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Mike McGee’s Book Review of “Workin’ Mime To Five” by Dick Richards

Write Bloody Publishing, 2011

Dick Richards’s new manual/tome, Workin’ Mime To Five: The Hidden Secrets of Cruise Ship Pantomimery; Revealed! is a brilliantly complete example of how silent oceanic scenario expression on paper is still silence. It’s a dissertation on how movementertainment for tourists on the open seas can be transcribed in simple, yet elegant ways without the bulk of needing a DVD player, interest, friends or electricity.

As a writer, I draw from experience, and so many of my hurdles include a lack of friends, electricity and a boat. I champion the cause of the hermit, the loner and the skunk. But as a reader, I seek out those popular authors whose command of language – especially authors of body language – are akin to that of a office lobby artwork painter or a foreign documentary producer… two words: complicated. I have found that body-author.

In my book, 1,001 Simple Practices for Being Simple, I broke down simplicity into a complex encyclopedia of routines and advice that anyone already living similarly to myself could apply to their hourly regiment. Richards’s book does the opposite. It takes ten historically impossible mime routines (some of which are regarded as “The Gold-plated Platinum Moves of Mime”) and breaks them down into easy-to-follow – albeit, easy-to-master – steps toward successful pantomimery. While his masterful language replete with actual, real-world mime talk should be enough to emblazon these moves onto the minds of the learning, he punctuates his know-how with the novel and cunning use of pictures.

Richard’s sage movements caught with precision through Matt Wignall’s lens has accomplished a collection the world of pantomime can only accept as the “new Pentateuch of complicated scenario expression.”

Richards’s's book, published in 2011, is already hailed as “The Anarchist Cookbook of Pantomime.” Legendary mimes like Dash Fancy, Barbara Bananas, and Jedward “Handy” Coriander, whom have all lauded Richards’s work on stage, are waving their flags of appreciation for his work on the page. Then there are kings of mime along the lines of Jeremy “The True Jesus Christ of Pantomime” Nixon who in the past have had made no bones about their hatred of Richards for his divulging of industry secrets, are now sidling up next to him at press conferences and mime tournaments just to be seen with him, his constumes and his new book.

Being a diabetic amateur mime, I still assumed my attempts at his first move in the book would fail and that even standing up would be a wasted effort, as usual. However, thanks to Richards’s adept understanding of his own genius versus our lack thereof he was adept at simplifying the most common, yet, hard to express scenarios most cruise ship tourists go through on any given voyage. I was able to precisely execute his “Diabetic Mistakenly Eats A Sugary Apple Fritter Instead of Pretzel Bun” maneuver with such ease that I am confident that were I to ever perform it in front of other people, they would call an ambulance. Since I have no phone, the laughs would merely continue throughout the afternoon potluck, were I to have caring friends.

I can safely say that no other book of pantomime will ever reach the pedestal Richards’s book sits on. No other book of pantomime needs to be published. All any working cruise ship mime needs in order to be truly successful is two copies of this book. Even if people don’t want this book, they need this book.

In closing, I leave you with a quote from Socrates, who said it all: “amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas,” which translates from Spanish to English as: “I look forward to a good book of mimery.” Decades later, it’s finally here. And it’s better than good: It’s pretty good.

Derrick C. Brown @ The Secret Poetry Loft from sean trani on Vimeo.