Marcel Marceau died this past Saturday, which is a great blow to that odd little community of artists he and I belong to. Our greatest champion has passed his torch to the next generation. He was 84 years old.

The challenge now is to grasp that torch. Mime has fallen out of touch with society (at least in the way that Marceau affected it). There are numerous instances where mime has hidden itself away in training methods and hybrid art forms, but the flair behind Marcel Marceau’s brand of artistry is only found in very localized and limited instances.

I think the time is right for a more universal art form to emerge into our culture’s consciousness. I guarantee you it won’t be Marcel’s brand of mime, or even anything that resembles it superficially. ‘Mainstream’ culture is too far advanced along the ‘fast lane’ and flashing colors for traditional mime to hold the high ground nowadays. I do suspect that this new art form will be heavily informed by a similar aesthetic. Something will come along that speaks to the culture (and maybe the world) at large, in a language that is easily comprehensible. Maybe Marceau’s passing will propel whatever that will be into the limelight. His name carries the weight, but is there anything ready to carry it?

Who knows, relatively few people noticed his passing – though I think that was mostly purposeful on his, and his family’s, part. (Marcel Marceau apparently suffered from Alzheimer’s or dementia near the end of his life, but only a ‘lengthy illness’ is mentioned in his obituaries.) The only thing to mark his grave apart is a battered top hat with a red rose stuck in the top.

I find the silence of Marceau’s death is strangely sympathetic with his work. There is a certain poetry about a man who captivated a world through silence, passing from that world in the same quiet.

Goodbye Marcel Marceau. We’ll miss you and Bip something mighty.