It’s Mime Over Matter for Actor--Words Fail Him

Mime Ruben Gerard, 30, was recalling his wordless performance before some deaf children.

“You can almost feel their eyes on you,” he was saying, “and I had to be extremely accurate and honest because they sense better than a hearing group and can tell if there is emotion behind it all.”

He got a terrific round of applause for the voiceless act he calls “theatrical shorthand.”

Gerard said children are his best audiences, such as the 300 he performed before recently at the La Habra Children’s Museum, because “mime is close to childhood life like when kids play house or cowboys and Indians. To them, I’m real.”

While Gerard has been a mime for seven years, he’s also worked as a rock band manager, is a still unpublished writer of children’s stories and a graphics artist. He also taught a mime class for the Buena Park Recreation Department.

“I have to take a lot of jobs,” said Gerard, of Fullerton, “because when business is not so terrific for my mime act, I have to put some (money) away for dry spells.”

It’s been a tough grind for Gerard, who admits that “I have to work very hard to get some gigs. It takes a long time to build a mime reputation.”

But things are looking up.

His character of “Toby the push cart peddler” is starting to catch on in addition to a number of other visual comedy sketches he performs at civic theaters, schools, libraries, children museums, private parties, fairgrounds, festivals and sometimes on television.

Gerard loves to travel with his act. “I’ve got to be in a state of transition.,” he said.

“People feel Toby is my alter ego,” quipped Gerard, who wears flexible tights, suspenders and a number of hats.

But he shuns white face makeup.

“I want to maintain my own identity,” he said, noting that famous mime Marcel Marceau used white face makeup to emphasize his facial expressions. Gerard said he is also influenced by the late comedians Buster Keaton and Laurel & Hardy.

Gerard’s facial structure lends itself to many different expressions, and he maintains a regular exercise schedule of jogging and stretching to keep his body limber and supple for his “body talk” performances.

Besides mime performances, he keeps himself active as manager of the rock band Gypsies and with his rod and hand puppet act called Tidbits & Co.

And for all his work, “I want to be proficient and professional in everything I do,” he said.

When Edison Co. customers lose their electric power, they don’t want excuses, they want the power back on.

Well, Orange County Edison spokesman E.E. (Gene) Carter of Orange knows how difficult it can be when you don’t have power, but he would like everyone to know the sometimes bizarre reasons outages occur.

For instance, a man hitched helium-filled balloons to a lawn chair and flew it to impress a lady friend. He landed by popping the balloons with a pellet gun but unfortunately hit some power lines on the way down--which caused a power failure.

And a pet orangutan got loose and started swinging pole to pole. While the animal survived, 1,200 homes lost power.

Fish and snakes cause problems, but only when birds drop them onto power lines.

Other power outages result when wires come into contact with model and real airplanes, hang gliders, umbrellas, kites, parachutists, hot air balloons, mobile cranes and even boat masts.

But the reasons for most outages, according to Carter, are fires and storms, like last weekend’s.

You want something new? How about a Louisiana hot sauce chicken-wing-eating contest?

“We raised $1,066 for Childrens Hospital of Orange County,” said Dave Partridge, manager of Chicago Joe’s, a restaurant in Irvine where the 30-minute wing-out took place.

“Everyone had a good time,” he noted, including winner George Britain of Irvine, who devoured 70 chicken wings.

The 12 contestants, urged on by a crowd of about 100, raised money through pledges for each chicken wing eaten.

Awards were given for the sloppiest, neatest. noisiest, comical and most lightweight eater which was won by Michael Watson of Irvine, who downed only 26.

“This might turn into an annual event,” clucked Partridge.

Acknowledgments--Williams Intermediate School in Santa Ana reported netting $3,000 from its recent jog-a-thon in which 350 students ran laps for pledges. Eighth-grader James Ganey was the top fund-raiser with $200 for his 15 laps.