Wednesday, August 20, 2008

A TRIBUTE TO BREAKIN': MY INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL "BOOGALOO SHRIMP" CHAMBERS

Although there have been numerous well known dancers in films of the past that made their mark on the dance scene and in the theaters, no one has quite been able to reach the bar that Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers set when he picked up a broom and did the magical “broom dance” he performed in the classic film Breakin’. Though it was painfully obvious that there was a string holding the broom, Michael was like a magician at a magic show and showed us just how fluid his skills were as a dancer.

Next time around, in "Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo," Michael once again stole the show when he did a mind blowing dance number on the ceiling. Like many, I was completely baffled as to how exactly he pulled this one off. I thought, could he really be a magician? I mean after all, this is the guy who taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk.

Now, years later, I finally get the answers to the questions I’ve had about this “magic man” for some time now. Michael was like an open book in our interview and we talked about everything from the moonwalk to him nearly snagging a part in another cult classic film – “Revenge of the Nerds.” I hope you all enjoy this trip down memory lane with the man who can Boogaloo with the best of them…Allow me to reintroduce, Mr. Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers.”

Click below to read the interview...
FADE IN:

SHEQUETA
Where are you from originally?

MICHAEL
I’m originally from California - the South Bay of California. A little small town which is called in the history books the heart of the Harbor, Wilmington, California. So that’s where I’m from.

SHEQUETA
How and when did you get started?

MICHAEL
I got started dancing right after the disco era happened. I mean when Saturday Night Fever came out, I literally thought I was John Travolta, like most kids. I mean I was imitating all the adults. Everybody was dancing. It was a fun time in the seventies. I mean Disneyland (and) all the theme parks had disco techs where the parents, at the end of the night, could bring their children to dance. And I was always on the dancefloor and I was always watching the adults. And sure enough when disco fizzled out, I still had the urge to dance. And the early eighties when new wave music came out – (sings) “clap that witch” you know the tempo was a lot faster. I started seeing dancers moving in a faster time and even the robot of the seventies was faster. So I started seeing people popping and doing all these things. I’d say like nineteen eighty is when I changed rhythm from disco dancing to actually trying to new wave and start popping. Because mostly all of the eighties songs had that real fast snap, crackle, pop.

SHEQUETA
I hear that you were sixteen when you filmed Breakin’, what was that like to be sixteen and on set?

MICHAEL
It was the experience of a lifetime. Because I didn’t realize I was a star. I was just a kid. I realized I had a job and I had to listen to my studio teacher and all these adults. Matter of fact, people didn’t treat me like I was a star. The feeling of being on the set and not having really known actors it was like okay this is like a student film and this is the guy and that’s the guy and everybody was just kinda carefree until the dance scenes happened. That’s when everybody, the extras (and) everybody on set, started giving us respect because they had never seen us dance. They had never seen anybody dance like us, that was historical. So when we were not dancing we were just oh they’re just extras or they’re just somebody, but every time we danced and every time there was a dance scene it was like silence and awe on that set. People were like wow or even finding a way to invite people on that set.

SHEQUETA
Where did the name Boogaloo Shrimp come from?

MICHAEL
Now this is a very historically correct African American story. Boogaloo, if you just google it or look it up, it didn’t come from James Brown. Boogaloo came from New Orleans and the Zydeco, the Zydeco and that whole crawfish and Baton Rouge. Boogaloo is a Louisiana word. I’m Afro Creole American. My dad, when he got an honorable discharge from the Air Force and he settled down to raise a family in the port of Los Angeles. (He) bought a home and he worked for the fishing industry. He worked for Van de Kamps seafood and Chicken of the Sea. And by working in the fishing industry, my nickname was Shrimp. He used to come home “where’s my Shrimp.” I’m the baby of the family. So when poplocking started happening in the seventies and then the word Boogaloo came out - that was the style of popping, the Boogaloo - people would say “Boogaloo Shrimp” that’s Boogaloo Shrimp. I was the Boogaloo Shrimp and it came from Louisiana cause I am Creole American.

SHEQUETA
I was going to ask you that to because you look like you might have some Asian ancestry because of your slanted eyes.

MICHAEL
You know what, what’s really interesting…no I have a lot of Creole in me and a lot of Indian. What’s really interesting, my eyes won the heart of the Asians when I first went to Japan when I was fourteen years old. My first trip to Japan was in 1983 and I did a TV commercial for Nissan. And when I went out there the Japanese were like wow are you mixed with us, they just kept looking at my eyes. Then I went back with Lionel Richie and the Pointer Sisters, I was on their world tour. So the Japanese were like wow this guy is a force to be reckoned with. Then I came back as a star with Breakin’ and then I wore that Bonsai - Japan’s traditional worn Bonsai Bandana. So they started really thinking, wait a minute, he’s got Asian eyes and he’s wearing Godzilla, maybe he’s like part of our culture. The thing is I just use what worked for me. But still, to this day, of all the nationalities I have a very strong Asian family because of those eyes.

SHEQUETA
Do you have children and are you married?

MICHAEL
Yeah I have one son and I am married.

SHEQUETA
Does your son dance?

MICHAEL
Here and there. I didn’t really want to get into this because it was a tragedy. His mother was murdered in a robbery homicide and I think that right now, where he’s at, Michael probably just wants to just be. I don’t think dance is important to him. I think life and living and maybe vengeance is important to him. You know he probably wants justice for his mom. To me, whatever he wants to do I’m there to support him. But I personally would want him to just dance for recreation. What I want for my son is to get a solid education in another profession because it’s hard. And this is my message to any of the freestyle (dance) community or any of these b-boys and b-girls. They should go out and get jobs, you know where they could sustain and provide for themselves. Then for recreation you know, b-boy and b-girl and they probably can still be it but they need a career to fall back on. That was one thing the kids from the 80’s felt. You gotta remember we were the groundbreaking kids. So anytime you’re the first of anything there’s a lot of mistakes that you make and we were just like…it was almost like a never ending party man.
MICHAEL
I used to tell my mom ah don’t worry about money (it) just comes every job. It just seemed like money was coming out of everywhere. The thing is there was really no business structure. But when all was said and done, a lot of dancers didn’t franchise, they didn’t incorporate, and a lot of them were actually waiting for this time to come around so maybe they could get a little piece of the pie again. I myself have learned a lot from the new school hip hop. Because I’m real proud of Shane Sparks and Lil Mama and all the new school people because they are smarter than our generation. They’re not only working but they’re making investments, they’re building franchises, they’re merchandising their clothes. They’re doing everything so that when this dies out they can move on to bigger and better things. And I want that message conveyed to people because there’s a lotta hip-hop kids and freestyle dancers that are just standing on their heads and jumping in the air and doing all that. But what it boils down to is what’s in your wallet and what’s your objective.

SHEQUETA
What was the difference between your style of Breakin’ and the Breaker’s from NYC?

MICHAEL
Well the difference is I don’t have a style of Breakin’. My style is called liquid animation. My style is based on robotics animation. New York, they do the ground stuff the b-boying and all that. Now Los Angeles, for a time in the 80’s when The Rock Steady Crew and everybody was doing this east coast west coast thing, LA was like okay well we pop and we lock out here, let’s incorporate what the boys from New York are doing. That’s how come you saw a lot of people on the show “Fame,” backspinning. You know LA and Hollywood, they have to have the newest thing. We wanted the best break dancers so we incorporated our brothers moves from the other side, in New York and vice versa.
MICHAEL
Matter of fact you saw people like “Mr. Wiggles” and a lot of the "Rock Steady Crew" imitating Soul Train, and people from LA, and doing Electric Boogie like those kids in "Flashdance." So we were exchanging styles almost like martial arts. We were exchanging styles and between east coast and west coast, those were the mechanics of hip-hop…hip-hop freestyle dancing. The first people that hit the screen, Rock Steady Crew, New York City Breakers, you know the Electric Boogaloos, the Lockers, and then me and Poppin Taco. So we were the first highly paid freestyle dancers that went international and crossover and we opened the doors. (We) laid the foundation for a lot of these single, non-group dancers to have jobs.

SHEQUETA
Is Poppin’ Taco still around?

MICHAEL
Oh yes. He’s in Long Beach. Matter of fact, I just worked with him on a video for Miley Cyrus. Me and Taco are in one of her videos and we play the M&M crew. So that should be coming out pretty soon, that should be pretty cool.

SHEQUETA
Did you have to audition for Breakin?

MICHAEL
Oh yeah, most definitely. Because at the time MTV came out with music videos to sell recording artists songs and give a visual so people could see the artists and buy the record. In the 80’s it was groundbreaking to do a music video and hire freestyle dancers like myself and poppers and breakers to fill up the video for background and be behind the artists. So we were some of the first black kids ever employed on MTV to sell recording artists videos, for the record. And the thing is when I got into the business, when Breakin’ came along, I already had a name. I had worked with Lionel Richie. The word was out in Hollywood that I worked with Michael Jackson and Chaka Khan and it got back. So when I went to that audition they said you know what we want to see if this kid can read. We know he can dance…we saw him on Chaka Khan, we saw him on Lionel Richie, we know he worked with Michael Jackson but can he read. And sure enough I was literate enough to be able to read page.
MICHAEL
But what was interesting, they liked the chemistry that Shabba Doo and I, Adolfo and I had. See because they were looking for a Turbo and Ozone character. And (that’s) the best thing that could have happened to us - we were already a group before the movie Breakin’. We were on tour with Lionel Richie and we had started off in the business together, so(when) they saw the camaraderie and the chemistry they said wait a minute. Of all the hottest dancers at the time that auditioned for that movie, we were the Jerry Lewis and the Dean Martin. That’s what they likened us to Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. He was the pretty boy, I was the goof ball. What’s really interesting, they liked us so much they actually rewrote the script around our language. Meaning they had people hanging out with us to get a sense of how we normally talk and then they were rewriting the script. There was a weird unorthodox way of doing it. There were so many pages. The pages were changing every single day because they wanted to really make it authentic to how we were talking, how we were living.

SHEQUETA
The infamous broom scene, whose idea was it and how many takes did it take to do?

MICHAEL
That’s funny you said the infamous broom scene. That is funny, and it’s actually hysterical. One day at rehearsal, I was at Debbie Reynolds studio in Burbank. And during the rehearsal for Breakin’, Jaime Rogers, one of the original members of the West Side Story ensemble, the movie. Jaime Rodgers, he’s sitting there at the rehearsal hall with the director and I was just goofing off on set. I was balancing a broom on my finger. You know how you can turn a broom upside down and balance it on your finger. I was messing around in the studio balancing the broom on my finger. And Jaime Rogers gets up and he goes wait a minute, he goes do that again. And I’m floating and I’m balancing the broom upright and so he called the prop guy and they said wait a minute. The prop guy got a drill bit, drilled a hole through the broom, put some fishing wire, and put it on my hand and they said okay mess around with it like this. And boom the director and the camera man were like there goes a scene, there goes a scene in the movie. Look at this, the kids gonna do a Fred Astaire thing.



MICHAEL
See Fred Astaire, did a number with a coat rack. In one of his films, Fred Astaire danced with a coat rack like that. And they were thinking wow if this kid can do a piece this would be brilliant. Thank goodness Jaime Rogers was on that set because he staged it. So for me, that was an honor to work with the legendary great Jaime Rogers from “A West Side Story” and have him stage that.

SHEQUETA
What about the ceiling scene in part 2?

MICHAEL
Now the ceiling scene was really interesting because after the first film and after the money that it grossed, we were at the Cannes film festival in Nice, at the Ritz Carlton having lunch with Menahem Golan and all the big dogs of the film festival. And Menahem Golan, the owner of Cannon Films asked me, he says Shrimp we wanna do Breakin’ 2 but how are you gonna top your broom dance number. And it’s funny I had been watching the movie “The Thing” in my room. With Kurt Russell, the science fiction film by John Carpenter and there’s a scene in “The Thing” where the alien shoots up to the wall and he sticks on the wall. And he (Menahem) goes how are you gonna top the broom dance cause we have a scene with you and this girl and you’re supposed to be like head over heels in love. And I go well if I’m in love maybe I’ll...maybe I could just shoot up to the ceiling. And they look at each other and went wow shoot up to the ceiling.



SHEQUETA
And how many takes did it take to do the broom and the ceiling scene?

MICHAEL
You know what, I’ll be honest because I was a minor and I was going to school and taking breaks, I don’t really think it was that many takes because I was very complete with my solo. I knew what I had to do. So it really didn’t take that long for the broom. But the room scene took longer. I remember getting dizzy because it was in a machine called the “Gimble” and this room was like turning with the cameraman upright and a lot of technicalities in there. And I remember they had to adjust furniture and glue - you know the prop guys were having fun. But here’s the best thing about the room scene. Earlier I discussed that I was on tour with Lionel Richie before Breakin’. Lionel Richie and I had gotten real close. So close that after I left his tour, when I did my broom scene in Breakin’ 2, it inspired his song "Dancing on the Ceiling.

SHEQUETA
I heard that you guys filmed and released Breakin’ 1 &2 right after the each other? Is that true?

MICHAEL
No, that was strategically done by the film company because they didn’t really think that the dance artform would last that long. They thought it was like a fad like maybe disco or whatever. So they were like let’s hurry up and cash in on this and get a new movie out. I love both movies because they both gave me an opportunity. But that’s how come a lot of people say oh I liked Breakin’ 1 more than Breakin 2 because if you look at the colors, they tried to make it like really flamboyant and Hollywood and really Broadway. They tried to make something that was supposed to be street and raw, fruity and upscale. I think what they were trying to get at was they wanted it to be Disney, like Hannah Montana. They didn’t want it to go N.W.A or real raw like Rise or Krumping. But the real street people said naahh I don’t like that – cause we were going for wholesome, like a Christian production. I mean because it was getting more wholesome. And that’s why Breakin’ 2 didn’t do as good as Breakin’ 1.

SHEQUETA
Your co-star in Breakin’ 2, I don’t remember her name but did she speak English? She didn’t speak any English in the movie.

MICHAEL
Yeah, her name was Sabrina Garcia and she spoke very good English. She was from Anaheim, California. And they made her…they looped it…they made her speak Spanish.

SHEQUETA
Were you offered roles after Breakin’ that didn’t involve dancing?
MICHAEL
Oh yeah. Believe it or not, I was up for the black guy, the black nerd in the movie “Revenge of the Nerds.” Believe it or not I was up for Malcolm Jamal Warner’s part in the Cosby Show. I went up for that audition but I didn’t have my headshots. I was up for 21 Jump Street with Holly Robinson Peete. I was up for a role in SWAT with LL Cool J. I was up for a lot of things but you know that’s just the business sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t. It’s just flattering that they would consider me for certain things.

SHEQUETA
Do you keep in touch with any of your co-stars from Breakin’?

MICHAEL
No not really. The last time I saw Shabba Doo he was at...we were at the premiere for Kickin It Old Skool.


SHEQUETA
Tell me about the Michael Jackson connection?

MICHAEL
Well it was really interesting. This is a very dear story to my life because like I said most people they’re just like no big deal but it is a big deal. When I first came to Hollywood, before Breakin’ and everything, Michael Jackson got a hold of me from “An Eye in LA.” Paul Moyer (at) Channel 7 news did “An Eye in LA” special on street dancing in the inner city. And we were just street kids dancing on Hollywood Boulevard. Matter of fact, you can google it or it’s on Youtube, “An Eye in LA” the street dance segment. They debuted me doing my backslide – my backslide and moonwalk – see I did a backslide and a moonwalk. See he did Motown 25 but when he saw me on there he got the news people to get a hold of me because I had raised the bar on his "Billy Jean" solo without even knowing it. I made a transition. I went from a backslide into a moonwalk and started doing a circle float. So that’s all I started working with him on. When the lady contacted me, contacted my parents, her name was Susan Scanlan. Matter of fact Susan Scanlan I think ended up doing the movie “Body Rock.” Susan brought me to the Jackson compound in Encino off of Hayvenhurst and she said Mr. Jackson would like for you to audition for him and his family.
MICHAEL
So I went up there and I started doing my stuff and sure enough there was Joe, there was Rebbie, there was Latoya, Janet, everybody, Jackie. And Michael put some tunes on. I started dancing and everybody started going wow look at this guy (he’s) like a little Jackie Robinson. He (Michael) excused everybody from the room and he says can you slow it down. I’m like yeah because I have like a hyper energy. And we just kept going over and over my way of moonwalking, my way of backsliding and he got it. He was like okay you can go home. He thought that I was just some kid and he could bring me from the streets and then throw me back out on the streets and be rid of me. Well survey says there was an audition for Lionel Richie. Ken Kragen was Lionel Richie’s manager and there was an audition for the video “All Night Long.” And me and Shabba Doo and all of our crew we went and got that audition for Lionel Richie. Now once we were in Lionel Richie’s video we went on that tour. When we got back to the United States to the Universal Amphitheater there he (Michael Jackson) was. Michael Jackson was Lionel Richie’s friend, they were working on “We are the World.”

SHEQUETA
Yeah.

MICHAEL
Michael Jackson came backstage and he was like oh there’s the guy again. That was the second time he seen me. He seen me first at his house teaching him the moonwalk. Now I was working with his friend he was really into me. Matter of fact, that picture is on the Breakin’ website. There’s a picture of that meeting where it’s me, Bruno, and Michael Jackson in disguise and we’ve got confederate coats on.


MICHAEL
That picture is documented backstage when Michael said you know what, I’m embracing you now. When he embraced me we went into me being his personal dance coach. Because every chance we got, within the parameters of what his schedule permitted, we would get together, go to the house, (and) we would work out. What was really interesting, he had “Poppin Pete,” he had Jeffrey Daniels, he had a number of freestyle dancers working with him. But my style stood out like gold to him because my style was more animated and robotic.

SHEQUETA
Yeah.
MICHAEL
Matter of fact, my style is what he’s doing. You know the kicking, you know the floating. I mean you look at the broom dance, that’s all Michael Jackson. I mean that’s exactly what he learned. Was really interesting because I sat back everytime one of his videos debuted after we would work out and I could see my student, I could see my work through him. And the only bad thing about it was I was kinda disappointed that when Oprah Winfrey asked him who taught you the Moonwalk and when books came out and nobody ever mentioned my name. Nobody ever said anything about me. That kind of hindered my choreography credits as far as my credentials and also it kind of closed doors on me as an artist. Like I said I was honored that he utilized my style more than anybody.

SHEQUETA
Do you teach dance and if so where at?

MICHAEL
Every now and then. I’m very particular about that. But I’ve been considering it, I’ve been considering going back into it because recently I was featured on “America’s Best Dance Crew.” I just opened up the e-mail yesterday. They did a whole tribute to me. That made me like very current right now in the Asian community and in the Hip-Hop community. So we want to use that in conjunction with me maybe making appearances and sharing secrets. Matter of fact my Texas team, Xavier Ramirez, he’s working on a project right now called “Battle Cry,” it’s a hip-hop movie called “Battle Cry.” Also I’m gonna be working on a book which should be slated for 2009. Kind of like an autobiography scrapbook about you know like what have I been doing (and) who I came in contact with. It should be approaching the 25th anniversary of Breakin’ so that should be interesting.

SHEQUETA
Would you be interested in doing Breakin’ 3?

MICHAEL
Well of course. Right now David Zito, the writer of the original movie Breakin’, he has a movie called "The Boogaloo Kid." And the thing is we’ve been working on that movie for like two whole years. And he’s trying to get the financing and get that movie done and I tell you what, one of the problems that he’s running into - he’s an Italian guy who did a black film that was a culture shock to people and he’s running up against the wall. Cause I have this feeling, and I could be wrong, that people are not taking him seriously because he aint black. And see David Zito, he needs to do this film “Breakin’ 3” because there’s a lot of people who would love to have their careers launched side by side with Turbo and Ozone and see that film with old school and new school. We’re hoping that film gets going cause it’s gonna help so many people.

SHEQUETA
Do you realize how big of an icon you are to soo many?

MICHAEL
No. It kind of frightens me because I’ve experienced fame when those movies came out and I went out to high schools and I went out to grocery stores to try to be like normal (and) it was pandemonium. There used to be girls...I kid you not, ever since I did my romance scene with that Mexican girl there used to be Latin girls sitting outside my mom’s house waiting for me to wake up. It scared me. I would like to know, cause I’m getting older, I would like to know the love that’s out there for me but then on the same hand it’s a little frightening because I want to live normal.

SHEQUETA
What is one thing most people don’t know about you?

MICHAEL
One thing most people don’t know about me is that I get very hurt by people thinking that I have not accomplished anything in my life. I mean if people don’t know who I am or if they know who I am it hurts me that they just look at me like I’m just some average schmo. If I see Smokey Robinson, I’ll be like that’s Smokey Robinson. If I see Prince, I see Prince. If I see Morris Chestnut that’s Morris Chestnut. In the black community there’s a lot of people that are like “oh man that’s Turbo, I remember that old fool” and they just like dump on me and I’m like a clown. Unfortunately, I’m like a clown to them like oh he’s a has been. I never really felt that kind of love from the black community, I never felt it. It’s always the Mexicans and the Asians. People don’t know that about me that I kind of shy away from talking to people because I don’t know how they perceive me and I don’t want to be perceived as a joke. And it’s funny, I have this attitude because I was one of the first freestyle actor-dancers/hip-hop people invited to the White House. I gotta video starring with Nancy Reagan because of my dance skills and I don’t know anybody who can flow like that. I got that credit and I’m in the Reagan library and yet my own people are clowning me. And yet Usher and Ginuwine - Ginuwine did my broom dance. All of these young people - Chris Brown - they’re doing stuff influenced by me. I mean I’m not chopped liver, I’m not dead, I wanna be a judge on TV, you know what I’m saying.

SHEQUETA
Right.

MICHAEL
If people don’t respect you they look over you. But I just wish there was more love that way. I’m realizing that I’m in the same boat as all these other artists from the nineties and the eighties that made an impact. It’s just lot of them are doing the same thing. You know just kind of pushed aside by the new people.
THE END

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