Yesterday morning Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey hosted their first clown auditions in New York City since 1997, the year that I attended Clown College. Terry and I had a doctor's appointment so I arrived at Madison Square Garden after most everything was over but I got to talk with some friends in the Alley and had lunch with some others.
It was really good to get together with some friends that you've never actually met and some others that you don't get to see often enough.
Stars of the Red Unit Clown Alley with some of the hopefuls.
The auditions were overseen by Ringling's Vice-President of Talent and Production (and Clown College graduate) Tim Holst (with fellow CC grad Thom Wheaton in the background)
And, umm... did I mention that I saw a blue car the other day?
Please be patient and read this long message... 1959: Ray Brickford "Rayford the Clown" publishes his booklet "The Art of Clowning" with very useful explanations on make-up and costuming. 1960: Ernie Kerns publishes his book "How to be a Magic Clown" with very good instructions on how to design and apply clown make-up and how to create clown wardrobe. 1968: Clowns of America starts publishing the monthly magazine "The Calliope", every issue is full of information on make-up and wardrobe AND Ernie Kerns publishes the second volume of his book, with a lot more ideas and suggestions for make-up and wardrobe. 1988: the first printing of the monumental book "Creative Clowning" sees the light, and, guess what? There are specific chapters with step-by-step instructions on how to design and apply make up and create original clown clothes. PLUS... so many more books, slides, audio tapes, video cassettes, DVDs which appeared through the years; PLUS all the amazing amount of information that can be found on the Internet today... So, can somebody tell me how come there are people who still wear horrifying make-up, rainbow wigs, old suits from the Thrift Store, bow ties from the party section of the Dollar Store, and pretend to call themselves clowns?. With all the correct information easily available to EVERYBODY for AT LEAST fifty years?. There is NO excuse for this type of terrible image. Amateur clowns, Shriner clowns, people full of love for clowning but without the knowledge, please read this: before offending audiences with images like these and hurting the business of clowning beyond the possibility of correction, PLEASE get informed!. Move your lazy bottoms and go the public library, buy some books at the local magic store, ask some professional clown for advice and you guys will be doing all of us and yourselves a big favor... BEING A CLOWN IS HARD WORK, so go and WORK before you do things like this... Boy, am I mad!.
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