I’ve known Greg Frisbee for about 15 years now. He’s a performer/juggler/magician who has performed all around the world and a lot on cruise ships. I hired him multiple times when I was running the New Year’s Eve Festival Bright Night Providence (he had a local connection to Providence) and everybody always loved his show. Greg has recently written […]
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The Festival of Fools Barcelona 2022 is in fool swing right now. I’ve seen a few of the shows this year so far, and have been posting excerpts of some of the videos I’ve taken over on my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/kafclown/ If you want to catch any of the festival, you should check out their website https://festivaloffoolsbcn.com/. There are plenty of […]
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I’ve talked about Jim Moore on the blog quite a bit. He’s an amazing photographer and former performer who has managed to make it his life work to photograph clowns, jugglers, magicians, and other variety arts performers. He does it with aplomb and a keen visual eye, and has taken hundreds of iconic performer photographs over the years. Perhaps he […]
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During the pandemic last year, the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus did an online variety show on Mondays that featured hundreds of performers entertaining thousands of people. I did one of the early ones (performing my puppet show The Barbie Oedipus , in which I tell the story of Oedipus Rex in 12 minutes (and for that show I got it down […]
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My pal, author and performer Trav S.D. has teamed up with my other pal, photographer and entrepreneur Jim Moore and published a new book. Both gentlemen are no stranger to these pages, and I am more than pleased to feature them yet again. The book that they have collaborated on (which if it were written by a phd would be […]
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Juggling is not necessarily easy to do, but it’s easier to do than to explain. Noted juggler and vaudevillian Thom Wall aims to fix that. His new book covers the hard part, explaining how to juggle in a way that just about anyone can understand. The book is called Juggling: What it is and How to do it. and it came […]
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It’s a great day in Mudville, people. My pal, Trav SD, (who probably hold the ignominious honor of being mentioned the most on this blog) has announced that he will be giving a regular series of talks on Zoom regarding his specialty (old time entertainment and performance.) If you haven’t read his books, hie thee to a bookstore at once. […]
Read moreI’ve written about Joe Dieffenbacher before, but as it turns out, I’ve written mostly about projects he’s been involved with, or classes he’s been creating. I’ve never written a post directly about him. So It’s time. It’s time. When I met Joe, he was the janitor at the Dell’arte School. He’d graduated a few years before, and was hanging around […]
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I’ve been diving into a great new podcast (The Variety Artist Podcast) that features variety artists talking about their work, how they got involved, and tips and tricks for both beginners and working pros. It’s something that I think many readers of this blog would be interested in. (And it makes me a little envious that I didn’t start doing […]
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I got my copy of A Clown In Our Town a few weeks ago, and I have been meaning to write about it. It’s a wonderful tribute to Rob Torres, who passed away unexpectedly in 2018.  I wrote his obituary here: RIP- Rob Torres, International Man of Mirth. Photographer Jim Moore, who has taken more photos of clowns, circuses, […]
Read moreI had reviewed Jeff Raz’s first book The Secret Life of Clowns last year and found it delightful. (In fact, I had originally published one of the chapters on this blog when I first read it on Jeff’s Facebook page) So I wasn’t surprised when I received his second book The Snow Clown in the mail. I was, however, surprised to […]
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Steve Kaplan ‘s book The Hidden Tools of Comedy is a great book for people who are constructing comic scripts. While the book focuses intensively on movies and television, the advice given here is equally applicable to work in the theatre, or even in novels. Fair warning: There are no magic bullets here. Kaplan is not a believer in comic […]
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I received a book a couple of weeks ago (Slapstick Divas: The Women of Silent Comedy) by film historian and film series curator Steve Massa that has made for fascinating reading and introduced me to the stories of dozens of very funny comediennes. When we think of silent film comedy today, a great deal of attention gets paid to the […]
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THE SECRET LIFE OF CLOWNS Former Cirque du Soleil clown (and Clown Conservatory director) Jeff Raz has written a great new book The Secret Life of Clowns that marries two jobs that he put his heart and soul into. For a brief time, Raz was doing both of these demanding jobs at the same time, and now, about 10 years […]
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Julie Goell is a well-known performer and teacher of comedy and physical theatre, (and the wife of renowned Eccentric Avner.) Â She has written a book about clowning and performing. Â The book, entitled Life In A Clownhouse is part teaching manual, part memoir, Â and all about her and Avner’s theories of performance and clowning. I have taken a couple of classes […]
Read moreFascinating radio program on the history of British clowning from the BBC. Better listen to it in a hurry though, because it’s only available for 2 more days (not sure if it will be available for purchase afterwards.) Host Tony Lidington (who created a one man show based on British music hall master clown Dan Leno)  traces the role of the […]
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