Last night I had the great honor of presenting Barry "Grandma" Lubin with the first ever Lou Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, in the ring, at the Big Apple Circus in Lincoln Center.
I can think of no contemporary American circus clown more deserving.
The award was announced by the beautiful and extremely talented Ms. Carrie Harvey and we were joined in the ring by Big Apple Circus co-founder, Mr. Paul Binder.
Most of the folks on show were aware that the award was to be given, but the presentation came as a complete surprise to Mr. Lubin.
I'd like to thank Paul and Diane Guthiel for their offer to photograph the presentation, Mike Naughton for supplying the photo used on the award, Jeff Darnell for cleaning up that photo (and Kevin Brown for his offer of assistance), Rik Gern for creating the alternate photo (seen below), Andrew Scharff for assistance with the award speech, Greg DeSanto, Jay Stewart and Bill Ballantine for their assistance with the wording of the award plaque, Don Covington Of the Big Apple Circus for arranging all of the many details on the Big Apple Circus' side, Pedro Reiss for assistance in gaining the Jacobs family's permission to give the award in Lou's name and Lou Jacobs' wife, Jean and daughters, Lou Ann and Dolly for very graciously granting that permission.
And especially to everyone here at clownalley.net that voted and for their support for the 2007 awards.
Mr. Dougherty... we are coming for you next.
News concerning the 2008 Felix Adler Awards will be announced shortly.
Photoshopped photo courtesy of Rik Gern
Forwarded by Don Covington this morning...
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Brian Liddicoat is a former General Manager of Big Apple Circus. He now works for MSG Entertainment and is in charge of the touring editions of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show.
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Dear Barry and Friends,
Charmaine and I were teary-eyed this morning when we received the email and blog of your splendid and well-deserved award. Your persistence and longevity in the character of Grandma is beloved by so many of us close to your career, and to thousands you have entertained these so many years. Your place in circus history is preserved for the ages, and we salute you.
To those who chose you and made this possible, thank you for the well-placed efforts.
Most sincerely,
Charmaine & Brian
7 comments:
Congradulations to Barry! And kudo's to you Pat for reminding us all on a daily basis we all stand on the shoulders of those clowns who came before us.
Happy Holidays!
-Greg & Karen
Just plain outstanding. Truly. And thanks for letting others of us play.
I have seen Grandma Barry just once, that being at Kronebau, Munich, Germany in March of this year. Being English, there are times when American circus comedy leaves me cold, as I'm sure many of you will feel about the British version.
I was entranced by Barry Lubin's approach, if not always by the content. Certainly it was worth the journey from London.
Even better was the chance to talk to the man himself after the performance. A decided GENTLEMAN. I'm sure we could have talked all through the night.
I congratulate both Mr. Lubin on receiving the Award, and those who made the selection on their wise choice.
Let's see what Monte Carlo makes of him.
"Happy Holidays" (I do speak some American!) to you all.
Love,
John Cooper.
Barry... remember the $5 I gave you for the ventriloquist gag? I want it back
Your old buddy Ron
Barry,
Thank you for all you do to make this world a better place, one smile at a time! May your career and humility continue to inpire us for many years to come.
kay-bye,
miss kitty
I am in Monte Carlo and what an experience this has been! There were four shows in the competition with Grandma performing 4 acts in two of those shows. I won no major prize, but I seemed to have succeeded here otherwise. The audience received the character very nicely, and now we are doing shows post-competition and the audiences are fantastic. What fun finally to just go out there with no other agenda than showing up and having fun doing my thing. The festival performances have been running 4 1/2 to 5 hours each. Amazing huh, but people do stay and frankly, they are witnessing some of the greatest talent the world has to offer. I have met some wonderful folks and have joked around with the producer of the Festival, Princess Stephanie. She is a huge fan of the circus and has been quite gracious to all of us. Tonight she personally asked me to sing Unforgettable in the show with her bodyguard, which I considered a great honor and it was my pleasure and the audience's to sing and dance with this huge, bald man. Life is good!
Barry Lubin
Barry (takes a puff on the cigarillo), kepp doin it for the kids. Don't make spaghetti.Oh, and you're not bad...needs work.
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