Paul Binder - Revision history

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‎Image Gallery

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Djando at 17:55, 15 June 2021

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Djando: /* Juggler, Clown, Ringmaster, Circus Director */

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‎Juggler, Clown, Ringmaster, Circus Director

Djando: /* Becoming A Circus Legend */

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‎Becoming A Circus Legend

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 File:Casino_de_Paris_Malidor.png|Poster for Roland Petit's revue at the Casino de Paris (1975)
 File:Binder_and_Christensen_1977.jpeg|Paul Binder & Michael Christensen (1977)
 File:Binder_Christensen_Scott_1978.jpg|Dale Scott, Michel Christensen and Paul Binder (1978)
 File:Paul_Binder_1978.jpg|Paul Binder (1978)

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 File:Paul_Binder_1978.jpg|Paul Binder (1978)
 Image:Michael_and_Paul_(1982).jpg|Paul Binder & Michael Christensen (1982)
 Image:Stubs%2C_Gordoon_and_Paul_Binder_1987.jpg|Paul Binder with Mr. Stubs and Gordoon (1987)
 File:Binder_Ringmaster_1991.jpg|Paul Binder (1991)

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 Image:Michael_and_Paul_(1982).jpg|Paul Binder & Michael Christensen (1982)
 Image:Stubs%2C_Gordoon_and_Paul_Binder_1987.jpg|Paul Binder with Mr. Stubs and Gordoon (1987)
 Image:Paul_Binder_1994.jpg|Paul Binder (1994)
 Image:Paul_Binder.jpg|Paul Binder (1995)

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 File:Casino_de_Paris_Malidor.png|Poster for Roland Petit's revue at the Casino de Paris (1975)
 File:Binder_and_Christensen_1977.jpeg|Paul Binder & Michael Christensen (1977)
 File:Paul_Binder_1978.jpg|Paul Binder (1978)
 Image:Michael_and_Paul_(1982).jpg|Paul Binder & Michael Christensen (1982)

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 Image:Norman_Barrett_and_Paul_Binder.jpg|Paul Binder and Norman Barrett in rehearsal (1998)
 Image:Paul_Binder_2008.JPG|Paul Binder, Ringmaster, Big Apple Circus (2008)
 Image:Paul_Binder_in_Peru_(2009).jpg|Paul Binder in Peru, Indiana (2009)
 File:BINDER1.jpg|Paul Binder at Circus Sarasota (2013)

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 He ended up in San Francisco, hotbed of the sixties' counterculture movement, performing with the San Francisco Mime Troupe&mdash;a political street theater using circus techniques to create metaphors. There Paul met his partner-to-be, [[Michael Christensen]], and learned to juggle with [[Larry Pisoni]], who would soon after create the grassroots [[Pickle Family Circus]] and trigger the New Circus movement in the United States. Christensen and Pisoni, who had a comedy-juggling act together, had decided to perform it on the street-corners of Europe. Pisoni bailed out at the last minute, and Michael offered Paul the opportunity to go in Pisoni's place.
-Their European journey took them from London to Istanbul, with a long stay in Paris on the way back from Turkey. In Paris, their street juggling act&mdash;a mixture of passing clubs, visual comedy, and spoken comedy in French, delivered with a winning American accent&mdash;was spotted by an usher of the legendary Casino de Paris revue theater. They were invited to audition at the Casino for Roland Petit's show, ''Zizi, je t'aime!'' To their own surprise, they were hired. They subsequently performed the act on French television, which is how [[Annie Fratellini]] first saw them. This was 1975.
+Their European journey took them from London to Istanbul, with a long stay in Paris on the way back from Turkey. In Paris, their street juggling act&mdash;a mixture of passing clubs, visual comedy, and spoken comedy in French, delivered with a winning American accent&mdash;was spotted by an usher of the legendary Casino de Paris revue theater. They were invited to audition at the Casino for Roland Petit's new revue starring Lisette Malidor. To their own surprise, they were hired. They subsequently performed the act on French television, which is how [[Annie Fratellini]] first saw them. This was 1975.
 ===Becoming A Circus Legend===
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 <Gallery>
 File:Binder_and_Christensen_1977.jpeg|Paul Binder & Michael Christensen (1977)
 File:Paul_Binder_1978.jpg|Paul Binder (1978)

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 * Dominique Jando, ''Big Apple Circus: 25 Years'' (New York, Big Apple Circus in collaboration with Odyssey Guides, 2003) ISBN 962-217-724-7
-* Paul Binder, ''Never Quote The Weather To A Sea Lion'', Bloomington, AuthorHouse, 2013) ISBN 978-1-4817-3190-4
+* Paul Binder, ''Never Quote The Weather To A Sea Lion'', (Bloomington, AuthorHouse, 2013) ISBN 978-1-4817-3190-4
 ==External Link==

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:51, 4 January 2021
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	* Circus History: [[Big Apple Circus]]		* Circus History: [[Big Apple Circus]]
		+	* Biography: [[Katja Schumann]]
	* Video: [[Michael_and_Paul_Video_(1985)\|Michael & Paul]], Juggling Act (1985)		* Video: [[Michael_and_Paul_Video_(1985)\|Michael & Paul]], Juggling Act (1985)

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 ==Juggler, Clown, Ringmaster, Circus Director==
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-[[Image:Paul_Binder.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Paul Binder as Ringmaster (1995)]]Paul Binder was born in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York on October 19, 1942. His father was the sales manager of a New York winery; his mother was a homemaker. Neither had much to do with show business, beyond the fact that Paul's father played the fiddle and conducted his own dance band for a time. Raised in Brooklyn, Paul went to Dartmouth College, where he performed as an actor with the Dartmouth Players and the Hopkins Center Repertory Theatre.
+Paul Binder was born in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York on October 19, 1942. His father was the sales manager of a New York winery; his mother was a homemaker. Neither had much to do with show business, beyond the fact that Paul's father played the fiddle and conducted his own dance band for a time. Raised in Brooklyn, Paul went to Dartmouth College, where he performed as an actor with the Dartmouth Players and the Hopkins Center Repertory Theatre.
 After graduation, he spent a short time at Boston University's School of Fine and Applied Arts, then he worked as the stage manager for Julia Child's TV show, ''The French Chef''. He would later work as a talent coordinator for TV producer and host Merv Griffin. Paul would eventually go to Columbia University, where he earned an MBA. But by then it was the late sixties, and like many young people of his generation, Paul had grown restless.

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 Annie Fratellini had just opened a circus school in Paris and was well on her way to launching her own circus, the Nouveau Cirque de Paris. She offered Paul and Michael the opportunity to join her and her company. This was an eye-opening experience for the Americans. Paul discovered a circus vastly different from what he had been exposed to in his childhood with the annual visits of [[Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey]] at Madison Square Garden&mdash;which had never left a lasting impression on him. Here was an intimate, one-ring circus, where unparalleled artistry and keen attention to detail were paramount&mdash;a far cry from the traditional American circus's razzle-dazzle.
-[[Image:BAC_Founders_1997.JPG|thumb|left|200px|Michael Christensen, Alan Slifka, Paul Binder, and Barry Lubin (1997)]]Paul came to view the circus as an art form, and he was hooked. He returned to New York with one idea: creating that kind of circus in his hometown. Michael jumped onboard, they found people to implement this apparently wild idea&mdash;notably the Big Apple Circus's founding chairman, Alan B. Slifka) and at the end of 1976, the New York School for Circus Arts, Inc. was born. Its performing arm, the [[Big Apple Circus]], opened its doors a few months later, on July 18, 1977, in a small green tent planted on a landfill that would later become Battery Park City.
+[[Image:BAC_Founders_1997.JPG|thumb|left|300px|Michael Christensen, Alan Slifka, Paul Binder, and Barry Lubin (1997)]]Paul came to view the circus as an art form, and he was hooked. He returned to New York with one idea: creating that kind of circus in his hometown. Michael jumped onboard, they found people to implement this apparently wild idea&mdash;notably the Big Apple Circus's founding chairman, Alan B. Slifka) and at the end of 1976, the New York School for Circus Arts, Inc. was born. Its performing arm, the [[Big Apple Circus]], opened its doors a few months later, on July 18, 1977, in a small green tent planted on a landfill that would later become Battery Park City.
 Paul Binder was the Big Apple Circus's artistic director from its inception up to his retirement from the ring in 2008. He had directed each of its annual productions until 1996. He worked as an auguste in the early shows until 1982, and he and Michael performed their juggling act in every edition of the Big Apple Circus until 1983&mdash;and once more in 1985, in a performance of the Big Apple Circus with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra for a PBS TV special, ''The Pops Join the Circus''. They did their juggling act for the last time on January 27, 1998 in Paris, for a tribute to Annie Fratellini at the [[Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain]].