|
The Curse of The
Mystic Renaldo The
When the 3LD Art & Technology
Center was under construction last year, workers
unearthed a silent black-and-white film from beneath
a concrete slab.... -
New York Times
As bizarre as David Lynch at his most extreme, but
with a broader sense of humor, 3 Legged Dog's new
comedy The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo The is
theatre both purely experimental and purely fun... -
Flavorpill
While avant-garde theatregoers are scurrying around
downtown New York scrounging for tickets to this
year's latest Wooster Group or Richard Foreman show,
fictional artiste Renaldo The is giving them all a
swift kick in the postmodern pants. -
Backstage
The curse of describing 'Renaldo' -
Downtown Express
I can roughly describe it as a multimedia work on a
rickety, Escher-esque stage that begins as a sort of
riff on silent movies and ends as a music gig by the
band Psycho the Clown. Between those points
stretches a desultory, often digressive, but always
fascinating grab bag of vaudeville lazzi,
meta-theatrical "mistakes" (with the house crew
making "unscripted" appearances), multisurface
projections, and straight-up tunes in a slick,
prickly-guitared Latin rock vein. -
The Wicked Stage
Seeing a show like The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo
The makes me glad, for the first time, to be a
blogger. This is the type of show that I'd rather
discuss casually than sit down and ponderously
review. It's too experimental a work to pin down to
one genre, or to classify neatly for a studious
audience: it is a surreal mockery of seriousness
that can be as entertaining one moment as it is
frustratingly obtuse the next. -
That Sounds Cool
Totally experimental, way out there, Art Rock
Vaudeville. The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo The
spends so much time trying to be different from
everything else that I can't tell if it's actually
good or just really quirky. -
Show Showdow
Love it or hate it, The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo
The is a weird, but talented, work of theater.
Renaldo The is a hodgepodge of characters, but winds
up being nothing more than a showcase for Aldo
Perez's skill as an actor. There's very little to
attach to in this disconnected work, but at the same
time, there's something thrilling in the absurd. -
New Theater Corps
Psycho
The Clown
Aldo
Perez is a musician, songwriter, singer,
poet, actor, dancer, 50% comedian, 50% clown, 50%
guru, a one-man opera production, a cosmic
singularity. In truth, Aldo Perez, a.k.a.
Renaldo The and Pompous Ass and
Psycho The Clown, is a genius. For only a
genius would introduce a song with the words
I wrote this song last summer, and I hope you do
too.
Aldo Perez
performs every other Friday at The Living Room (154
Ludlow St., b/w Stanton and Rivington, tel.
212-533-7235), usually in a trio formation with
drummer Richard Ginocchio (a.k.a. Valet and
Fabrizio Fabriculo and The Pimp Behind
The Wheel) and trumpeter
Kiku Collins (a.k.a. Ninja Princess),
but sometimes with other members too of the larger
Psycho The Clown Band.
If you've never seen their show, I urge you to go.
You can watch some video
clips,
first, or download a few songs,
or read a raving review.
But nothing can replace the experience of partaking
in an Aldo Perez show--I should know, I must have
gone 25 times since serendipity made me discover
Aldo in 2003.
You'll thank me for this!--Or you'll hate me, if you
don't see the poetry in
Ten pounds of poo
would have to resolve in your head to be true
Let me
finish by saying, in all seriousness, that this will
likely be the best played music you've heard in a
while. Not many of the reviews in
Aldo's web site
emphasize this enough, and even fewer pay due homage
to the great Richard Ginocchio and the gorgeous and
talented Kiku Collins.
Blog
MARCO NYC
http://marconyc.blogspot.com
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
On the way
out of the club, we met up with mike's friend jimmy.
he took us up through alphabet city, where we
dropped in on a
crazy and great show by aldo perez at the living
room. when I
say he's crazy, I mean, I think he's truly crazy.
hard to explain
the show but there were toy megaphones, classical
guitars,
hip-hop M.C.-ing, a trumpet player, bad jokes
("I once had sex with a model... the glue got
_everywhere_!"),
a classic rock medley, a song about insomnia, and a
plethora of
weird facial expressions. quite an evening. welcome
to new york.
The Nadas Daily
Blog
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hi,
I luckily wondered into the Living Room last night,
and saw one of the most entertaining shows I have
ever seen. I’ve been through the meat grinder in
the music industry, A&R at Elektra, signed to EMI as
an artist, blah blah blah… but rarely do I see
entertainment like that. I’m a fan, if I can ever
help, or if you ever want to hang, hit me up. Have
you ever thought about doing a New England Tour?
email
from Jimmy Landry
* * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * *
Some friends
of mine and I stumbled on your show at the Living
Room on April 15th. Our friend, Vered, was playing
right before you. Everyone we were with hated, was
offended, or just confused by your act, but my
roommate Christian and I saw the light. We talked
your show up for 2 weeks until your last performance
a week ago, and still only managed to get one person
to join us. A Germanic beauty named Iris joined us
and was dying of laughter the entire time as well.
A few other friends came to meet us and left after
less than one song. I can’t think of any other act
that inspires such strong reactions in the people I
know.
from Casey Kelbaugh
* * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *
PSYCHO THE CLOWN
"Tavern's Clowning Glory"
Reviewed by Dan Aquilante for The
New York Post
Sometimes when
planets collide there's nothing left but the ashes-
and sometimes strange new worlds are created.
Monday, at Tavern on the Green, a posh Central Park
eatery, uptown uppity and downtown dirty- in the
form of the "alternative" band Psycho The Clown-
crashed into each other in a magnificently bizarre
head-on. The scene was guys in jackets and ties,
ladies in slinky dresses, candlelight, fine wine and
good food- civilization to the max rules the
Chestnut Room. The occasion was the Tavern's new
Monday Night Showcase, a weekly event designated to
bring younger, hipper clientele into the verdant
venue. You probably have heard of the category
"alternative music" but until you see Psycho The
Clown, the term in meaningless. The four-piece band-
percussion, bass, violin and chief clown Aldo Perez
on guitar- plays a strange brand of funk-laden rock,
spiced with Latin rhythms. One day Aldo will be a
star. He's not only very talented, but he's willing
to do absolutely anything on stage to engage the
audience. He's part David Byrne, part Jim Carrey and
one of the most unique citizens of Skyscraper Park.
In one of the stranger moments, while the band was
wailing on the flamenco- inspired rocker that could
have fit into the Rusted Root songbook, loose-
limbed Perez started dancing and singing in tongues.
It was almost Spanish, maybe Italian, with the
cadence of a Sioux warrior attempting to rap. Like
every great live musical performance, excitement was
generated not only by songs but by the
unpredictability of the event. It was as of no one,
including merry prankster Aldo, really what was
going to happen next. The result was a terrific
blend of comedy and music in a very elegant setting.
* *
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * *
The last
time i saw this trio, the audience - myself included
- had tears of joy streaming down our grinning
cheeks for at least a solid hour. I can't begin to
describe what you'll experience, suffice it to say
i've rarely been so entertained since I moved to
NYC.
by Green
Street Salon October 6, 2004
* *
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * *
Renaldo, The Mystic
Late last night Ann, Kim, Rob,
Brian S. & I were this close to calling it a night
before we poked our heads in the Living Room. There
we saw one of the greatest shows I've seen in years,
Renaldo, The Mystic, fronted by Aldo Perez. How to
describe this? Well -- what struck me first was this
dude Perez looked like the love child of John Waters
and Jim Carrey. And was about as funny as both of
them. A natural, gifted physical comedian, dude
would just kinda make a weird face and crack me up.
But his style of performance was so radical, so
ten-steps-ahead of itself, that I didn't so much
laugh as sit there with my face frozen in awe. If
Lenny Bruce ever decided to do a circus act, this
would be it. What did he do, exactly? I can't even
tell you. Some of it involved a talking picture of
Vincent Van Gogh. But it was mostly fragments of
ideas erupting nonstop. He would interrupt himself
because a syllable of one word reminded him of
something else. (The word "he" took an unexplained,
unexpected left turn into a Native American war
chant for a few minutes.) But here comes the
surprise. THIS ISN'T A COMEDY ACT. It took me a
minute to realize this, but Perez and The Mystic
Renaldo The are actually fantastic musicians. They
pretty much do one song, then interrupt themselves
with shtick (yelling at the drummer, for example)
but the songs are fantastic. Perez has a gorgeous,
dynamic, rich voice (reminded Ann of Freddie
Mercury; maybe so, but less, how should I put this,
less gay?) and is a guitar whiz, playing in rock,
classical and Spanish modes. He also plays piano,
electric bass and sings in fluent Spanish. The band
is rounded out by a drummer who maintained an angry
scowl the whole time while wearing an absurd
bling-bling necklace and a female trumpeter who's
schtick was to look baffled most of the time. Many
of the songs were originals -- soulful, moody songs
in wonderful contrast to the antics preceeding them
-- but other highlights were a country version of
"Walk This Way" and "Stairway To Heaven" as sung by
Bruce Lee. Plus one of the more filthy raps I've
heard (not knowing too much about gangsta rap, I
couldn't tell if this was a cover or not -- either
way, Perez lost himself in his "Muthafuckers!" the
way a tenor would in an aria.) They play again in 2
weeks.
Posted by
Jordan at April 11, 2004 01:25 PM
|
