Il était une fois la fête foraine BIRGÉ - VITET

The band rounds up the crowd. Despite the gibes of his foil, a barker reels off his patter at the entrance of the "House of Illusions": puppets, conjurors, danse aérogyne, optical vues shows, the fairground cinema... This duo is riminiscent of The White Clown and the Auguste or of the Commedia dell' Arte. We find ourselves caught between forgetfulness and memories.
With Daniel Laloux, Michel Berto and Bernard Vitet (trumpet)
Music: Birgé-Vitet Grimaces et misère des saltimbanques, Chromovalse

I the "House of Illusions", containing popular attractions, is intended to help ordinary people forget their humdrum lives and cast their worries to the winds, the "House of Curiosities" is aimed at those who aspire to middle-class dignity, offering them knowledge and discovery through hallucinating, kaleidoscopic displays of science and progress. If the "House of Illusions" may be likened to a telescope, the "House of Curiosities" is like a microscope. Here we enter the world of monsters and the mind is filled with the most terrible questions about humanity.
With Michael Lonsdale, Michel Berto, Dominique Fonfrède, Zeev Gourarier, Bernard Vitet
Music: Birgé-Vitet Chromovalse, L'appel des abysses

Swindling, sham, conniving, showing-off, caricature, playing to the gallery - all that is to be found in wrestling, the life and soul of the fair. It's enjoyable and dramatic, it's sport and it's humbug - and all that without props, without any façade, and with no special effects - just showmanship - the art of causing a stir with limited means. Until quite recently, this fairground spirit was brilliantly represented by Jackson and his wrestlers, who inspired this text.
With Luis Rego, Michel Risse (drums), Raymond Sarti, Patrick Marijon, Bernard Vitet

Tthe fairground, with its various attractions, inspires not only fear and wonder, but also laughter and amusement. What greater fun than to let off steam and get rid of the pent-up frustrations that have built up over the days, weeks, years by demolishing the dummies in a game of Aunt Sally? And if you really want to work off your frustration, there's the shooting gallery, but it calls for concentration! Menica comes out with all the old patter. At the age of six, she "swallowed eggs" with her conjuror father. Then she looked after the curtain and the till, and became a mountebank and a crocodile woman, before marrying a lion-tamer. She was in charge of the quoits, the bingo, shies, targets, presented the giant rat, went into the cage with the hyenas and sold horoscopes and candyfloss!
With Menica Brunet Fabulet, Laurent Jouin, Jean Marie Maddeddu, Dominique Fonfrède, Alain Monvoisin.
Music : Birgé-Vitet Toï et Moï, Blue Sax

The music of the various roundabouts - an organ for the carrousels with their wooden horses, gigantix musical boxes for the chair-o-planes, a saxophone band for the dodgems - gives the exhibition its colour. It mingles with the voices of the barkers and the connivers intermingling everywhere with the crowd. They make the exhibition seem like a haunted city or a distorting mirror.
With Jean-Jacques Birgé, Dominique Fonfrède, Elsa Birgé, Yolande Bacot
Music: Birgé-Vitet Vaucanson, Place de l'Étoile

A fair isn't a fair without the smell of waffles, sticky fingers, candyfloss and toffee apples. On the opther side of the wooden fences, the merry-go-round horses rear and come back to life. Who else would pull the caravans of the fairground folk?
With Laurent Jouin, Elsa Birgé, Michèle Buirette
Music: Birgé-Vitet Carton

Extracts of Jeu de l'ouïe by Martine Cadieu with Jean-Jacques Birgé for the exhibition Il était une fois la fête foraine 1850-1950 at La Grande Halle de la Villette
France Culture, 5 episodes, September 18 to 22 1995 (recorded on the 13th)

To celebrate the 100th birthday of the cinematograph, we simply wanted to enable modern audiences to experience all the joys of those who discovered this extraordinary invention in years gone by at the fair. Here the magic of the pictures is accompanied by a player piano.
Music: Birgé-Vitet Escamotage, Au pochoir, Polka Diabolo

Live visit of the exhibition at La Grande Halle de La Villette, 1995
The CD had been recorded before the opeing to be sold as a sound catalogue.
This reportage has been recorded on the last day, after 4 months, in January 1996