The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 35

C3 The Vancouver Sun, Thursday, September 7, 1995 IE INTERVIEW innprui JUUUull LuLI oofy, but ifs a job Bill Farmer is the voice of 63-year-old who finally became a star JOHN ARMSTRONG Vancouver Sun Thursday 'z? rri Aelita (USSR 1924) and Metropolis (above, Germany, 1927) make a classic double-bill of silent science-fiction film. Pacific Cinematheque (1 131 Howe), call 688-FILM. Vancouver bhangra rapper Dal-Dil-Vog unleashes a new CD at the Railway Club and also plays The Gastown Music Hall, Sept. 1 5 1 6. Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival observes the Chinese tradition of honoring the first full moon of autumn Plaza of Nations, 1 p.m., $36.

TicketMaster, 280-4444. Cheers! Hopscotch is an international beer and single-malt scotch tasting with proceeds going to the Arts Club operation at the Stanley Theatre. Friday Saturday, Hotel Vancouver. $35 at Arts Club Box office or call He's big very big in France. Bigger than Jerry Lewis, even.

He was the official mascot of the French Olympic Team in 1980, His work has been nominated for two Academy Awards, in 1944 and 1961, and he is so famous worldwide that he can be identified sight unseen by a single word: "Gwawrsh." His first appearance in 1932 (as Dippy Dawg) was not promising for some gotten reason he was outfitted with pince-nez glasses and whiskers but Walt Disney was reportedly charmed by the soon-renamed Goofy's laugh, a creation of voice actor Pinto Colvig. By the '70s Goofy was in limbo, one step away from starting his own psychic hotline, but that sad day was averted with an appearance in Mickey's Christmas Carol in 1983 and a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbitt. By 1992 his comeback was secure with the Saturday morning TV series Goof Troop and this year saw the release of his first starring role, A Goofy Movie. Sixty-three years from second banana to leading actor is a long, slow climb and to celebrate the movie's release this week on video, Bill Farmer, who has supplied the voice of the character for the last eight years, is only too happy to talk about this belated stardom. And in any voice you like.

"I was originally a deejay and I did a lot of voices on my shift as well as impressions (John Wayne, Ronald Reagan) in my standup comedy act," he says by phone from his home in California's San Fernando Valley. His own voice still carries the tall-corn rasp of his native Kansas. "So my agent said, 'Get out to Hollywood. There's a lot of work for voice actors out Four months later I auditioned for the job to replace Pinto Colvig." "Goofy had always been my favorite of the So I practised and practised and listened to the voice," here he lapses into a series of "Gwarwshes" and "a-hyuck, a-hyucks" by way of demonstration. It's a dis- A GOOFY MOVIE (above) is the first headlining performance by the lovable goof; Bill Farmer (left) gave the character new emotions come up with a new bunch of emotions, so it wasn't 'one note' and just Goofy falling down all over the place.

I had to act a little more but it was good because I'd been doing an impression of Colvig's Goofy voice to begin with and only after ayear-and-half or so, when I got more comfortable with the voice, did I start to add my own Goofyisms. Doing the movie made it that much more my character." Recorded like a radio play (although with up to 15 and 20 takes of each line from each performer), then animated to match the dialogue later, A Goofy Movie took over two years to complete. Given the movie's $35 million box office, Farmer is likely to be playing the character for some time to come. "It's a great kind of celebrity because Goofy's famous all around the world and 'Bill Farmer? Who's So I don't get recognized when we're out shopping or at a restaurant. But if I tell people, they get excited." And how does he answer when people ask him what he does for a living? "I usually tell them.

My son, Max, is five and he thinks I've got the greatest job in the world 'My Dad's 'Son, don't say that Friday lf Pretty and Twisted, featuring Johnette Napolitano (Concrete and Marc Moreland (Wall of Voodoo), rocks the Commodore, (see story C8). With guests The Young Dubliners. Tickets $27.75 at TicketMaster, 280-4444 Latin jazz artists Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah play at 7 p.m. at the HMV store, 1160 Robson St. Their full show is Sunday at the Commodore.

Tickets 33.93 through CBO 280-2801. turbing sensation to suddenly have a 63-year-old dog on the other end of the line. They wanted the closest match to his voice and they liked mine and for the sake of continuity I became the official voice of Goofy. I've probably done four or five hundred projects for the company now talking watches, computer games, cartoons, features." Still, the transition from day-player to lead required adjustment. "Because we'd never done anything so sustained with the character, I had to Saturday REVIEW Garnet Rogers (left) and fiddler Doug Long play the Centennial Theatre, 2300 Lonsdale North Vancouver, 8 p.m.

Tickets, $15, $12 at Black Swan and Highlife records, Rufus' Guitars, or call 736-3022. Richmond Art Gallery's Salute to the Arts a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Heritage Park and Plaza, 7700 Minoru Gate, features Paul Latta's Polynesian Dance Troupe and more and it's free. Call 231-6440.

There's magic in the moon at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Angels in America boldly soars self-indulgent ramblings. Joe's Mormon mother (also played by Burrell) sells her house in Salt Lake City and descends on New York to straighten out her family's life. Prior's life, meanwhile, is being shaped by larger forces. He's visited by his ancestors and by an angel (Carolyn Swift), whose message will become clearer to audiences in the second part of the play, Perestroika.

Kushner's writing is lively and soaring, but also precise and pointed. The ideas I i pw- III il 0' (J DIVINE: Tony Kusher's exploration of themes is inspired Garden where the gates are being thrown open to the public to Celebrate the Moon for free from 1 0 a.m. to 9 p.m. They use free improvisation, large-screen videos, electronics and poetry. They are the Fleabotics, and their members include British bassist Barry Guy, Tuvan singer Sainkho Namchtylak and Vancouver poet Dan Farrell.

At the Norman Rothstein Theatre (41st and Oak), 9 p.m. Tickets: $18 and $15. ANGELS IN AMERICA By Tony Kushner. North American touring production at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Part One, Millennium Approaches, today at 2 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.

Part Two, Perestroika, tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2p.m. 280-4444. Sunday K30 BARBARA CROOK Biff! Pow! Smack! Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, artistproducer and writerproducer respectively for Batman: The Animated Series and The Adventures of Batman and Robin, are special guests at Vancouver Comicon, 1 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Heritage Hall, 3102 Main St.

Admission is $2. Call in the play are not necessarily new. The way he introduces and explores Ihem, however, in a huge piece that blends reality and fantasy, past and pre-sent, the divine and the mundane, is inspired. One of the biggest surprises for audiences who might expect this play to be some sort of illustrated lecture is the writer's use of humor. The character of Cohn spews hatred and makes us laugh in the same breath.

Prior's witty references to Tennessee Williams and The Wizard ofOz are a marvellous counterpoint to the anguish of his illness and abandonment. The visitation by Prior's forefathers, who don't understand his description of himself as "gay," is hilarious. At the same time, Kushner shows us a country in which economic change and political power have surged ahead of moral responsibility and individual rights. Louis's inchoate pronouncements on democracy appear-to be no match for Cohn's belief in power, no matter how corrupt. Louis's Judaism and the Hits' Mormonism no longer have all the answers.

People still die, lovers still abandon each other and the moral code is in In the second part of the play, Prior's angel has a frightening solution for this state of turmoil. I can hardly wait. for this house, as are the polished performances in this company. The first part of the play, Millennium Approaches, deals with the breakup of two couples whose lives intertwine in New York in 1985. Prior Walter (Robert Sella) has AIDS, a situation his lover Louis (Peter Birkenhead) is haying difficulty facing.

Louis's co-worker, Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt (Rick Holmes), is having trouble facing his own demons. His wife Harper (Kate Goehring) is addicted to Valium and leaves their apartment only in her hallucinations. Joe, meanwhile, is starting to realize he can no longer deny his homosexuality. The villain and unlikely life force in this saga is Roy Cohn (Hadary), Joe McCarthy's henchman from the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Cohn refuses to acknowledge his homosexuality or admit that the disease ravaging his body is AIDS.

As he faces his illness and his imminent disbarment, he encounters the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg (Pamela Burrell), who was prosecuted by Cohn and executed for espionage in 1953. voice of reason in the play is that of Belize (Reg Flowers), a male nurse and former drag queen who neutralizes Louis's Sun Theatre Critic The Messenger has arrived and the Great Work has begun at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Angels in America has landed in Vancouver the first Canadian city to see a full production of Tony Kushner's award-winning epic about AIDS, power and hope. The North American touring production, led by Jonathan Hadary's explosive performance as Communist-hating lawyer Roy Cohn, is bold, fast-paced and provocative. Michael Mayer's production is hampered only by the nature of the venue.

The size of the QE and the need to keep the performances big (and amplified to the hilt) negates some of the subtlety of Kushner's "gay fantasia on national themes." Fortunately, the play's ideas about life and death, anger and forgiveness, hope and redemption are certainly big enough Monday 'Q'Q Unitu-tro Fashion Show dresses social issues such as ageism, racism, sexism and homophobia up in distinctive threads. Party at 7:30, show at 9:30 p.m. at Graceland (1250 Richards). Tickets $119 at CBO 280-2801. ART Tuesday my Peress images get southern exposure The Folk Music Club presents Cityfest '96 Benefit featuring performances by B.C.

singer-songwriters Claire Brett, Susan Crowe and others to support the Cityfest multicultural festival which takes place in May '96. 8 p.m., Glass Slipper (2714 Prince Edward). Tix $6 at the door, call 460-0116. TON 1 hi Wednesday! essr i Michele Peress, the young Vancouver photographer whose sensuous and disturbing work at Exposure Gallery over the summer garnered wide acclaim, is one of two B.C. photographers included in a juried international exhibition in Seattle.

Benham Studio Gallery is hosting the first annual a thousand words International Photographic Exhibition this Peress was one of 84 photographers from the U.S., Canada and Mexico to submit work. Her photographic assembly, one of 14 panels in her summer show So Many Murders of Her Own Body, is a meditation on women's bodies and how the mind, when in psychological distress, can distort them. "No one is going to see Michele's work and not have a strong reaction to it," gallery owner and exhibition organizer Lisa Sharamitaro says. "People who look at this will be changed by it." Peress, born in Toronto and trained at the San Francisco Art Institute, builds images of photographs, printed materials and found objects pasted and taped into collages. The 14 panels in So Many include images of partially completed autopsies, illus- Tonight is the big night for Friends for life's fundraiser, Art for Life.

Tickets to the champagne reception and auction are available at the door for $25. (The reception stiirts at 7:30 p.m. at the Coast Plaza on Denman Street; the auction gets under way at 9 p.m.) In addition to 32 works of art on the auction block from artists including Bill Reid, Joe Plaskett, Gordon Smith, David Bierk, Joe Average and Fenwick Lansdowne the evening's festivities include the presentation of Friends for Life's first Friend in Deed Award for outstanding service. The lucky winner is BuschlenMowatt's Barrie Mowatt, an energetic man whose generosity is matched only by his willingness to strong-arm friends for good causes. Mowatt who lost a partner to an untimely death and who has himself survived cancer set up resource libraries for both Friends for Life and the Cancer Society, as well as sponsored workshops and seminars for palliative care professionals.

Nicola Cavendish leads the evening, with musical entertainment from a number of local worthies, including composer Rod Sliarman taking a turn on flute, violinist Marie-Claude Brunei and cellist Peggy Leu. MICHAEL SCOTT trations from antique medical texts, and artifacts and snapshots from Peress' own life. The Seattle exhibition, a benefit foY the city's Photographic Center School, is not a rich one in terms of cash prizes: first plnce is a modest $750. But Peress' inclusion as a finalist, so early in her career, augurs well for greater things to come. Pliotojournalist Randall Cosco is the other local with an image in a thousand words.

Cosco is best known for his ability to convince important people to pose with bizarre and unlikely props a talent that enlivened the covers of Business in Vancouver for several years. at the Commodore Ballroom, 8 p.m. $17 through TicketMaster. Traditional blues master John Hammond plays a solo gig at Richards Tickets $14.75 at TicketMaster, Black Swan and Highlife Records. Bigger than the Volkswagen Van and rolling into the Coliseum at 8 p.m.

are Van Halen (above). Tickets, $39.50, through TicketMaster, 280-4444. Otis Clay and His Soul Review perform the classics of the genre.