History of Mime Illusions

Series Summary

Very little is known about the lost civilization of Mime, in spite of the fact that its descendants continue to live among us, recreating their odd and ancient rituals for art patrons, carnival revelers and any passerby with some spare change. Until quite recently, the only thing we knew for sure about the citizens of Mime was that they are quite obviously related to the French. However, here at Expert Village we have finally uncovered the truth about Mimes.

Long, long ago, there existed a subterranean colony of actors and dancers who would venture to the earth's surface to entertain Greek and Roman aristocracy. Evidence of these forays can be found in the ruins of Pompeii, where casts made from entombed human remains revealed a man posed to drink a non-existent glass of water as well as a woman trying to open a door that was never there. Contemporary Mime apologists claim that these findings prove nothing, but their silent protests continue to be ignored. The unfortunate truth is that the Romans blamed the people of Mime for the volcanic eruption which destroyed Pompeii and proceeded to seal off the Mimeans in their underground city.

Without light, the Mimeans became very pale, and without possessions they were forced to interact with imaginary objects and play with imaginary toys. While these aspects of their seclusion corresponded to their stage makeup and routine, heretofore they had appeared and acted just like the citizens on the surface while not performing. But with their extended interment, their performance routine and their lives fused into one singular lifestyle. How did they survive without sun and without food? More than one Mime historian has suggested that they began to believe their own illusions, that an invisible leg of lamb filled their stomaches just as much as the real thing. Yet this seemingly inexhaustible food source must have dried up, for after centuries of hiding, they have returned to the earth's surface.

Video Transcript

"Welcome to Expert Village. I'm Mark Wenzel I'm an mime artist and we are going to talk about mime today. First of all the history of mime. Mimes actually are one of the oldest art forms in the world. The caveman, when we would act out the hunt successfully the night before the hunt that was pantermind. The Greeks and Romans all used the action now when you get into the mime all of sudden when it's in Europe. They say well a lot of mimes came from Europe, well why is because you're speaking a different language every time you go another fifty feet. If we spoke another different language every state we went to in the United States mimes would be a lot of more popular. So mimes would travel around, I have a great story about how the mimes got their makeup. They be working in a marker place where money changed hands and there was jugglers and performers and these mimes were being goofy. They would say wait a minute you goofy old mime and they took them and shoved their heads in the flowerbed, they would come up and go wait a minute I like this, this works even better. But now you do see mimes that they have gone all the way through the silent movies, were all mimes, a lot of the following through. Now Marcel Marcel he is the one that really brought mime to America. He of course showed a lot of the mime technique which I would be showing you later on on the thing. So it's really something that has been around for thousands and thousands of years. That is the fun of it is that you're doing an art form that is a basic art form."