The ever excellent Ben Model, musician and clown historian par excellence, is at it again. He along with the curators of MOMA are showing a series of silent short films that are rarely seen and comprise some amazing views into the sexual, political, race, and class elements of the early 20nth century. More importantly, they are often very funny! During […]
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We saw Brazil Brazil at the New Victory on Saturday.  (I previewed this last week) It was awesome awesome. This show had quite a lot of virtuosity in it– dance, soccer freestyle, and capoiera. Everybody was very talented and strong, but the thing that made it great was the fact that they were all so joyous and happy to be […]
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All 9 Seasons! All 194 Episodes! This special 34-disc DVD collection contains every hilarious episode of every classic season of “I Love Lucy”–from the lost pilot to the “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” shows. This is a lot of classic stuff, and it’s on sale today on Amazon. If you don’t own it, you should! Right now Amazon has a special […]
Read more“This show is a phenomenon … A really vibrant, colorful performance that will appeal to all ages.” – The Guardian If the quintessential Broadway story is about a young girl or boy who comes to New York from a poor strugling town to try to make it big by singing and dancing, then Brazil! Brazil!, which opens February 10 at the […]
Read moreFascinating interview with photographs with Cindy Sherman, who we’ve profiled on clownlink previously. She talks about how she comes up with her work, why she chose clowns as a subject matter, and her method of working– short intense bursts, followed by long periods of not making work. Here’s a pull from the article– on one of the reasons she chose […]
Read moreIf you’ve been following the Clown Summit like I have, you’ve been impressed with the substance and the breadth of the conversation. Christopher Lueck has done a great job interviewing clown educators, and getting them to talk about what is behind their work. The interviews have been available for free, but only for 24 hours at a time. He then […]
Read moreNY Goofs Winter Intensive NYC Feb 17-19 Winter Intensive NYC is February 17–19, 2012 Spend the weekend training with the NY Goofs. For this workshop, the focus is on the funny. Friday evening, and all day Saturday and Sunday. This workshop will focus on approaching clowning and material development through improvisation. Clown School and Act Development NYC Summer Dates TBA […]
Read moreUPDATE: CLOWN SUMMIT 2012 NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE! (affiliate link) Christopher Lueck’s Clown Summit is back with an all new set of audio interviews with influential and amazing clowns. Last year, he focused on pretty famous clowns. This year, he’s focusing on clown educators, and he’s got a great line up. I personally know three of the interviewees, and I […]
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Adscensio, a sixty minute circus directed by Dic Wheeler , features nine super-talented teenagers from the Oddfellows Playhouse Traveling Circus. Performances are Friday and Saturday, January 20 & 21 at 7:30 pm at the Oddfellows Playhouse, 128 Washington Street in Middletown, CT. Tickets are $15 for adults and $ 8 for students, seniors and poverty stricken circus performers. Call (860) […]
Read moreBarry Lubin is retiring from Big Apple, and the show in NY ends today. We’re going to try for the last show at 4:30 today. If you miss the circus it will appear again in Queens in June and NJ in March. READ AN ARTICLE (with video)
Read moreHello clown fans! This is your friendly reminder that the Downtown Clown Revue is tonight! visit www.newyorkdowntownclown.com for all the details! The 12/19/2011 Clown Revue Monday’s LINEUP • Michael Karas and Jen Slaw • Billy Schultz • LUPINO LANE starring in “GOOD NIGHT NURSE” (silent film with accompanist Ben Model) • “It’s a Wonderful Life” in 10mins! by Olivia Lehrman, directed […]
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Here’s my review in one word: Awesome. As I mentioned earlier, my son and I saw Cirque Shanghai on Sunday. It was (to coin a phrase) Awesome. In my experience, Chinese and Russian circuses are always high in virtuosity, but a little stodgy in terms of style– they usually seem to either kowtow to the “super traditional” or seem to […]
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The “World’s premier company” of Chinese acrobats , Cirque Shanghai, will be performing all this month at the New Victory Theatre . (I know , it seems like I’m featuring the New Victory theatre a lot in this blog– it’s for good reason. (actually, a couple of good reasons) They present a huge amount of stuff in the clown/physical comedy/wonderful […]
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I saw UnTapped at the New Victory Theatre on 11/13/2011. UnTapped is created by Australian dance company Raw Metal. The show is set up like a rock concert, with risers for the musicians, rock lighting, and an mc/master of ceremonies named Dr. Rhythm, who did some really fun beatbox effects, including taking a kid out of the audience and teaching […]
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Excellent thought piece on the anthropology of why people hate clowns on the blog of the Scientific American. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/2011/10/31/cant-sleepclown-will-eat-me-why-are-we-afraid-of-clowns/ I say excellent, although it’s mostly excellent in that she brought it up. From a scholarship perspective she might be getting it right, but from the perspective of the clown, I think she’s got a lot wrong. She says: Clowns break […]
Read moreJust heard about the death of Tom Keith, the guy who did most of the really amazing sound effects on NPR. He was a wonderful foley artist and sound fx guy, and could imitate just about anything, or come stageworthy close. Here’s his LA Times Obit. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/04/local/la-me-tom-keith-20111103 and his NY Times Obit. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/arts/tom-keith-creator-of-radio-soundscapes-dies-at-64.html And a very moving memorial page on […]
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