Thursday, October 30, 2008

CLOWN COLLEGE: Memories of 1985

Photos by Barry Phillips

Lou Jacobs addresses the class of '85...



...and "wows" them with his Jackie Mason impersonation.

(In all the time it took to elaborately paint that prop no one thought to check the correct spelling of the word "accurate"?)



Lou and Circus Sarasota's Robin Eurich 



Two "Master Clowns" discuss their art


An important moment for the class of '85: Frosty Little gathers the 
students outside the arena to explain the birds and the bees:

"Well kids, it's like this... sometimes when a Mommy Clown and a Daddy Clown love each other very much..."


Budgets were tight that summer, George Shellenberger and Frosty Little had to 
take part-time jobs as school crossing guards in the early morning hours to bring
in a little extra cash for the program.


Another important moment: "Greg DeSanto Discovers Soap"!

Have you ever seen someone so happy? So totally, malevolently happy?

Mike Hinman seems sheepish and uncomfortable to be in the 
presence of DeSanto in his full blown Berserker Rage.


KULIKI TAKA, INDEED.



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good lord with these young pictures...Barry needs to stop digging in his vaults, I'm feeling very old. But yes, it's the beginning of "soap". And to deliver the pie to Master clown Frosty Little. Great memories!

-Greg

Anonymous said...

What a great tribute to at least four eras of clowning.

Adam Kuchler

Barry said...

I always liked the way the series of photos of Lou's makeup demonstration turned out. I think the fact that there were huge t.v. lights all over the arena helped. This was the crew that was filming the Clown College documentary at the time. At the reunion, Steve Smith related that there was some kind of disagreement between the film makers and the Feld organization that kept the film from being released...a shame because I know they had a bunch of good footage of Lou doing his makeup and working the hunting gag with Pee Wee.

The photo of Frosty and George was taken before the parade in Venice we participated in EARLY one Saturday morning. I think we were all up around 5 a.m. that day and there are some great shots of some very tired and grumpy looking clowns in that series.

Finally, I seem to remember that Greg not only delivered the pie to Frosty but chased the man around the backyard for a couple of minutes before making the hit!

Sometimes, it's hard to believe that it was almost exactly 23 years ago that we were there. But then I see my receding hairline and feel my back popping and it doesn't seem so hard after all!

Barry

Anonymous said...

For myself to chase Frosty with the pie, it HAD to be a looong time ago!
Thanks for sharing those memories.

-Greg