From Brooklyn to Berlin: The Trials and Triumphs of a Jewish Juggler

 

by Cindy Marvell

 

What do the Berlin Wall, a San Francisco vaudevillian, and "The Merchant of Venice" have in common? Audiences found out the answer to this and other intriguing questions as Jeff Raz took center stage for his solo show, "Father-Land," last March at the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center in Berkeley, California.

 

Raz has been working on the one-person play ever since 1989, when a sight-seeing trip to Europe turned into the experience of a lifetime. A revealing and entertaining autobiographical journey spanning several counties and generations, the play fuses historical events with Raz's personal quest for the truth as he uncovers his father's past and rediscovers his Jewish roots.

 

While not always a featured activity in the show, juggling provides a structure and runs like connective tissue throughout the performance.  Juggling has played a similar role in Raz's varied career as a performer, teacher and director, one which has taken him down many unexpected channels.

 

His early training in juggling, slapstick and acrobatics with the likes of Bill Irwin and Larry Pisoni prepared him for his work with San Francisco's Make-A-Circus, where he performed as a clown in the '70s and wrote and directed circus plays in the '80s.

 

Jugglers may know him as the founder of the popular trio Vaudeville Nouveau, as the creator of numerous characters in "The Comedy of Errors," or as the organizer of the San Francisco New Vaudeville Festival. Westcoast audiences have seen him in a variety of theatrical roles from Trinculo in the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's production of "The Tempest" to Diego Rivera in "Frida Kahlo: A Self-Portait in Dance" at the Cowell Theater. But to millions of adoring children, many of whom saw Raz this season in the Pickle Family Circus, he is simply "Mr. Clown, Sir," that big, funny man with the mustache who can lift unbelieving vol­unteers into the air and balance them in po­sitions they never thought possible.

 

With his irrepressible humor and inexhaustible anecdotes, one can imagine Raz performing just about anywhere, and he frequently does just that. Said one of his fellow Pickles, "Jeff could make conversation with a rock-and it would be interesting!"

 

In group situations he is often called upon to play the base of acrobatic pyra­mids, a task which suits his penchant for ensemble work. When playing alone he enlists spectators as accomplices, both physically and intellectually. Whatever the context of the performance, audiences immediately sense the individuality of his character, and they gleefully comply. His intimidating stature and domineering stage presence create the impression that he is playing a clown within a straight man, mocking himself as a figure of authority while battling his own childish incompetence with earnest enthusiasm.

 

Raz believes that audiences respond most strongly to physical images and situations. Despite his exuberant dialogue, people are more apt to remem­ber his expressive clown faces and the visual comedy in his show. Even though he does five clubs smoothly in practice and performs juggling much of the time, people seem to prefer thinking of him as a clown.

 

He said, "I used to use juggling in a more metaphorical way, but that sort of thing is extremely difficult to do successfully. Juggling is so abstract that it takes time for people to absorb it, and if it's presented in a complicated way people can easily become con­fused and miss the point. But I still think it's possible to do something beautiful and meaningful with juggling-most people who have the potential to do that give up because they've been told it will never work. "