Word: winking
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Blue Man Group today represents a virtual supernova of the group's beginnings. Long-time friends Matt Goldman, Chris Wink and Phil Stanton began Blue Man Group in reaction to the avant-garde art scene of the late '80s. "We were critics," says Wink. "We were like Siskel and Ebert--and Zeppo". They wrote "Tubes" in 1991 and were amazed by the critical and popular success it has become. After four years, European and U.S. tours and Obie and Drama Desk awards, "Tubes" is still selling out two shows a night in New York and Boston. "To be able...
Parallel to the explosion of the group's reputation has been the exponential growth of "stuff" which they lug around in trailers, necessary to the production of the show. This multiplicity of "stuff" is in sharp contrast to the earliest days of the group, when Goldman and Wink completely streamlined their belongings. "One day we just threw everything out of our apartment.... Every book, every piece of furniture, everything hanging on the walls, everything because we needed to create this vacuum, clean canvas, have this space so that we could create in it. And that was in some regards...
...recreate the accumulation culture of America in the late 20th century. "Tubes" takes the icons of the 'nineties--the Internet, Screen Savers, processed foods and forces the audience to recognize them for what they are--man-made objects which we control; they don't control us. Says Chris Wink, "Modernization has separated us into cubicles, and now we have to buy our way back together. Theater... is the last bastion of direct interaction...
...terms of interaction, Boston audiences have not been disappointing. "The Boston crowd has picked up more of the content of the show," says Wink. "In New York, they're like, 'It's wild, It's messy' whereas in Boston people are really getting the meaning of what we're trying to say.... They've taken the time to understand it more, and they're also getting the satire, that we're making fun of New York...
...black men who were there, it was also a moment of profound psychological vindication. In the most heated political and policy debates of recent years, black men have seen themselves cast, sometimes openly, sometimes with a wink and a nod, as the welfare freeloader, the affirmative-action hire, the low end of the bell curve, Willie Horton. Even worse than the stereotypes sometimes are the facts. For black men the average life expectancy is 65, eight years less than for white males. For young black men, the major cause of death is murder. Nearly 1 in every 3 black...