Saturday, July 14, 2007

The 3 Musketeers

Photo courtesy of Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers


Clown, occasional Advance Clown and longtime Beatty-Cole Ringmaster Jimmy James with two masters of Advance Clowning, Jackie LeClaire and Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers.

It's a shame that circus clowning in America is in the state that it's in but the Advance Clown job is truly a lost art. I remember as a kid seeing Elmo do a show at the Brunswick Square Mall in East Brunswick, NJ, in advance of the Beatty-Cole show, and it made the arrival of circus day seem truly magical.

2 comments:

Dick Flint said...

When did Jimmy do advance clowning? I always remember seeing him on the show.
Dick Flint
Baltimore

Anonymous said...

I don't remember if he mentioned the year, but I asked Jimmy about that once - he said that for a while the show would send him off of the unit to advance the show, and pretty regularly. It sounded like early morning TV/radio, which allowed him to return in time for the matinee...