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