A Clown Parade, Public Pie Fight and opening night cabaret will usher in the New York Clown Theater Festival on Friday, September 3. Come hoot, honk, holler, and roll through the city in the most preposterous manner possible.
We’ll gather in Union Square at 5 pm, and at 5:30, we’ll take over the L train. The pandemonium will emerge at the Bedford stop in Williamsburg to parade to the Brick Theater, home of the festival, for a massive public pie fight.
Clowns of all stripes (and plaids) are urged to participate. Show off your stuff – bring unicycles, juggling clubs, stilts, tapdancing chickens, whatever you’ve got. Participation is free. Brass band provided.
There will be a prep night on Thurs., Sept. 2, at 7 pm to make stuff for the parade and come up with some choreography. 141 S. 5th St., #1E, Brooklyn (Williamsburg – L to Bedford, walk south to South 5th St.). Please bring ideas and materials!
All photos are from previouse editions of the clown parade,
BROOKLYN — NYC’s first Unicycle Festival will be rolling across New York City this September.
The first day of the festival is in Brooklyn and is being proclaimed by Borough President Marty Markwitz as Brooklyn Unicycle Day. The festivities begin with a 13-mile journey across Brooklyn, on unicycle. The growing popularity of this quirky pastime, combined with Brooklyn’s initiatives to encourage cycling, make this a timely opportunity to celebrate the unicycle. 2010 is the inaugural year of a festival destined to become an annual New York tradition.
The New York City Unicycle Festival will place from Sept. 3 to 5. Festivities will begin Friday afternoon with a mass ride over the Brooklyn Bridge to Grand Army Plaza and then to Coney Island. Expect to witness amazing unicycle displays along the route, on the Boardwalk and around the Cyclone Stadium. This long-distance unicycle ride is being organized by the Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour (unibridgetour.info).
Unicycle riders are invited to join the group. The riders are scheduled to cross the Brooklyn Bridge at 3 p.m. on Sept. 3. They expect to be riding through Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park at 4 p.m. and arriving at Coney Island at 6 pm. The route is available on-line at their website (listed below)
Additional NYC Unicycle Festival events are on Governors Island (Sept. 4) and at Grant’s Tomb (Sept. 5). The New York City Unicycle Festival seeks to bring together recreational riders, world-class performers, mountain and off-road unicycle enthusiasts, mono-wheel vehicle inventors, and the thousands of people who have not ridden in umpteen years along with circus enthusiasts, extreme sports viewers, and anyone seeking an unusual sight — even for New York City!
One of my friends (Joel Jeske, if you must know) has been on a facebook posting tear lately, posting lots of great video from YouTube. One of those items was a Muppets appearance by the great Wally Boag. I had never seen it, and didn’t know the name, but he looked and sounded so familiar, that I had to look him up.
Wally was one of the original fast-talking clown/magic comedian guys. He came up at the end of vaudeville, the beginning of television, and he ended up becoming one of the Disney comic stars. He was the centerpiece of the comedy in the Disney Golden Horseshoe Revue, and performed as Pecos Bill/the Travelling Salesman. He was cited in the Guinness Book of World Records for putting on the most live performances of a single theatrical presentation.
His fast patter/corny jokes/rapid fire banter and his slightly adult outlook are the things that seem to me to be classic about his work. And something that, whether I remember him or not, are stuff that I’m sure have influenced my own work.
One of the things that strikes me is how well his material has aged, and how as he aged with it, it didn’t matter that he couldn’t do all of the physical stuff.
Below are videos of him in an early show (where at the end he throws a backflip!) and the Muppet appearance that Joel originally posted. (Much older, no back flip) The material is mostly the same, and it works perfectly.
Wally Boag's Memoir
You can also look him up on his own website http://www.wallyboag.com, where he’s recently released a memoir: Wally Boag, The Clown Prince of Disney Land. He’s still alive (Hooray!) and lives with his wife in Southern California.
If you have a remembrance of Wally performing, or if he’s influenced you as a performer, please post in the comments.
By popular demand, CIRQUE DU SOLEIL’s favorite clowns will be back for more! Claudio from Verekai, Patrick from Banana Schpeel and their amazingly hilarious friends will be at 45 Bleecker Theatre until the end of August.
The Rotten Plantains will kick off another 8-show run (appropriately) on Friday, the 13th.
Tickets are $15; find them on telecharge.com or call the theatre at 212.260.8250.
The show dates and time are as follows:
Fri Aug 13 10:30pm
Sat Aug 14 10:30pm
Sat Aug 20 10:30pm
Thur Aug 26 10:30pm
Fri Aug 27 10:30pm
Sat Aug 28 10:30pm
Sun Aug 29 4pm
Sun Aug 29 7pm
The theatre has a bar so be sure to get there a few minutes early to ensure that you are properly lubricated before inserting the Rotten Plantains into your cranial cavity.
45 Bleecker Street (just East of Lafayette Street) New York NY 10012
Looks like there’s a fair amount of circus/clown stuff going on at this year’s NY Fringe. Lots of interesting stuff– I’m particularly interested in Magical Exploding Boy– I like the title, and the preview trailer looks very good. I also like the looks of the Great Galvani. And SHINE is supposed to be wonderful. (I [...]
Ringling Red Unit Clown Todd Griffith in Hospital. Send Him a Message of Support. (this article reposted from http://www.clownalley.blogspot.com) UPDATE FROM BRANDON: From Brandon… Todd is scheduled for surgery at 11am this morning. Pray that the doctors have wisdom and discernment as they remove as much of the tumor as they can. Please continue to [...]
Great photo montage of my clown college roommate Jay Stewart teaching the art of pie throwing in the Tribeca Citizen. I’ve reproduced a few of the photos here, but you should really check out the whole enchilada on their website. Well worth it. http://tribecacitizen.com/2010/08/04/pie-fight-on-white-2/ (and thanks as always to Pat Cashin’s clownalley.net for the heads [...]
THE BRICK THEATER, INC. PRESENTS THE NEW YORK CLOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 3-26 @ THE BRICK FESTIVAL LINEUP ANNOUNCED! The Brick Theater, Inc., presenter of the first festival of Clown Theatre in New York in over 20 years in 2006, brings the festival back this fall as the 2010 New York Clown Theatre Festival, performing [...]
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Calling All Clowns!
Clowns of all stripes (and plaids) are urged to participate. Show off your stuff – bring unicycles, juggling clubs, stilts, tapdancing chickens, whatever you’ve got. Participation is free. Brass band provided.
