In 1988,MTVcovered a funeral . It was not for any recently departed stone star , but for the X itself — a solemn processionheldin Central Park that include aRambodoll being limit ablaze , all to adjure bye to the excess of the era .
If that were n’t denotation enough that the service were biting and satiric , one tone at the “ mourners ” would be : All nine of them were painted blue .
When thefootageaired on the channel , it was probably dismissed as MTV — which was know for sweep up the counterculture — covering a particular piece of performance prowess . Instead , it turned out to be the emergence of an amusement franchise based on the childlike peculiarity of three mute , earless creative person who met at the intersection point of avant - garde and the mainstream : Blue Man Group .
Blue Man Beginnings
Chris Wink and Matt Goldman , friendssince level school , spent time in the mid-1980s thinking about how toexploremodernism and engineering in carrying into action . The tenner was giving fashion topersonal computersand increasingly advanced gadgets . In reception to the ever - growing anxiety around technology , they conjured up persona who were eager to learn and discover the tactile world around them . Their friend Phil Stanton join in 1986 , and the trio imagined a show that would trance the flavor of a picture come to life , full of vivacious colour and pantomime . The result was Blue Man Group , consist of three Blue Men , each of whom had ( and have ) a very defined character .
“ The Blue Man is part innocent , hero , scientist , priest-doctor , grouping penis , and trickster , ” GoldmantoldInc.in 2008 . “ He does n’t speak , but he pass with vaudevillian slapstick humor . He drums and enamour gumballs in his mouth that are filled with paint , which he spit onto a canvas to make artistic production . It ’s interactive , with music , light , and lots of colorful liquids that get sprayed on the stage and into the audience . ”
That there were three of them was no accident . Though friends had joined them for the Central Park performance , the core was a trio . “ Three is the smallest whole where you may have an outsider ; two bozo win the third over , or the third cat wins the two guys in , ” Goldman sound out . “ It can go either elbow room , and that tension makes for dear theater . It also makes for effective business cooperator — it hold the self-importance out of it . ”
For the next few years , Wink , Goldman , and Stanton stretched bald caps over their school principal and spike andslatheredthemselves in Co down greasepaint . Though they were n’t always silent at first , Wink later said being mute seemed to experience right . Some of their pieces required no commercial outer space . They once set up a velvet rope outside the popular Copacabana night club andinvitedpeople “ in ” to dance for free on the pavement .
In December 1990 , the Blue Men run full - time , taking to stages that wereopento amateurs and unproved acts , not unlike an open - mic dark at a comedy club . It wasAndy WarholmeetsDouble Dare : They made unique musical instruments out of PVC with name like tubulum and drumulum ; they smashed into drums covered in paint and ascertain the splattering fly in all direction ; they muted any expressions . Everything seemed to be astonishing to them , as though they were seeing it for the first clip . appearance could even terminate with the hearing get across in bathroom paper .
Gigs in articulatio coxae experimentalspaceslike P.S. 122 and La MaMa followed . Then , in 1991 , the III receive some fiscal backing from an investor and the fortune to occupy space at the about 300 - hind end Astor Place Theater . They invite spectators up on stage and played with iconography likeTwinkies , Cap’n Crunch , and Jell - O. While not quite Broadway , it was a vast step up from the random theater of operations date and gave them a fortune for more widespread recognition .
It worked . “ With original medicine , deadpan sophism and the biggest mess since the cafeteria scenery inAnimal House , Blue Man reduces the late 20th century to a post - forward-looking romp in a lunatic nursery school,”wroteVicki Goldberg inThe New York Times . Dustin Hoffmanescortedhis son to the show and came away impressed . Bruce Willisand Demi Moore need them out for dinner . The trio also made appearances onThe Tonight Show With Jay Leno . Attendance grew , and other city like Boston and Chicago beckoned . But was it possible to franchise a basal aesthesia ?
Counter-Counterculture
In their Astor Place habitat , Blue Man Group performed an astonishing 1285 consecutive display without a cancellation or substitution . But , as Goldman recalled , “ We realized that if we desire to uprise , we ’d have to duplicate ourselves . ”
Other performers were recruited from colleges , theaters , and even in beat circles . Six month of training in how to take the air , reply , and perform would help oneself them prepare for their roles . A Boston show with their dead ringer did well enough to migrate to Chicago . When that turned into a smasher , the mathematical group ’s friends , magicians Penn Jillette and Teller — the latter of whom is , oddly , also dumb when on microscope stage — encouraged them to coif up shop in the mecca of bouncy amusement : Las Vegas .
It was not a runaway achiever . When the show open in 2000 , attending was around 50 pct of capacity for 10 shows a hebdomad . Blue Man Group needed another get-up-and-go . But while the founder were willing to duplicate themselves , they were still wary of be in a outer space other than the stage . They deform down opportunities to endorseM&M’sand to seem in movies , all labor that could raise their profile .
One offer , however , made sentience to them . Computer chip maker Intel wanted to enlist the group to endorse their new dividing line of Pentium central processing unit and were uncoerced to let them have approval over the ad campaign .
In a series of spot , which the three regale like 30 - second performance nontextual matter pieces , Blue Man Group was able to achieve maximum exposure without sacrifice the inherent theme . Intel bought so much air time that it was moot one of the biggest ad pushes ever . More importantly , the three insisted that the advert have a Blue Man Group watermark onscreen so TV audience would n’t opine they were simply Intel mascot .
It all worked : attending for the Blue Man Group shows in Vegas shot up to 100 percent , even when they contribute four unexampled appearance per week .
The show moved to the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino in 2005 . By 2010 , Goldmansoldhis one - third portion to focus more on the Blue School , a individual learning institution in New York that embrace creativity . ( And where , one expects , some next Blue Men could be source . )
In 2017 , the founderssoldto Cirque du Soleil for a sumreputedto be in the tens of jillion . “ We set about to feel like we needed some help , plus we had some creative mind that were beyond our own means , ” Wink say . “ We think of some way that the Blue Men and their performances could go on a bountiful scale . ”
But that ordered series begin to shrink . After the coronavirus pandemic halted live events in 2020 , Cirque filed for failure trade protection ; the occupation had to slowly reorganize . The shows continue today , albeit without Wink , Stanton , or Goldman in depressed paint . Roughly 50 million people worldwide have see the show .
All of it bring the Blue Man Group full traffic circle , but it also begs the question : Can a monumental show use one C of people and generating hundreds of millions in revenue be counterculture art , or is it now simply culture ?
“ What ’s the difference of opinion between art and a Twinkie ? ” Winksaidin 2001 . “ Blue Man spurts colours , and it becomes prowess or waste , depending on where it land . If , by art , you imply something simple and useable to everybody that ’s not a handsome deal , then yes , we ’re art . But if you intend is it important and elitist , we ’d rather be known as comedians . ”
