International Clown Hall of Fame to Open Doors on May 21.

ENTER LAUGHING!  Baraboo’s International Clown Hall of Fame & Research Center Opens For Funny Business On Friday, May 21, 2010   Baraboo, WI (April 29, 2010) -- The world’s foremost organization dedicated to the preservation of the art, craft and history of clowning will open its doors in Baraboo on Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10 am.  The International Clown Hall of Fame & Research Center is located at 102 4th Avenue in historic Downtown Baraboo, the city that gave birth to Ringling Bros. Circus.   “Over the past four months we've been involved in the happy task of sorting and cataloguing the world's largest archive of clown artifacts,” says Greg DeSanto, Executive Director of the Hall.  “From the cash box built by August Ringling for his sons’ very first circus performance to the scrapbooks of legendary circus clowns such as Poodles Hanneford, Mark Anthony, the Sherman Brothers to authentic vaudeville contracts, personal effects, costumes, props and correspondence of some of the greatest funnymen on earth, it is our honor and privilege to preserve this priceless resource.”   “The clowns who left their professional lives in our care loved their work and their careers, opening their hearts to audiences on a daily basis.  We are extremely excited to be able to share these artifacts and the fascinating stories behind them.”  In addition to the priceless archives, visitors will see a clowning “Wall of Fame,” honoring the exceptional group of international funny folk who have been enshrined in the Hall.  “The ICHOF has been embraced by the Baraboo community in every sense of the word,” DeSanto adds.  “Without the support of downtown businesses, local government officials, circus fans and enthusiasts and friends, this opening would have never happened.”  The Clown Hall of Fame will be open six days a week from 10am to 5pm.  Admission is $5 for adults; $4 for children and seniors.  Rates for groups are also available.  For further information, call (608-355-0321) or visit the Hall’s website at www.theclownmuseum.com   “We are honored to join the Circus World Museum and the Al Ringling Theater as key spokes in Baraboo’s celebrated wheel of circus history,” DeSanto concludes.   “We look forward to welcoming you to the legends of laughter.”

ICHOF Names Greg DeSanto Executive Director

Couldn't happen to a nicer (or more deserving) guy.  Greg was one of my instructors at Clown College, and I've seen him a few times, including the couple of days that I was researching in Baraboo.  He's a very funny clown, and a historian and collector-- with one of the largest collections of clown video in the world (perhaps with a close second with Pat Cashin)  Anyway this is a great development, and will hopefully continue to advance the field of clowning.   ---   INTERNATIONAL CLOWN HALL OF FAME AND RESEARCH CENTER SENDS IN THE CLOWNS–AND BRINGS MUCH MORE – TO BARABOO World’s Foremost Organization Dedicated To The Preservation Of The Art, Craft And History Of Clowning Names Greg DeSanto Executive Director Baraboo, WI (January 18, 2010) – A bright addition to Baraboo’s unique circus heritage was revealed today as The International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center announced the opening of its new headquarters in America’s Circus City. Internationally renowned for its research and involvement in the art, craft and history of clowning, the ICHOF boasts the world’s most wide-ranging collection of clown artifacts and memorabilia, including wardrobe and props from many of the most famous names in clowning history. “We are delighted to send in the clowns – and send them to Baraboo, back home where they belong,” said Greg DeSanto, recently named the ICHOF’s Executive Director. Himself a celebrated clown and circus historian, DeSanto, a Baraboo resident, performed at the Circus World Museum for over seven years. He’s also been featured in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the Big Apple Circus and other major shows around the world. As we expand our presence in Baraboo, we hope that scholars and historians and the public at large will experience our fascinating exhibits and extensive archives,” DeSanto says. Founded in Delevan, WI in 1986, the ICHOF was created as a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization, honoring and supporting the international art of clowning. The first and only group of its kind, it provides both rich research opportunities and educational outreach, along with the world’s largest collection of artifacts and collections concerning the art of clowning. In 1988, the ICHOF began enshrining international artists who have enhanced and advanced the art of the clown. Since then, sixty-one performers have been inducted into the Hall, including Red Skelton, Lou Jacobs, Emmett Kelly, Otto Griebling, Felix Adler, Barry Lubin, Bobby Kaye, Jimmy Williams, Frosty Little, Steve Smith, Grock, Charlie Chaplin and Bill Irwin. The prestigious Lifetime of Laughter achievement award is also presented annually. Fulfilling its commitment to community outreach, the Hall’s Caring Clown program provides therapeutic humor for children and their families at the Milwaukee’s Children’s Hospital. With Long Term Laughter Care, the ICHOF brings fun and comfort to residents at skilled nursing facilities and assisted living centers. “We are honored to join the Circus World Museum and the Al Ringling Theater as key spokes in Barboo’s celebrated wheel of circus history,” adds DeSanto. “We welcome residents and visitors alike to join us in our ongoing efforts to promote and preserve the grand and glorious history of hilarity.”

John Towsen's new blog-- All Fall Down

John Towsen, author of one of the classics of clown literature (entitled Clowns: A Panoramic History of Fools and Jesters, Medieval Mimes, Jongleurs and Minstrels, Pueblo Indian Delight Makers and Cheyenne Contraries, Harlequins and Pierrots, Theatrical Buffoons, etc.) now has a blog. His blog is called ALL FALL DOWN, after the famous Black Plague poem " Ring around a rosie, a pocket full of posies Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down" Here's what he says about his blog: Welcome to the All Fall Down blog, an exploration of all aspects of physical comedy, from the historical to the latest work in the field, from the one-man show to the digital composite, from the conceptual to the nuts & bolts how-to. Be prepared for a broad definition of physical comedy (mine!) and a wide variety of approaches. Physical comedy is a visual art form, so there’ll be tons of pictures and videos, but also some substantial writing and research, including scripts and probably even some books. This blog is a result of me wanting to follow through on lots of unfinished research from the past 25 years. It’s made possible by a full-year sabbatical leave from Bloomfield College that will take me through August 2010. It’s also made more practical by the ease of Web 2.0 tools for managing and distributing content. I had envisioned a web site similar to this blog more than a decade ago, but never got too far with it because it was simply a lot more work. Now, no more excuses! Check it out at http://www.physicalcomedy.blogspot.com

Think Foolishly: Tips From a Pro

Drew Richardson, the Dramatic Fool, is hard at work again. His blog, Think Foolishly, is currently featuring his takes on how to Think Foolishly. He's got 60 great tips across five categories on how to create a clown logic for your work, how to enhance, create, or otherwise extend a clown routine in a logical and foolish way. He's currently on #18, so you've still got plenty of time to read all of the tips before they overwhelm you. With tips like # 13: Give Up and #12 Never Give Up, you can see that you are in for a little bit of a blender ride. Although he doesn't specifically say so, I think it's safe to assume that you probably shouldn't do ALL OF THESE AT ONCE. (although that might be very funny) But as one of my teachers Daniel Stein would say, "If you follow all of the rules of great theatre, you are guaranteed to make mediocre theatre." If you are looking to transform one of your clown ideas, try approaching the problem from one of these 60 ways, and see if that changes how you are feeling about your potential clown idea. If that approach isn't working for you, try another. Maybe even try two at once. After all, you've got 60 potential keys to unlock the secret to your new routine, and one or more of them might solve the problem. Well, right now there are only 18 ways, so maybe you should just wait 40 days before doing anything else... then come back to your creative difficulties (if you can remember them) Read his blog here: http://www.thinkfoolishly.com Find out more about Drew's work: http://www.dramaticfool.com

CLOWNALLEY SITE DOWN.

Perhaps some of you have noticed that one of the best clown sites-- Pat Cashin's Clownalley.net, has suddenly gone away. To be more accurate, the website is still there-- but all of the archives are gone It's not by design-- sadly, Pat Cashin, who has been working tirelessly on the site for the last three years, and had amassed easily over 3000 digital photographs, videos, and other ephemera about circus clowns throughout history, had an incident where he in error deleted his blog. So far Blogger (a Google-owned company where Pat did his amassing) has not responded to his pleas to restore his blog from the backup tape. This is a huge tragedy-- clownalley.net was a great service to clowns and clown historians across the world. In their defense, Blogger is a free service, and people are supposed to use it at their own risk, and they do provide a backup or export capability, but sadly Pat never used it. (this blog also uses blogger, and I do backup on a semi-regular basis (although I'll be doing it more often) There is still a chance that Blogger will respond to Pat's pleas. Cross your fingers, and hope for the best (and if you know anyone at tech support for blogger at google, maybe you could put in a good word or two?) And in the meantime, let's hope that despite this tragedy, Pat will continue to work his special magic to make clown geeks like us happy.

Photos from the Clown Reunion

Happy Birthday Clown Alley's Pat Cashin!

Pat Cashin is 29 (again) today. If you want, you can attend his birthday party drunk, have your makeup sloppily made-up, root through his garbage, smoke cigars throughout his house, curse a lot, and offer to date his wife. I think he'd like that. On the other hand, you could just go visit his website and wish him a happy birthday in the comments! http://www.clownalley.net

Kathie Horejsi's Blog: Clown Mommy

I've featured Kathie previously on the blog here But that was before she had a blog! She's got a relatively new blog Clownmommy.com It's a personal account of her trying to do her work as a mom. So far I've read through most of it, and it definitely talks a lot about the struggles I have now (and I'm sure will have soon, as our baby is due to arrive in the next 4 weeks or so) I didn't know about her blog until my personal news alert for my unique last name let me know that somebody had posted it somewhere (Oh my God, The Clown Signal!) Kathie was talking about a conversation that we had about female clowning about 16 years ago. And sadly, her blog conks out in the middle of the story. I'd really like to find out what I said! And if you've got a clown blog out there where you are talking about your work as a clown, please let me know-- I don't promise to post it, but I'll give it a read at the very least!

JUGGLE THIS! - NYC March 7-9, 2008

NYC's 7th Annual Juggling Festival! Friday March 7-Sunday March 9, 2008 Pratt Institute 200 Willoughby Ave Brooklyn, NY Juggling, workshops, games, shows, prizes, special guests, a raffle and more!! For more information click the links to the right. All events open to the public. JUGGLING AT PRATT ACTIVITIES RESOURCE BUILDING: FREE and open to the public Friday 5-10:30 pm (open juggling) Saturday 10 am-7 pm (open juggling & workshops) Sunday 10 am-5 pm (open juggling, workshops, & games) SHOW SPECTACULAR AT PRATT MEMORIAL HALL Saturday 7:30 pm Admission $10 Featuring world-class local and international talent, including: From Brooklyn: telepathy from The Adult Circus From southern California: Josh Casey, comedy juggling From the Celebration Barn in South Paris, Maine: Amanda Huotari, dramatic clowning From France, via Montreal's National Circus School (ENC): Florent Lestage, mesmerizing manipulations From NYC: The Maestrosities: The Coolest Band Ever! From rural Vermont: Brent Eden McCoy, "Clown at Work" From Spain, via ENC: David Menes, juggling communication From Harlem, NYC: Paris, the hip-hop juggler From Denmark via France: Jens Sigsgaard, "beyond belief" high-technique juggling and subtle artistry From ENC: Yann et Grég, hand balancing BONUS: Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at the Zipper Factory Sunday, 8pm followed by post-festival party. For details on the show, see bindlestiff.org. Juggle This is hosted by Jugglers Anonymous: the Pratt Chapter with support from the Carmine Street Irregulars For more info about Juggle This, visit their website: http://www.jugglenyc.com/fest_08.html

Brian Foley's Commedia Links

Brian Foley (of Circus Bambouk) has started a very nice Commedia Link blog-- he's putting up all sorts of great video regarding commedia, as well as book reviews, photographs, pictures of masks, thoughts, philosophy,etc. I highly recommend checking it out. Visit the blog at http://cdalinks.blogspot.com/ He posted two video links that I was especially interested in-- both feature Ferrucio Soleri. I studied with Soleri in 1996 in Copenhagen. (I had gone to Denmark because Dario Fo, Eugenio Barba, and Jerzy Grotowski were all in the same place at the same time. I was able to meet all three. While I was there, there was a large commedia festival. I snuck into Soleri's class, and afterwards introduced myself, and he graciously allowed me to stay and observe. (I also ended up doing a few exercises as well! The class was taught in broken english, so I ended up translating some, because I had the best command of English in the room.) In the first, Soleri is teaching commedia on some kind of Italian reality show. In the second, Soleri is performing a piece as Arlechino. His clarity, and his ability to carry us along in his performance is just wonderful. Enjoy! Soleri teaching on Italian TV Soleri as Arlechino

Adam Lazarus & Torontoclown.com

Adam Lazarus is a performer, director and instructor whose work in physical theatre, clown and bouffon has taken him to France, England and coast to coast across Canada. As a young man, Adam founded the Toronto based collective company Schmigeggy, where he produced, directed and performed in 10 of Schmigeggy's popular original works. After critical success and monetary failure, the company was put to rest after 6 years. The next wave of creation came out of intense study and assistance with French Clown Master Philippe Gaulier. Inspired by the creation methods of Jeu, Character, Clown and Bouffon, Adam draws on the brilliance of what we are able to create under strict time restraints. He is a graduate of McMaster University's Theatre Program, Leeds University’s Theatre Program in England and L'Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, France. Adam is a regular facilitator of workshops for professional and non-professional artists, including recent Bouffon workshops and consultations for Theatre Passe Muraille, the Rhubarb Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, DanceMakers, Volcano Theatre and Mike Kennard’s The Hollow. As an actor, Adam performs in numerous cabarets around Toronto, and was recently part of The Gina Project’s silent circus comedy Big Show, Tapestry New Opera Works’ clown/opera workshop for Shelter, and Suit Suite: A Motivational-Seminar Musical at the Toronto Fringe Festival. His one-man bouffon show Fable was recently performed in Victoria, B.C, Halifax, N.S. and Toronto: Adam also directs plays and clown shows-- he recently directed the following shows:Joe: The Perfect Man, a one woman take on MacBeth starring Rachelle Elie, Bubkus, a one man show featuring Jesse Buck (and recently featured at the NY Clown Theater Festival), and Melissa D’Agostino’s Guadalupe Project - a citywide installation. He also created the show Everyone's An Asshole and a new physical work directed by Pig Iron Theatre’s Sarah Sanford entitled Appetite. Adam is also the Artistic Producer of the Toronto Festival of Clowns. To find out more about Adam's work, visit the websites listed below: http://www.quiptake.com http://www.torontoclown.com

Official NY Clown Bloggers

As many of you know, I am covering the NY Clown Theater Festival as a blogger. (Many of my posts will also appear here) You can read all of the posts that I make here about the festival by clicking here (or by searching for the label Festival in the search box.) Here are the links of the other "official" clown festival bloggers (a couple of them aren't operational yet, keep on checking back) WORKING: www.nyclowntheaterfestivaladam.blogspot.com/ www.nyclowntheaterfestivaldeborah.blogspot.com/ NOT WORKING YET: www.nyclowntheaterfestivalalex.blogspot.com/ www.nyclowntheaterfestivaljane.blogspot.com/ http://www.nyclowntheaterfestivalstanley.blogspot.com In the meantime, check out Deborah's great review of COPS. It's sadly a show I won't be able to see. If you are reading this and you've seen a show and blogged about it elsewhere, let me know, and I'll post a link to your blog here! Also, if you'd like to write a review of a show, write it, and I'll post it here too! === If you like this post-- consider subscribing to the RSS Feed here. ===

Performers.net

Since 1997, performers.net has been THE place online for international variety performers to meet, network and share ideas. The focus of performers.net is primarily street performing, and there is a loud and raucous community of some of the best and the brightest. It's absolutely free to use, and set up as a bulletin board/forum. There are gig postings, a classified section, an opinions section, where people can dish dirt on festivals, pitches, stolen material, give advice on how to get a fuller hat, and review juggling equipment, sound equipment, and even marketing materials. There's also a library of articles, an online memoriam to past street performers, and a lot of other resources. Most importantly, there is a Green Room for online horseplay and jackpotting. (telling of tales). And there's quite a bit of that going on! The forum was started by Jim of the Jim Show, a Boston area entertainer and computer savant who saw quite early the importance of the computer. He started a busking board on his own website, but when things started going fast and furious, moved it over to performers.net. He's had quite a lot of help from a number of people in keeping the board active and rolling, and although it hasn't quite grown as rapidly in recent years, it's a much loved community asset that Jim moderates and provides for the international community. To find out more, or to start participating on your own., visit the website listed below: http://www.performers.net