Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Thursday, September 08, 2016
THIS IS PHI BULANI
Well, it being the 50th Anniversary year to the day that Star Trek aired; Sept 8th, 1966, has me reminiscing about the genesis of my own career as an actor, and performer. I was still pretty young when Star Trek was first aired, and I actually probably first saw it only after it aired in syndication. I loved that opening theme, with Shatner's voice over and the launch of the Enterprise towards me, matched with the swell of the Alexander Courage's composition, so unearthly, siren like calling and beckoning, and that beat behind... pure fantasy. Sometimes it was too much and I would leave the room scared and run back in with equal excitement. Anyways, like the 66 Batman series, Star Trek was so much a part of my play impulse as a child, the action and excitement pulled me in, and I would replay the show in my room, or back yard, saying all the lines of dialogue I could remember. Then came Kirk's stunts, his double Kick was a tough one and demanded a lot of practice, it started on the bed of course built in trampoline right there, eventually I worked my way up to a solid ground for take off and landing.
A: Hmmm, well, I feel I was very lucky to have started out with a comedy troupe. It felt a little high wire at the time because it was like scripted improv in many ways, in fact we managed quite a following for ourselves based around the popular TV series and icons of Star Trek... and we called this monster A Celebration of Star Trek... and we might have lacked a certain kind of legality while doing it (laughs) because we basically took the entire script, transcribing it by watching the episode and then put it on stage, directed, with props, and performed it live... what was once presented on TV.
A: Not getting shut down? Sure. (laughs) Actually, this super creative guy; Michael McKinlay, who had already breathed life and spirit into the London Theatre scene with Soap on a Rope and a legit theatre called TheatreFaux as well, well he was also the brainchild behind this whole Star Trek shootin' match, he was always musing that we'd get shut down, 'cause as you just mentioned it had happened to a troupe in Toronto, and Trek was in the papers with the birth of Trekkies and Shatner's famous "get a life" quote, and those guys in Toronto weren't using actual Roddenberry stories or DC Fontana scripts! They were pretty broad and playing with the whole thing a bit too much on the cheap side, we played it straight so the humour came out of a love, plus we were in London, and so maybe that helped us fly under the radar.
Q: You're pretty lit up.
A: Yeah well, halcyon days! In those early days... man, some of the more eclectic and intimate venues we played included not only the local bars, but our first performance was the underground garage of the building TheatreFaux was renting on Richmond Street in London, next to Joe Kools, (I think Kools is still there in London) I mean you know your passions are lit when you're using car headlights for stage lighting (laughs) we were cutting our teeth you know, as performers and actors, with 200 people lined up and then crammed into this garage! Awww man it was wild, (laughs) We had this keyboard player doing the music live, and a guy, Marco Burak; I think it was, running through the crowd, with a model of the Enterprise on a bike helmut, while the theme played.
Q: Sounds hilarious.
A: Aww man, I can still feel the rush... so in a short time we were invited to perform at the Second City space on their dark nights, and we continued to grow quite a following along the way, we ran for years, and our performances sold out every monday! So once a week we were like the Kings of the London Entertainment scene.
Q: Funny! Tell me about this next thing?
So there it is the beginning of my self reflection about the impact of Star Trek on it's 50th Anniversary, and while it wasn't the first thing I ever performed, for me those were Halcyon days, and I owe them all to to this glorious phenomenon known as Star Trek.
#StarTrek50 #LiveLongAndProsper #ActorsLife #Batman66
https://twitter.com/mystaphi
Head shot Photo Credit: Denise Grant Photography
Posted by Numberonefan at 12:30 a.m. 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: #Batman66, #StarTrek50 #LiveLongAndProsper #ActorsLife
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
THIS IS PHI BULANI
"It's with a kind of sadness that I celebrate World Theatre Day, as we very recently lost a colleague and friend who for me embodied the vey best kind of thespian; warm hearted, with a passionate mind and a lightness that was both fun and full of gravitas... on any note... maybe it was his wonderful baritone voice that denoted a poets understanding of whatever it was he was saying, rich and velvety, with Oak like strength... sounds like I'm describing an exquisite wine, or secret honeyed elixir of Kings, but man your ear would just drink it in... and it felt as though you were working with Richard Burton, and working with David Wasse was just like that, it was this exceptional experience that transported you and the audience at the same time. I first met David when I was cutting my stage teeth in London Ontario... we met through a wonderful confluence of talent that seemed to have the stars align above us, in galaxies bold that would transport us well beyond our immediate frontiers in and into the future when we performed selected scripts from previously aired episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation, which for us became a huge cult hit in London Theatre Scene called A Celebration of Star Trek.
In those days, I was so crazy serious about acting man, with my face covered in thick Metallic gold and silver make up... I would become DATA... well, one hot summer night the air con was down, and at the peak of the Space drama, Wasse' skin cap had come loose under the heat of the lights, the audience was howling so loudly at the contrast as he kept the operatic heights of the scene aloft... with all nuance of Patrick Stewart, and all the charm that was innately his, and the blocking was such that all I could do was observe his skull cap with the utmost of curiosity as it was springing up at the corners, with every dramatic syllable that issued forth under David's command, and so with every nerve going... the spirit gum would not keep those corners down under that heat, and we played that scene as written, intensely straight, and operatically high; there we were; me covered in thick metallic Data make up and David with this crazy skin cap adorned with minimal Picard hair, and the audience was howling with laughter, howling so hard that we could hardly hear ourselves, and when we finished the scene and got into the wings, we were looking at each other, and David looks at me quizzically and a bit annoyed, and he says to me "what were you doing out there? What on earth were they laughing at? So I turned him around to the mirror, (still in character) and at the precise moment he belly laughed so hard that his cap actually sprang off his head, the spirit gum sticking to only his fore head... leaving the cap over his eyes... he says... "Oh you wonderful Ham, I know exactly what you were doing... you just took it all in didn't you, well done!" and then with a wonderfully deprecating sense of self he continued... and here I thought I was being brilliant" Which of course he was being brilliant and that's why that scene was just killing it that night, well you can just imagine the fun he had with this little discovery for the rest of the show... especially when he later falls under the intoxicating spell of love with Doctor Beverly Crusher or so I think the story goes, as he was now in control of that skullcap!
David Wasse calling me a wonderful ham is for me now a cherished moment, thanks to his generosity, and as I write this, it really does seem like yesterday that we were on that stage together. He was a true gentleman, and special soul, and incredibly brave on stage and off, and I keenly feel the loss for his family especially having lost my Dad last year. He and my Dad had a delightful conversation after a show one evening, and David relayed some of the conversation which I think steered towards the game Chess; so in my fantasy of heaven, he and my Dad are maybe playing some multi level game of Star Trek style Chess. The loss of a parent is a sorrow, and one that seems both inescapable and inevitable, and yet unsustainable thanks to memory. Godspeed David, and God bless his wife; Bronwyn, and their family.
Engage!
Posted by Numberonefan at 12:30 a.m. 0 comments Links to this post
Wednesday, December 03, 2014
THIS IS PHI BULANI
Posted by Numberonefan at 8:00 p.m. 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: 46th Anniversary of Elvis '68, Christmas 2014/ uh huh huh, PHI BULANI
Friday, June 27, 2014
THIS IS PHI BULANI
PREMIERE'S TONIGHT! 8:15PM
Tarragon Mainspace, Toronto ON
Q. What can you tell us about Elvis and Dick?
A. Well, you'll leave feeling good! It's a fun musical phantasm of a script, with sexy performers, written and directed by Brian Kennington in the Elvis movie tradition, with some twists and turns that spin that formula on it's head a bit... Brian's has seen a kind of interdependency of time and connective tissues between Nixon and Elvis... and we get a sense of their humanity.
Q. Is this a two hander Phi?
A.A. No-oooho ho- o no, not in the least. We have a cast of 7 including myself, with Kevin Jollimore playing Nixon, Kensington Market's frequenters will know Kevin from his Sin City Boy's band, and while we may have the lion share of the script... we have a great supporting cast of actors and musicians on stage with us featuring Sarah McGowan as little Big Red, and Allison Edwards-Crewe (Hairspray) as the very sexy Kitten with a whip singing Don't Be Cruel. Brendan Shoreman (The Dream) turning out some hilarious moments, as Ryan McKeen (Speare) Trevor Ketcheson round out the cast as two key members of the Memphis Mafia that were there the day Elvis and Nixon met.
Posted by Numberonefan at 12:30 p.m. 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Elvis and Dick / Toronto Fringe 2014 #fringeTO/ #goodmusic / #elvis #nixon / musical comedy
Saturday, May 31, 2014
THIS IS PHI BULANI
Posted by Numberonefan at 9:38 a.m. 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Elvis and Dick Rehearsals/take the train/Ridin' the rails is a great way to travel/
Thursday, May 29, 2014
THIS IS PHI BULANI
Posted by Numberonefan at 12:30 a.m. 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Elvis and Dick/ The Toronto Fringe/ Phi Bulani/ Kevin Jollimore/
Saturday, March 29, 2014
THIS IS PHI BULANI

Posted by Numberonefan at 12:30 a.m. 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Earth Hour 2014/ PHI BULANI/ earth hour /spiderman / warm and cozy like by candle light
Thursday, March 27, 2014
THIS IS PHI BULANI
Sunday, March 09, 2014
THIS IS PHI BULANI

Posted by Numberonefan at 12:30 p.m. 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Larry Scott/ Biceps/ Forearms/ Mr Olympia/ Preacher Curls/ Scott Curls