Thursday, November 06, 2008

CLOWN ALLEY: The Big Apple Circus, 1996

Video link courtesy of circopedia.org


Todd "Doc Pitchum" Robbins, Barry "Grandma" Lubin and Greg "Lucky" DeSanto ("Lucky" ?) in a soap gag from the Big Apple Circus' Medicine Show, 1996.

It was seeing this show, watching Lubin and DeSanto, that made me leave standup comedy and finally apply to Clown College. The screams that they got during a school show matinee in Lincoln Center with this gag were absolutely deafening!

Behold, the power of soap... 


(and check out the sweet toothpick at about 4 minutes, 15 seconds in!)


7 comments:

  1. Thank god for video! Won't be seeing that fall anytime soon! The "Lucky" thing was something BAC wanted...never made a whole lot of sense to me, but they were paying the bills.

    -Greg

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  2. You forgot the dazed crowd member -the lovely Karen DeSanto -looking very much like Carol Burnett... My skin was chafing just WATCHING this gag. Mad props to the god of soap (Lucky!?) and the goddess of the subtle (Grandma).

    -Neal Skoy

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  3. The lady coming out of the audience with the towel is not Karen, but fellow Ringling clown and expert second banana in Johnny Peers dog act, Peggy O'Neil. Karen did not perform in this edition of BAC, but did fill in for Peggy during the second part of the season. Karen was "with child" during the run.

    -Greg

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  4. such energy and hilarity,I wish our alley would use the soap gag but the problem is nobody wants to get messy

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  5. "Nobody wants to get messy"...how sad. I can only imagine if Charlie Cairoli, Coco, Karl Bremmer and so many others had said that.

    Not to put myself in that esteemed grouping, but I just love to hear the laughter through soap filled ears!

    -Greg

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  6. Half of our alley is over the age of 70,no lie our youngest in the show is 18 and I'm 36.so no one can really take a pratfall but I'm always askd to do it or the eighteen year old

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  7. Ah, now that's a gag! And so abilily performed, too... Nothing like a good soap gag to liven up a room. There's really nothing like it.
    Still, that's a real shame. "No one wants to get messy." That's like being a football player who doesn't want to get tackled! Everyone's gotta try it at least once.

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