Information Concerning Mimes.

 All things which exist in the world, Volkmer realized as he read, have histories.

 The modern mime artist traces his roots to a specialized stage actor of the ancient Roman era known as a Patomi’us who performed something akin to contemporary ballet, in that it was a form of dance and movement intent on pantomiming and exaggerating the gestures and motions of life.

 For some reason Volkmer stopped reading there and looked off to a dark corner of the bar room which was, at that moment, completely empty. He thought then briefly about Monet’s haystacks.
 Mimic dancers of the Patomi’us type always wore masks or makeup so as to de-accentuate the individualizing features of their faces in order to enhance the graceful universality of the movements of their bodies. To that end, it was not uncommon for both male and female pantomimes to perform nude, but for their anonymizing facial obscurations.

 The modern conception of the mime dates to early 19th Century Paris where Jean-Gaspard Deburau began to experiment with the silent white-faced figure. 

Both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were influenced by the craft and techniques of mimes, which they both separately co-opted for their iconic silent film work, which had, in turn, a profound influence on the subsequent development of the craft and techniques of later mime artists. One such artist took the nom de guerre ‘Marcel Marceau’ while a member of the French Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris. One night while helping a group of Jewish school children escape across the border into Switzerland, Marceau discovered he could keep them quiet by miming for them. The trick had been to keep them delicately fascinated; neither frightened nor delighted, simply captivated. He would later describe mime as “the Art of Silence”.

 Volkmer ordered another drink by raising his empty glass at the bartender but saying nothing.

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