Creation of “Ballad for an Invisible Man”

January 1965

Their friend Norbert Schmitt, choreographer, creates a new show at the “Folies Pigalle” cabaret in Paris and engages Michelle & Ernest with various visual short black art acts. This night club still has a good name in the Parisian night life. They will spend there more than 20 months, working some time also in other clubs in Paris. With time, these places become less prestigious. 

Anyhow, it has been a very useful period of time, having to work in tough technical conditions and still having to insure the magic. This has been an excellent professional experience.

On top of this, it is also a time for brotherhood and complicity between colleagues.

During many months, Michelle & Ernest work on the creation of a magic variety act. They built new props. They work at night, in the cabaret’s dressing room, between their different appearances on stage. They rehearse like mad. It is the start of “LES BALADINS” with the Black Art act “Ballad for an Invisible Man” (act copyright). In the style of a video clip (long before they were even produced) and referring to pop art and cartoons style, the invisible man carries a LSD parcel from Europe to America. It was a time when joking about drugs was possible.