Take it from one who knows. A sprightly 68-year-old, Mr. Seelig is one of the artistic directors of the London International Mime Festival, which he founded in 1977. He remains fully aware that the art form is scoffed at or misconceived by a public that sees it either botched or pastiched or reduced to one name, Marcel Marceau.
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I did a lot of mime workshops during my high school career as part of the acting section of an interdisciplinary arts program I was a part of. I also never really considered "mime" as a true art form until I was exposed to the difficulty and skill level required to truly perform mime. I remember watching Old Hats in New York City featuring David Shiner and Bill Irwin and feeling blown away by the most intricate and small movements of the human body. I feel like miming, and acting by extension of that, is really about being an excellent observer and listener. To be able to study the slightest muscle twitches and movements and being able to replicate it over and over again in an organic fashion requires an insane amount of skill. I also think it's interesting how UK theatre differs from US theatre. The UK feels like they take their work of course, seriously, but also with a sense of playfulness and lightness. The article mentions how clowning and miming really did sort of fail in the United States and I feel like that's because there's a false notion of "oh, look at me, I am a SERIOUS actor" and someone being a "clown" is a bad thing. I mean, look at Charlie Chaplin and Jacque Tati-- both immensely talented but neither of them hail from the US. It's unfortunate because I believe that if the culture was a bit different, the US could produce more talent.
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