Get to know me part 1 - My origins, or how did I became a mime

How to become a mime? How did I become a mime? If you're asking these questions you can check the previous "Top 5 asked questions / How?".

But I know, you must think, and rightfully so, that it's hard or even near impossible to become a mime and do pantomime. And you really are right as mime is a very niche and underground art form. On the other hand, if you're reading this I welcome you to our small group of mimes, mime enthusiasts, pantomime lovers and storytellers without words.

Miroslav Kasprzyk in performance "Au!"

I will probably let you down as most of the rich people and their true getting rich story beginning. Because as most of them, I was also lucky to be born into it. Not into a rich family sadly but into a family where my father was and still is a famous Slovak mime Miroslav Kasprzyk and my mother Tatiana Fabry was directing his best pantomime performances. So someone is born with a silver spoon in their mouth as they say and I was born with an invisible spoon.

You would probably now think that I became a mime because I was forced to or that there was this dynasty thing going on. Well you would be wrong and quite the opposite is true. I was not forced to do pantomime and I was actually not included at all. But there is one but. My father had a group of kids and teenagers with weekly mime classes and my older brother was also part of it and every single Monday evening they came home with my father in the best of moods, laughing and obviously having a blast.

Studio of Pantomime Kasprzyk in the 90s

And that was my deal breaker. I was maybe 5 and there was a major weekly fun event I wasn't a part of, so I joined and go watch them just for once, then twice and then I became a proud part of Studio of Pantomime Kasprzyk. Remember that I was around 5 so I mimed everything that my limitless imagination of a child threw at me and for quite some time no one else knew what I was trying to "say" or show.

So I was having a lot of fun learning, playing and performing but I was very bothered that no one else is part of my imaginary world because I was doing all the biggest mistakes when performing pantomime. I had zero technique, my plot was overly complicated, I was closed inside my own world and I was moving too much. You can check my other blog about the biggest mistakes. So I had a lot of work in front of me but luckily I had the best mentor for the mime basics in my father and the best audience and people to look up to in one - in the rest of the group. Because almost all of them were older and just because of that also better than me so I was on a quest of closing the gap in my mime technique from the beginning.

I will end this first part of my story by my first real and big performance in a while because I got better, I was working on the mistakes I've been making and I made my first pantomime etude with the help from my father and mentor in one person ofcourse. I came with the ideas and he helped me to simplify and polish it. I was very proud as everyone got it, they were finally part of my story and enjoyed it from the beginning until the end with me.

Studio of Pantomime Kasprzyk in Warsaw, from left Miro Kasprzyk, Jan Kudlicka, Tomas Bernik, Lukas and Tomas Kasprzyk

I believe I've performed it at Festival PAN first but what was the real trial of fire and a first big performance for me was Poland. A 6 year old me was going to perform in the middle of the main square in Warsaw and it was packed with people. It was terrifying but also empowering somehow. So I gathered my strength and everything I've learned and went on the stage to have fun and tell my little story to everyone without saying a word out loud.

And it was a great success. People were following the story, trying to see clearly, focusing so hard on little me trying not to be nervous and really just have fun and be clear in my movement. Hundreds of people packed in a square and standing there in almost total silence as they were focusing on a small kid performing pantomime etude for them in a scorching sunny day. A truly magical moment as the silence was often broken by laughs in the exact right moments where we have put little jokes constructed together to make gags ending with a big laugh and applause in the end where the point of the mime etude came. The buildup of the pantomime etude and practicing the mime techniques paid off. Everyone was smiling and clapping and I felt amazing because I just made smile, laugh and cheered up few hundred people without saying a word and standing there in the biggest spotlight there is, the sun, was one of the most empowering and formative moments in my life and probably a true origin of my path as a mime.

But that was only the beginning.

Tomas and Lukas Kasprzyk in trio etude "Genesis"

So if you want to have fun and do something meaningful and touch people's hearts, start doing pantomime. If you want to have even more fun, bring your friends and make them join you on your journey of becoming a mime. If you think it's not for you, think again because mime is for everyone. And if you just want to understand pantomime, support mimes and have more fun watching mime as more informed audience, you are very welcome and I will happily teach you, guide you or entertain you.

Be sure to follow for the rest of my story.