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FRESH
YARN PRESENTS:
Pornomime
By
Joe Smith
 I've
never been a real mime. No formal training, never "walked
in the wind," never had any sort of mime act in any
pure sense. I did it a few times for corporate gigs, but basically
all that involved was getting dressed up in the costume and makeup,
standing behind someone at a reception of some sort, and mocking
them. But I have enough physical comedy skills, along with a few
photos of myself in the makeup and outfit, to consider myself a
professionally viable mime.
I was once a mime at a bank, only for a night, for the branch's
opening party. And what had been mildly entertaining for a hotel
opening crowd of 400 for 90 minutes was excruciating for a subdued
bank gathering of 50 for two and a half hours. But it still beat
the hell out of temping or catering, if only because it left me
with a far more interesting story to tell, which counts for a lot.
I'd take a five-week minimum wage job shoving camel shit in Bahrain
just to be able, on my deathbed, to say, "Yeah, I've worked
with camels."
So all that said, when I saw the casting notice on ActorsAccess.com
for a project called "Pornomime," I was intrigued. It
was posted by a casting director I knew, and I was able to secure
an audition. It was for a short film, to be shown only on some ad
agency's website, it paid $3,000, and it was going to shoot in Prague.
I'd never been to Prague or even thought about it, but I'm always
up for a new adventure, especially one that pays $3,000. They faxed
me the script.
The film was to feature a classic European mime -- white-face, back
unitard, bowler hat, the whole bit -- performing in an old-world
European town square. He walks stylistically into frame and holds
a sign to the camera that says "The Pool Boy." Then it's
your classic pool-boy-gets-lucky porn movie scenario, sans any actual
disrobing or even another actor. The script detailed the progression:
Pool Boy skims leaves from pool (with imaginary skimmer), is beckoned
by gorgeous (invisible) woman from across the way, "walks"
over to her (staying in place the whole time), etc.
It went on to describe the application of sun tan lotion, the awkward
removal of bikini-top shoulder straps, and eventually the woman
dropping any pretense of coyness, and coming on to our lovable Pool
Boy. What followed was full on, hard-core, Bacchanalian, ass-slapping,
jizz-gurgling mime debauchery. It went into great detail, and did
not bother with any euphemistic niceties. I think it's safe to say
it was the only script I've ever read with the stage direction,
"He gobbles her box with wild abandon."
I sat at my desk reading it with what I can only describe as astounded
glee. This would be the most obscene thing I had ever auditioned
for. The more I read on, the dirtier it got. If the FBI were bugging
my apartment, all they would have heard is occasional snorts of
unbelieving laughter and the odd, "holy fuckin' shit."
A good portion of the thrill I got in preparation for this audition
was simply the notion that this would be part of what I did professionally;
that in two days I'd be in full mime regalia in front of a video
camera in Santa Monica, with my dick in the ass of an invisible,
non-existent woman, and if someone called my cell I could honestly
say, "I can't talk right now. I'm at work."
I spent
several hours in front of the large mirror in my bedroom, creating
my routine. Some moves had to be abandoned, as it would be too difficult
for the casual observer to discern what they were, and given that
there'd be no actual woman to do them with, simply looked like an
awkward jumble of limbs. But I pressed on. I was like an Olympic
athlete watching tapes of my trial runs, honing my technique. One
move I was particularly proud of involved me standing up and holding
her with her legs around me, leaning back slightly with my hands
around her ass like I was screwing four bags of groceries. Then,
with the grace of a Chinese acrobat, I'd flip her 180 degrees into
a standing 69. It was a thing of beauty.
continued...
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