Hyung-ki Joo & Igudesman's A little nightmare Music.

APR 2, 2011  2PM&8PM.

ST.LAWRENCE CENTRE FOR THE ARTS.

JANE MALLET THEATRE

토요일 아침에 집에서 피터가 해준 브런치를 먹으면서 토론토스타를 읽고있엇는데, 클래식음악에 코미디라는 내용을 읽다보니 그안에 한사람이 한국인이다. ( 영국에서 태어나서 자랐지만,,,, ) 그래서 유튜브에서 찾아보았는데, 거기서는 한국말로 피아노를 가르치는 장면인데 (요아래 링크를 보시라...) 정말 한국선생들이다 싶다. 피터한테도 기사를 보여주고 재미있겠다 싶었는데... 피터가 보러갈거냐고 묻는다..그래서 갈까 말까 망설이는데.. 피터가 자기도 보니깐 너무 재미있다고 가자고 그런다. 그래서 피터한테 티켓예매하라고 그러고 간단하게 세수하고 면도하고 나갈채비를 했다. 그날 오후2시공연을 봐야하는데.. 시간은 벌써 오후 1시가 다되어간다. 피터가 인터넷에서 예약을 하는데 이미 표는 다 팔렸고 대기자에 두번쩨로 올려놨다고 해서 피터 먼저 나가서 줄을서서 티켓을 구해보고, 나는 간단히 씻고 지하철타고 나갔다. 

다행히도 피터가 거의 마지말줄에 표를 구해서 들어가서 구경했는데...유튜브로 너무 많이 봤나 ??,,,,아무튼 같은 내용이 나오는건 이미 다 아는거니까 그렇고....피아노연주를 피아노아래에 누워서 손을 높이들어서 건반에 올려놓고 하는연주....그냥 한번은 봐도 재미있을 그런내용이다.

 

저녁 8시에는 또 게이코러스 싱잉아웃의 캬바레 공연을 보러갔다.

이번에 블랙스완으로 분장하고 나온 게이들이 코믹하고 재미있었다. 이 저녁공연을 친구들과 같이보고  우디스에서 앉아서 좀 놀다가 지퍼스에 가서 놀았다. 지퍼스에서 게리하고 둘이 춤을 추고 나와서는 소파에 앉아서 재미있게 보냈다.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOQaK7NHY-4

http://www.toronto.com/article/679635

By John TeraudsEntertainment Reporter

Comedy duo tuning up classic gags

Hyung-Ki Joo, left, and Aleksey Igudesman in A Little Nightmare Music: putting the 'play' back in playing classically.

Apr 01, 2011 

• 
  
  

It's gruesome to see a piano beginner being abused by his teacher. Despite his best efforts to play the opening notes to “The Entertainer,”the student gets cuffed and prodded by a masochistic teacher.

Rather than improving, the student's attempts to strike the right notes become increasingly pathetic.

As of earlier this week, this particular scene, called “Piano Lesson,” had logged 2.7 million YouTube views. And instead of rising up in disgust, most of those viewers probably rolled about in helpless laughter.

That's the appeal of black comedy, especially in the novel comic twist applied by classically trained Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo.

They bring their original, two-man show — Igudesman & Joo's A Little Nightmare Music — to the intimate Jane Mallett Theatre for two shows on Saturday. The laughs are pretty much guaranteed, even for people who have no love for, or connection to, classical music.

In his bio, pianist Joo writes, “I was born in England, but look Korean.” Violinist Igudesman “was born in Leningrad at a very early age.” The two met as 12-year-olds at England's Yehudi Menuhin School for exceptionally talented children.

Now based in Vienna, the duo is constantly on the move — the two Toronto shows are sandwiched in between a gig at the famed 92nd Street Y in New York City and another in Zagreb, Croatia.

Both funnymen are looking forward to their Canadian debut.

“Toronto is the birthplace of one of our greatest heroes, Glenn Gould,” says Igudesman. “We're both very sure that what we're doing would be very much in his spirit.”

Adds Joo: “Glenn Gould is an inspiration for us, not just as musicians, but for the comedy. Glenn had a fantastic sense of humour.” He mentions Gould's iconic So You Want to Write a Fugue? radio sketch as a prime example.

“It's going to be very special to go and sit on that chair next to him,” says Joo of the bronze statue and bench outside the Canadian Broadcasting Centre on Front St. W.

The duo unveiled A Little Nightmare Music seven years ago, and it has been in constant evolution since. The “Piano Lesson” sketch is gone, but another YouTube favourite (with nearly four million hits), “Rachmaninov Had Big Hands,” is still there.

Joo walks out on stage to play a prelude by the Russian and explains how the composer had really big hands. “My hands are small — but only my hands,” he tells the audience.

Igudesman walks out on stage with a pile of wooden blocks and, without any interruption in the music, hands the blocks to Joo, who uses them to fill in notes his fingers can't reach. Joo then tosses each block backward, creating a sort of musical juggling act.

In case anyone might worry about damage to a prized concert piano, Joo assures, “All of our sketches are Steinway-approved.”

Igudesman, who does some pretty wild things — including playing his violin with a cappuccino milk frother — uses a valuable Old Master instrument on loan from an Austrian bank. “You still want it to sound beautiful,” he insists.

Igudesman and Joo mine the world of pop culture as much as classical, and love the unexpected.

“It's happened many times that Aleksey and I have made a mistake — let's call it a mistake loosely — where we did something that was not in the script,” Joo explains. “That mistake got more laughs than we had planned, so then we spend the rest of the time trying to implant that mistake into our show.”

Joo refers to a sketch where he ends up playing the piano in all sorts of impossible positions.

At one show, he accidentally banged his head on the instrument as he was getting up off the stage floor.

“This got an incredible laugh so, now, because of that, I bang my head on purpose,” he says.

The duo runs all sketch ideas past a trusted group of friends with good eyes, good ears and sound theatrical knowledge — friends “who always tell us the truth,” Joo says.

“If you heard what they said afterward, you would not think they're our friends,” he adds. “So after that process with them, going out in front of a full audience is a relief.”

Although the show is funny, the musicians take their art very, very seriously.

“Aleksey and I never try to be intentionally funny,” Joo tells. “When we first wrote A Little Nightmare Music, we didn't sit down and say, okay, now let's write a funny show. Much of our inspiration is from real life, real musicians, real events,” Joo says, “Thank God a lot of it is funny, but we're not trying to be funny. There's a big distinction there.”

Just like in “Piano Lesson.”

Just the Facts

WHO: Igudesman & Joo

WHERE: Jane Mallett Theatre, 27 Front St. E.

WHEN: April 2 @ 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.

TICKETS: $45-$65 @ 416-366-7723 or www.stlc.com