The Blue Man Group: They’re really colourful characters

SINGAPORE - It has been more than 25 years since Chris Wink founded the entertainment troupe known as The Blue Man Group with his friends Phil Stanton and Matt Goldman. But even today, Wink finds it hard to say exactly what the group and its show are all about.

“It’s hard to describe the group,” he said, after a pause. “It’s like they’re outsiders looking at our world with a kind of child-like curiosity and they are trying to tune that in with their own logic. They’re alien-like but friendly, and there’s this cultural interaction.”

That interaction has apparently worked out quite well for the trio. Formed in New York in the late 1980s, the trio began with short pieces — small “disturbances” — on the streets of the city, that ended up in the clubs and later, a full performance at the Astor Place Theatre.

These days, the group has featured in shows in several cities in the United States, and this year, they have embarked on a tour covering cities in New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore where they will be performing at the Sands Theatre, MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands from March 29 to April 17.

The show has been described as a “unique mix of multimedia, improvisation, performance art, circus tricks, satire and set pieces”, involving everything from drumming on paint cans to catching marshmallows with their mouths.

“As artistes, we try to create a show that we would love to experience ourselves,” said Wink. “That’s what guided us in the beginning. We like the idea of a show that’s constantly changing. There are moments of comedy, moments of driving drumming, moments of satire ... It’s probably not the funniest show you’ve seen or the best drums you’ve ever heard. But the combination of tech and design and music and comedy is a unique blend that people seem to really connect with.”

Wink said this new show in Singapore is more intimate and theatrical compared with its earlier Megastar tour, which parodied a big rock concert. “This is the real Blue Man experience. This is the real heart of Blue Man. If people are curious about Blue Man this is the one to see,” he said.

Q: So why did you guys pick the colour blue?

A: Well, I just liked the colour and we were thinking of how fun it would be to see a character like that. And it’s the colour of the planet. I mean, we always think of the environmental colour as green, but really, if you look at the planet from space, it’s really blue. I think we just wanted to have a character that looked different but not off-putting. Blue is a nice colour, it’s pretty. Once we tried blue, it definitely felt right. If you think about it, the other colours aren’t as good.

Q: Did you expect the Blue Man Group to last this long?

A: We were friends and we had a passion to see what we could do with this. We didn’t really know where it was heading, you know? The bottom line is that people have to like it. We stumbled on something that could explain why it’s gone on for so long: We don’t use language. It’s not a story that has to be translated. It’s not culture-based. From the very beginning, people from all over the world could come to our show. If you didn’t speak English, it might be difficult to understand some of the shows on Broadway.

It’s an experience that all ages like, which is a little difficult to achieve in this day and age. My kids love Taylor Swift, but that’s not who I would want to go see in concert. I would want to see Radiohead, but the little ones would want to see Frozen On Ice. But the Blue Man show is something that teenagers to grandmas can all see and they all get different things out of it. It’s something that people can experience together. There are few (shows) like that today.

Q: Did you have a moment when you realised that this could become a big thing?

A: Something happened after one of our shows: A friend of ours who saw that show came up to us and said that there was one piece that we didn’t do correctly. And we were like, ‘What do you mean? How can you tell?’ and she said: ‘The way you dealt with the Jell-O’ — there was this scene where we used Jell-O — ‘that’s not the way the Blue Man would deal with it’. And she described who the Blue Man was to her, based on what she’d seen and we said, ‘Wow, you’re absolutely right. That was out of character’. That’s when we realised that the Blue Man was becoming an actual character to people — and not just three guys wearing blue paint. There were rules now, to what it meant to be a Blue Man. It had become bigger than us.

We were happy that we got an audience and the show was doing well, but we couldn’t realistically foresee the success that the show would have. We grew slowly, but we really enjoy our job and I’m glad we didn’t rush it. We could have sold the company to some conglomerate and they could have gotten the show all over the world very quickly. But we wanted to keep our jobs and we have been constantly working on the show all the time. We’re really proud that our shows are touring now.

Q: What was the biggest challenge being a Blue Man?

A: The hardest thing was making a show without a budget. We had to make everything ourselves. And we couldn’t really explain the show to investors when we wanted them to give us money. The idea defied logic. We had to find the PVC pipes we used by ourselves, and come up with a proof of concept so that we could show it to people. But once they saw it, they said, ‘This is great’. People were really drawn to it once they saw it, but describing it was hard because sometimes words don’t have a good way of conveying what the show is like.

Q: Did the group have any Spinal Tap moments, where things didn’t go right during the show?

A: I think we were on tour in New Orleans and we had a piece where the Blue Men would hold up posters with words on them, a bit like Bob Dylan in the music video (for Subterranean Homesick Blues). And the idea is that the words would connect from poster to poster and there are a lot of words on each poster. But we would flip them and the audience doesn’t actually have time to read it all. We didn’t have a crew to help up set up the posters so we had to carry them ourselves. We got out to the front of the stage and Matt flipped the first poster but it wobbled too much and he dropped his entire stack of posters and they all fell down into the orchestra pit in front of us. We just looked at him and looked down and there was nothing we could do. So we threw ours down too, because we couldn’t really show ours to the audience since all the posters were related and it wouldn’t have made sense without Matt’s stack. And we went on to the next piece.

Q: People recognise the Blue Man, but do they know who you are without face paint? Do you jump queues when you say, “I’m a Blue Man, you know”?

A: Most of the time, I’m glad that the Blue Man is the celebrity and not me, so I can live life like a normal person.

Q: How long will the Blue Man Group keep going on?

A: The way to keep this going is to create new works or new ways to approach our shows. We have some ideas that we’re working out right now, such as including other performers in our show, so that it’s not just the Blue Man as a performer, but as a curator or MC. We’d have to pick specific performers to fit our aesthetic. Maybe the Blue Man’s job right now is to share the stage with others — at least for the time being.

Q: What’s the best thing or worst thing about being in the Blue Man Group.

A: It’s exciting to know that we’re reaching different people in different places. What’s frustrating is that I can’t go to every place and still do the work that I need to keep doing. Like for Singapore, Phil is on his way there, but I’m working a few new ideas so I can’t go. I would love to be on the tour and meet people but we can’t be everywhere at once.

Q: What’s your take of the Blue Man philosophy?

A: In this world that’s becoming more technologically advanced, there is some need to bring our ancient past along with us to feel alive in a communal celebration. Some people are afraid of change but change is inevitable. I think Asian cultures are very good with change. There’s a clear understanding that we have to move into the future, but we can’t forget the past either. I think the rest of the world can learn a lot from that. I want to create a show that celebrates the future and past together and have a sense of community. There’s a good vibe to the show, and if people surrender themselves to the show, they’ll feel it.

The Blue Man Group performs from March 29 to April 17 at the Sands Theatre, Marina Bay Sands. Tickets from SISTIC.