180 Grad Artistic
May 7, 2018 8:14 AM   Subscribe

Oleksandr can do an unusual trick. 7 minutes, narration in simple German, but even if you can't follow the narration, Oleksandr's trick is visual in nature and language-independent. He takes a few minutes to stretch and warm up first.
posted by Wolfdog (35 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
This makes me very, very uncomfortable. His poor guts.
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 8:33 AM on May 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Neine! Neine! Neine!
posted by LegallyBread at 8:33 AM on May 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


Every part of that is bad.
posted by saladin at 8:35 AM on May 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Isn't Germany still banned from producing or exporting any and all attempts at comedy under the Geneva Convention?

This is why.
posted by loquacious at 8:54 AM on May 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


I work with contortionists and this still freaked me out.
posted by Nothing at 9:14 AM on May 7, 2018


*wincing while flashing back to the time I broke a He-Man action figure in similar fashion*
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:39 AM on May 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


I do some green screen and blue screen work, so when he came in wearing blue and green, and there were drop cloths of blue and green, I thought I was going to be in for some movie magic and then oh my fucking god what the hell is he doing and why would he do that and why does this seems to be aimed at impressionable children many of whom will probably never walk again?
posted by cjorgensen at 10:00 AM on May 7, 2018


I don't understand why he wheels the rack up and down the street.

Also, apparently I have a much stronger visceral reaction to that costume and music and so on (even when he's standing normally) than to the actual trick.
posted by aubilenon at 10:05 AM on May 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


Yes, I saw this episode when they aired it. I had to cover my eyes because I found it so disturbing.
posted by tickingclock at 10:14 AM on May 7, 2018


Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
posted by vverse23 at 10:14 AM on May 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


That is just wrong.
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:24 AM on May 7, 2018


Nope.
posted by punchee at 10:35 AM on May 7, 2018


Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
posted by sarcasticah at 11:18 AM on May 7, 2018


Okay, I'm afraid to watch. Can someone very gently describe?
posted by mochapickle at 11:55 AM on May 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


You know that deleted scene from The Exorcist where little Reagan crawls down the stairs upside down and backwards?

It's like that, only in German.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:58 AM on May 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


Can someone very gently describe?

As near as I can reason it is a documentary vignette of an old eldritch horror going through some kind of bizarre mating ritual and display, or perhaps some kind of asexual reproduction process.

Whatever it is it is utterly horrifying.
posted by loquacious at 11:59 AM on May 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Actually come to think of it this may be the molting or metamorphosis of an as yet to be identified arachnid. I'm having a hard time accurately counting the limbs of this creature, but despite the humanoid appearance I'm pretty sure there are more than four limbs.
posted by loquacious at 12:01 PM on May 7, 2018


Okay, I'm afraid to watch. Can someone very gently describe?

Do you remember that scene in Spaceballs where President Skroob is the victim of a transporter malfunction and the lower half of his body is turned around relative to the top half so that his butt is in the front?

It's like that, with more German and no transporter.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 12:08 PM on May 7, 2018 [6 favorites]


A very flexible man is able to be twisted so that his legs face towards his back rather than his front while he's sitting. It's very unnerving.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 12:22 PM on May 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


Yep, that'll do it. Thanks!
posted by mochapickle at 12:28 PM on May 7, 2018


I don't speak German, but I assume that the narrator is explaining how excruciatingly, unbelievably painful this trick is.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 12:34 PM on May 7, 2018


MetaFilter: like that, with more German and no transporter.
posted by Splunge at 12:46 PM on May 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


I started to watch that, guessed where it was going and decided to nope the fuck out of there.
posted by slogger at 1:31 PM on May 7, 2018


I can't understand how someone looks at deeply unnerving and excruciating contortions and goes "Let's add clown".
posted by Philipschall at 2:06 PM on May 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


He takes a few minutes to stretch and warm up first.

It actually says it takes him four hours (!) to warm up.

I don't speak German, but I assume that the narrator is explaining how excruciatingly, unbelievably painful this trick is.

The only thing they say, after the skeleton demo, is that why he is actually able to do this remains unknown (or his secret, in any case).

I don't understand why he wheels the rack up and down the street.

As he's wheeling it away after the trick, for a moment I thought: he needs it to hold on to, just in case his torso decides to slide off at the waist...
posted by progosk at 2:50 PM on May 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Horrifying.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 2:55 PM on May 7, 2018


The only thing they say, after the skeleton demo, is that why he is actually able to do this remains unknown (or his secret, in any case).

Thank you - I have enough german to follow the outlines of the discussion, but couldn't tell if they said what was special about him and I just missed it.

Also, the fact that his wife's name is Aurélie meant that I had the song by Wir Sind Helden playing in my head
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:51 PM on May 7, 2018


Isn't Germany still banned from producing or exporting any and all attempts at comedy under the Geneva Convention?

This is why.

You can say that again
posted by unliteral at 4:07 PM on May 7, 2018


oh no
posted by repute at 5:43 PM on May 7, 2018


Before going public he should have gone on as an assistant to a magician on the Penn and Teller Fool Me show (where magicians win prizes if Penn and Teller can't figure out how the trick is done).

I would have loved to see their expressions as they fruitlessly try to figure out the secret to the 'trick'. There's no way anyone would think a magician is actually twisting a person around 180°.
posted by eye of newt at 9:49 PM on May 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


I was delighted to hear the music of Emir Kusturica toward the end of this!
posted by deadbilly at 10:00 PM on May 7, 2018


He needs to do this naked. it just doesn't work for me with any costuming on. I need to see how the body actually lines up when he does this.
posted by yesster at 12:02 AM on May 8, 2018


Oh, huh. Well count me as someone else who'd like to know how he did it. Considering the skeleton demo, I assume it may have something to do with the bits of the vertebrae that prevent twisting more than X degrees to the side?
posted by lesser weasel at 4:23 AM on May 8, 2018


He needs to do this naked. it just doesn't work for me with any costuming on. I need to see how the body actually lines up when he does this.

Yeah. like what happens to his junk? I'm wincing just thinking about it.
posted by james33 at 6:25 AM on May 8, 2018


I saw where it was going, and couldn't watch. Seriously. Impressive, but I'll let other people actually watch.
posted by zardoz at 7:53 PM on May 8, 2018


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