While the juggling is stupendous — known to involve pies, candy-filled plastic eggs and sea creatures — the Flying Karamazov Brothers are not just about throwing things around.
“It’s a very varied show,” said Kuzma Karamazov, who is known offstage as Harry Levine.
The foursome mix up music, singing and dancing, “so there will be something for everyone, something to make them laugh hysterically,” promised Kuzma. “If a person doesn’t want to laugh hysterically, this would probably turn them off.”
The Flying Karamazov Brothers will bring what they call their “extrava-tainment danger-ganza” to the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden State Park, 200 Battery Way, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
And one thing is for sure, Kuzma said. The brothers, and especially “the Champ,” Dmitri Karamazov, will undertake “the Gamble,” a feat of improvisation and juggling with three items provided by the audience. These objects must meet the following requirements:
■ Each must weigh more than an ounce but less than 10 pounds;
■ Each must be no bigger than a breadbox;
■ Each must not be a live animal and must not stop the Champ from being a live animal.
Among the odder objects provided by audiences are “a big hunk of tripe covered in canola oil . . . piles of seaweed and a dead octopus,” Kuzma recalled.
Other jugglers have come to the show with things they’ve built in hopes of beating the Champ. But Kuzma said Dmitri, also known as Paul Magid, has an 80 percent success rate in keeping these objects in the air for a count of 10.
Kuzma, who spoke by telephone last Wednesday before a performance in Billings, Mont., said he and his brothers are fairly far-flung these days. He lives in Olympia, while Pavel (Rod Kimball), Zossima (Stephen Bent) and Dmitri live in the New York City area.
The Flying Karamazov Brothers come in several configurations, Kuzma added. One of the troupes is performing to rave reviews off-Broadway, he said, while another one is touring the Western states including Washington — and this summer, rural Alaska.
Kuzma is one of the newer members of the latter group, which is eager to return to Port Townsend after years away.
Tickets to Saturday’s show are $25 per person, or $15 for youth younger than 13 and seniors older than 65. Outlets include www.brownpapertickets.com, and in Port Townsend, the Food Co-Op at 414 Kearney St. and Quimper Sound at 230 Taylor St.
For more information about the Flying Karamazovs and their umbrella organization New Old Time Chautauqua, visit www.chautauqua.org.
And what is the prize for the Champ if he is able to juggle the three things Port Townsend tosses up to him?
A standing ovation, of course, said Kuzma.
If he loses the challenge, the Champ gets a pie in the face — from his brothers, not from the audience.
“But they can bring pies, for us to juggle,” Kuzma added.
