Bonnie Barnett first met her father (Chester “Bobo” Barnett) at the circus. She was a four-year-old spectator; he was one of the world’s most famous clowns, a veteran performer for shows like the Shrine Circus and The Ed Sullivan Show. Though his star persona was always present in the periphery of her life, she rarely got to see him in […]
Read moreThanks to Trav S.D. and his blog for the heads up on this fantastic exhibit now through August 21 at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. The exhibit, titled “The Peregrinations & Pettifoggery of W. C. Fields”, features ephemera, clippings, playbills, photos, and a fantastic film exhibition about William Claude Dukenfield. The films are curated […]
Read moreENTER 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 […]
Read moreCouldn’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 […]
Read moreCruel and Unusual Comedy: Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film May 20, 2009–June 1, 2009 MOMA will be running a number of silent film comedies during the last part of the month. The series, titled Cruel and Unusual Comedy, will feature a number of evenings of silent films, grouped in themes, that use comedy to address pretty . All […]
Read morePat Cashin (the curator and mastermind behind http://www.clownalley.net) asked me about a source for European circus posters. Before I had clownlink, I had found this and emailed people about it, but apparently never thought to put it up online. This is an amazing resource of thousands of images from European circuses. And a lot of them are available for sale. […]
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