Looking for something a little bit out of the ordinary to do this April Fool’s Day? Come to Young Auditorium on Friday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. to see the “amazing talent and stage antics” of Tomas Kubinek as he “provokes hearty laughter” and smiles during his “Certified Lunatic and Master of the Impossible” show on our stage.
Over the course of his one-man-show, Kubinek delivers an artful mix of clowning, magic, acrobatics, aerial stunts, vaudeville bits, mini-narratives, and improvisations built upon audience interactions, according to a press release. The 51-year-old master comic is “quite serious about his craft. His show is often touted as “vaudevillian in nature,” as there is a strong aspect of physical humor, gestures, and eccentric situations used.
While considered to be a “jack-of-all performing arts” (and master of it all), Kubinek could equally be called a “performance artist,” in that there is a running subtext to his show and everything he does that is subtle, but takes the basic elements of his act and make it into transcendent art.
“His signature trick involves a harness and wings, a Peter Pan-like moment for the kids and the inner child in all of us. His flying reminds us that before any digital entertainment, anything was possible with a little bit of suspended belief,” the release stated.
“All of this started when I was a kid. I had a real fascination with all these things – the circus, and nature, and magic, and puppetry, and clowning – and my dad really supported me in the whole thing. And being an immigrant kid, I was intensely aware, performing, that the people in the audience all have their own stories. And I have this huge gratitude that I have the chance to reach so many people. It’s a warm, humble, joy-some feeling,” Kubinek said.
Something of a child prodigy as a performer, Kubinek was born in Czeckoslovakia and emigrated to Canada with his family at the age of three. He began performing when he was nine years old, and has been reportedly touring the world since he turned 17.
“I think that humor is like this miracle. To laugh at something is to open you up. It liberates you, even if it’s just for a moment. I think that’s what’s beautiful about laughing; it’s like your savior in a way. It gives you a bigger perspective on the whole human condition and yourself and not to take all the stuff that happens in life too seriously,” Kubinek said.
“The way I see it, we might as well enjoy the beauty of it all. All the stuff we do – as performers – it’s all thousands of years old. We just put our own spin on it for a while, and then we pass it on, like shadows,” he added.
Young Auditorium is located at 930 W. Main Street in Whitewater (on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus). Ticket prices for each show are as low as $15.50, and Young Auditorium Members can attend for free (ticket required).
Tickets can be purchased online at www.uww.edu/YoungAuditorium, by calling the Box Office at (262) 472-2222, or in person at the Greenhill Center of the Arts Box Office (located inside the UW-Whitewater Center of the Arts building near Barnett Theatre on the UW-Whitewater Campus.)
