Tag: Updates
I just got back from the opening night of this century’s 6th NY Clown-Theatre Festival, a cabaret hilariously hosted by the Leroy Sisters (Aimee German & Jenny Sargent) and featuring excerpts from most of the performers we’ll be seeing in the festival. If this preview was any indication, it’s a strong and varied lineup.
Christopher Lueck, producer and host of The New York Downtown Clown Monthly Revue, has a new project, teaching slapstick comedy by means of instructional videos offered through his new website, LearnSlapstick.com. Here’s the infomercial you’ll see if you go to the site.
If you’ve ever played around with slapstick or stage combat, and I’m betting you have, you know that the victim’s reaction is key to selling the effect. As my old friend Joe Martinez put it, what we’re doing is Combat Mime, the illusion of fighting, not the painful reality. It’s not surprising, then, that many a comedian has had the clever idea of eliminating the attacker altogether, of playing victim to an imaginary foe.
This video has a gazillion partner acrobatic tricks. I should know, I counted them. As is probably inevitable in such a fast-paced club act, the character comedy is a bit of a throw-in, sorta hit and miss, but on the other hand you get tons of terrific stuff. (One gazillion = several tons.) But who are they? This was put on YouTube by Show Pals International, but the performers are not identified, which is pretty odd if you’re trying to sell an act. Their web site is a dead-end, so maybe they’re out of business. If anyone knows, drop me a line!
It is my last night in Barcelona and Jango Edwards brought together for dinner all of the clown / circus /variety historians he could muster in the person of Raffaele De Ritis, whose blog, Novelties and Wonders, is indeed full of wonders; Pat Cashin, whose Clown Alley blog is the place to go for all things clown; Greg DeSanto, director of the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center; and yours truly. Or to paraphrase John F. Kennedy, there hasn’t been a greater concentration of clown knowledge at one table since Tristan Rémy dined alone.
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Workshops & Other Events
My first book (1976)
My book Clowns has long been out of print, but you can borrow it for two weeks at a time from the Internet Archive. More information is available here.
My second book (2015)
Visual and verbal humor for the cognitively and artistically curious! Available here.
“A book to treasure!”
—Bill Irwin