Tomáš Kubínek – ‘Certified Lunatic & Master of the Impossible’ - performs at CSB

The College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Fine Arts Series invites you into the delightfully mad world of Tomáš Kubínek at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23 in the Escher Auditorium at the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict.

Kubínek's internationally acclaimed performances play to packed theaters around the world. Defying easy classification, his shows have been described as a collision of theater, circus arts and music-hall. His exuberant one-man show is equal parts comic brilliance, virtuosic vaudeville and irresistible charm.

Billing himself as a curer of melancholia, professor of fantastically useless inventions and certified lunatic and master of the impossible, Kubínek pulls out all the stops as he offers up every trick in his clowning book to dazzle and charm his audiences. Enlisting his audiences' participation to help him fly across the stage on a pair of canvas wings, perform an absurd ballet or become a six-legged pedestrian, Kubínek creates a style of performance that recalls the vaudeville era. His shows are over-the-top, silly and ridiculously funny.

Kubínek was born in Prague and at the age of 3 was smuggled out of the country to escape the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. His family immigrated to Canada and it was there, at the age of 5, that Kubínek saw his first circus. He became passionately interested in clowns, circus, theater and magic. At age 9, he presented his first performance before a circle of elderly magicians. By age 13 he had an agent. He performed in coffee-houses between folk-music acts and, while still a teen, he made his circus debut with a Brazilian clown duo as the rear half of a two-person horse.

The enterprising young Kubínek traveled to Europe to study with some of the world's greatest teachers of theater. These studies, combined with his own tireless experiments in live performance, led to the creation of his award-wining solo stage shows. Besides his solo work, Kubínek has had the great fortune of working with talented theater and circus artists around the globe, including celebrated actor and clown Boleslay Polivak and writer and comedian Frank van Keeken. He has performed in numerous sketches at the HBO Workspace in Los Angeles, and appeared with the U.S. theatrical circus Circus Flora.

Tickets to Tomáš Kubínek are $28, Senior $24, Faculty/Staff $18, Student/Youth $10
Contact the Box Office at 320-363-5777 or visit www.csbsju.edu/Fine-Arts