Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man
Civic Theatre, cnr of Queen Street & Wellesley Street West, Auckland
11/07/2012 - 15/07/2012
18/07/2012 - 22/07/2012
Production Details
THRILLING BUBBLE-FEST COMES TO NZ
Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man has been thrilling audiences around the world for nearly 30 years with the art, magic, science and fun of bubbles. This July he brings his brand new show to New Zealand, with performances at Auckland’s Civic Theatre from 11-15 July and Wellington’s Opera House from 18-21 July.
Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man has performed to more than one million people, including royalty and celebrities, in hundreds of cities across the USA, as well as in Switzerland, France, Japan, Dubai, Australia and New Zealand. He is a favourite at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where he has enjoyed five years of sell-out success.
His wondrous all-new 75 minute show combines breath-taking artistry, ingenious sets and lighting, colourful music, plenty of audience participation and enough spellbinding bubble tricks to keep every child and adult mesmerised.
“This show captivated its young audience and the adults loved it as well. **** Highly recommended” – British Theatre Guide 2011
With infectious enthusiasm, The Amazing Bubble Man explains the fascinating dynamics of bubbles, bringing science to life and into the realm of fun. From square bubbles, layers of bubbles inside bubbles, fog-filled bubbles and trampoline bubbles to people inside bubbles, The Amazing Bubble Man conjures shrieks of laughter and gasps of amazement from all ages.
Louis Pearl has teamed with leading international entertainment producer James Cundall of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, and one of the UK’s top artistic directors, Tony Mercer of the award-winning Imperial Ice Stars, to create this brand new show, specially staged and choreographed for a 2012/13 worldwide tour.
The creative team behind the show also includes Set Designer Michael Taylor, who was nominated this year for a prestigious Olivier Award for his ground-breaking stage design in the West End triumph The Ladykillers.
Lunchbox Theatrical Productions has been bringing top quality international entertainment to New Zealand for the last eight years, with productions such as Riverdance, We Will Rock You, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Grease, Abbamania, Stomp, Rick Stein, Clive James, Elaine Paige and Pam Ayres. Later this year, Lunchbox Theatrical Productions will be bringing The Bootleg Beatles to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
In addition, Lunchbox Theatrical Productions and Tony Mercer have brought The Imperial Ice Stars productions of The Sleeping Beauty on Ice, Swan Lake on Ice and Cinderella on Ice to New Zealand, and are currently touring The Nutcracker on Ice.
Producer James Cundall, Chief Executive of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, says “I saw Louis Pearl’s Amazing Bubble Show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year and was absolutely mesmerised. I had no idea you could do so many amazing things with bubbles!”
“I went to talk to Louis after his performance about touring internationally – I thought ‘if a producer with 20 years in the entertainment business can be blown away by bubbles then surely people all around the world will be amazed by this incredible show too’, and now here we are at the beginning of a new era in the life of Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man!”
“As far as I know, a bubble show has never been to New Zealand before, and I think audiences will love both the skill and the scale of it,” says Mr Cundall.
“Just brilliant” – The Guardian, UK
Louis Pearl was born in San Francisco and in 1980 started his own toy company, making amongst other things a big bubble-making toy – ‘The Bubble Trumpet’. To help sell the toy he learned a few bubble tricks and soon he was performing at summer camps. Encouraged by the response Louis Pearl developed a stage show, and started touring around California, before taking his show to a wider audience around the USA and overseas.
In 2007 he went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time, and admits to being surprised to discover all his shows had sold out and people were being turned away! In the ensuing four years he has become a ‘Fringe Favourite’ with all 50 shows selling out each year.
He returns to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year for his 6th successive season, following his performances in New Zealand and before continuing with his world tour.
Louis Pearl says of his show, “The kid in everybody gets excited. The audience connects with what’s happening onstage at a pre-verbal place. There’s so much joy.”
Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man is produced by Lunchbox Theatrical Productions and Tony Mercer in association with Louis Pearl.
“Makes the audience squeal with delight” – San Francisco Chronicle
The Civic, Auckland, 11 July – 15 July
TUE–FRI: 11AM & 2PM • SAT: 11AM, 2PM • SUN: 11AM, 2PM
FOR BOOKINGS
CALL 0800 BUY TICKETS or buytickets.co.nz
GROUPS: 09 357 3354 or groups.aucklandNZ@ticketek.co.nz
Opera House, Wellington, 18 July – 22 July
WED: 6PM • THUR: 2PM & 6PM • FRI: 6PM • SAT: 11AM, 2PM & 6PM • SUN: 11AM
FOR BOOKINGS
CALL 0800 TICKETEK or ticketek.co.nz
GROUPS: 04 384 3842 or groups.aucklandNZ@ticketek.co.nz
Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man has performed to more than one million people, including royalty and celebrities, in hundreds of cities across the USA, as well as in Switzerland, France, Japan, Dubai, Australia and New Zealand. He is a favourite at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where he has enjoyed five years of sell-out success.
His wondrous all-new 75 minute show combines breath-taking artistry, ingenious sets and lighting, colourful music, plenty of audience participation and enough spellbinding bubble tricks to keep every child and adult mesmerised.
“This show captivated its young audience and the adults loved it as well. **** Highly recommended” – British Theatre Guide 2011
With infectious enthusiasm, The Amazing Bubble Man explains the fascinating dynamics of bubbles, bringing science to life and into the realm of fun. From square bubbles, layers of bubbles inside bubbles, fog-filled bubbles and trampoline bubbles to people inside bubbles, The Amazing Bubble Man conjures shrieks of laughter and gasps of amazement from all ages.
Louis Pearl has teamed with leading international entertainment producer James Cundall of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, and one of the UK’s top artistic directors, Tony Mercer of the award-winning Imperial Ice Stars, to create this brand new show, specially staged and choreographed for a 2012/13 worldwide tour.
The creative team behind the show also includes Set Designer Michael Taylor, who was nominated this year for a prestigious Olivier Award for his ground-breaking stage design in the West End triumph The Ladykillers.
Lunchbox Theatrical Productions has been bringing top quality international entertainment to New Zealand for the last eight years, with productions such as Riverdance, We Will Rock You, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Grease, Abbamania, Stomp, Rick Stein, Clive James, Elaine Paige and Pam Ayres. Later this year, Lunchbox Theatrical Productions will be bringing The Bootleg Beatles to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
In addition, Lunchbox Theatrical Productions and Tony Mercer have brought The Imperial Ice Stars productions of The Sleeping Beauty on Ice, Swan Lake on Ice and Cinderella on Ice to New Zealand, and are currently touring The Nutcracker on Ice.
Producer James Cundall, Chief Executive of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, says “I saw Louis Pearl’s Amazing Bubble Show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year and was absolutely mesmerised. I had no idea you could do so many amazing things with bubbles!”
“I went to talk to Louis after his performance about touring internationally – I thought ‘if a producer with 20 years in the entertainment business can be blown away by bubbles then surely people all around the world will be amazed by this incredible show too’, and now here we are at the beginning of a new era in the life of Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man!”
“As far as I know, a bubble show has never been to New Zealand before, and I think audiences will love both the skill and the scale of it,” says Mr Cundall.
“Just brilliant” – The Guardian, UK
Louis Pearl was born in San Francisco and in 1980 started his own toy company, making amongst other things a big bubble-making toy – ‘The Bubble Trumpet’. To help sell the toy he learned a few bubble tricks and soon he was performing at summer camps. Encouraged by the response Louis Pearl developed a stage show, and started touring around California, before taking his show to a wider audience around the USA and overseas.
In 2007 he went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time, and admits to being surprised to discover all his shows had sold out and people were being turned away! In the ensuing four years he has become a ‘Fringe Favourite’ with all 50 shows selling out each year.
He returns to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year for his 6th successive season, following his performances in New Zealand and before continuing with his world tour.
Louis Pearl says of his show, “The kid in everybody gets excited. The audience connects with what’s happening onstage at a pre-verbal place. There’s so much joy.”
Louis Pearl, The Amazing Bubble Man is produced by Lunchbox Theatrical Productions and Tony Mercer in association with Louis Pearl.
“Makes the audience squeal with delight” – San Francisco Chronicle
The Civic, Auckland, 11 July – 15 July
TUE–FRI: 11AM & 2PM • SAT: 11AM, 2PM • SUN: 11AM, 2PM
FOR BOOKINGS
CALL 0800 BUY TICKETS or buytickets.co.nz
GROUPS: 09 357 3354 or groups.aucklandNZ@ticketek.co.nz
Opera House, Wellington, 18 July – 22 July
WED: 6PM • THUR: 2PM & 6PM • FRI: 6PM • SAT: 11AM, 2PM & 6PM • SUN: 11AM
FOR BOOKINGS
CALL 0800 TICKETEK or ticketek.co.nz
GROUPS: 04 384 3842 or groups.aucklandNZ@ticketek.co.nz
Real, interactive, inviting, creative, engaging, educational and entertaining
Review by Kate Ward-Smythe 11th Jul 2012
Oh my lord – science has never been such fun; so entertaining, artistic and cool!
Louis Pearl is extraordinary. Geek-ish in a good way, low-key and almost shy, he is not your usual energized, over-happy children’s theatre performer. Quite the opposite. Louis doesn’t try to hype up the kids or milk gags or applause. Instead this fascinating and passionate bubble-lover chooses to let the bubbles speak for themselves. He could also be described as an accessible scientist who creates performance art, or an unusual visual artist who creates science.
While it’s essentially a solo show, a well-positioned onstage cameraman and large screen, ensure everyone fully appreciates the process, as well as the end result, by capturing every detail. Louis surrounds himself with a simple, funky set made up of bright gobos and projections, which conjure up a mad scientist’s lab. The show starts and ends with a rainfall of gentle bubbles cascading into the front of the auditorium.
It’s all very pleasing to the three 8 year old girls I have in tow, who have read all about Louis with interest, from the program notes. They can’t wait to see “the bubbleman that loves being on stage, so he gave up his job to be on stage” (their interpretation). I don’t usually recommend buying a programme – they are so expensive! But Louis’ story at the front is really nice plus there are heaps of interactive instructions and diagrams from Louis, about how to create your own bubble tricks.
The entire show is dedicated to bubbles – bubbles made with his hands, karate chopped bubbles, a bubble-juggle, bouncing bubbles, bubble tennis, bubble dancing, “Louis the Bubble slayer”, fashion bubbles, helium bubbles, smoky bubbles, volcano bubbles, bubbles on a rope, or my personal favourite: the show-stopping 10-layered bubble dome!
Pitched at younger members of the audience, Louis starts the show by articulating a child’s perspective on simple bubbles. His innocence and goofiness very quickly creates a trusting and informal environment with the young audience, and he happily accepts ad-libs, offers and heckles from his enthusiastic audience. Waves of giggles quickly turn into waves of laughter. Kids are relaxed round this guy, and he’s one of them, for sure.
Occasionally I wonder if a little bit more upbeat chat might move the show along, as some bubble art can take time. Perhaps he needs to develop a bit more of a chirpy narrative? But on further reflection, it’s plain to see that awesome bubbles take concentration and linear focus – it would be a theatrical crime to see actual bubbles sacrificed in favour of bubbly chitchat.
Instead, well timed musical underlay kicks in now and then, when some of his creations take longer to build and sculpt. Occasionally his more complex creations fail, but Louis has a wonderful way of making that just as engaging as success, as he very politely asks the audience if we should try again or move on?
The “kiss the bubble” trick leads the show into very interactive territory, as many kids get the chance to come up on stage to help Mr Pearl. James is the first to “jump and kiss”, followed by Hannah, then Holly (who has a hair treatment thrown in); Alexander has a space ship built on his new hat, then Olivia and her cousin plus Josh, Beth and Brea, Linda the Mum, Mario and Cole, all get to be inside their own bubble-world.
In the middle of all this, is a random laser light and mirror ball disco – my girls are in a frenzy of dance with arms up in the air to start with… While of course a scene change necessitates this wacky dance break, it did go on just a tad too long.
However, the reward is enjoying bubble art moving to an even more awesome level: on an under lit table. The Bubble man’s fans go wild and “make the world, make the world” becomes the chant from the mob! Hilarious. Louis politely takes the raucousness in his stride, and like a soapy guru, he delivers a crowd-pleasing magic bubble.
My girls loved the show – they yelled, giggled, laughed, oohed and aaahed. And of course, tried desperately to get up on stage. Even at the end of 90 minutes, they did not want to leave the theatre, happy instead to chase the big rubber balls that Louis left in the auditorium.
Some of the girl’s comments:
“That is so cool / neat / awesome!”
“How does he do that? / “I wish I could do that.”
“How does he make it spin like that?”
“How is he going to make that?”
“I liked everything.”
“The best part is when he put bubbles inside bubbles.”
As a parent, I really appreciate the educational aspects of Louis’ show, with questions such as Why do bubbles pop? What’s a dodecahedron? What is a bubble? all thrown into the bubble mix.
Plus through fascinating ‘show and tell’, we learn about air movement, the principle of ‘volume up and pressure down’, and the ‘power of surface tension’.
This is kids theatre as it should be: real, interactive, inviting, creative, engaging, educational and entertaining.
FOOTNOTES:
The show is advertised as 60 minutes – our show went on for 90 minutes and while the older kids loved it, for some of the younger ones in the audience, it was plain to see the half hour bonus, was a step too far.
If your kids are confident and keen to get involved, book front and centre or at the end of a row, plus wear bright clothes or an interesting t-shirt – you might increase your chances of being one of the lucky chosen ones!
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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