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Faux Pas Prefers Puppets, Poultry
BY JANET SMITH

o understand the work of
the Human Faux Pas, it's
important to know that
there are, despite all appearances, ideas so extreme that
the troupe has ruled them out.

One such plan involved Adad Hannah walking on stilts while Clay
Hastings chopped them shorter
and shorter with a chain saw.
"I was going to be yelling 'Help
me, help me, somebody fucking
help me!'" Hannah says, raising Clay Hastings (left) and Adad Hanhis voice in a mock scream that nah rail against the establishment.
draws the attention of the lunch
crowd at a Kits diner.
Havana Gallery, was raised by parSettling back into his vinyl ents who travelled throughout
bench, he adds calmly: "We have Europe as professional clowns.
Meanwhile, here in B.C., Hastings's
tons of props we haven't used."
For a performance-art cabaret on parents were touring the province's
Friday night (October 1) at the stages with their vaudeville act.
Vogue, the troupe will content Hastings is now a trained actor—
itself with turning headless, but he stresses his Human Faux Pas
plucked chickens into puppets and work is different than theatre.
exploding a mystery device they
"There's a stigma that goes with
refer to only as an "art bomb". the term performance art," he
Hastings and Hannah are particu- admits. "A lot of people in the thelarly elated today. They have just atre community run the other
learned they will be able to set direction when they hear the
something on fire during the term. Calling it performance art
Vogue show—the kickoff event for frees you up a lot more."
the Live at the End of the Century
Their brand of performance may
performance-art festival. "All we draw on vaudeville, the circus, and
need is a guy with a fire extinguish- theatre, but when Hannah and
er to be on-stage," says Hannah.
Hastings sit down to plan the
Hannah and Hastings have small vignettes, they always start
coined an irreverent, silly, and with Hannah drawing pictures.
wildly visual brand of performance
"We have tons of ideas or impresart that's as unique as their respec- sions of scenes," says Hastings.
tive backgrounds. Hannah, a well"A lot of them are juvenile and
known-about-town visual artist, involve burning things down,"
Emily Carr Institute of Art and adds Hannah with a laugh.
Design erad. and curator for the
Hannah traces the Human Faux

Pas back to an arts camp he attended in California when he was a
teenager. There, he first experimented with physical theatre with
a few other students. Since then,
he's used the name for an everchanging group of people who
have performed everywhere from
Illuminares to the Fringe Festival.
But since 1994, when Hannah received a Canada Council grant for
the Human Faux Pas, he's been creating the work with Hastings
(although several others usually
join them on-stage).
"When we did our first show with
the grant, there was all this pressure
to do something serious, and in the
end, we did what came into our
heads and what we felt like doing—
what we thought was funny or
smart or poignant," says Hannah.
In the past, the result has included some disturbing visions,
such as Hannah rolling backward
in a wheelchair with two long
tubes stretched across the stage
and up his nose. And there have
been ridiculous visions, such as a
giant, headless, plucked-chicken
costume and plucked-chicken
marionettes.
But the Human Faux Pas does
not limit its work to the stage. Just
as Hannah and Hastings believe
you can find performance art
almost everywhere in modern culture—especially in music videos—
they believe it can be performed
anywhere. Says Hannah: "We've
done stuff like we all dressed up as
rockers and went to the White
Spot and ordered Kokanees."
Despite the appearance of chaos,
Hannah and Hastings cite a common purpose behind all of the
Human Faux Pas's mayhem, from
plucked chickens to art bombs to
rocker costumes. "We basically like
to rail against the establishment,"
Hastings says.B