
“I auditioned…I’d been doing solo work as a performer…at least I think it was an audition. I came in on my birthday and found out I had the same birthday as Paul (Magid, aka Dmitri, FKB co-founder). And I had the same pin as Howard (Jay Patterson, aka Ivan and the other FKB co-founder). So I was in,” he said.
“Obviously he belonged,” added Ettinger.
Since then, as members of “America’s most famous juggling troupe” (as said by Ettinger), the pair have traveled the United States and the world, playing London’s West End and Spain most recently.
“Was Spain where we kept getting the meat?” mused Kimball.
“Yes,” said Ettinger. “That’s where the butcher kept bringing us bull’s testicles.”
That was part of routine where audience members donate items to be juggled by the Champ. “Really, it should be called the Gamble, it’s always been the Gamble for FKB,” added Kimball when asked about the routine’s name. “But the audience always likes to call it the Challenge. So we’re sort of drifting that way with the name.”
Gamble or challenge, in Spain, the friendly butcher down the street from the theater started donating odd bits of raw meat to stump the Champ. “Yes, I’m a trained classical musician who has learned to pat dry and powder bull’s testicles,” said Ettinger, whose role in routine is to joke with the crowd and hand stuff off to whoever is being Champ.
“It’s really not that terrifying,” said Kimball. “You think it will be, until you’re there and you have to do it. Then you’re just concentrating on keeping everything going or how you can modify it so you can juggle it.”
The hardest routine in the current show, both agree, is the bit where all four play each other’s instruments while juggling. “There’s a part of my brain the size of a grapefruit that’s devoted to learning that routine,” said Ettinger. “I burned new neural pathways and probably lost many memories of my family.”
The routine evolved from an older traditional juggling trick where two jugglers play an instrument together while juggling.
“I’ve seen a couple of guys do this with a mandolin,” said Kimball.
To add to the complexity, the original music written by Ettinger and played on four very different instruments all has different time signatures: waltz, simple, complex, and so on.
“It’s like a bit in the opera Marriage of Figaro, where the band is playing one thing on stage and then the orchestra swoops in and supports it,” said Ettinger. In the case of FKB routine, it all melds into one tune with balls being juggled from the free hands of the musicians.
After the show closes at ACT Theatre on Sunday (Feb. 12), the FKB are off to Florida. Ettinger will be back to Seattle for the 2012 Moisture Festival. “I’m conducting the orchestra for the burlesque artists,” he said.
Kimball hopes to spend some time at home in New York. “I live about three blocks away from Mark,” he said.
“Wow, that’s funny, because my place is three blocks away from yours, too,” added Ettinger.
Ah, those Karamazovs…always ready to bounce another joke off the wall.
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