The Flying Karamazov Brothers

A centerpiece of the Flying Karamazov Brothers show is a bit called “The Gamble.” One of the four brothers (either Dmitri or Ivan), as “The Champ,” asks the audience for three items to juggle – any three things, as long as they’re not alive, don’t weigh less than an ounce and aren’t bigger than a breadbox. If The Champ can juggle the items for an unbroken pattern of 10 throws, he wins a standing ovation from the audience; if he fails in three tries, he receives a pie in the face. Either way, the audience is entertained. Welcome to the wacky world of the Brothers K! Psst: They’re not really related, and the name is a comical tip o’ the fez to the great Russian novelist Fydor Dostoevsky. A high-energy combination of vaudeville, street theater and the time-honored art of master juggling, the Karamazov Brothers’ show began (rather like Karl Malden and Michael Douglas) on the streets of San Francisco. They went pro in the late ‘70s and have been throwing stuff at each other ever since, in the cultural capitals of the world. Indeed, all four of the “siblings” are master jugglers, and they’ve honed their zany act into a sort of awe and ahh-inspiring marriage of the brothers Marx and Ringling. There’s nothing like it. You might remember the Flying Karamazov Brothers from an episode of Seinfeld called “The Friars Club,” in which they were named the Flying Sandos Brothers. During a performance, one of them (it was Ivan!) borrowed Jerry’s Friars Club jacket and made it disappear. Jerry and his friend George later had a showdown backstage, in the brothers’ dressing room, to get it back. Oh, yes: The Brothers Karamazov co-starred in the movie “The Jewel of the Nile,” with Kathleen Turner and … Michael Douglas! See? There are no coincidences.