Sharps, Flats, and Accidentals with the Flying Karamazov Brothers

Watching the Flying Karamazov Brothers interact with the St. Louis Symphony at Powell Hall Friday night (3/6/1998), I was reminded of my wife’s (so far) futile attempts to teach me to juggle. I can barely keep two of those little canvas-covered beanbag balls in the air, let alone three. And after seeing what the Karamazovs can do while juggling three items apiece, I’m starting to think I might be better off working on something easier - like open-heart surgery.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Flying Karamazov Brothers, here’s a quick history. To begin with, they’re not Russian, they’re not brothers, and they don’t fly, although the objects they juggle certainly do. They are Paul Magid, Howard Jay Patterson, Michael Preston, and Tim Furst - four guys who started working together on, quite literally, the streets of San Francisco back in 1973. Since then they’ve appeared all over the world, including Broadway; shared stages with everyone from Peter Schickele to Dolly Parton; and picked up OBIE and Emmy awards.

They’ve done all this by not being your standard juggling act. They tell jokes, dance, do comedy routines, write plays, and play music. In short, they’re a small vaudeville company all by themselves - sort of the Firesign Theatre of juggling.

That’s what made them such great guest stars for a St. Louis Symphony pops concert. In their program - entitled “Sharps, Flats, and Accidentals” - they use standard juggling props like clubs to play drums and tap out complex rhythms on the stage and even on each other. They play Bach on the xylophone while juggling the mallets. And Howard Patterson - a.k.a. Ivan Karamazov - even does well by Mozart’s 1st Basson Concerto in a fiendishly difficult arrangement for the euphonium. As someone who hauled one of those darned things around for years in school, I was suitably impressed.

I was also impressed by the symphony’s contribution to the program, under the direction of Jeff Tyzik. His musical choces were fun without being sappy, and I was pleased to see Korngold’s Captain Blood overture on the program, even if it lacks the dash of The Sea Hawk or the Adventures of Robin Hood. More to the point, he has all the skills needed to make it on the pops concert circuit: solid musical ability, a flair for showmanship. and the instincts of a stand-up comic. He played a decent jazz trumpet as well during an arrangement of Glenn Miller’s take on “The Song of the Volga Boatman”.

If Tyzik appears with the orchestra again, I’d say he’s worth seeing. And if the Flying Karamazov Brothers appear anywhere in town again, you should immediately run to the ticket office, even if you have to (ahem) juggle your schedule to see them.