Trent ‘The Birdmann’ Baumann interview
I’m just chilling in New Zealand on “annual leave.” It’s a term most independent artists don’t often get the chance to use, but basically, it means I need a break or I don’t have any work at the moment. Both are kind of true and since this year is my 25th Anniversary as a performer, it’s good timing. It’s all about the timing. If we didn’t have time, we wouldn’t know if we were having a good time.
Trent.
- Tell us about the pathway that led you to where you are now?
I started on the street, then was one of the first artists in The Tiny Top which was one of the earliest contemporary Australian sideshow tents. Now I am mainly doing festivals and have made three full-length solo shows, a children’s show, a downloadable DVD called The Birdmann ‘LIVE’ and I also just made a cake.
I think the most exciting part of my career, which I never would have imagined, was meeting my partner, Sachie Mikawa, in a car park in Winnipeg, Canada in 2012. Since then the show has developed into more of a duo, and she plays the multi-instrumentalist comedian Egg, so the show now has a live original soundtrack!
- What does your current gig entail, tell us a bit about the current project you’re working on?
We have been keeping super-busy with our latest show, A Late Night Birdhouse. It’s is an absurdist comedy circus cabaret at The Melba Spiegeltent in early April for the Melbourne Comedy Festival. It’s a culmination of all my classic acts, things we’ve never attempted before and challenging dark feelings with the concept “fun can save the world.” With the eclectic tunes composed by Egg, hopefully this will be the ideal late night show you want at a festival!
- What is a value that you’ve held from the start, and how do you think things have evolved in your part of the community?
It was instilled in me from the start to be original which is really just being yourself. It seems that clown is not as present in contemporary circus companies as it was in my formative years, and culture changes but even now I feel the need to keep learning and reinvent myself and hope that those interested in clowning in the circus scene pass on skills, open up dialogue and find new styles to express life through our form.
- What are some of the negatives and positives of your job as a performer?
I can get pretty sensitive at times and often wonder what my actual value is but I know I wanted to go where I have and explore that. I think one the most important thing I ever heard was, “Go where you are celebrated and not just tolerated.”
I think everyone is starting to agree that the “pay to play” models have grown too big to make it viable for the artist as the initial content provider to make good return, yet many of the other jobs surrounding the art have a financial guarantee. Even if you get standing ovations, if you struggle for the amount of work you have put in, it does start to have an affect on your dopamine levels.
Performing is definitely a way to express myself. The world has a lot of sad holes in it, but performing is a way to fill those.
- Who are the collaborators or people you’re close to that you feel most supported by?
It makes a huge difference to me being fortunate to have a supportive partner and I know I am often too self-indulgent but I try my hardest to do the same for her.
I also like the current movement towards being more aware of mental health in the arts. This feels like such a recent thing and aspects of the world feel darker at the moment but perhaps it is just part of being at this age and in this time. Creating can be an isolated existence but I am grateful that I grew up in a really small and cool gang and I occasionally reach out to my peer-friends and check in on them too. Then we do weird shit in front of crowds and everyone laughs.
- Can you tell us a bit about why performing appealed to you at the very beginning when you started?
I guess I always felt different and formed myself with the knowledge that “less is more.” In Surfers Paradise in the late ’90s, I started watching street performers and became transfixed by the energy by which they could hold a crowd of hundreds from nothing. I remember the pleasure I used to get from just living out of one suitcase and with that I could tour the world.
- What is the future looking like? Are you going to stick it out in New Zealand for years to come or move on?
If asked where I see myself in five years I think, the future. I have a time machine. It’s a watch. But it’s also a world that can only move forward. I remember when I was a kid someone told me to risk more, reflect more, and do something that lasts forever. Since I have been doing this for twenty-five years, it is a great time to think about what I have done and what I haven’t done. The artist’s life is a series of peaks and valleys and now I want a few more plains. I’ve never had a home for longer than twenty months since I finished school, so finding that kind of stability is important to me at the moment and that is what Sachie and I spend an equal amount of time discussing now rather than how many swords I can put in a box containing Egg.
- Can you talk us through the steps of the process you use to perform.
While Sachie and I might have an idea for an act or a piece of music, we always try and match it with a theme and how our personal stories might fit into the current global narrative. At the moment being a white straight male, I’m not that valuable to the more inclusive world we are all hoping for. But as a clown I can try and make fun of myself while the character of Egg has the ability to see the world in a whole new light. Egg is not even born yet!
- What’s one positive development you would like to see in the future of the Australian Physical Theatre/Cabaret/Circus/Sideshow scene?
In terms of Carnival Cinema, I remember fifteen years ago when it was just Hamish chasing me around festivals with a camera. I’m glad we all got the chance to catch up!
I think we belong to a strong yet very small subculture that doesn’t have a mass popularity though is very inclusive, so I think it is of great value and I would be interested in seeing it present in other broader mediums online and in film and television. With The Birdmann ‘LIVE’ downloadable DVD and our children’s show we have been specifically creating with this in mind. This is also why the presence and records that Carnival Cinema have are so valuable.
I would also like free cake.
Trent
THE BIRDMANN & EGG -A LATE NIGHT BIRDHOUSE runs form 4-7 April at The Melba Spiegeltent for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Tickets are available here- https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/late-night-birdhouse
The Birdmann ‘LIVE’ downloadable DVD is available here- https://thebirdmann.com.au/product/the-birdmann-live/
More Birdmann:
www.facebook.com/thebirdmannandegg
www.instagram.com/thebirdmannandegg
Trent Baumann is a renowned humourist who graduated with a B.A. in Theatre from QUT, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus Training Program and has worked with Australian companies and toured to twenty countries internationally. He’s been nominated for ‘Best Comedy’ at Just For Laughs at Montreal Fringe, winner of ‘Best Circus’ at the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe and recently had his short film appear on ABC2. Sachie Mikawa is a Japanese-born American artist who’s music-driven theatrical world has lead her to work from Australia to Argentina and with the absurdist trio Le Frenchword and on her beautiful solo show, Fish Saw. Together they are the highly acclaimed circus comedy duo, The Birdmann and Egg and their show was recently nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for ‘Most Original Comedy’ at the Edinburgh Fringe.
“Utterly Endearing Idiosyncratic Geniuses” –The Scotsman
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