Blue Man Group comes to Bryce Jordan Center
By M. CORRELL - mcorrell@sungazette.comArticle Photos
Blue Man Group’s latest tour, “How To Be A Megastar Tour 2.1,” will be held at 7 p.m. April 30.
Blue Man Group is a trio of blue painted, bald-headed and black-clothed mimes in a quest to uncover the secrets of the planet. They do so with instruments fashioned out of the most ordinary objects, wordless comedy, flying paint, and most importantly, meaning.
The new tour is “an updated version of the original Megastar Tour, with many small changes and a few big changes, with the ‘what is rock’ as the major theme,” said Jeffry Brown, a Blue Man Group member.
“It is a play on what stardom and fame is, how we treat rockstars and what it takes to become one,” Brown said.
Brown has performed at the Luxor Hotel and Casino for three years in Las Vegas for Blue Man Group’s “Live at Luxor” show.
Blue Man Group was started by friends Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton in the late ’80s while they were working for a catering company in Manhattan.
They would perform on the street for passersby, and after gaining popularity, began their own routine, performing “La MaMa” at The CLUB, a theater club.
The artistic director of The CLUB enjoyed the work and sponsored Blue Man Group to create a full-length act, leading to the creation of “TUBES,” their first off-broadway performance in 1991.
Contrary to many beliefs, Blue Man Group is not one trio of performers who can entertain all over the world. The founders created Blue Man Productions, which is in charge of all Blue Man Groups that exist.
At any given time, there are eight different cities featuring Blue Man performances in New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Berlin, Oberhausen, Orlando and Tokyo, as well as traveling performances, like “The How To Be A Megastar Tour 2.1.”
“There are usually six to seven Blue Men per show who all pretty much know every part, and three are selected each night to give the others a break,” Brown said.
More than eight performances and multiple Blue Men for each has created quite the blue frenzy in Blue Man Productions, launching the company to the top.
Brown, like most Blue Men, are both skilled drummers and actors. Only a year and a half out of college at DePaul University, Brown was making a living as an actor and playing in a band at age 23, until he heard about auditions for Blue Man Group.
“Blue Man Productions constantly is traveling and searching for talent, and thousands try out a year,” Brown said.
Brown auditioned in New York for two weeks, and after passing, moved on to Blue Man training in San Francisco in 1999. He then trained for six weeks learning the performances, instruments and how to behave “Blue.”
After the completion of his training, Brown was an official Blue Man. At 32, he has been with the Blue Man Group for almost 10 years.
Since the beginning of Blue Man Group, many things have changed. Prior to their arena performances, they would greet the crowds, talk, sign autographs and walk around.
But now, as a part of their performance, they must remain in character at all times, and their signatures are now a blue smudge.
The question Brown said everyone involved in Blue Man Group hears most often is “what is the paint?”
As an answer to the long-awaited question, Brown said “grease paint, lots and lots of grease paint, so it won’t come off.”
“People think before a show we jump in a vat of blue paint and then come out and perform, but it’s just our face and hands,” Brown said with a laugh.
A typical Blue Man Group performance includes an outrageous amount of energy both on stage and off in the crowd, especially with the special “poncho section” that has been made famous by Gallagher, the watermelon-smashing comedian.
Ponchos are recommended for the first few rows of any Blue Man performance, due to any unexpected splattering of paint or any other miscellaneous flying objects. But the first rows aren’t the only people having fun.
“Every show is 100 percent different, never knowing how the audience members we call on stage will react,” Brown said.
Blue Man Group’s goal is provide a fun night for everyone, with the chance to experience something new.
“Our blue face is a mask that can help the audience relax and take off their ‘social mask’ in society; we put the masks on to make you laugh and connect,” Brown said.
Blue Man Group is a pop-culture icon in the world, appearing on “The Drew Carey Show,” “Arrested Development,” the Intel Pentium 4 commercials and even a parody on “Family Guy.”
Their popularity has lead to the recent openings of Blue Man performances in Tokyo and Orlando.
“There is always the anonymity to us, we hold a certain Santa Claus or Easter Bunny concept of disbelief that audiences are not quite sure what to believe,” Brown said.
