Badische Neueste Nachrichten
Comedy-Clown Murphy: Everything's Under Control
	Sometimes you climb high, fall deep. and then generate a lot of laughter. In the case of Tom Murphy it is done on purpose and, as he puts it with a smirk, "It's my job."" It is a job that he, the Comedy Clown, does with mastery and great success. Formerly, this American had to earn people's interest in his contortions and slapstick on the sidewalk; today, his shows only need to be announced and spectators come in hordes and stay until the very end. And so it happened Thursday evening in the Gaggenau-"Cry-Podium" an extraordinary audience and a fantastic artist blended together in perfect harmony. This meant involving audience members, especially from the front row, in vigorous stage acts and adrenaline boosts- Acts like racing across the stage on his standard unicycle or on his "7-feet cycle of death", wildly waving his arms with a worrisome expression on his face, all the while threatening to crash into the audience at any moment. "Don't worry", he assures after a few near misses and with a teasing grin, "everything's under control - after all, I am a professional. Professional is the right word, especially for someone who puts a glass of wine on his forehead and then drinks it without using his hands or feet, who juggles three [wooden] clubs while balancing on a giant ladder between the posts and beams of the [Gaggenau] "Cry-Podium", who bends down to the ground from his unicycle without failing, or who tickles the funny bone of his audience with continuously squeaking balloons. Just like his surprise back flips, he uses every opportunity to place a joke [or slapstick]. The forty-three year old (Murph) from Vermont is a jack of all clown trades - using acrobatics and lovable clumsiness, a clever play of audience and balancing acts, a "play with fire' and a comforting portion of self-imny. Murph playfully pairs the wonders of the European circus world with the parodies and nonsense of American stand-up comedy; his dramatic mimic almost pales his acts by comparison- The guy with the cute smile not only conquers the stage by storm the but also the hearts of his enthusiastic audience. "[SO] sweeeeet" is the whisper through the packed rows when this loving guy just can't seem to get it together on stage - but, one couldn't take offense anyway; certainly not at his attempts to prove "what a macho guy I really am" by going through a metamorphosis from macho to ballet dancer back to macho, giving the body-building show of a model athlete in tight-fitting speedos. It is one-man-show with heart - [after all], laughing is the best therapy for stressed souls.