A renaissance man: Klaus Nomi’s lime tart recipe
Artists tend not to be restricted to one specific conduit of expression, with many finding success in other fields that supplement the place they found their name. Whether this be David Bowie branching out into acting or director John Carpenter also scoring soundtracks, those whose characters are most informed by the right side of the brain naturally try their fingers at a host of fields. One figure who typified this scope was the late Klaus Nomi.
While Nomi is most famous for being one of David Bowie’s backing dancers during his 1979 performance on Saturday Night Live, which saw Nomi and Joey Arias drag around a large pink poodle prop with a TV in its mouth during ‘TVC15’, this was only the tip of the iceberg for him. He was one of the most exemplary Renaissance people in an era full of them. It was a time when boundaries were being transgressed more than ever before, and lines blurred with ease. People didn’t have much during this time, but they certainly had free thought to guide them out of the mire.
Save from the city’s most affluent areas, 1970s New York was a living nightmare. A sprawling metropolis on its knees structurally and socially, crime was on every corner, as many denizens struggled to survive. Yet, through the rubble, smog and hateful atmosphere, spirited shoots of defiance would form, with the creative sphere a place where the city really came into its own during this era, providing sanctuary for many.
Many now-culturally vital forms sprang up in the city during the decade, particularly during the latter half, with punk and disco arguably the most famous. For Nomi, who was born in the Allgaü region of Bavaria during the Second World War, the bright lights of New York shone through the dirt so brightly that after being into both classical and popular music and exploring all West Berlin had to offer when at University, he moved to the Big Apple in 1972. This would be where he would find himself as an artist.
In November 1978, Nomi burst onto the East Village art scene with his soon-to-be influential ‘New Wave Vaudeville’ four-night show at Irving Plaza. Dressed in a strange spacesuit and cape, he sang the opera classic aria ‘Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix’, which transfixed the room before it ended with a crash of smoke and electronic effects, and he faded into the background. From that moment on, he would become a vital feature of the new wave and art scenes in New York, performing at all the local haunts such as Max’s Kansas City, Club 57 and the Mudd Club, drawing upon many rising artists of all disciplines for his live show including Keith Haring and John Sex.
Although Nomi’s work spanned acting, singing, and dance, he was also a talented pastry chef. Despite how surreal it was, his creative work always had a flair to it and a refined panache, with it somehow making sense that he should be accomplished at making deserts, a craft that also requires a keen eye and deft coordination. When studying in Berlin, he’d enrolled in an apprenticeship as a pastry chef, and after he emigrated to New York, he operated a pastry shop as his day job alongside doing some off-Broadway work.
Luckily for fans, Nomi exhibited his baking skills on his 1979 TV Party, which was aired on New York Public Access. He was even kind enough to provide the recipe for his lime tart and show what he could do with other sweet treats. He always was an enigma.
