Probably my very least favorite of all the well known European entrees. I've seen this routine performed by several different acts over the years, usually with great skill and tremendous ability, but this one always leaves me cold.
This is no reflection on Les Gotys, or anyone else who's performed this piece. It's just my personal feeling about it. Audiences seem to love it.
Maybe it's the whistles? I really can't stand when clowns use a whistle throughout their act. I just find that it really grates on me.
Anyone else have a particular routine or prop that they just dread seeing again (and again and again)?
same here: whistles.
ReplyDeleteand especially when they communicate with pollice whistles.
I Hate it!!! my very musical ears cant stand it
and in an other way water.
it is ok when the clown gets wet but not when the audience gets wet!! they dont ask for that you know!!
and violence: just knocking around without a story or a purpous for it.
you've got acts where they just hit . but why?? it is a funny to see a guy getting beaten up??
I dont think so. same thing when someone falls and hearts himself.
ok most people laugh then. but thats called "schadenfreude" ( i dont know the word in English)
I think thats the wrong kind off laughing. It is easy to earn laughs like that.
I like more the kind off original humour where you are suprised or the movements are funny or something they say.
the bubble gum act of the owner off this blog is an example off it.
I also like oleg popov very much:
it's not haha funny but wreally poetic and its original.
I met him in Brussels and presented him a handmade statue of him for his 75 birthday. He was very happy with it.
He is a very kind man, but one strange thing: he only speaks russian. Gaby is german and he travels mostly in germany and holland now and left russia for almost 10 years now but refuses to speak any foreign languages.
not verry common for circus people huh!!
Wait just a second!!!
ReplyDeleteI thought that the "Clown Zippo" who was posting here was the Englishman who owns "Zippo's Circus".
Now I'm wondering if "Clown Zippo" isn't Circus Rocalli's Bernhard Paul???
You LIKE my bubble gum bit?!?
I'm open and free to trave to Germany to begin rehearsals immediately ; )
~Pat
I'd be very surprised if this Zippo is either of the gentlemen you mention.
ReplyDeleteAnd avoid Cirkus Finlandia (guess which country!) this season. That's where The Gotys are.
They do a very nice Broken Mirror Entree which leads in to some water spitting from Paco.
John.
yes I do like the bubble gum act.
ReplyDeleteits short but has a strong pointe and the way you make the bubbles is nicely found.
and no I'm not bernhard either: I have met him.
as well as david larible and many other famous european clowns.
and I know the acts all very well because I am am a huge circus fan.
and clown myself but mostly in theatershows and big childrenshows.
I collect ( currently 382) and make lovely clown statue by hand out of polystone and nicely painted by hand working from pictures. Every clown likes to have one because they are very detailed and looks exactly like the picture.
My grandfather was a clown at Boltini but passed away when I was 5.
My profession is a professional (opera) singer and actor.In my schooldays at the conservatorium I studied drama and comedy with well known actors here in Belgium and combining that and my love off circus that's how I started clowning.
I specially love roncalli you see:
and used at the beginning a copy of the costume of bernhard paul.
what kind of acts I do:
the forbidden to play entree:
when presentation starts I come in with a clarinet playing carnaval de venise. offcourse the speaker doesnt likes it because i disturb him; he kick me out.
I keep coming back from different angles of the theater: out off the audience: from backstage from under the podium etc..
each time when he kicks me out he puls a piece of the clarinet.
BUT ... I still can play the same song!!
so after three times I only have the moutpiece left but still can play the melody off carnaval de venice on it using liptension and my hand.
also a version of the bonbons entree.
but not performed in two times: I use a special prop that is used in comedy magic for it:
a kind of cooking pot how goes in the hat. as my partner in crime goes out I start the cooking but first take out the pan.
he comes back and sees the mess in the hat. he ask where the pann is.
I play stupid and ask the audience to say nothing. off course the children do always yell : Zippo did it!!!!
my partner puts the pan back in and we hold the candle under it: with a flash and an explosion ( done with a theaterblits) we say the magical words: et voila: bonbons!!!
off course with chefhats and a lot a food flying around and comedy situations. and magic ( when i lite the candle the match turns into a rose!!)
you can find my site at www.clown-zippo.tk
I didnt change it for a long time.
and is not accurate anymore:
my wig has been changed to a wreal theatre wig with filmthule in front. and also other make.
When there are new pictures i will show some.
I am also Sinterklaas ( that is saint-nicolas actually the real santa claus!!) that uou can see at www.sintopbezoek.com
and now you know how I am.
and dont worry : I like the goty's mirror entree. but dont i dont like wet audiences. wet clowns: yess!!
Re: Things I never want to see again,,,,,,,, THIS ONE!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have seen this gag done for a very long time. I think it goes back several centuries to the Russian "skamorozhniki," itinerant country buffoons. I consider this gag the European version of the "Tide gag." I, too, would like to shoot the next clown I see with a police whistle.
ReplyDeleteFortunately the Gotys have expressive faces and body movements. I'm pretty much over circus clowns that don't use make-ups or at least have some silly hair or costume, a la Fumagalli. What's the deal, are they ashamed to be real clowns?
I also don't understand the European circus clowns' lack of originality. It seems that we always see the same gags over and over again.
Elmo
Bird calls, Police whistles, both of them leave me cold. I'm with you Pat, this act does nothing for me. I have seen bot European and Chinese versions of this bird entree an both did nothing for me.
ReplyDeleteMy particular pet peeve, is the clown car. Granted, you only see it on one show any more, but I say enough already. Any act like that where the prop is the star and not the performer, I have a tough time with.