Thursday, January 11, 2007

Big Announcement #1

Clownalley.net is proud to announce the creation of the Frank B. Adler Awards for Excellence in American Circus Clowning. Never before have active American circus clowns had the opportunity to be recognized for work by both their audience and their peers.

The Felix B. Adler Awards are granted by the American Academy of Clown Arts and Sciences, a professional honorary organization, which will be voted on by both Academy members (75% of overall score) as well as the general public (25%).

The votes will be tabulated and certified by the independent auditing firm, Intelligroup.

The awards are intended to honor the performers that the Academy believes have made particularly memorable contributions in the field of American circus clowning in the previous calendar of the year.

The 2007 virtual awards ceremony, the 1st ever, will take place on February 04, 2007, online at clownalley.net during the halftime of Super Bowl XLI and will be hosted by blogger Pat Cashin. Votes for the awards will be accepted starting January 23, 2007, 5:30 a.m. PST (1:30 p.m. UTC) and will be accepted and right up until Super Bowl kickoff time. The Academy hopes to make the "Felixes" an annual presentation.


ACADEMY MEMBERSHIP

Academy membership may be obtained by a competitive nomination (however, the nominee must be invited to join) or a member may submit a name. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership.


AWARD QULIFICATION

A nominee has to have clowned with a circus sometime in the previous calendar year (from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31) in the United States of America, to qualify.

2007 nominees must actually perform in the ring to qualify for an award (future awards are planned for Blackouts, Track Gags and Walkarounds).




THE 2007 AWARD CATAGORIES:


The Frank B. Adler Awards (or the "Felixes", as in not the "Oscars" but the...) for 2007 will be awarded in the following catagories:


1) THE OTTO GRIEBLING AWARD FOR SOLO CIRCUS CLOWNING: A circus clown working alone, with a ringmaster, stooge or with audience volunteers.


2) THE PAUL JUNG AWARD FOR CLOWNING PARTNERSHIPS OR ENSEMBLES: Two or more circus clowns working together, with a ringmaster, stooge and/or with audience volunteers.


3) THE LOU JACOBS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Awarded for a lifetime's work dedicated to the advancement of American circus clowning.



Where and how to cast your votes will be announced January 22, 2007.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

what about deaf clowns?? they are often not circus clowns but stage clowns... would they be quailified?

Pat Cashin said...

Deaf CIRCUS clowns would certainly qualify.

This is (at this time) solely an award for clowns performing in circuses in the United States.

I believe one of the clowns in Cirque's LA NOUBA is deaf and he performed in Orlando, FL in 2006 so yes, that deaf circus clown would definetly qualify.

justlarry said...

Sergey Shashelev is the name of the clown on La Nuba.

Anonymous said...

That's right, but correction- it's Sergi. I've worked with him back in 2002 at the DeafWay II in washington DC. Yeah, I could recommend him for the award but which one quaifies? and how?