Tuesday, March 02, 2010

MYSTERY CLOWN: Toy Elephant; Shrine Circus



5 comments:

Raffaele De Ritis said...

Another beautiful example of fine plagiarism.
The original routine belongs to the Russian duo Boyarinov and Ivanov. It was created by director Valentin Gneuschev around 1990. The duo appeared in the stage show "Cirk Valentin" (Gershwin Theatre, Broadway, 1990), then in several european tours of Russian State Circus, and finally in Monte Carlo in the mid-90s.
Monte Carlo worldwide tv broadcasts are generally the most confortable way to "get inspiration" for clowns needing new routines.

Pat Cashin said...

Raffaele, I will take your word for it that the routine began with Boyarinov and Ivanov.

Dressing dogs up as elephants was done on Ringling by Lou Jacobs when I was young. Lou got the inspirartion from Charlie Bell who did the bit for years and can be seen with Trixie and Peanut in DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth.

Although for Lou and Charlie, the bit was never more than a walkaround, not a fleshed out ring gag as we see here.

For that we have to either thank Boyarinov and Ivanov or blame them because EVERY Latin-American clown working in the States does this bit. All of them with a whistle.

Raffaele De Ritis said...

Pat,
of course I know well the Jacob's ancestor routine, and GSOH too brief sequence being one of the happiest moments of my childhood.

Whistle addiction is one of the trademarks of mediocrity in clowning.

Anonymous said...

8 minutes really,I feel sorry for the dog oh yeah wheres my whistle...

Elmo Gibb said...

I beg to differ with Mr. De Rittis. I saw this routine performed in the late 80's at the Sarasota Circus Festival by a South American clown (I regretfully failed to catch his name). He also did the picnic basket routine. His family also performed about the best dog act I have ever seen. Their back-flip dog was the best ever--cued from across the ring. The judges completely ignored them and gave first prize for an animal act to John Herriott with a half-broken liberty drill he broke for Ian Garden.

Two years ago I worked my dogs singly in elephant costumes, but as elephants, with little bull tubs and regular elephant act music. It was fine in the winter, but as spring progressed, I swore I would never work the dogs in costumes in the hot weather. 8 minutes is really too long for a dog to be in a cover-up

Elmo.