Marcel Marceau Meets ‘Radar Love’

Something about mimes really ticks people off. Maybe it’s that precious handing-out-flowers-in-the-Latin-Quarter thing. Or perhaps it’s the vague air of menace associated with whiteface. Either way, if the anti-mime jokes, Web sites, “Why We Hate Mimes” lists and mimes-versus-clowns feuds are any indication, the art of pantomime doesn’t look like much of a growth industry.

But Derek Martin isn’t just another arty gesturist. Martin, 28, of Echo Park, is making noise with his renegade Mime Control troupe, a rotating cast of postmodern marauders who perform “nouveau mime” and interpretive dance routines to commercial jingles and rock ‘n’ roll at private parties, galleries, restaurants and book signings.

Martin, an accessories designer and former art student who cites post-structural theorist Jean Baudrillard’s book “Simulacra and Simulation” as a major inspiration, sees the troupe as the perfect empty mock-up of pop culture avatars such as boy bands and teen sleaze queens, whom he views as mere lip-syncing pretty faces. “We’re replacing the star with the anonymity of the mime.”

A typical performance finds the 8-month-old crew clad in cut-and-paste combinations of black and white, though players sometimes don colors when representing past decades. Traditional whiteface often gets a rock star tweak a la Kiss or Alice Cooper, and routines combine classic climbing-the-ladder moves with lip-syncing and dancing to rock hits such as “Radar Love.” The group’s 13 members, who include ad execs, writers, accountants, actors, photographers and Martin’s other art prankster pals, strive to incite audience involvement through written or pantomimed direction.

Even with the ironic trimmings, Mime Control garners its share of derision, Martin concedes, but it was society’s antipathy to mimes that inspired him to start the troupe. “Mimes have an almost shamanistic quality because they work with the stuff that people discard, like silence and darkness, and it’s mysterious working with the unknown.”