Blue Man Group, at 25 years old, is ‘just trying to be every man’
It’s a blue phenomenon! This is the month that Blue Man Group celebrates its 25th anniversary, and the eccentric, eclectic and creative collective is busier than ever. Blue Man Group’s first book, “Blue Man World,” is being released along with an album, “Three.” The Blue Men also launch a world tour that includes a first-ever visit to China.
On Monday, Clark County commissioners make the recognition official with the declaration of “Blue Man Group Day.” It’s a tribute to a quarter century of comedy, theater, rock concert and dance party rolled into one. It’s a must see, especially if you haven’t been back for a while because there’s new music, designs, technology and a finale that involves everyone to join the euphoric celebration of life in full color, not just blue.
Perhaps nobody knows the success of BMG in Las Vegas better than Jack Kenn, regional manager and Blue Man Group Las Vegas vice president. In our Q+A, he told me: “It’s extremely exciting. We took the opportunity for our 25th year to make sure that we are future focused and reminding people how creative and forward thinking we are.
“We don’t look back over the past quarter century. We’re always looking forward to the next best thing. This year we’ve done some pretty great things celebrating our 25th and to ensure that we’re hopefully celebrating 50, 75 and more.”
Why do Blue Men never age? They always look as if they were newly born. They never look as if they’ve been entertaining us for 25 years.
Each character feels new every day thanks to the energy from the audiences. That’s where they get their youthfulness. I was with Blue Man for the entire first time run at The Luxor but moved to the Wynn for the start of “Le Reve.” Then I did 8 years in Cirque du Soleil, and now I have been back at Blue Man for 3 1/2 years.
What brought you back?
The company itself because it remains a completely creative-driven company focused on the product that’s onstage, and that always, always comes first. The culture of the company itself. We take a long time to hire people, and the company is always looking for employees who have the same traits as Blue Man.
People who are passionate, curious, really want to come to work because they want to come to work. It’s the corporate culture overall, that it still feels like a mom-and-pop company. When I was going through the process of returning, it felt as it did 15 years ago when I worked here.
So, as it’s aged over 25 years, it’s still not a button-up-shirt and suit-and-tie operation?
Definitely not because we create art every night. We encourage our employees to continue to do projects outside work. We make sure that they have the availability and opportunity to do that. We have good, creative people, so we encourage them to do projects outside work.
We encourage them to create new projects like our first drum-off in Las Vegas. We crowned the champion at Container Park. It was fantastic. We’re always looking for ways to integrate into the community and certainly allowing all of our employees to find their creative side.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes YouTube video of how BMG collaborated with DJ Tiesto for a portable paint-drum backpack.
Would Blue Man have been as successful if they’d come from planet red, yellow or green?
There’s always the question of why blue, and I’m not sure if it’s the color. I think it’s the character itself. I think it’s where the character was born and just trying to be every man, just trying to take pieces and parts from everyone.
I think it’s just one of the reasons for successes over 25 years: Everyone who sees the show finds some level of connection to Blue Man, whether it’s the team, whether it’s the music, whether it’s the juggle drumming, whether it’s making a mess, whether it’s those subtle, emotional moments in the musical pieces.
Our audiences and visitors, even our vendors, have found a connection to Blue Man through the years. We know for certain that people who saw the show when they were kids, they returned and saw them again with their college buddies. Now they’re bringing their children.
We’ve heard many stories that the show is a journey that Blue Man takes throughout; a journey of connection. They connect to themselves first, then to each other, then to the audience, and the audience connects with each other. Connection is a big piece of the puzzle and part of our success for 25 years.
Is it because most of the audience, if not all of the audience, would love to be Blue Man for at least 90 minutes in their life?
Yes, absolutely. I think there are a lot of people who would like to do wacky things, lose their inhibitions and put on a mask and be somebody else for an hour and a half without speaking a single word, yet still communicating while finding ways to make music and make people laugh and make people see the world in a different way.
Blue Man has to be one of a few shows in the world where an individual onstage the entire time is a star but remains unknown. If Criss Angel, for instance, went to Smiths, he couldn’t go grocery shopping, but if Blue Man went, he would be unrecognized. How’s it feel to be an anonymous star?
It goes back to talent, that control Blue Man exercises over himself. Blue Man doesn’t have an ego. Blue Man doesn’t want to be alone. That’s why he’s always part of a group. I think the actors who portray Blue Man find that he has human beings walking around. They understand that going in, it’s the group, not the individual.
The guys have really taken on the characters of Blue Man in their lives, and that speaks for the casting. We audition a ton of people every year, and there’s only a handful selected because of the criteria that’s required. Part of that is finding that egoless. You don’t want to find somebody who wants to be the star because they aren’t going to be successful in our show.
So that’s why a member of Blue Man Group could play Berlin as easily as Boston?
Absolutely, and we have programs in place where Blue Man will go from city to city and certainly when we have our national tour up and running and an international tour, as well. We do insert Blue Man in and out of places because it gives that depth of character to go to different locations because the audience is what drives the creativity, and the audience is different in all of our cities. We absolutely encourage them.
The Blue Man’s version of Airbnb?
Exactly! We have a lot of performers who are pursuing other careers, but they are still Blue Men, and we can call them in as we need. That way they’re active in doing things. We just call upon them, and it’s pretty quick for them to learn the choreography onstage.
Tell me three things that you absolutely look for when a Blue Man walks into audition?
They have to look good in a bald cap! There’s a lot that goes into auditioning — general attitude, being a genuine human being and obviously having talent, whether you’re an actor or drummer or another type of musician, some performance skill set and the ability to be comfortable in your own skin and be able to communicate nonverbally with people you don’t know.
We process that as we put them in situations where they have to nonverbally communicate with each other, with someone they just met 15 minutes ago. So certainly finding people who would be good involved with the audience 99 percent of the time, and the other 1 percent is talent. It’s not a Broadway audition where you are really looking for acting talent.
Before we wrap this up, should the world be a Blue Man world? Would it be a nicer, kinder, more fun world?
I honestly think so, yes. It also would be quieter — I absolutely think that. Honestly, to answer that question, I think the entire world is Blue Man. I think because the characters itself, everyone will find traits of that Blue Man, we all have traits of being a Blue Man.
I think the more we learn about the character, seeing as he grows to be 25 years, we’re still learning more about the character. The more we learn about human beings in general, I think that everybody can, is and should be a Blue Man.
Blue Man Group is performed twice nightly at Blue Man Theater at The Luxor.
