I’m hanging around with 50 Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Clown College (RBBBC) Alumni this weekend on Cape Cod. It’s a little overwhelming. Clowns of all shapes, ages, and classes are here. Clown college started in 1968, and went up until 1997, there are over 1500 alumni of the school. Of course, some have passed on, some have stopped clowning […]
Read moreKeeping with the theme of international circus/clowns, I recently was invited to see a show that has just opened up at the Union Square Theatre. It’s by a wonderful troupe from Montreal called Les Sept Doigts de La Main (The Seven Fingers of the Hand) I was in a circus with two of the 7 fingers in the early 1990’s […]
Read more“As circus artists, we aim to show the outrageous things that our bodies can do and to surprise people as much as we can,†said Chris Lashua, artistic director of the Las Vegas based contemporary circus troupe, Cirque Mechanics. “However, we take circus one step further by building machines that not only capture the spectacle of circus, but thrill in […]
Read moreMy good pal Greg DeSanto (executive director of the International Clown Hall of Fame) is quoted extensively in the April 2011 edition of Car and Driver, talking about the Physics of Clown Cars. They spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out (in mock terms) the maximum amount of clowns that can fit in a car. Here’s a […]
Read moreI’ve been reading a blog “The Adventures of Steve and Ryan” which is a blog by Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs, the two clown partners that are on the Kelly Miller Circus. Kelly Miller is an Oklahoma based circus that has been performing since 1938, and is currently owned by John Ringling North. They bill themselves as “America’s Finest One […]
Read moreShowbiz David announced on his blog that Cirque Berzerk, the Los Angeles underground circus company, has declared bankruptcy. Their website and facebook presence still seem active, so perhaps there’s hope for the company. Cirque Berzerk started as a performance ritual at Burning Man, and had seemed to be blossoming into Los Angeles’ answer to the Big Apple Circus, or the […]
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 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 moreEric Davis (he who inhabits the flesh of the Red Bastard during non-business hours) posted some wonderful news on his facebook feed: This is very exciting news. Eric and John are both excellent clowns. The rumor is that this show will be a permanent 10 month a year thing, with time out for the Oscars and various other special events.  […]
Read moreHoly Crap. I don’t know how I missed info about this. Just happened to read something about a ginormous circus festival happening in Montreal RIGHT NOW. It features some of the top circuses from around the world (and of course, especially Quebec) All happening at the same time. The festival, called MONTRÉAL COMPLÈTEMENT CIRQUE, ( or in English “Completely Circus”) […]
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Pescara, Abruzzo (Italy) July 12-13-14 2010 FUNAMBOLIKA is the 4th summer season of circus arts conceived by director and writer Raffaele De Ritis. It takes place in Pescara, in the 1200 seats Teatro D´Annunzio, one of Italy’s most prestigious summer arenas, that in the last 58 years hosted the world’s greatest names of the theatre, dance, opera and jazz. 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 moreI was just on a family vacation in Argentina, and noted with dismay that a circus festival started the week after I left. Â WEBSITE: Â http://www.festivalpolocirco.gov.ar/ When I was unmarried and child-less, I might have stayed for the week and changed my ticket, but my responsibilities as a husband and father made that impossible. Â Fortunately, my brother lives in Buenos Aires, […]
Read more‘Incredibly serious work’ Local man trains Ringling Brothers clowns By HOWARD WEISS-TISMAN CircusSmirkus artistic director Troy Wunderle of Cambridgeport gets a kissfrom his daughter Ariana Wunderle during the Circus Smirkus performancein Brattleboro. (Reformer file photo) CAMBRIDGEPORT – There is a lot of pressure in being one of the most important clowns in the country. For the past month, Rockingham resident […]
Read morePart of the 2009 Next Wave FestivalCirkus CirkörLive music by Irya’s PlaygroundDirected By Tilde Björfors “…A magical breathtaking performance…a powerful inter-disciplinary work of art…” —SkÃ¥nska Dagbladet (Sweden) The human body unfolds as a surreal rock and roll fantasy in Inside Out, Swedish troupe Cirkus Cirkör’s phantasmagoric journey into the outer reaches of inner life. Accompanied onstage by dub-punk-new wave-electro-inspired band […]
Read moreSpeaking of the Midnight Circus, I nearly forgot that they are doing their annual set of Halloween Free shows in Daley Plaza again this year. This year the show is called SpookaPalooza! They’ve been doing it all week, so you’ve missed a lot of shows, but there’s 7 shows you can still see. The cast features a rotating round of […]
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