MICHAEL COOPER: MASKED MARVELS AND WONDER TALES

Ronald McDonal ARTS for Young America -- Viterbo University, Lacrosse, WI

This production was nearly identical to what we saw a year ago in Winona, MN. The kids enjoyed it so much that we got tickets again for this production. The only thing different, for us, was that my youngest son was chosen to go on stage and was the one picked for the "wacky" elevator ride sketch (last year, my older son was chosen). The show didn't hold quite the same magic for us, certainly because we knew what to expect, but it was still an enjoyable show.

Below is a copy of what I wrote last year.

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A master mime and mask-maker entertains with a series of skits, sketches, and vignettes.

This was a fantastic show. What an artisan! Cooper clever opened his show with a mime piece that had him wearing an over-sized baby-head mask. Half-way through the selection, he opened the baby mask (which then, swadled, became the baby) to reveal an old man mask.

Other sketches included a cowboy taming a horse, his impression of various animals (some with and some without masks), a fish fishing for a human, an audience participation piece in which he taught some children how to look like they were going down (and up) on an elevator and on stairs, and a coup de gras with a story about a dancing troll, in which he danced in stilts, wearing a troll mask and costume.

My children were completely entralled by this show, and my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

I had two, small, reservations about the show. First, I did feel that Mr. Cooper worked a little too hard to try to get some reaction and enthusiasm out of the stodgy, mid-western, Scandinavian-descendant audience. We're generally a pretty reserved bunch, so trying to get us to yell out comments during a show goes against our nature. It seemed as though his show is geared toward trying to get the audience to "ask" for things, which we generally just don't do.

And some times I thought his miming, while certainly competent, was less than spectacular -- specifically his mime of sitting in a chair. Hey...I understand the whole aging/weak knees thing, but if you can't get your butt a little more parallel to the floor, then I'm not going to buy that you're sitting in a chair. The first time he did it, I wasn't even sure that's what he was miming.

Still...a really tremendous show, with a hearty two thumbs up from me!