Bello shhhhhhhhhh!

[tim]

From big top to PC screen
Silent films feature clown’s clean antics
By ANDREW WINEKE
THE GAZETTE
June 12, 2007 - 9:08AM

Eighty years after the glory days of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, circus star Bello Nock is trying to join the ranks of silent-film greats.

Nock, the carrot-topped main attraction at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus — which opens Wednesday for a five-day run at the World Arena — is starring in a series of silent shorts styled after Chaplin and Keaton.

“It was as creative as what people are seeing now, and sometimes more so,” Nock said of the silent-film era.

The new films are the brainchild of a pair of Colorado businessmen, Kerry Berman and Mark Margulies. They used to get their families together for movie nights, but they were continually stymied in finding truly clean family fare. Margulies’ collection of classic films from Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin and Keaton, however, proved to be just as funny with kids today as it was 80 years earlier.

“There were some wonderful, wonderful comedic and very gifted actors at that time,” Margulies said of the silent movies of the 1920s.

They thought that if they could resurrect that style of comedy and translate it to the Internet, they could hook a new generation on the form and provide others with the sort of clean content they were looking for. After two years of planning and filming, the Parker-based site, called Family Flickers (familyflickers.com), went live in January.

Nock, the jester famous for his 8-inchhigh shock of hair, was their first choice to star in their comedies.

“I had taken my daughter and my wife to Ringling Bros. when Bello’s tour came through town,” Margulies said. “I was telling my wife, ‘This guy was born 80 years too late. He should have been a silentmovie star.’”

Nock was onboard with the idea as soon as he heard about it. Every comic, he said, owes a debt to silent stars. And the family-friendly aspect of the shorts appealed to him, too.

“To me, it was being able to do something that I wouldn’t have to be embarrassed of,” Nock said in a phone interview. “Everyone in the family could enjoy a very simple story.”

The physical comedy that made Nock famous in the big top — such as riding a tiny bicycle and balancing atop a swaying 70-foot pole — is similar to what worked in silent films, Nock said.

“I speak six languages. One of them is silence,” Nock said. “It’s not mime, but basically just to be able to communicate without saying a word.”

Nock shot four shorts for Family Flickers last year, traveling to Colorado on his days off from the circus. Berman and Margulies acted as producers, and hired professional directors and editors to create the films.

The films revolve around Nock’s misadventures, getting locked out of the house, cleaning the kitchen or getting into shape.

A second series of films stars Denver actor Ron Vigil as a bumbling detective.

[Scruffy]

Here's hoping it makes it.

They sound really good. And the statement about silent film stars is true for us clowns. Many of the classc gags we know and love went from Vaudeville, straight to the silent films and were taught anew to our grand parents by Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Woody woodpecker, And great directors for them like Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Later down the road, We watched them anew. What person in our age bracket can't finish this quote from Daffy Duck?

"Ho! Ha! Guard! Dodge! Parry, Spin........."

[The_Princess_of_Bozonia]

Excellent!

[tim]

You can watch an episode for free at that site.

It's put together pretty well. And Bello makes for a unique, excellent, (and identifiable) character for this sort of thing. It's a good fit. I'd love to see this on the big screen sometime.

[Scruffy]

Originally Posted by The_Princess_of_Bozonia

Excellent!

Sorry Princess, The correct answer is thrust

[The_Princess_of_Bozonia]

Originally Posted by Scruffy

Sorry Princess, The correct answer is thrust

(kidding, Fitz!)

[Fitzwilly]

That deserves a double laugh. Thanks Princess!