Physical comic Dan Kamin
SALISBURY, MD -- Physical comic Dan Kamin, creator of Johnny Depp's physical comedy routines in Benny and Joon, brings his unique blend of comedy and illusion to Salisbury University during a comedy residency from April 9-11. Kamin provides multiple events.
They are: a lecture/discussion, "Meet the Man Who Taught Charlie Chaplin How to Walk," is held on Tuesday, April 9, in Devilbiss Hall Room 149; a lecture, "Funny Bones: The Comic Body Language of Charlie Chaplin," is held on Wednesday, April 10, in the Guerrieri University Center, Wicomico Room; and a performance, "Comedy in Motion," is held on Thursday, April 11, in the Guerrieri University Center, Wicomico Room. All performances are at 7 p.m. Admission is free and the public is cordially invited.
Kamin, who says he likes doing "lowbrow comedy for highbrow people," has performed all over the world and with major symphony orchestras. Among his signature pieces are an elegant Astaire-Rogers type dance team (featuring a beautiful life-sized doll), a magician determined to expose his secrets, a blue-collar God creating the universe, and a conductor who has more luck conducting the audience than his orchestra.
On film, Kamin trained Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr. for their acclaimed performances in Benny and Joon and Chaplin respectively. He played the wooden Indian who came to life in the cult classic Creepshow 2 and created Martian movement for Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!
Despite these impressive credits, Kamin's artistic beginnings were humble. At age 12 he began his performing career doing magic shows at the birthday parties of "often obnoxious children." Attending Carnegie Mellon University to study industrial design, Kamin's hopes for a normal career evaporated when he saw the eye-popping movement illusions practiced by master mime Jewel Walker. He promptly became Walker's apprentice.
The silent comedy films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin added more fuel to his fire, and soon Kamin was touring the country with his first original show, "Silent Comedy…Live!" Undeterred by the fact that vaudeville was long dead, he cobbled a new vaudeville circuit out of colleges, theatres, schools and symphony orchestras. He also creates special programs and pranks for corporate clients such as PPG Industries and Westinghouse.
Kamin 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 Marcel Marceau.
During the past two seasons, Kamin has performed with the Boston, Singapore, Philadelphia and Baltimore symphonies, directed several hit productions of classic plays in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, and performed his solo shows throughout America and England.
The SU Office of Cultural Affairs and Museum Programs sponsors Kamin's residency. For more information call 410-543-6271 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.