Al Simmons
BIOGRAPHY
Performance Formats:
NEW SHOW! "Figaro's Close Shave" The Barber of Seville
as styled by Al Simmons!
Roll over Rossini! Inventive musical comedian, Al Simmons has translated and condensed your opera to a 45-minute comical look at love, greed, deceit and close shaves. All we get are the bald facts. It appears that Rosina is in love with the Count who is pretending to be someone else; Figaro, the jack-of-all-trades town barber, is having a bad hair day, and....Al Simmons is the entire cast!
An excellent introduction to opera! Adaptable for grades K-12.
Al Simmons' one-man, multi-prop, music-filled, off the wall performances have elevated audiences world-wide to collective giggles and all-out guffaws. At once childlike in its simplicity and sophisticated in its execution, Al's humor touches a responsive chord in people of every age.
In the tradition of the great comedy kings, Danny Kaye, Spike Jones and Jimmy Durante comes Al Simmons - a man dedicated to the all but lost art of combining comedy, with song, dance, magic, sight gags and of course bad puns. His costume-and-prop routines have often been the most popular and talked about act in theatres and concert halls and at folk, children's and other festivals across North America.
NEW HOLIDAY SHOW! Festive Frivolity With Al Simmons Entertainer-Extraordinaire!
'Tis the season to be silly and Inventive Musical Comedian Al Simmons has more tricks up his sleeve than Santa has toys. He's spruced up and ready to take us on a sleigh ride to a timeless place where seasonal shenanigans, and musical mayhem reign supreme. The concert features Al's interpretation of such classics as The Night Before Christmas, The Hawaiian Christmas Song, Deck The Halls, It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas, the original Latin version of Jingle Bells, Batman Smells and the newly discovered Johnny Cash Rudolph Variations. Al has gift wrapped a few of his own songs to suit the occasion: A Tuba For Christmas, Lonely Moose Lament and Gypsy Sock: "The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, but listen you'll hear one sock say: 'It's not fair!'" This show has been specifically concocted to elicit feelings of warmth, nostalgia, nuttiness and wide-eyed amazement.
Bio
Albert Simmons and his imagination grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba with parents who nourished his creativity with their own love of storytelling, music and old-fashioned fun. Al's father, an eccentric collector of odds and sods, encouraged a young Al to explore and develop his own fascination for gadgetry and performing. His extended family was also made up of punsters, pranksters and eccentrics, including Al's Uncle Nick, who toured the Eastern United States as Steamboat Harris, best known for playing a ukulele made out of a toilet seat!
Al's debut album "Something's Fishy at Camp Wiganishie" earned a Juno nomination for Best Children's Album. His follow up recording was a brilliant ode to vaudeville, "Celery Stalks at Midnight". It was named Best Children's Album at the 1995 Juno Awards. In the months following that Juno, Simmons was presented the 1996 U.S. Parents' Choice Award for that album. As well he received a coveted Cable Ace Award nomination for his music video "Counting Feathers/I Collect Rocks" - a song that later was developed into an illustrated children's book.
Al's Juno nominated third album, "The Truck I Bought From Moe", was also a Parents Choice Award winner. It features songs about a Gypsy Sock, a Lonely Moose, A Drip-Drip-Dripping Tap, and The Dog with the Longest Name in the World. He continues to take his show to fans both young and young at heart around the world.
Quick costume changes, out of this world theatrical gadgets and peculiar musical instruments!
A Creative Genius with the Soul of a Vaudevillian -Al Simmons is a one-man cast of thousands! A modern day comedy chameleon! A wizard of one-liners!
Quotes
"A masterpiece. Simmons' delivery is dead-on."
•Los Angeles Times
"For those in search of the truly zany, the undisputed king is Al Simmons... A popular wildly original performer..."
•Maclean's Magazine
"A lightening bolt of wonderful lunacy..."
•Toronto Star
"His act, at once frenetic and engagingly simple, is a tour-de-force of ingenious, charming silliness."
•Globe and Mail
"You'll be consumed by laughter when Al Simmons lets his zany comedy loose."
- Variety
"Sounds Crazy: The Science of Music" Educational Performance
Sounds Crazy Show
A musical exploration of junk with Al Simmons Juno Award-winner Al Simmons demonstrates, with hilarious results, how the various instruments of a symphony orchestra make music in his renowned school show: Sounds Crazy.
The principles of sound waves, vibrations, resonance, and pitch are clearly explained as Al plays his bizarre homemade versions of stringed, woodwind, brass and percussion instruments. In typical Al-style, he manages to coax music out of tin cans, soda straws, garden hoses, plastic drink bottles, rulers, coat hangers, and even a turkey baster. He explains, by way of hilarious example, the science behind the music and how his crude instruments are similar to their more expensive counterparts.
During the show, Al sings audience favourites from his albums The Truck I Bought From Moe,Celery Stalks At Midnight and Somethings Fishy At Camp Wiganishie; featuring Al's crazy costumes, hats, fish and even a sing along eye chart.
With learned patience and deliberate humour Al teaches students the importance of recycling and re-using and that they, too, can make music out of found items - even stuff that is headed for the landfill site. While homemade instruments may not have the most sophisticated of sounds, their construction will have the essence of, and be played using the same principles as the finest most expensive store-bought kind.
Al's performance is an exploration of his inventions. He demonstrates a variety of his creations, from a spring-loaded-kitchen-utensil hat to a smokin' smoked salmon, and talks about the trials and tribulations of being and inventor. What do you do when your invention fails? Each failure is a step towards success. Al explains that some of his inventions were accidental or serendipitous, while others were painstakingly planned out on paper, created as a prototype and then methodically constructed.
- "Incredible, Al Simmons just taught the entire music and sound science curriculum in an hour and the students just soaked it all up." Gerzinus Hoekstra, Ontario Arts Education
- "Part music, part science, very entertaining." J. M. Young School, Eden Manitoba
- Wonderful performance...we had a blast!" Timber Trace Elementary, W. Palm Beach Florida
- "Delightful and awe-inspiring! Boy, would I love to be that kind of teacher." Lynn Eldridge, Fulton Place Elementary, Edmonton
For study guide and additional educational materials, please go to Al's website - see below.
To download Al's press kit, please go to this link: http://www.alsimmons.com/presskit.htm
