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The "amphibibulentist" thread reminds me of days of silent movies, when some actors
had little behaviour items that were not copied by others. I mentioned the guy who in every
movie would spit i;nto a cuspidor, which would "precess" wildly in a foot wide circle several times.
Another guy with a big fat belly would butt adversaries with it, rendering them hors de combat.
Can you think of other examples, and the showbiz name for an actor having such a "signature"?
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Can you think of other examples, and the showbiz name for an actor having such a "signature"?That would be their schtick...from the Yiddish, I believe. >Others< Jerry Colonna would roll his eyes. You could say Chevy Chase's pratfalls in the early days of Saturday Night Live were his schtick. Basically, schitck is a bit or device of physical signature (or "business") you incorporate into a routine or charcter (even your ongoing character's persona) to get a cheap laugh or a cheap reaction from the audience. Thus the old show-biz adage: When all else fails, do schtick!Generally frowned upon, nowadays, within theatrical circles as indicative of a lack of professionalism and/or integrity...however, the insider joke is that everybody knows they have done, and will tongue-in-cheekedly re-employ schtick whenever they can get away with it, which is whenever it works, 'cause, why not? 
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Well, that would be like John Wayne's walk, which, interestingly enough, he purposely developed somewhere in his late 20s for his screen persona...he never walked that way before then, and he didn't walk that way in real life (if you watch some of his earliest films, you'll see he doesn't walk like that)...but, through a process of repetition, it did finally creep into his casual stride to a degree. Who can forget his swan song stroll down the steps at his final appearance at the Oscars when he was being ravaged by the final stages of cancer? His signature stride was still evident then...whether he consciously employed it for that touching appearance, or it just came through, I guess we'll never know. But "physical hook" is as close as I can come to a proper name for a signature physical device like that...don't know if there is a proper show-biz or theatrical term for it (if there is, I can't recall it)...but we always just used to call (and I've always heard others say on bios, etc.) John Wayne's stride his "trademark walk".
Insel? if you're peeking in can you help us with this?
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...little behaviour items that were not copied by others...
...Jerry Colonna would roll his eyes...
I recall Eddie Cantor having a "patented" rolling of the eyes, too. It's a good thing imitation is the sincerest flattery. Do you recall who was earlier? I don't. Bill? You have a longer perspective than most of us.
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Do you recall who was earlier? Barney Google, Buster Keaton, Marty Feldman... ...oh, and Betty Davis! Edit - I found an excellent site for silent clips... http://silent-stars.com/Slapstick/home.html
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I would guess Eddie Cantor was the earlier eye roller. Nobody could leer and flutter eyebrows
like Groucho Marx.
I had heard "schtick" before, but my (erroneous) impression was that it described something in bad taste,
not necessarily a mannerism.
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...who was earlier?
Eddie Cantor - born Isadore Itzkowitz; 1892 - 1964
Buster Keaton - born James Frank Keaton; 1895 - 1961
Marty Feldman - 1933-1982; his striking eyes apparently came from nasty hyperthyroidism (Interestingly, "...buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, California near his idol, Buster Keaton, in the Garden of Heritage, lot 5420." from the Marty Feldman Home Page)
Barney Google - comic strip character, buddy of Snuffy Smith
Jerry Collonna - second banana to Bob Hope. I can't find dates for him easily. Not to be confused with Jerry Colona , who seems to be a trombonist
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I had heard "schtick" before, but my (erroneous) impression was that it described something in bad taste
I think that'd be shlock. A shtik is a piece (literal translation). As in, "That duck walk is Groucho's shtik."
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Here's a list of Yiddishisms, including schtick. It seems these can also be used without the "c" spelling, some of them more popularly so now...as shtick. But I like to keep the "c" because it indicates the "sh" sound is more drawn out, as in shhhtick, which is the way these words are usually verbalized, with an emphasis on the "sh". Schlock/shlock is also one, and generally means lousy or low-quality, as in "a schlock production":
schlep vt. (Yiddish) To drag, to carry something. vi. (literally: to drag oneself around) To waste time, to kill time, to engage in valueless activity.
n. A loser (q.v).
schmooz v. (Yiddish) To press [the] flesh (q.v.) in nonpolitical situations. One who schmoozes is a schmoozer.
schmuck n. (Yiddish for a penis) A jerk. This is quite a mild term in the U.S., but a terrible thing to say if one is Jewish.
schtick n. (Yiddish) An avocation, an idee fixe, an area of expertise (to put it into obsolete slang: someone's bag, their thing). Used pejoratively (e.g., ``that's her schtick'').
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There's also schlemiel, an unlucky bungler, chump; schmo, a jerk (see schmuck); and schmaltz, sentimental or florid art or music ( schmaltzy the more popular usage). And, of course, schnozzle, nose, which Jimmy Durante Italianized to come up with "De Ol' Schnozzola". Then there's schnook, which really can't be traced to the Yiddish, but...a stupid or unimportant person, dolt. These are all in the English dictionary now, BTW. And all these words are so much fun to say, I guess that's why they were co-opted from Yiddish and stay alive! "Don't be such a schmuck!" "Hey, you big schlemiel!" "Yeah, it's kinda schmaltzy, but so what, it's Christmas!"
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also ... schmaltz, sentimental or florid art or music (schmaltzy the more popular usage)
Literally, "schmaltz" is chicken-fat. "Schmaltzy" music or art is smooth (lots of glissandos) and oily and verging on greasy or oozing (compare "Oozing charm through every pore, he oiled his way about the floor..." describing Zoltan Karpathy - My Fair Lady).
There's a lot of allegorical derivation in the Yiddish words. "Schmuck" is German for jewelry, and it isn't hard to arrive at the "family jewels" connotation (testicles, and while that's not exactly the literal translation, it's not far from it, either).
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Can you think of other examples?
The true trademarks of artistic performance are transcendent, wwh, don't you agree - so far beyond imitation that any attempt, however inspired, however affectionate and well-intentioned, can only serve to make the loss of the original the more poignant ... and painful.
What hallmarks of artistry come immediately to mind, incandescent through all the decades? The elegance of Cary Grant. The rakishness of Errol Flynn. The chicanery of WC Fields. The coquettishness of Marilyn Monroe. The sultriness of Edith Piaf. The princeliness of Laurence Olivier.
When asked to explain cubism, Bracque said: "The only thing that matters in art is the part that can't be explained." It is also the only thing that can't be reproduced.
P.S. Can't think of the showbiz term for these trademark traits, wwh. Does the same term apply to songs which are recognized as the exclusive property of a particular singer ... like Frank Sinatra's "That's life."? Others can offer a rendition of "That's life" .. if they dare to attempt it. Only Frank can inhabit "That's life".
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When asked to explain cubism, Bracque said: "The only thing that matters in art is the part that can't be explained." It is also the only thing that can't be reproduced. - plutarch Well said Bracque. Well said plutarch. "Why," milum asked, "does this definition of Art sound familiar?"
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I'm confused. I didn't see anywhere that Plutarch used Braque's words as his own.
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Sorry wwh, I wasn't clear... Braque: "The only thing that matters in art is the part that can't be explained." Plutarch: "It is also the only thing that can't be reproduced." Milum: "Why does this definition of Art sound familiar?" Sorry Mr. Bill, me, milum, was obscurely referring to my unheralded definition of Art as was posted on the Art thread over in "Announcements and Information". Sorry. But hey, one gathers rosebuds while the iron is hot.
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obscurely referring to my unheralded definition of Art
Sure that wasn't 100% Dixie Dew Chopping Whiskey you were being a-mused by, Mr. Minderbinder, sir?
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Schtick is the closest I can come up with, although it doesn't directly imply any sort of proprietary nature, but rather business done by a performer as described above. You could talk about an actor's "trademark _______" I guess but it doesn't satisfy our quest for one word.
I had a Jewish friend who gave me a funny description of the meanings of schlemiel and schlamozzel:
"The schlemiel is the clutz who spills hot soup down the back of the neck of the schlamozzel." i.e. One is a bungling idiot and the other is perpetually a luckless victim of circumstance. Sorry to overstate the obvious...
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Beg to differ regarding Jerry Collona's trademark -- not his big eyes or his splendiferous moustache but rather the looooooong note he would hold in every song he sang. Remember?
And Groucho's schtick was that painted-on moustache which was always there "in performance" where the duck-walk was just an occasional bit.
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<straightens tie, shrugs shoulders, googles eyes, grimaces>
"I don't get no respect"
Rodney Dangerfield
formerly known as etaoin...
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I hope milum did not really gather rosebuds with a hot iron. A rigid digit, but not flesh searing.
Which reminds me of Chaucer's Millers Tale. It seemed to me unlikely that a smith would be
working at night for the unwelcome suitor to get the hot iron to goose Nicholas with.
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when some actors had little behaviour items that were not copied by others
Are you thinking of ARGs (automatic reflex gestures)? Probably not, since anybody COULD copy 'em. They are just one way of establishing your character.
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I'm a bit late into the picture with this, but what about idiosyncrasies. They're not quite a signature item, but they are what often identifies an actor / character / person, and they can be physical, verbal, emotional...
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