SILENT AUTOGRAPH

SILENT AUTOGRAPH

meet Marcel Marceau on street
he mimes an autograph for me
the empty air his page

***

Outside the Gaiety and there was the mime himself not as Bip but as an elegantly suited Mr. Mangel.

Not having the French to ask him for his autograph I mimed the gesture on the air and he replied with a great flourish of his equally elegant hands...handed that particular piece of air back to me. As if he were painting on the air. I took it back from him with an equally grand gesture and a bow and he bowed back.
His posture and his gait were immaculate and he walked as if he was poetry. He had such poise and such a beauty of motion like music perambulating. He beamed at me and I think he thought I was I miming on purpose but it was only because I hadn't got the French and had to reach for gesture. He mimed applause for my desperate effort....so I had it from the master himself.

"The mime expresses the visible in the invisible and the invisible in the visible."

He referred to mime as the "art of silence" and he performed professionally worldwide for over 60 years. I was lucky to see him in action and to meet him in person.

I still have that particular piece of air and I have kept it always.
I can show it to you if you like but you have to be careful not to breath a word on it.