Comus (Nicolas-Phillipe Ledru)

Comus was the ancient Greek God of revels, festivity and chaos, the son and cup-bearer to Dionysus. From the same etymological root we derive the word for comedy. A fiiting stage name for Nicolas-Phillipe Ledru (1731-1807). His demonstrations encompassed the wonderful properties of nature (electricity, magnetism, sound waves, etc) as well as illusions and tricks we nowadays associate with professional magicians, such as automata and other deceptive devices. The French conjurer made a fortune playing for royalty, although la revolution cramped his style in later years.

To find out more about the variety artspast and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. And don’t missChain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, to be released by Bear Manor Media in 2013.