Mummers & Mimes
Featuring my time with a Mime in Paris France
Shutterstock Photo. drawing of Medieval Court Mimes
During the Holiday period, I read about and eventually fell down the rabbit hole of info. about the practice of mumming or mummering which takes place in some locales esp. in the U.K. from Dec. 26 to Jan. 6 - the 12 days of Christmas.
In Canada, mummering is mainly confined to parts of Newfoundland where participants parade through the streets in disguise and then go into houses and perform plays that often include combat, the resurrection of the slain champion and the collection of money- sort of like certain present day preachers, politicians and grifters who invade our personal space through the internet.
Here’s some more Fun Facts about Mummering:
The word mummer is derived from the name of the Greek god of ridicule.- Momas.
Mummers also apparently led burial processions of Pharaohs in ancient Egypt – “Mummers before Mummies”appeared to be the maxim of those moments.
The phrase, “Mums the word” also seems to have derived from mummering which sometimes included miming. (I know some of you would like me to do that now.)
I never called my mother “Mum” only “Ma,” but I did refer to my maternal grandmother as Mummu (pron. moomoo) which is the Finnish word for grandmother. I’m not sure if my Mummu ever mummered.
I have some personal experience with miming though.
I performed on stage with a professional mime in Paris France when my wife and I vacationed there in 1999 to celebrate our 15th anniversary. We were on a bus tour of Paris which included a dinner and a stage show in Montmartre.
The dinner show started with a mime performing some acrobatic stunts including climbing an imaginary ladder and juggling balls while balancing on a wooden plank perched on a ball.
The MC then called out a few names of unsuspecting tour members to “volunteer” to work with the mime/acrobatique on stage.
I was one of the people chosen by our tour guide to ‘volunteer” likely because I was quiet and didn’t talk much. (In my opinion, most people talk too much, mainly about themselves so it makes it easy to listen.)
The idea, I think was for our French hosts to make fools of us quiet ones by taking us out of our zone of silence.
However, the tour guide didn’t know that I had been a drummer and was somewhat used to the stage. I also took Theatre Arts in High School for a year to get out of taking shop classes at which I had been a total failure in public school. (incl. almost slicing my finger off).
Picture Mr. Bean in a shop class.
Back to Paris.
When I got on the stage, I bowed to the mime as if he were royalty- moving my right hand in a circular motion and then rising slowly from a low bow.
(I had seen that gesture in movies set in medieval times where an underling bows in deference to a French Dauphin.)
The mime smiled broadly. (I think he may have broken out of his mime character as he let out a quiet chuckle.)
He then looked at me and pointed to the plank and a balancing ball and motioned at me to try balancing on the ball with the plank .
I moved toward the ball and plank as if to try to copy him and then backed off, putting my hands up in a sign of surrender. We gestured back and forth for what seemed like a long time as we conversed in an impromptu dialogue of mime moves.
The mime finally bowed to me signalling the end of our silent repartee.
The MC came on stage, spoke into a mike and asked me where I was from.
I said,” Canada”, and then I struck a strong man pose which made the audience laugh and clap.
For my performance, I received this Diploma as a best acrobatic partner (as far as I can translate.)
When a chorus line of skimpily dressed ladies danced across the stage after my miming debut, one of them winked at me.
My wife laughed.
The whole experience did turn out to be very French farce considering that a semi disabled man with a pronounced limp had just performed on stage in Paris France with an acrobatic mime.
Some of our dinner table mates congratulated me and other bus tour patrons from New York told me that they were surprised at my performance considering I was so “Quiet”( which they uttered loudly).
The experience was a replay of the old saw: “You can’t judge a book by its cover” even if it’s in another language or without words.
So I have mimed, but I have never mummered. I have however, mumbled, murmured and muttered as if that matters to anyone but me.