Chapter 17: Wolfgang Redefinierte
"He can't help it. He was raised by gypsies in a traveling Bavarian circus."
The unexpected success of Back in Black had taken the whole circus by surprise, igniting the imaginations of younger members like Kurt and Lars and silencing the older skeptics. It seemed that audiences really did want to listen to rock music and their time-honored routines needed revision. Wolfgang had lit a fire under their collective ass and suddenly Circus Gehlhaar wanted to remind people why they came to the circus in the first place.
The equipment for sound and lighting was already in place and so some of the other acts started working on ways to redefining their part in the show. The unexpected backlash however, was that the musicians were becoming increasingly worried about the desire to use pre-recorded music in the show.
"What if you filled out the band and instead of playing background music and actually had a performance of your own?" Wolfgang asked. He wasn't entirely sure what the band would think of his idea, but a few weeks later it seemed that hidden European network of talented performers that only gypsies like Margali and their band could tap into yielded a solution. With the addition of a second violin, more brass, and another percussionist rounded out the band's sound quite well. When they added a singer and a pair of flamenco dancers, they had an act worthy of center stage.
Wolfgang realized that if Circus Gehlhaar was going to make a major change in their show, he'd better be prepared. He needed to come up with a plan beyond just changing a few acts; Wolfgang wanted to create more than just entertainment, he wanted an experience, something that would transport the audience completely.
Wolfgang's first idea was fairly simple. He wanted to tell a story, but he didn't want to stray too far into the realm of theater. It was still a circus after all. His story would be told through movement and music instead. His first treatment was a love story. Kurt was the obvious choice for the lead and he'd been watching Lars' older sister Petra as a potential leading female. She was probably the most versatile of the Olsson women and only a year or two older than Kurt. She was not only an excellent trapeze artist, but was also becoming very skilled with silks and had been practicing hand-to-hand balancing with her father since she was 4 or 5.
The beginning of the story cast Kurt as a demon, but through love was transformed into an angel. The rest of the circus were people in a small village who were trying to cast the demon out, until the end of course when he sprouts wings and gets the girl. It wasn't anything that hadn't been done before, but it was a story that was easy to tell and that people could understand. Wolfgang felt that as a first draft it was fairly solid and once he had Kurt's review they would start fleshing it out as a framework for the various acts.
Kurt usually dropped in after the show was over, most of the time he came by alone or with Lars or Amanda, but occasionally Kurt, Lars, Amanda, Petra, Gretchen, and half a dozen other circus kids would show up at his door wanting to watch a movie. Wolfgang didn't mind it really; he did have the circus' only television and VCR after all. Plus it was fun playing host for an evening. He had never met a more mature and confident group of kids. Amanda at seventeen was the oldest and still nearly six years younger than Wolfgang was, yet he hardly noticed the age difference. Kurt wasn't the only seasoned performer in the group; nearly all of them had been working in circuses equally as long. The American college students Wolfgang had gone to school with had been less on the ball.
On this particular evening however, Kurt was alone when he peeked his head through the door. (It had taken Wolfgang forever to figure out that the only way to get visitors was to leave his door hanging ajar.)
"Did you watch the show?" Kurt asked, stepping in.
Wolfgang shook his head. "I was in here taking care of some things." He said.
Kurt grinned. "Well then you missed it. Lars was doing a double, but he over rotated and did a triple. He scared the crap out of himself, but he made the catch okay. No one knew the difference." He said and flipped a chair around so he could sit on it backward.
"Anything else exciting?"
Kurt shrugged. "The rest was just the show." He said.
Wolfgang rummaged around in his cooler and pulled out the last remaining beer. "Split it?" he asked holding it up.
"Sure."
Wolfgang grabbed two glasses, poured some of it in one for Kurt and carefully emptied the remains into the second so not to disturb the sediment. "It's the last of the stuff from Bruge." Wolfgang said sadly.
"I'll have to drink it slowly then. We won't be back in Belgium until next year." Kurt said sadly. He set the glass on the desk and stared at its cloudy contents.
"I've been trying to come up with something new for the circus to do." Wolfgang said.
"Really?" Kurt yawned and stretched elaborately, raising his arms over his head and uncurling his tail at the same time. "Maybe you could figure out a way so I don't have to play the devil every night. I've been vanquished so many times that I've lost count."
Wolfgang cringed inwardly. "What kind of part would you want to play?" He asked.
Kurt shrugged and then looked slightly mischievous, "maybe I could be a blue elf." He said.
Wolfgang laughed. "Sorry about that. I never thought it would stick." He admitted.
"I think it's funny actually." Kurt said. He spun around so he could sit with his legs stretched out in front of him and then arched his back so that he was looking at Wolfgang upside down. "Anything for a change."
Wolfgang held up his glass. "I'll drink to that." He said, mentally tearing up his script.
"To what?" Kurt asked, turning around to sit on the chair backwards again.
"To being a blue elf." Wolfgang said.
Kurt laughed, but picked up his beer anyway. "To being a blue elf." He repeated and they clanked glasses.
The next day Wolfgang started fresh on Circus Gehlhaar's new direction. Reading his story over again, he realized that there was one very fundamental flaw. When he had written it, he had hardly been aware of how insensitive he was being. It was the idea that Kurt had to be transformed into an angel in order for everyone to accept him. That was the wrong message. Wolfgang decided that instead, Kurt would look exactly the same at the end as he had in the beginning. The only ones transformed would be the audience.
He churned out the new version in a matter of days. Instead of a demon, Nightcrawler was recast as a sort of forest spirit. The show would introduce him in the forest happy, but a little lonely. Shortly afterwards a band of gypsies arrives and sets up camp. (Wolfgang had already made a mental note to himself to check with Margali so that he didn't write anything insulting or wrong about her culture.) They have a big party, which gets the entire cast including the band out in the ring. The party would set up the major characters, Petra as the lead female, Lars as her suitor, and Gretchen as a second girl in love with Lars. It was a little odd, casting siblings as lovers, but that was what he had to work with. The party ends abruptly when Nightcrawler, thinking it looks like fun tries to crash it.
From there each of the Gypsy characters and their relationships would be introduced through the various acts. In the meantime, Nightcrawler would occasionally show up in some non-threatening way but get chased off. He meets Petra's character in the woods after she runs away from Lars, whom she doesn't really like. She gets in some kind of trouble out in the woods but Kurt brings her back. The gypsies use this as an excuse to capture him. Wolfgang wasn't sure exactly how it would go after that but he knew that it would end with a double wedding, as the various love interests were reconciled.
He showed the first version to Kurt, who liked it, and then brought it to Papa, Sven, and the rest of the older performers who served as the circus' coaches and choreographers. The meeting represented one of the things that Wolfgang loved most about the circus: A roomful of people from half a dozen or so countries speaking in 3 or 4 different languages. It was like a microcosm of Europe in a tent.
"I don't know." Said Sven. "It's a good idea, but may be beyond our reach."
Papa nodded. "But it's certainly something different. No circus I've ever worked for has tried anything like this."
Laurentiu Wolleck, the head trainer and patriarch of the circus' new tightrope troupe spoke up, "I like the idea." He said. Wolfgang hadn't had much experience with Laurentiu, but from what he'd seen he was a lot like Papa Olsson. In fact, Wolfgang was beginning to realize that more often than not, circus acts came in family units often going several generations back. The Wolleck family was even larger than the Olssons and had worked in circuses in Romania, their country of origin, for four generations.
Gretchen's father, Gerhard Reichart, who was apparently from the same part of Bavaria as Kurt agreed with Laurentiu.
Wolfgang listened to them deliberating for over an hour wondering how many times "this is going to be difficult" could be countered with "but it's entirely new". He tried to remain neutral through out the discussion. As much as he wanted to see his idea come to light, he didn't want to force it. Sven was right, it would be a lot of work, the entire circus needed to be behind it or it would never happen. In the end though it was Papa who clapped Wolfgang on the back with one of his large hands and gave him the circus' blessing to make his show a reality.
Each night after the show had ended, he, Kurt, Lars, Petra, Gretchen, Papa, Sven, Gerhard and Laurentiu met to figure out what acts would go into the show and how the story would be told. During the day Wolfgang worked on the lyrics and tried to write music. It wasn't long before Wolfgang realized he was totally out classed. His silly poetry and the 4 or 5 guitar chords he knew were hardly up to the task of creating a show of this magnitude. He was going to need help. It was time to call in The Godfather.
James Brown had been two years ahead of Wolfgang at NYU. His name was a constant source of jokes of course, especially since James was a skinny white kid who had grown up in Manhattan. But apparently there was some musical gift passed along by the name because James was by far the most versatile songwriter Wolfgang had ever met. He was a pianist by training but could play half a dozen other instruments. Even as a student, he was regularly called into several of the big name recording studios to lay down extra tracks. If there was ever a rock and roll prodigy, it was James. And thus Wolfgang felt it was his duty to pull his friend out of his gig writing and recording songs for a royalty free music distributor and bring him to Europe to write circus music.
It was the middle of the summer when James arrived. They were in Germany and so Wolfgang had arranged for him to fly into Munich International Airport, a few hours from where the circus was performing. The circus had the day off so Kurt joined him in the rented Mercedes as they sped past Munich on their way to Munchen. It was the first time Wolfgang had ever been anywhere with Kurt that wasn't connected with the circus.
It seemed that Kurt had a routine for these occasions. Instead of Kurt's usual hodge-podge of mismatched clothes he was wearing a somber pair of dark trousers and a long hooded coat. Most notable were his shoes; Wolfgang didn't even know Kurt owned shoes.
"Are you coming?" Wolfgang asked after he'd parked the car and pocketed the keys.
Kurt nodded grimly and pulled up his hood. He wrapped a scarf that would have looked more appropriate in the dead of winter around his neck so that it covered the lower half of his face. "Ready." He said and jammed his hands in his pockets.
Munich International Airport also served Salzburg, which meant Wolfgang was right at home. He'd traveled in and out of this airport since he was a baby. He led Kurt away from the parking lot by memory and into the bustling international terminal. Terminal 2, Wolfgang could have called it his second home.
"James is coming in on Lufthansa so we have to go… Kurt?" Kurt had been right beside him when they entered the building, but now he was nowhere to be seen. Wolfgang retraced his steps back through the crowd and found that Kurt hadn't gotten much farther than the door. He'd retreated to what appeared to be the darkest spot against the wall of the brightly lit terminal.
"What are you doing?" Wolfgang asked.
Kurt pulled his hands up into his sleeves and folded his arms across his chest. "It's really crowded." He said; his voice muffled by the scarf around his face. Still leaning against the wall he started to slowly sink down.
"Of course it is. It's an airport." Wolfgang said. It seemed ridiculous that as seasoned a performer as Kurt would be paralyzed by a crowded airport but he could already tell what was happening. Kurt was at ease performing in front of hundreds of people as long as he exerted control in the form of the ruse that his appearance was a costume. Here he had none of that control. In fact, dressed for a blizzard on a bright summer day, he stood out just as much as he would have without hiding. The only difference was that he wouldn't scare anyone this way. He just looked strange.
Wolfgang realized it was Margali's fault. She harbored the notion that an angry mob was hiding around every corner ready to jump out should Kurt ever show his true face in public. She had raised Kurt accordingly and so Wolfgang suspected that now Kurt was equally convinced. He was sure that in some places Margali was right, however Wolfgang was positive most people were more charitable than that. Despite this he really hadn't anticipated Kurt, who was now sitting on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees and his head down, going to pieces like this. He knelt down beside him.
"Why did you come then? You knew there would be people here." Wolfgang said.
Kurt looked up; Wolfgang could barely make out his features under his hood. "I've never seen an airplane up close; a real one I mean." He said miserably, "but I didn't know there would be so many people. I don't really do well in big crowds unless I'm performing."
"As always, the king of understatement." Wolfgang said. On an impulse Wolfgang pulled Kurt's hood back.
Kurt was frantic. "Wolfgang, No! What are you doing?" He yanked the hood back in place.
"Nobody cares Kurt." Wolfgang gestured around them at the oblivious rush of people, "They're all trying to catch planes and carry baggage and stuff. I don't think anyone has even noticed you. C'mon Elf, let's go pick up James." He said.
Kurt shook his head.
Wolfgang looked at his watch. James' plane would be arriving any minute. "Can you find your way back to the car?" he asked. "You could wait for us there. I'll give you the keys."
Again Kurt shook his head. "Please don't leave me alone." He said, his voice small almost childlike. He was terrified.
Wolfgang sighed. There really wasn't time to go all the way to the car and back, but he certainly couldn't leave Kurt plastered to the wall like this. James would have to wait. "I'll take you." He said, "You can wait there and afterwards we'll go to where there are no crowds and you can see the airplanes."
"Really?" Kurt asked. Wolfgang could hear the relief in his voice.
"Absolutely. Let's go though. I don't want to keep James waiting too long."
"I'm really sorry." Kurt said. He rose up to his full height and Wolfgang did the same. He shrugged.
"It's okay. We'll work up it." He said. Wolfgang didn't give Kurt the chance to ask with this meant. Instead he took him by the elbow and maneuvered him back out the doors to the parking lot.
Wolfgang jogged through terminal 2 glancing around for James' gate number. James was waiting for him, looking slightly bleary from the long trip and craning his neck to look through the crowd.
Wolfgang snuck up behind James when he took off his glasses to rub his eyes. "Willkommen zu Deutschland Herrn Brown." James turned around, a huge smile on his face.
"Wolfgang!" The two of them hugged and Wolfgang grabbed one of James' bags for him.
"Late as usual?" James asked as they pushed through the throng towards the baggage claim area.
Wolfgang shook his head. "I'm reformed. The circus runs on a tight schedule. I can't do things on 'Wagner time' anymore." He said. "I was here on time, but there were some complications. I had to do a friend the first half of a favor."
James laughed. "Not completely reformed then." He said.
They returned to the car laboring under the weight of James' 2 suitcases and his keyboard in its traveling case. Kurt was waiting for them, stretched out in the back seat paging through the book Wolfgang had brought in case there was a delay. He had shed his bulky concealing coat in an effort to prove to Wolfgang that he wasn't a complete coward. He got out of the car as they approached. James stopped in his tracks, continuing only when Wolfgang poked him in the back with his elbow.
The whole episode in the airport terminal had been deeply embarrassing and Kurt was determined not to continue the trend by hiding from Wolfgang's friend. He would not be shy. He would introduce himself like a normal person. His resolve was somewhat shaken by James' reaction to him but he stayed put.
"Hallo. Ich bin Kurt. Wolfgang's Bekannter. Ich bin wie gehts es Ihnen." Kurt said when they reached the car.
"Sorry, I don't speak German. You must be Kurt." James said. He held out his right hand, but pulled it away when Kurt went to shake it.
"Don't worry. It is not sticking." Kurt said switching to English and trying not to look wounded.
James wasn't quite sure what Kurt meant by that, but he had clearly done the wrong thing. "Oh, no, that's not it." James said. He quickly took Kurt's hand in his own and shook it. "Wolfgang draws you wrong. You have five fingered hands in all the posters."
Kurt looked at Wolfgang. "I do?"
"Umm." Wolfgang stalled. Did he draw Kurt's hands wrong? He had no idea. "I never really thought about it." He admitted and then turned to Kurt. "I'd like you to meet James Brown, musical genius."
James rolled his eyes. "Please, call me Jim. Only Wolfgang calls me James and that's because I can't get him to call me anything else."
"What's wrong with to being called James?" Kurt asked, helping Wolfgang load James' keyboard into the trunk.
James looked incredulous. "James Brown." He said as if in explanation. "I don't want people to get confused."
Wolfgang glanced at James' red hair and freckled face and laughed. "Don't worry," he said, "They won't."
"Who's James Brown?" Kurt asked.
James' opened his eyes wide and turned to Wolfgang. "He's kidding right?" Kurt shook his head.
"He can't help it," Wolfgang said, "He was raised by gypsies in a traveling Bavarian circus."
After a brief tour of the airplane maintenance area, the "other half" of the favor as Wolfgang called it; they left the airport to return to the circus. Kurt had given the front seat to James. He leaned forward so he could talk to them between the driver and passenger seats.
"I can't believe I'm in Europe." James said, looking out his window at the blur of landscape.
"You've never been to visiting Germany before?" Kurt asked. He was still trying to get over the novelty of speaking only English for such an extended period. Normally when he and Wolfgang spoke they stuck to German with a tendency for drift into other languages, including English, for only a sentence or two before returning to their native tongue.
"James is a tried and true New Yorker." Wolfgang said. "He thinks the entire planet ends in Westchester."
"Doesn't it?" James asked in mock seriousness.
Wolfgang laughed.
"Where is Westchester?" Kurt asked. James spun around to face the back seat.
"It's across the Hudson river, just west of the Bronx." He said. "All the snobby rich people live there. People like Wolfgang." Kurt nodded like he understood even though he had no idea what James was talking about.
"Don't worry James," Wolfgang said, "Germany is now the sixth borough. From now on New York City is Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Deutschland. So you're okay." He laughed at his own joke.
"Did you have your family arrange that then?" James asked.
"No." Kurt chimed in before Wolfgang could answer, "Because then he would to have changed the name to Wagner."
James looked confused, but Wolfgang burst out laughing. "Touche, Kurt. Very Funny."
James leaned his head back and watched out the window, only half listening to Wolfgang and Kurt banter back and forth. Part of him wondered what he'd gotten himself into. Wolfgang had been legendary at school for the crazy plots he cooked up. Most often Wolfgang's late night musings never saw the light of day, but on occasion they had and the results had been so stunning and so sublime that James couldn't not take the risk. The worst that would happen was that he would return home without having accomplished anything.
Wolfgang had promised an adventure and so far, it didn't sound like a lie. After all, here his was speeding down the motorway in kilometers per hour rather than miles and listening to an old school friend trade jokes with a guy who looked like the devil. He already felt like he was in the circus. James smiled, this was going to be an adventure all right, and if Wolfgang could pull it off, a chance to create art in it's highest and purest form. He could hardly wait to begin.
