Odd Fellows Host Flying Karamazov Brothers

Sunday May 28 at 7 p.m. at the Odd Fellows Hall in Eastsound

— by Margie Doyle —

The whacky, uproarious Flying Karamazov Brothers return to the Odd Fellows Hall on Orcas this Sunday, May 28 to what will surely be another sold-out family crowd. As usual their performance will include music, juggling, magic, comedy and the unexpected.

The event is “absolutely a family show, for kids of all ages,” says Odd Fellow Eric Morris. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show are available now at Darvill’s and online www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2952875 at $15 for adults and $10 for kids 12 and under. “Last year we packed the house — it was wildly successful,” says Morris.

The Flying Karamazov Brothers made their name in juggling

The Karamazovs’ tour in the San Juan Islands (they’ll be at Lopez Center on Friday May 26 and at the San Juan Community Theater on Saturday May 27) is once again a fund-raising benefit for their summer Chatauquas, community- building tours. Last year, following their Memorial Day engagement here, the Flying Karamazov Brothers toured central and eastern Washington’s small, rural, and Native American communities. This year, they will perform in similar communities in eastern Oregon, starting in July. Most of these shows will be free and all shows will feature parades, workshops, lectures, and other events in the spirit of the historic Chatauquas, which were educational performance or “edu-tainment” in the 1800s.

The Flying Karamazov Brothers, led by founder Paul Magid, have been committed since 1981 to the summer Chautauqua Tours to rural communities to promote local talent, history and culture. Direct community service is part of every Chatauqua, whether visiting and performing in prisons, cleaning windows at the senior center, or stewardship at a local cemetery, a “profound” experience according to Morris, who accompanied the Karamazov Brothers” New Old-Time Chatauqua tour last summer.

Eric Morris is the Orcas Odd Fellow responsible for bringing the Flying Karamazov Brothers to Orcas; he accompanied them not just on their summer tour, but also to their mission at Standing Rock last Thanksgiving, where they served food to hundreds of activists protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

This June the performers will take part in “Hands Across the Border” at the international border between Montana and the province of Alberta, Canada. This international First Nations Encampment is to help create unity between separated tribes; to demonstrate that they have more in common with each other than apart from tribes separated by political boundaries. Much of the Karamazov Brothers’ work, since their development of the New Old Time Chatauqua shows is considered “more humanitarian than political,” says Morris, such as their relief work following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The “Brothers” share the vision of the Odd Fellows of community service and local support. On Orcas, the Odd Fellows have been gathering at the same location since 1891. The Odd Fellows movement started some 200 years ago, formed out of professional guilds such as leatherworkers or stoneworkers and before unions in the spirit of brotherhood to help families of the “odd fellow” who is out of work, or ill or whose family needs help.

On Orcas they maintain the hall for community events, provide free firewood, move people, and work with other groups on larger community causes such as building the new Food Bank building. They feed the entire community at their Thanksgiving potluck. And you will see them in their zany costumes and silly antics at local parades.

Members are invited to join the Odd Fellows, as lodge members observe others who exhibit the “essence of the Odd Fellow character — friendship love and truth,” says Morris. He speaks with pride of the vitality of the Orcas Island lodge, given the national trend of decreased membership.

He attributes the health of the Orcas Lodge to the commitment to traditions that are unique to the Orcas Odd Fellows, such as candle-lighting, drumming and gathering to sing and talk, “to gather together and consciously pause and experience the rich silence. That’s precious to us.

“We’ve allowed our rituals and culture to evolve and reflect our own sensibility. It’s great to be part of the Odd Fellows’ lineage and somehow manage to keep our lodge thriving and growing.”

To learn more about the Orcas Odd Fellows, go to https://www.oddshall.org/

Tickets to the May 28 Odd Fellows show on Orcas are available at Darvill’s Bookstore, online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2952875 and at the door.

When the Odd Fellows came and sang to Joe Goodrich. Photo: Courtesy of Elaine Goodrich