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Tomás Kubínek - clown, international performer, certified lunatic and master of the impossible

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INTERVIEW WITH A JOURNALIST FROM PENNSYLVANIA.

1.) The most common description of you is "Certified Lunatic and Master of the Impossible...." but how would you describe yourself?
Fool, clown, visual poet, solo performance artist, multi-talented vaudevillan, comic genius and charming huckster.

2.) What, exactly, do you do? your career has been so varied, how would you describe it?
I'm a rare type of actor and comedian who uses every trick in the book to charm, transport, move and elicit laughter from, an audience. The performance is unique and personal in that I am simultaneously author, director and performer in every moment being created before the public's very eyes.

3.) Is it possible to tell me where your inspirations come from(I know that's a difficult question...)
Mainly inspiration comes from constantly rediscovering what a miracle it is that we exist and how beautiful and fragile it all is.

4.) Can you tell me what the "local brotherhood of magicians is? (An article I read said that they taught you "secrets of the trade")
I joined a magic club of old men when I was 8 or 9 years old. They were mostly hobby magicians who on weekends did shows at hospitals and birthday parties. They would meet in a banquet room once a month and I would be the youngest one there, dropped off by one of my parents. I learned magic tricks between mouthfuls of buffet.

5.) How did you end up in a Brazilian clown duo?
I got a job when I was 19 or so through a friend with 'Circus Flora' which was playing in St.Louis. I would wear an old-timey outfit with straw boater hat and spats and work the line-up doing schtick. A father and son clown duo, Leo and Nani Alarcon from Brazil had one number in the circus where the father played a mean horse trainer with a whip and there was a fake two-person horse and they needed someone to be inside the rear half of the horse costume... At the end of the number the gag was that the horse split in half and the front half would run away and I was left chasing after it in undershirt and boxer shorts with the back half of the horse costume around my ankles.

6.) How did you end up as a "Guest Villain" with Circus Flora?
I worked my way up from Back End of Horse. Over the course of several runs they realized my talents were of greater use than me running around in my boxer shorts. I was given a King of the Pirates outfit and ran around in pantaloons and got to climb things, wreak havoc and improvise insults.

7.) Can you tell me about your collaborations with Boleslav Polivka, Frank van Keeken and "The Right Size" physical theater company?
With Polivka I've appeared several times on his TV show in the Czech Republic, with The Right Size I created a 3 man play (MOOSE) that we toured for a year throughout europe, and with Frank Van Keeken we would create crazy guerilla-style theater sketches where the audience never knew what was real or not, like the time he gave a slide show lecture about canaries and I from the audience started to shout that he had stolen my prize canary and a fight broke out between us and I left with the canary as he writhed in pain on the floor.

8.) Does anyone help you come up with your ideas?
Mainly I do it all myself and on occasion have worked with directors or colleagues offering suggestions.

9.) What do you like most about performing? (also a difficult question, sorry!)
I like all the aspects of performing. In particular, I like being alone and tired at the end of my performance, and feeling like I did a great job.

10.) Please tell me about being an international house-fly catcher.
It was a televized competition organized in the Czech Republic by my friend Boleslav Polivka. There were competitors from 12 countries and I represented Canada. We all sat at tables across from our respective opponents and the room was filled with flies hatched in buckets. Flies had to be caught in the hand and then released unharmed, then you would hit a button on a chess clock and your opponent would go. I caught the most amount of flies in the least amount of time and brought home the Gold Fly-Swatter award.

11.) Can you tell me about the awards you have received, is one more meaningful to you than the others, or do you feel the same about all of them?
They all collect dust equally and are useless other than as paperweights, but getting them helps with the hype and people think you are more important just because someone else said you are.

12.) Can you "stop the earth's orbit for three full seconds", as reported by the New York Post-Star?
It's not so important whether I actually stop the earth's orbit for three full seconds or not, it's that I am courageous and sincere in my attempts.

13.) How is it that you do what you do? (you don't have to answer that, I was just curious!)
Birds fly, bees buzz, sunflowers follow the sun and somehow I do what I do...

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