In fact, I think I need a few days off.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
IN MEMORIAM: Ted Ferlo (March 15, 1963 - November 19, 2010)
Theodore ‘Teddy’ A. Ferlo
Theodore "Teddy" A. Ferlo Nov. 18, 2010 Theodore "Teddy" A. Ferlo, age 47, of Rome, passed away November 18, 2010, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Syracuse, with his loving family at his side. He was born March 15, 1963, in Rome, a son of John T. and Dorothy Francescone Ferlo, and graduated from RFA and Mountain Vie...w Community College in Dallas, Texas. He formerly was a professional clown with Ringling Bros., Barnum and Bailey Circus, and currently is employed as the Special Events Manager at Turning Stone Casino and Resort. Teddy was united in marriage to the former Mary Beth Combs, whom he met while performing with the Circus, on March 16, 1991, in Rome. He was a member of St. Peter’s Church.
Ted was a loving husband, father, son, brother and uncle; he adored family. Ted’s greatest passion was performing, which now lives on in his boys. He was an excellent teacher; the three of them loved putting on a show wherever and whenever they could.
Ted will be greatly missed by friends and family all over the world. Each and every person meant so much to him.
Ted is survived by his wife, Mary Beth; his mother, Dorothy; two sons, Sebastian and Samuel; three sisters and brothers-in-law, Frances and Richard Galluppi of Rome, Deborah and Glenn Hand of Rome, and Dorothea and Paul Iselo of Floyd; a brother and sister-in-law, T. Robert and Nancy Ferlo of Clifton Park; a sister-in-law, Diane Ferlo, of Menifee, CA; a special friend, Mike Colangelo; and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his father, John T. Ferlo, a brother, John "Skip" Ferlo and a nephew, Christopher Ferlo.
Funeral services will be held Monday at 1:00 p.m. from the Barry Funeral Home, 807 W. Chestnut Street, and at 2:00 p.m. at St. Peter’s Church. Burial will be in St. Peter’s Cemetery. Relatives and friends may call at the funeral home Sunday 2 to 6 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be made to a Scholarship Fund being established for Ted’s sons, Sebastian and Samuel, c/o Dorothea Iselo, 8394 E. Floyd Road, Holland Patent, NY 13354.
Ted was a wonderful person, a great clown and an exemplary father.
He will be very sorely missed.
MARK ANTHONY: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus; Blue Unit; Terre Haute, IN (1975)
Photo courtesy of Hillbilly Mike Weakley
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
TED FERLO: Get Well Soon!!!
Please keep Mr. Ted Ferlo in your thoughts and prayers as he recovers from his recent surgery.
Get Well Soon!
Nouveau Clown Institute: 2011 Sessions
N.C.I. Clown Master Classes
and Comic Formulas
2011 Sessions
The Nouveau Clown Institute, would like to thank all the Master Artist who joined the faculty, the talented professional actors in training who have participate during our first year plus the numerous friends and patrons of the N.C.I. who have paid us a visit at the weekly “CABARET CABRON” productions. Happy Birthday to all of you from the global nouveau clown family and the N.C.I. is your home, your institute, your school and research centre. We wishes to announce the 2011 winter and spring master classes sessions for professional actors who wish to continue their training. The 2 master class sessions are scheduled as follows:
January 30th - February 27th, 2011
(registration closes 18th January 2011)
(Enrolment: Sunday 30th January, 16:00 at the Nouveau Clown Institute)
April 24th - May 22nd, 2011
Each session is conducted by a team of 15 international master instructors. The team will be changed for each of the 1 month sessions to insure every class is completely unique in content, instruction and information.
Classes will be held 5 days each week from 10 am to 6 pm, Monday to Friday, totalling 120 hours. On Saturdays actors in training will be in the media rooms to attend special viewing assignments of films and videos. In addition, each participant of the Master Class will receive a one on one session with a master teacher. At the end of each week, both Saturday and Sunday evenings, there will be performances presented by the actors in training, faculty and invited guest artists (Cabaret Carbon). These performances will be open to the general public.
The tuition fee for each one month session is 1,500 €. For those artists who wish to attend two of the N.C.I. Master Class sessions there is a special reduction for tuition.
The February 2011 master class instructors confirmed at the moment are as follows:
Jango Edwards, Andrey Jigalov, Grada Peskens, Greg & Karen De Santo, Steve Smith, Lucas Trapaza, Virginia Imaz, Michael Swatosch, Laura Herts, Claudio Fois, Tom Greder and David Berga.
Instructors for the April/May 2011 master class sessions confirmed at the moment are as follows: Avner the Excentric, Peter Echo, Roberto Olivan, John Towson, Jef Johnson, Amy G, Hilary Chaplin, Johnny Melville and Ruby Boukabou. The additional faculty members for the April/May 2011 session will be announced in the near future.
If you are interested in attending one or more of the Nouveau Clown institutes “Clown Master Class and Comic Formulas” 2011 series then visit our web site at
www.nouveauclown.es. Here you will find information and the official form to apply for acceptance to the N.C.I. Once you have submitted your application the N.C.I. review board will consider your application and inform you of their decision. Your acceptance does not secure your place at the selected master class session you have requested until you have paid a minimal 50% of the tuition fee (750 €) in advance to the N.C.I.
We suggest you do a little research about the artists who will be your instructors during the sessions you have chosen, so you have a basic knowledge of their approach to the clown art.
Those of you who have clown or comedy routines, stage acts or numbers that you would like to perform in the weekly “Cabaret Cabron” productions please bring those items required to present your act including music, props and costumes. A maximum of no more than 3 acts from your repertory is advised. We also recommend that you bring any audio/ video material of your work which can be viewed by us to assist us in directing you.
In addition to the in class sessions you will receive selected data based materials. It is a mandatory request that you bring with you a pen drive or memory stick in which this data can be stored. This information will be a useful reference in the future once you have successfully completed the master class and graduated from “The Nouveau Clown Institute”...that is if you graduate!!!
Finally and most important of all it is the wish of the N.C.I. staff to make your visit as creative, productive and inspiring as possible. To achieve this we remind you that the “Nouveau Clown Institute” is an educational institution of the highest standards and, if you come with open mind and heart then we will open the door for you to a new future.
N.C.I. is a school for professional clowns to learn, teach and exchange among each other; a school where new actors have the opportunity for direct contact with master instructors and a daily exposure to assorted technique, production skills and an understanding of the essential comic formulas and styles that make the clown art function globally in all environments. This school belongs to all members of the Nouveau Clown community. N.C.I. functions as a launching pad for actors to become familiar with the variety of clown artists and schools that specialize in comedy and the art of clown.
If you need additional help of have specific questions please contact us by:
Email at:
nouveauclown@gmail.Com
Telephone: 00 34 607187854
To view the facilities of the "Nouveau Clown Institute" located in the Roca Umbert Fabrica de les Arts in Granollers, Catalunya, Spain
www.rocaumbert.cat/ie6/home.php
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO OF THE CLASSES
We also recommend that you join the Facebook group Nouveau Clown Institute and join and check the group N.C.I. -Second Class- March 2010, created by the participants in March 2010 Master Class, where you can find their comments, pictures and videos.
On behalf of the N.C.I.
Sincerely yours,
Grada Peskens, Johnny Melville and Jango Edwards
WANTED: Circus Fan With Back Issues of Bandwagon, White Tops etc.
Is there a circus fan out there with a large collection and the time and interest to search through back issues of publications like White Tops, Circus Report, Billboard, Bandwagon, Call of the Calliope etc. for clown photos and articles to share?
Anthing sent will be posted and shared with the ICHOF.
Thanks!
Anthing sent will be posted and shared with the ICHOF.
Thanks!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
LOU JACOBS: With Jean (October 13, 1979)
Photo courtesy of Hillbilly Mike Weakley
Master Clown Lou Jacobs with his wife Jean by his side taken outside the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Red Unit circus train October 13, 1979 in Champaign, Illinois.
Master Clown Lou Jacobs with his wife Jean by his side taken outside the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Red Unit circus train October 13, 1979 in Champaign, Illinois.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
PAUL REUBENS: Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway (From Stage Dive)
Welcome Back, Pee-wee. You Were Sorely Missed!
Upon entering the temple, we’re greeted with the alluring aroma of fresh plastic. Whatever’s behind that curtain smells like 1985, and it’s intoxicating: We’re here for a tent revival, and maybe a little time-travel. A fallen martyr of our youth is about to retake the stage, his glory restored, his strangled giggle un-gagged, his patent-leather hair undamaged. Sure, he’s a bit wider in the middle, and the cherry-red bow tie fits a little tighter now, but the point is, he’s here, against all odds, despite years of persecution. “I know you are,” speaketh Pee-wee Herman, paraphrasing Christ’s reply to Pilate, “but what am I?”
Amen! The Pee-wee Herman Show is a candy land parade of familiar faces, memes of Christmas Past, and play-along-at-home sketches: Jambi the Genie grants a wish! Pterri the Pterodactyl flies in for a visit! Conky the Robot spits out “the secret word”! Lick it, and you’ll uncover coat after coat of sweet meta-ness, with one great, governing joke at its chewy-center: Pee-wee Herman (comedian Paul Reubens) is a child in a grownup’s body--and now, that grownup is All Grown Up.
The children of the Reagan-era took Reubens’ act (the cackle, the catchphrases, the dance) at face value when they tuned in to watch Pee-wee’s Playhouse, that knowing yet ever-earnest gloss on fifties kid-shows. Parents, meanwhile, could appreciate the subversion peeking beneath the undercarriage--they might have even seen Pee-wee’s bawdier LA stage show and HBO special. (Cynical types were all too delighted when he was busted for indecent exposure in a Sarasota adult-movie theater, an incident that flash-froze Reubens’s career in 1991 and changed how we hear the word “Chairy” forever.) But today, this comedian’s reunion with his compulsively nostalgic target demo produces an effect that’s nothing short of uncanny: Pee-wee was designed as a throwback, a cornball tribute to Howdy Doody and Captain Kangaroo; now he’s a throwback of a throwback, and the focus is on the absurdity, nay, the impossibility of currency itself. “Pee-wee, nobody’s being modern anymore,” argues the know-it-all iPad forerunner Magic Screen, who’s threatened by Pee-wee’s sudden interest in a home computer. “Modern is antiquated.” Pee-wee responds by hissing a contemptuous string of vacuous slang: “No worries. Same difference. It’s all good.” Reubens always was a covert educator, of a sort, and he’s still at it: A retired fad lecturing his kids on the hazards of faddishness and the fierce emptiness of Now. It’s kinda like Spuds MacKenzie running an AA chapter: A little bit postmodern, a lot-bit ridiculous, and plenty of cracked fun either way.
Best not to overthink it: You’re not going to Pee-wee for a wistful seminar in the disposability of popular culture. You’re here for the foil ball, the Penny cartoon, for Cowboy Curtis (Phil Lamarr, taking over for Laurence Fishburne) and Miss Yvonne (still played by Lynne Stewart). Well, they’re all here, and more besides. From the moment the light hits that Skittles-hued set, you know you’re either with Pee-wee or indifferent to him, a condition largely governed by age, attitude, and blood-sugar level. Is Pee-wee still “the luckiest boy in the world”? Or just a pop anomaly come round again, like some kandy korn comet, for another pass? Does it matter? Chillax. Pull up a Chairy. It’s all good.
At the Stephen Sondheim Theatre through January 2.
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