I have recently become infatuated with Fawlty Towers the British sitcom made in the 70’s, written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth and performed by them as well. The show was ranked number one on a list of the Greatest British Television Programs ever in 2000 and, in 2019, it was named the greatest ever British TV sitcom […]
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Two of the original members of Theatre de Complicite , Jos Houben and Marcello Magni, opened the 2016 London International Mime festival with their show Marcel, It’s a clown double act in which Houben, the tall, skinny figure of authority puts the shorter clown Magni through a series of demanding physical and mental tests. What these tests are for, it’s […]
Read moreI’ve written about Joe Dieffenbacher before, but as it turns out, I’ve written mostly about projects he’s been involved with, or classes he’s been creating. I’ve never written a post directly about him. So It’s time. It’s time. When I met Joe, he was the janitor at the Dell’arte School. He’d graduated a few years before, and was hanging around […]
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Clowns Being Clowns: The PassAlong Video! Sometimes clowns being clowns is enough to make a video about. Inspired by the popular passing videos that are going around (especially the stuntman video) a group of Ringling trained clowns (myself included) got together and said: “Let’s do this!” Planned in a private Facebook group, and organized by New York clown Joel Jeske […]
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I got a link to a video today, and after watching it, I felt a little sad/verklempt about Ringling going away. Â (If you don’t know the word verklempt, you should definitely look it up. Â Yiddish words have a way with getting to the heart of emotions. The video is a sad, maudlin, and touching pictorial tribute/video of Ringling clowns. It’s […]
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Roxana Küwen is a circus artist and juggler.  Born in 1989 in Northern Germany, she graduated in 2013 from Fontys Academy for Circus and Performance Art in Tilburg, Netherlands. She completed internships at the circus schools ESAC Brussels, Die Etage Berlin and Le Lido Toulouse. In her second study year she specialized in static trapeze and foot juggling. Roxana’s foot juggling […]
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Just discovered (thanks to Jim Moore’s Vaudevisual site) this documentary about American theatre clowning from the American Theatre Wing. It Features Slava Polunin, David Shiner, Joel Jeske, and Brent McBeth talking about the clown, what works, what doesn’t and the work of being a theatrical clown. So what’s great about this video? Well, clearly, one of the things I love […]
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My good friend (and noted beloved curmudgeon) Trav S.D. has gotten up in arms about the short shrift that Harold Lloyd has received among silent film comedians. Â He waxed(Â hmmm… what’s the opposite of rhapsodic? Â ( I think it might be philippic) ) on Facebook about the lack of love for Harold Lloyd. Apparently Keaton and Chaplin outnumber his google search […]
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Today is the last day to watch Simon McBurney (director of Theatre Complicite) perform his amazing solo show The Encounter. UPDATE: Â It looks like they took this private. Â It is no longer available. Sorry if you missed it. Â It was great! Here’s the youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghc-DM1TVWU The show sold out at the Barbican in London, and they streamed the show […]
Read moreLarry Griswold was a comedy diver who was instrumental in the creation and development of the modern trampoline. Here he is on the Frank Sinatra show from 1951. If you’d like to find out more about Griswold, check out his Wikipedia page. [youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCGzy-K5rX8″]
Read moreHere’s a video that I hadn’t seen before of a younger George Carl doing all of his stuff , but with a little more energy and a little more acrobatics. Â He’s such an amazing and precise performer, and he works so fast. Â A true joy to watch. [youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCGzy-K5rX8″]
Read moreThis Friday, MOMA gives everybody a laugh with a set of rare classic comedies. It’s a Free day, courtesy of Target, so you should get there well in advance of the 8 pm start time to reserve yourself some tickets. With Piano accompaniment by Ben Model. Includes the following films: Max et son chien Dick 1912. France. Directed by Max […]
Read moreThanks to Johnny Xod and Django Edwards for bringing this to my attention.
Read moreThanks to Drew Richardson, Dramatic Fool for pointing this out — a hilarious mini-lecture about how slapstick is no longer funny, and then Mr. D.V.D. proceeds to schlap the shtick all over it. This is an object lesson in how to build a physical routine where the audience know what’s coming, but they can’t help themselves from laughing anyway.
Read moreEvery once in a while Amazon comes out with a deal that is too good to resist, this is such a deal. NOTE: This is now $140! It’s still a pretty good deal, but obviously $100 is better! Every episode of Seinfeld for $100 . While it’s not clowning per se, there are great archetypes at work here, and the […]
Read more500 CLOWN, the genius clown trio from Chicago, has a documentary coming out about their work (and about the making of their show 500 Clown Frankenstein. Title of the show CLOWN MAKE MONSTER. Here’s the description of the documentary: What happens to a group of clowns in a theater company that push against authority when they believe that theater itself […]
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