The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 39

HUT iU i JL iu i i fa i 1 I I I' lf himh-m nanirr 1 mm hi ii i ri 11,11 1 1 "in- r. n-mM- L1- THE GAZETTE SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 1995 llilfeeillllf 't Sill if1? CLAIRE ROTHMAN AU QUEBEC Impersonation pure and simple Tmagine standing on a stage in front of 2,000 people who are doubled over with laughter. The I lights are in your eyes so you can only dimly JBL make out the tops of their heads, but you hear the applause, the hoots of surprise and delight. Every An in-line skater whizzes by geodesic dome, given new life as a museum. one is having the time of their lives and YOU are the reason why.

For 34-year-old Andre-Philippe Gagnon, it's all in a night's work. The internationally acclaimed comedian returned to Montreal recently after a successful run in Paris, and although he's played to the home crowd many times before, his magic was as powerful as ever. Gagnon is a consummate entertainer, welcoming people into the large, impersonal hall of Montreal's Theatre St. Denis as if it were his living room. His laugh is rich and infectious.

Within minutes of the opening of his marathon one-man show, members of the audience were dabbing their eyes. For those who have never seen him in action, Gagnon is a mimic of a very special kind. Unlike most people in the business, he tells practically no jokes. He doesn't talk much about his childhood, or about sex or BIOSPfflME'S HENRY LEHMANN SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE "weigh" our own bodily fluids, the Biosphere is at least two-thirds computer. Throughout, we come across computers ready, at the light up with zippy graphics.

Any information, from the velocity of currents to the whereabouts of the common eel, is literally at our finger tips. And much of the information is fascinating. But the fundamental irony in all this friendly technology is that it is too friendly. The over-all thrust of the museum is inward, inducing us to PLEASE SEE BIOSPHERE, PAGE F2 ment, and was designed by Eric Gauthier, a Montreal architect and designer. At the centre of this large sombre room is a huge green-and-blue Mother Earth veined with ocean currents.

This menacing, Felliniesque sphere is surrounded by several futuristic tubular aquariums with enough bubbles to satisfy a sorcerer. These vivid displays are designed to explain water in terms of it origins, chemistry, usage and climate. Docked near these dramatic apparitions are flotillas of computers, interactive fonts of information on water. But, if the human body is largely water, as ingeniously demonstrated by one interactive display in rom the crow's nest at the pinnacle of the new Biosphere, the view into the distance is breathtaking, as is the closcup of Richard Buckminster Fuller's gossamer web of solid metal. Less than 200 metres away from the ecomuse-um's interactive exhibits on water and the St.

Lawrence River basin, flows the river itself. Built in the geodesic dome on He Ste. Helene, the museum opens its doors to the public on Tuesday. The dramatic site of the Biosphere, the former U.S. pavilion designed by Buckminster Fuller for Expo 67, is highly appropriate.

Bucky, as he was known to his many young admirers in the 1960s, was a visionary conservationist intent on unlocking the "design" of the universe. Inscribed near the entrance to the Biosphere are the words, "to inspire action." This is what makes the museum different: not only are we entertained and informed, but also inspired to go forth ready to do battle for water and for what Buckminster Fuller called Spaceship Earth. The dome was given to the city of Montreal, its present owner, by the U.S. after Expo 67. In 1 976, a stray spark from a welder's torch set fire to the transparent, plastic skin of the dome, leaving a scorched, skeletal landmark.

Then came the Biosphere politics. His art is imitation, pure and simple. At least he makes it appear simple. In fact. Gagnon's performances involve enormous amounts of planning, effort and concentration.

His partner of the last 10 years, the gifted lawyer-turned-comedy-writer Ste-phane Laporte. creates the material, and Gagnon spends weeks rehearsing and perfecting it. During the Montreal show. Gagnon performed a stunningly long and varied list of impersonations including those of politicians Jean Chretien. Brian Mul-roney and Bill Clinton (with saxophone); Quebec comedian Claude Meunier: rock group Beau Dommage; singers Willie Nelson, Julio Iglesias, Francis Cabrel, Joe Cocker.

Neil Diamond, Natalie and Nat King Cole, Michael Jackson, Louis Armstrong. James Brown and Corey Hart; and cartoon character Fred Flintstone. For two solid hours he sang, gyrated and Rollerblad-ed at breakneck speed to the accompaniment of a very good and loud live band, with only a short break between sets in which to recuperate. He drinks litres of bottled water during performances and sweats so profusely that he's been known to lose five pounds in the course of a night. I caught up with him after the show, which finally ended after three standing ovations and as many encores, and discovered a man as impressive in person as.

he is on stage. Despite his worldwide success he's played to packed houses in Los Angeles, Paris, Brussels, Toronto and Brisbane Gagnon is disarmingly approachable. He apologized for keeping me waiting and, even though it was past 1 1 and he was probably dog-tired. I asked him about the elasticity of his vocal range that produces everything from Joe Cocker's chesty grunts to the castrato chirpings of the Bee Gees. I also asked about his face, which seems to stretch like heated rubber.

He mumbled something about liking to sing and then, without warning, drew both palms slowly down his chin, lengthening and molding it to resemble that of a certain former Tory prime minister. I was amazed. Andre-Philippe Gagnon seems not to be made of cartilage and bone. Apparently, you have to start very young to achieve such facial flexibility. There was a mirror above the kitchen sink in Gagnon's childhood home in Loret-teville.

Instead of eating his dinner, he made faces. Our conversation shifted to Paris, where Gagnon plans to spend several months next winter. Last April, he played for an entire month at the Casino de Paris attracting large audiences to a show with little European content. Next year's immersion in "la vie de Paris" should provide him with plenty of new material and make him even more of a hit over there than he is already. Despite his great public appeal, Paris critics have been slow to warm to him, but they'll doubtless come around as soon as Gagnon delivers them their politicians.

'Ja spite of an ever-growing international reputation, Gagnon remains loyal to his roots. He returns Quebec, the place he, his wife and young daughter-call home. And this fall he's taking a largely English-language show across Canada, all the way from Ottawa to Vancouver. Montreal isn't on the itinerary, so if you want to see the man in English, you'll have to catch him playing host to Rich Little and other comedians at the Just for Last Festival this July. project financed by the federal Environ- ment Department, which now runs the museum.

VrJ The dome, with its "construe tivist" composition of interior platforms, brings to mind a bubble that has somehow en-' I closed an oil ng. And in ac- Jj cordance with the wish of i HirL ar-ri. i i the eco-conscious museum TsWsftSeSrZSt i tOfi 3tJl I asmuchofthe zfSr 5I 42 1 1 1 1171:: I 1 1 1 1 Li fH i Fil VI I to recycle old building as possible, JJW W4 full use of the "rig-has i.miVrrH I supports'. i vvv vr-ii 3trr i been made; the series of floors i Tftii and rooms constitute ing the new museum. (Some additions al-.

so have been made.) Perhaps in contravention of Fuller's obsession with form that functions, the dome is now decoration, a kind of wispy halo radiating from the museum at its core. Modeled on 1 the metaphor of a "ship in a bottle," the place has a "hold" or base- "i i 1 r. -t 1 i it. ln -Mwl 1... 0 iiv" 1 1 1 At I I 1 -Jv fa "in lLr Giant globe is focus of museum at Biosphere, i Inset, a woman uses one of several museum computers Gagnon: no cartilage or bone, and forget dinner, too.

It's more fun making faces..