How to Mime

Sometimes called the "silent art," mime is the art of acting, pure and simple. Mime often appears without sound and usually with very few if any props.

Mime is one of the most ancient forms of theatre, appearing around the time of the Greek tragedies. Throughout the ages of theatrical history, mime has made its mark on everything from religious rituals to street theatre and the classical ballet.

Miming appears very simple but it takes a lot of skill and practice to make it appear realistic. Mime study can be very useful, not only for actors and other performers, but for anyone who needs to communicate clearly.

Steps

Use your body to speak. When miming, talking is not necessary. Instead, use facial expressions and make use of your whole body to do the 'talking'. Use a mirror (or an audience) to assess what movements are the most successful in conveying emotions, feelings, attitudes and reactions.

Start with basic mime actions. There are some fairly standard techniques that most mime artists begin with. These include manipulating imaginary objects (such as walls, balls, ropes, etc.), walking in place, climbing imaginary ladders, leaning, and so on.

Imaginary objects:
~Grab a rope. Pretend to have a rope dangling before you and attempt to climb it. Slide down and clamber back up for best effect. When you reach the top, wipe the perspiration off your brow.
~A ladder. To show climbing a ladder, grab at imaginary ladder rungs going up in the air. Place the ball of one foot on the ground, as you would put it on a ladder rung. Pull down on the rungs (keep the hands moving together!) as you go up on your toes, and then drop back down with the opposite foot now "on a rung." Alternate feet and hands each time you "climb." Keep your focus upwards, as though you were looking at the place to which you are climbing. (If it's a tall ladder, look downwards occasionally for comic effect - tilt your head slowly and carefully, just enough to look downwards, and then look forward quickly, with an expression of alarm!) Make your legs do the same movements as if your feet were clambering up a real ladder.

Pretend to be in a box. If you are in an invisible box, you can press the air out in front of you with your hands, first your palm and then your fingers. Act as if you are trying to find a way out of this invisible box by identifying its corners and sides. Run one hand across the "edges" of your imaginary box, as you try to find the lid and your way out. If you want, you can eventually find the lid and flip it open dramatically with both arms, in a triumphant gesture.


The lean. Pretend to be leaning against a lamp post, wall or a counter. It might sound easy but takes quite a lot of strength and coordination to "lean" on nothing. The basic lean has two parts. Start with the feet about shoulder-width apart.
~For the top part: Hold your arm slightly away from your body, with the elbow bent so that your forearm is parallel to the ground and your hand (wrist relaxed slightly) is near your torso. Now raise your shoulder as you move your chest towards your elbow (keeping the elbow at the same point in space!).
~The bottom part: at the same time, bend your knee slightly, taking your weight onto the bent leg. The net effect should be that your elbow stays where it is, but it looks as though your weight has settled onto the imaginary place where your elbow rests. Make sure you only bend the leg under your raised arm. Keep your opposite leg perfectly straight as this adds to the illusion.
~Watch in a mirror, or use a video camera to see how effective the technique is. It's sometimes most effective to do this technique casually, with very little exaggeration at all.
~For a more active show of leaning, the act can also incorporate stumbling, sliding off and missing the leaned-on object altogether.

Take on the wind. Pretend that it is very windy and that you are having a hard time standing up in it. Let the wind buffet you to and fro. For added amusement, include a struggle with an umbrella that keeps turning inside out.

Mime eating. It can very amusing to watch a mime of eating. Pretend to be consuming a very sloppy hamburger or hot dog, with all the contents slopping down the front of your clothing. Accidentally squirt some ketchup towards your eye. Or try peeling a banana and then slipping over on the peel.

Make the mime interesting. You can go for a one-off laugh or you can try to raise mime to a higher art form. If you create a story from your mime, you will be engaging your audience and providing true artistic resonance to the art of miming. Think in advance of a "tale" you would like to tell. Keep in mind that mime can be very beautiful and moving if done well. To take some of the examples above:


~It is a windy day (wind/umbrella mime) and you wish to walk to the hamburger stand where you meet a friend who has a cat stuck up a tree. Your friend asks you to climb the ladder to rescue the cat (ladder mime). When you return the cat (mime holding a squirming and ungrateful cat), your friend treats you to a hamburger (sloppy, ketchup mime) and just as you leave, you fail to notice a banana peel lying on the ground...

~If you wish to mime something more serious, adopt a mood with your clothing, make-up and lighting. Think out a serious tale in advance. For instance, you may wish to highlight the plight of the homeless sleeping out in the cold during winter. Paint on a sad face, wear tattered clothing and use dim lighting. Think through a story that allows you to mime trudging despair as the homeless person seeks shelter for the night. Mime setting up a sleeping space under a bridge with only a cardboard box for a bed. Mime shivering and inability to sleep well. Project sadness to reflect the plight of this person.


Fundamental Constructs of Mime: While there are many 'tricks' that form the basis of mime training, there are a few underlying 'building blocks' that make up most techniques:

Fixed Point: This may be more commonly referred to as 'pointe fixe', however that is simply the original French wording of 'fixed point'. This is an incredibly simple idea: The mime locates a point with his body, and then keeps it motionless in space. This technique is the basis of all illusions a mime can create.
Line: The line builds upon Fixed Point, at first, by simply adding a second fixed point in space. What makes this a unique technical skill is the added difficulty of keeping two points the same relative distance from each other. Also, the relative distance between the two points becomes the definition of this 'construction block'. As such, the line may become 'un-fixed' as long as the two points are kept steady in their relation to one another. A good application of this concept is the 'mime wall'.
Dynamic Line: Whereas the Line did not apply force to its points, the dynamic line adds that element. This is the idea applied to 'pulling the rope', but it can be applied to virtually any use of force in an illusion. The secret to this concept is synchronizing the impact of an imaginary force throughout the body. In that respect Dyanamic Line is essentially an understanding of physics applied to the human body. This may seem complicated but you can get a sense for it very easily:

Find a wall and place both of your hands on it at approximately shoulder height. Push lightly into the wall with your hands. As you push try to feel where pressure builds up in your body. You should feel pressure in your hands, of course, but you should also feel some tension in your shoulders and hips. If you can't feel anything, gently increase the pressure until you do. Also try different positions and feel how they change the pressures in your body.

Dynamic Line calls upon the memory of forces like the ones in the above exercise to create realistic illusions of imaginary forces.
Space/Matter Manipulation: This is a fancy phrase for "making things out of thin air". This is the most complicated technique to explain because it makes use of many of the elements from the previous three. It is best served by an example illusion: dribbling a basketball. Using only one hand, the mime imitates much of the idea behind Dynamic Line, however by using only one hand, he only uses one point. Instead of two points, the mime transforms his remaining point into a shape: a rounded palm with fingers gently curled over it. This shape defines the 'space' where the illusion exists and allows the basketball, the 'matter', to exist in the illusion.

Space/Matter Manipulation can be used to create any number of objects, characters, or events by utilizing this principle.


Tips
This article only addresses one specific style of mime - 'style mime' or 'illusion mime'. There are hundreds of other forms that have little to no resemblance to Marcel Marceau or Charlie Chaplin.
If you are really interested in pursuing a career in mime, consider taking a mime course with a theater school or dramatic arts group.

Typical black and white mime artist make-upMime artists are renowned for using blank white face make-up with black outlining the eyes and other facial features to exaggerate the emotions. A black and white striped top, black gloves and a black top hat are also features of a traditional mime artist's costume. This outfit and make-up has been a tradition of many famous mime artists, including the legendary Marcel Marceau. However, you do not need to dress this way; in fact, it is considered so cliché by modern mime artists that the majority of them avoid it.

A very good mime artist is highly sought after in such fields as theater, movies and the circus. Think of Cirque du Soleil and science fiction films, where mime artists can express emotions without words and create a bridge between our human expectations and those of the dreamworld and other-wordly manifestations.

"Mimes must have the bodies of gymnasts, minds of actors, and hearts of poets" - Etienne Decroux: the 'father of modern mime'
Though mime may seem cartoony, don't be afraid of more serious subject matter. Most well known mimes, including Marcel Marceau and Charlie Chaplin, mainly performed as courageous, but pitiful characters (Bip and The Tramp respectively). Mime is a very human art form.

Many mime-trained individuals now operate under the term 'physical theatre' in order to avoid the social stigma that mime often inspires today. Most of these artists do not use traditional mime costumes or make-up.

Did you know that moonwalking and breakdancing have borrowed from mime?

Did you know that the 'traditional' mime costume of black and white was popularized by Marcel Marceau?

Did you know Marcel Marceau's teacher - Etienne Decroux - didn't use make-up or costumes? He actually hid his performer's faces and clothed them in form-fitting loin cloths to more specifically focus on communicating through the human body alone.

Did you know that the white make-up worn by mimes is actually borrowed from the clown tradition? It is used in both cases to emphasize character traits and expressions so they can be clearly seen at a distance. The white make-up was originally meant to express a simple, innocent character. The mime make-up tradition has come to use more stylized symbols while at the same time simplifying the color scheme and lines.

Did you know that instead of white faces, ancient mimes wore masks or simple stage make-up?

Warnings
To avoid stretch injuries, always warm up prior to attempting mime exercises; miming requires as much agility as dance or acting.

Mime can be extremely strenuous to perform or practice. Do not attempt mime exercises if you have trouble exercising normally.

Antagonism or fear towards street mime performers can sometimes get out of hand. Never perform in a public place without a friend or manager nearby watching the performance.

In the same manner as above, never perform in a public place without a safe place to retreat to. (a.k.a. a car, changing room or friendly business - do not use public restrooms.)

could use this as a backup plan if i ever need a job LOL

hmmmm....this is something i didn't know anything about!