Post by Remi on Mar 2, 2005 7:00:04 GMT -5
Click Here
The Daily Texan - Entertainment
Issue: 3/2/05
------------------------------------------------
Kumar Pallana is more talkative than Pagoda
By Curtis Luciani
Kumar Pallana, who has been a performer all his life but is best known to most of us for his character roles in Wes Anderson films (Mr. Littlejeans in "Rushmore," Pagoda in "The Royal Tennenbaums"), gives great interview.
This is an honest statement that can be quantitatively evaluated. As anyone would, I compiled a short list of questions on a notepad before I spoke to Pallana. A half-hour later, when we wrapped up, I realized that I hadn't really gotten past question No. 1.
Pallana, who was at the Alamo Drafthouse on Saturday to introduce a screening of Wes Anderson's "Bottle Rocket," is a natural and expansive storyteller, leagues away from the deadpan characters he usually plays. And he has plenty of stories to tell.
"I started as an entertainer in 1936, 1937 in India," said Pallana, when asked how he got into show biz.
"I left my home for Bombay. I wanted to be an actor ... [but] I couldn't even get in the gate. This business, like any business, is very tough. When you are an entertainer, and you go to any agent, for the nightclubs, cabarets ... the first thing they say is 'Bring me an 8x10 picture.' So you bring them the picture. Then they say, 'When you get a show, call me back.' ... That is a broken record! Anywhere you go, it's the same thing. So how can you get a job?" Pallana smiled mischievously.
Unable to break into mainstream venues, Pallana began living more or less hand-to-mouth as a street magician and juggler, happy to accept any gig he could talk his way into. He started off by inventing a simple trick he could perform in any situation.
"In the olden days, they had the Coke bottles ... And I found this little trick. I'd say, I can open this bottle by just closing my eyes, and..." He pantomimed the procedure, holding an imaginary Coke bottle by his lips and letting out a puff of breath.
"Air. And I open the bottle. It's a trick. But I don't tell them the trick, because I'm making my living." The simple trick was his foot in the door; he used it to get the attention of agents and traded its secret with other magicians.
For a while, Mr. Pallana walked from place to place all over India, performing magic and patriotic songs for everyone from schoolchildren to maharajahs. When his brother, a dissident and freedom-fighter, moved to Africa, Pallana followed. He toured there, doing his act for Indian communities from Kenya to South Africa.
"The people there, anything you do, they clap," Pallana chuckled. "I go to South Africa; the war was going on at that time. Then I make a lot of money, going to the military camps and doing shows for them."
In 1946, Pallana came to America to look for work in the new medium of television. He got a lot of work in variety TV, though his performances were not broadcast.
"You have the stage, and then the curtain comes, and they're changing the scene. And all the people are just sitting there. So I give them the idea, when the curtain comes, just give me a little room. And I go and juggle, and I do a couple jokes."
Pallana would eventually appear onscreen on variety shows such as "You Asked For It" and "The Ed Sullivan Show," as well as kids' shows such as "The Mickey Mouse Show" and "Captain Kangaroo."
Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson met Pallana as a yoga instructor and coffee shop owner in Dallas, where he ultimately settled down. Never one to turn down a gig, he was happy to appear in their feature debut, "Bottle Rocket." And now he seems rather bemused to have the movie career that he went to Bombay looking for in 1936.
"I like to do my best to make the people happy ... I'm doing my job. That's it."
Such is the life of an entertainer.
Issue: 3/2/05
------------------------------------------------
Kumar Pallana is more talkative than Pagoda
By Curtis Luciani
Kumar Pallana, who has been a performer all his life but is best known to most of us for his character roles in Wes Anderson films (Mr. Littlejeans in "Rushmore," Pagoda in "The Royal Tennenbaums"), gives great interview.
This is an honest statement that can be quantitatively evaluated. As anyone would, I compiled a short list of questions on a notepad before I spoke to Pallana. A half-hour later, when we wrapped up, I realized that I hadn't really gotten past question No. 1.
Pallana, who was at the Alamo Drafthouse on Saturday to introduce a screening of Wes Anderson's "Bottle Rocket," is a natural and expansive storyteller, leagues away from the deadpan characters he usually plays. And he has plenty of stories to tell.
"I started as an entertainer in 1936, 1937 in India," said Pallana, when asked how he got into show biz.
"I left my home for Bombay. I wanted to be an actor ... [but] I couldn't even get in the gate. This business, like any business, is very tough. When you are an entertainer, and you go to any agent, for the nightclubs, cabarets ... the first thing they say is 'Bring me an 8x10 picture.' So you bring them the picture. Then they say, 'When you get a show, call me back.' ... That is a broken record! Anywhere you go, it's the same thing. So how can you get a job?" Pallana smiled mischievously.
Unable to break into mainstream venues, Pallana began living more or less hand-to-mouth as a street magician and juggler, happy to accept any gig he could talk his way into. He started off by inventing a simple trick he could perform in any situation.
"In the olden days, they had the Coke bottles ... And I found this little trick. I'd say, I can open this bottle by just closing my eyes, and..." He pantomimed the procedure, holding an imaginary Coke bottle by his lips and letting out a puff of breath.
"Air. And I open the bottle. It's a trick. But I don't tell them the trick, because I'm making my living." The simple trick was his foot in the door; he used it to get the attention of agents and traded its secret with other magicians.
For a while, Mr. Pallana walked from place to place all over India, performing magic and patriotic songs for everyone from schoolchildren to maharajahs. When his brother, a dissident and freedom-fighter, moved to Africa, Pallana followed. He toured there, doing his act for Indian communities from Kenya to South Africa.
"The people there, anything you do, they clap," Pallana chuckled. "I go to South Africa; the war was going on at that time. Then I make a lot of money, going to the military camps and doing shows for them."
In 1946, Pallana came to America to look for work in the new medium of television. He got a lot of work in variety TV, though his performances were not broadcast.
"You have the stage, and then the curtain comes, and they're changing the scene. And all the people are just sitting there. So I give them the idea, when the curtain comes, just give me a little room. And I go and juggle, and I do a couple jokes."
Pallana would eventually appear onscreen on variety shows such as "You Asked For It" and "The Ed Sullivan Show," as well as kids' shows such as "The Mickey Mouse Show" and "Captain Kangaroo."
Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson met Pallana as a yoga instructor and coffee shop owner in Dallas, where he ultimately settled down. Never one to turn down a gig, he was happy to appear in their feature debut, "Bottle Rocket." And now he seems rather bemused to have the movie career that he went to Bombay looking for in 1936.
"I like to do my best to make the people happy ... I'm doing my job. That's it."
Such is the life of an entertainer.
