 The inimitable Trav S.D., author of (you guessed it) a brand new book, makes a vaudevillian style plea for you to liberate your wallet of that pesky green stuff and buy his brand new book, Chain of Fools – Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to YouTube which happens to be a fabulous and well-researched tome about the impact […]
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 […]
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The first place to start to learn about Commedia are books. Amazon lists 325 books under the search “Commedia Dell’arte” You can browse all of those books here: Commedia Books on Amazon Below I pick 6 that I particularly like, and that I think are particularly great for both experts and novices alike.  I welcome your own recommendations in the […]
Read moreBonnie 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 moreA behemoth of a book just came out, which is a 660 page tell all by Jamie McVicar about his days as an Advance man for Ringling. For those not in the know, the Advance man is the promoter of the show who travels in advance of the circus, making sure that all of the publicity is done, that the […]
Read moreIn 1991, I traveled to Philadelphia to the International Clown Congress. There I met a number of other clowns, many of whom I continue to be friendly with to this day (I also met a guy who was from Rhode Island, and we had a number of friends in common, but strangely had never met– and we’ve worked on a […]
Read moreDan Kamin, a clown, mime, and expert performer (who taught Robert Downey Jr how to be Charlie Chaplin for the movie Chaplin, and taught Johnny Dep how to be Buster Keaton for the movie Bennie and Joon) is an expert on Chaplin. His previous book on Chaplin is now out of print, very hard to find, and quite good. So […]
Read moreAcclaimed mime Daniel Stein and Dell’arte graduates Kali Quinn and Bill Celentano are featured in a new show about Polish artist and novelist Bruno Schultz (author of the classic Street of Crocodiles) Schulz was killed in the Holocaust in 1944 by a German officer. The show will be performed at Atlanta’s PushPush Theatre. The play,written by author Murray Mednick, is […]
Read moreCarlyn Beccia is an illustrator and artist who is inspired by the world of the circus and clowns. She has been painting and performing various acts of circus baboonery since she was a wee young girl. She first tested her own creativity in the human cannonball act by projecting her sister across the room. Her sister had to have stitches, […]
Read moreA friend of mine sent me this quote from this book, and I thought it was so fabulous I wanted to make sure to share it. As I’m teaching clowning this semester, this is particularly a propos. A lot of students will ask me if they are getting an exercise right or not, if they are doing it properly. With […]
Read moreSummer Reading recommendations. Sara Gruen’s Water For Elephants Amazon Link Water for Elephants is a story of a Depression era mudshow that Jacob Jankowki, a down on his luck veterinary student, joins. The fictional circus Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show On Earth shows the seamy underbelly of that era of circus. The novel is a little bit on the “typical […]
Read moreI was recently asked about Circus Fiction, so I thought I’d give a couple of recommendations. Feel free to add suggestions in the comments field below! Amanda Davis’s Wonder When You’ll Miss Me Amazon Link Amanda toured with the Bindlestiff’s when I toured with them (in 1998) She wrote this novel (her first, and sadly her last) after that. It’s […]
Read moreThis is a small fun book of over 80 photographs of clowns in a slightly scary or macabre mode. Not all of them are scary, but enough to give those with coulrophobia a moment of pause. A fair amount of the photos are classic, but there’s also a bunch of other photos that I hadn’t seen before. It’s definitely a […]
Read moreTHE ACME CLOWN COMPANY Uses Popular Theatrical Traditions To Amaze, Educate, And Entertain Audiences Of All Ages. Specialities include puppetry, clowning, commedia dell’arte, circus skills, magic, melodrama, masks, and method acting. They perform shows, teach workshops and residencies, and coach and direct physical comedy and clown routines. The boss clown of the Acme Clown Company is Adam Gertsacov (the author […]
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