TEN WEST is the comedy duo of Stephen Simon and Jon Monastero under the direction of Bryan Coffee. They blend physical virtuosity and inventive comedy with poignant writing, broad audience appeal to create their own theatrical style with strong influences of vaudeville, commedia, and clown. Ten West originated in the sketch comedy world in 2003, and has been touring throughout […]
Read moreI reviewed Jamie MacVicar’s book The Advance Man,last May (read my review here), and now I’m happy to say that Jamie’s book has become a finalist for the prestigious Marfield Prize. This $10,000 prize—(also known as The National Award for Arts Writing) is one of the largest given to a single author. It is awarded annually to a work of […]
Read morePLAYING COMMEDIA A Series of Classes on the Comic Tradition for Teachers, Actors, Undertakers… facilitated by Clint Bolster and Ben Cornfoot from Lightwire Theatrical Productions When: 6.30-9pm, Thursdays March 17, 24, 31 & April 7. Where: Ithaca Church Hall, 80 Enoggera Tce Red Hill/Paddington (Boys’ Brigade Hall), AUSTRALIA! Cost: $85 for all four classes, $70 for students/unemployed (Earlybird discount price […]
Read moreSince it’s the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, I thought I’d put up videos of five of the funniest female physical comedians/clowns from television. The five I’ve chosen are Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner, Tina Fey, and Mary Tyler Moore. It’s a little bit of a stretch to fit MTM into the clown role (she’s such a straight […]
Read moreOne of the classics of Stage comedy (and one of the classic duos of clowning). This is a pretty classic theatre example of their signature routine. (And by the way, it was Lou Costello’s birthday yesterday, March 6.) You can find out more about Abbott and Costello on the official fan webpage: http://www.abbottandcostello.net/ If you can’t see the embedded video, […]
Read moreOn Sunday, I got a chance to celebrate the end of Commedia month with the 3 pm performance of Piccolo Theatre’s A Servant of Two Masters at the Evanston Art Depot in Evanston, IL. The theatre is housed in a working train depot, and it was quite an interesting place. You can read the full history of the depot on […]
Read moreThe Amazing American Circus Poster February 26, 2011 – July 10, 2011Organized by the Cincinnati Art Museum and The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Strobridge Lithographing Company Living Pair of Full Grown Hippopotomi. Organized by Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Kristin Spangenberg, The Amazing American Circus Poster features 80 circus posters created between 1878 and 1939, […]
Read moreI follow a friend of a friend’s blog, THE SHEILA VARIATIONS, primarily because she writes everyday, she writes well, and although I don’t know her, I like her opinions on stuff. So I keep her on my blog reader. On her blog today, she posts a number of great pictures from the movie Laugh, Clown, Laugh. There are some amazing […]
Read moreI’ve already told you what official activities are going on in support of Worldwide CDA day, but I got to thinking that there’s got to be better ways to add some Commedia to your life than seeing a play. Here are 10 ways to add some commedia dell’arte to your life today. Please note these are not sanctioned by anyone […]
Read moreAudrey Crabtree, one of the motivating forces behind the NY Clown Theatre Festival, is teaching two workshops in Mexico City in March.  The workshops, about developing material through improvisation and about clown duos and trios, will take place in March. I believe the classes will be taught in Spanish (or in translation) The workshops are sponsored by ClownMeIn and GABRIELA MUÑO. […]
Read moreWhich commedia dell’arte character are you? This quiz was originally created to help publicize Music Theatre of Madison’s Summer 2011 production of The Glorious Ones. In case you don’t know, it’s a commedia dell’arte musical created by the composers of SEUSSICAL, RAGTIME and ONCE ON THIS ISLAND. MTM will present the Wisconsin premiere this summer. For more information about the […]
Read moreThanks to Christina Gelsone of Acrobuffos for suggesting this link! Eric Joisel was one of the premier origami artists in the world. A Frenchman, he was a sculptor and a self-taught origamist, who spent over 35 years trying to figure out how to make artwork out of 1 sheet of paper without cutting. He passed away in October 2010 at […]
Read more[I’ve asked a few great mask makers to submit a guest post entitled: What Makes A Great Commedia Mask? Their responses will appear here over the next few days. The images sprinkled throughout this page are from the author’s website, copyright by the author (as is the text), and used by permission. For permission to reprint this article or the […]
Read moreWorldwide Commedia Day is 4 days away– how are you going to celebrate? Faction Of Fools, one of the organizers, has a list of what’s going on- there’s something on nearly every continent! This is what they have so far (for the most updated list, visit the Faction of Fools website! ) I’m going to be in Chicago– so will […]
Read moreWhile doing research I came across this scholarly paper. Thought I’d offer it up today as a kind of a wrap up of my three posts on the Commedia Characters. (In case you’ve forgotten here they are) SERVANTS: https://www.clownlink.com/2011/02/commedia-characters-zanni-the-servants/ MASTERS: https://www.clownlink.com/2011/02/commedia-characters-il-vecchio-the-old-men/ LOVERS: https://www.clownlink.com/2011/02/commedia-characters-the-innamorati/ And here’s the scholarly article. It’s written by Dr. Scott McGehee, founding director of Accademia Dell’arte, which […]
Read more[I’ve asked a few great mask makers to submit a guest post entitled: What Makes A Great Commedia Mask? Their responses will appear here over the next few days. The images sprinkled throughout this page are from the author’s website, copyright by the author (as is the text), and used by permission. For permission to reprint this article or the […]
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