Royo: Quidam

 

Eric Sanchez, aka Royo, performing with Les Maclomas on tour with Cirque Du Soliel’s Quidam.

Sandra Bergamin Hogue

 

Sandra Beegamin Hogue letting it all hang out on the Ringling Red Unit in 1998.

Sandra is wearing the makeup lady production wardrobe from the Spec of the Zusha tour (127th Edition, for you fellow nerds out there).

David Shiner: Photography

David Shiner performing his photography act as part of the International Christmas Circus in Eindhoven in 2013.

Ringling Blue Unit Clown Alley 1999

 

The 1999 Ringling Blue Unit Clown Alley photographed by Vince Re. For many years Vince would set up backstage at the arena in Cincinnati, OH to take photos for people on the show.

Pictured are Joel Jeske, Tina Aguirre, Thom Wheaton, Marni Sussman, Leo Acton, Matt Morgan, Lance Brown, David Solove, Gabor Hrisafis, Todd Zimmerman, Allegra Barnett, Cezary Skarzynski, Christy McDonald, Mark Myers, and Josh Zehner.

Wayne and Marty Scott

This article is from 2006 when the Scotts won the Florida Folk Heritage Award.

Wayne and Marty Scott are well known for the superb clown shoes they make for clients all over the country. Living in semi-rural Howey-in-the-Hills, they are “can-do” kind of people. They built their own house, learning each step in much the same way they learned to make clown shoes. They talk to people with experience, use the Internet and library, and inspect things very carefully. Both artists are clowns, and both come from families that are good with their hands.

Although Wayne went to clown school in 1968 at Ringling, he worked for much of his life servicing air conditioners and refrigerators. He also had a good job with General Motors, but the pressure gave him ulcers. Once when he was at home sick in bed, he saw an ad for clowns. In spite of the fact that they had four children, Wayne and Marty decided to pack up and travel with the circus. Marty worked on wardrobe and Wayne performed as a clown.

Being around circus people, the Scotts found a niche for themselves. Seeing a need for clown shoes, they carefully cut up an old pair to see how it was made. At first Wayne worked alone, initially placing the clown shoe over the top of an old regular shoe. When he found out that so few people made clown shoes, he studied how to make cowboy boots, which taught him tricks for his own specialty.

After Wayne had worked alone for seven years, Marty joined him in creating the shoes. Their products are considered excellent because they are individualized, comfortable, and long-lasting—about seven years or more. Clowns become so attached to their shoes that they do not want to give them up. When they become worn, they send them back to the Scotts, who refurbish them. Working as a seasoned shoemaking couple, they can produce a pair of shoes in about six hours. The leather goes on last. It is soaked in water and then put in a convection oven at 150 degrees for three hours to dry in order to get its shape. They use horsehair instead of polyester as stuffing to create the shapes. They say that horsehair doesn’t absorb water like polyester does; therefore the shoes do not get moldy as easily.

Wayne designs all the shoes himself. The Scotts make a large quantity of Mary Jane shoes, which is primary type that Ringling orders. Theyalso make period boots for the Sarasota Opera Company and other opera companies throughout the country. In addition, they create a variety of clown props. Today they are passing their unique skills to younger members of their family.

Scott “Dusty” O’Donnell

 

Former circus clown/owner/dog trainer/management/talent scout and current Circus World Museum director, Scott O’Donnell, on Vidbel’s Olde Tyme Circus in the 1990s.

Angelo Munoz and Bernhard Paul

Hello everyone, please forgive my sporadic posting as of late. Being on a circus is a lot more time consuming than I remember!

Here’s Angelo Munoz and Bernhard Paul celebrating another successful show on Circus Roncalli.

Clyde Beatty Clown Alley 1980s

 

The Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Clown Alley with ringmaster, Jimmy James.

I’m guessing the year is 1981, but I could be wrong. I can ID Tom “Weasel” Weiss, Sandy Kaye, John “Eggroll” Kane, Mike Snider, and Mike Padilla.

Can anyone else ID the rest? The whiteface with the red wig looks like a Clown College grad I’ve seen. 

Peggy Williams: Being Female In The World of Clowns

 Click here for an hour long interview with Peggy Williams talking about her career with Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus.

The ICHOF Is Back!

 

From ICHOF director Greg DeSanto:

After a long hard year, the laughs are going to be heard again as the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center reopens today! 

Exactly 11 years to the day we opened our doors in the circus city of Baraboo, Wisconsin!

Open Monday thru Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Sunday by appointment only.

Pre-Pandemic Prices! $8.00 for Adults, $5.00 for Children under 12.

New exhibits! The largest collection of clown artifacts in the world! As seen on American Pickers, History Detectives, 50 Museums to See Before You Die, Ripleys Believe it or Not and many others!

Eddie Dullum: Werk It!

 

It is hard to find funnier clown drag than that done by Eddie Dullum aka Mother Dullum.

Just from these pictures, I can tell this is a guy who was going for the laugh.

I’ve heard a lot of people talk about his washerwoman gag with Glen “Seacow” Hart; I wish I could have seen it in person.

Mystery Clown

 

Can anyone ID this clown whose photo is in the book Circus Legends by Tony Hernandez?

What I do know is he’s about to unleash that ol’ knee slapper of a walkaround, “What I Know About Women”, on an unsuspecting audience.

Open up the book and what’s inside? The word NOTHING!

Brilliant! Oh, my splitting sides! 😜

Rest In Peace: Circus Priest Father Jerry Hogan

Father Jerry Hogan passed away last night after a prolonged illness. Through his long career as a circus priest, he became close friends with many in the circus business, especially the clowns.

Father Jerry, thank you for sharing your light, your love, and your laughter with us all of these years. Rest in peace.

                                                

The 2015 Blue Unit Clown Alley

Greg and Karen DeSanto on Big Apple Circus

Scott O'Donnell on Vidbel

Mike Snider and Billy Vaughn on Vidbel

Circus Circus: Dave DeDera

Former Ringling Red Unit clown (and boss clown) Dave DeDera talks about his circus career and working in Las Vegas where he has been performing since the mid 1990s. 

Emily Carragher: Varekai

 

Emily began her circus career on the Ringling Red Unit in 2006, and also toured with Fossett's Circus in Ireland before taking over the role Mooky Cornish originated in Cirque Du Soliel's Varekai.

She will soon be resuming rehearsals for Soliel's new Orlando based show, Drawn To Life.

This is an interview Emily did in 2015 to promote Varekai's engagement in Fairfax, VA.

Emily Carragher: A clown guide through ‘Varekai’ by Cirque Du Soleil

Written By Jacquie Kubin | Jul 16, 2015

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2015 – The story behind Cirque du Soleil’s “Varekai,” coming to the EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia July 22 to July 26, is one of journey and destination.

“It is about self discovery and reaching farther than you can grasp and allowing your self to fail, fall down and get back up again,” Emily Carragher who performs as Clown Feminine says. “My character tries so hard, but she falls – and then gets back up.”

“And that is more important “

30 year-old Carragher, one of the shows two narrators – Clown Feminine and Clown Masculine – has had her own journey. As a child, there were dance classes in both modern and ballet. Then as a teen it was drama classes and high school theater all of which the actor and comedienne credits with helping her to learn to express herself physically.

“Growing up, I liked anything dramatic, the challenge of telling a story through movement,” Carragher says. “ I went to circus camps, and took a circus class during college during which the teacher recommended clown school and I went the summer before I graduated and I got my first job at Ringling Bros.”

Unlike Ringling’s cars filled with clowns, Carragher’s clown, called Mooky after the character’s creator Mooky Cornish, is one of only two clowns that inhabit this wonderful world.

A very short clown act from Varekai feauturing Mooky Cornish and Claudio Corneiro, Cirque du Soleil

Carragher’s sees Mooky as a very empowered feminine character who speaks to the audience, particularly young girls. But she is not your typical show girl with a big red nose.

“She is not traditional show girl shaped, she represents the every woman standing on a stage with the world’s super toned and well chisled people” Carragher says. “She is full figured… and she is different than the other women in the show and I take that as a big responsibility. My smile is the connection I make. It’s the first thing I see, and it is everything.”

She describes her role as being a show within a show.

“The character and I are very similar, each findng the truth in the story playing out on the stage,” Carragher says. “Mooky’s story is the story of a wannabe show girl, someone who dreams bigger than they can hope to reach. But she is also very much an empowered character starting one place and landing someplace else.”

Mooky’s role is to guide us as we watch the whimsical and enchanted creatures that inhabit a captivating forest where the performers seemingly defy gravity and physical constraints.

Varekai, which means “wherever” in Romanian, takes place at the summit of a volcano where a world unique to what we know exists – a world where “something else is possible.”

The story celebrates the nomadic soul via while paying homage to the high-wire acts that take place beneath the more traditional circus tent apex.

Cirque de Soleil brings its trademark strength and physical agility along with incredible imagination to the show’s various acts that include acrobats hurled from Russian swings to fly through the air, contortionists that defy physical constraints, twirling and swinging performers that defy gravity while performing the seemingly impossible, and even a performer who show that even on canes, new heights can be reached.

We watch as a young man named Icarus, borrowed from Greek mythology, lands in the shadows of the forest, meeting the fantasy creatures that take us, as viewers, on to a journey that moves from the absurd to the delightful to the unbelievable.

Icarus, like his namesake, who flew too close to the sun only to plummet into the sea below, has been hurt in his fall. The journey he takes leads him to accept this odd world while overcoming his fear of the different forest denizens he meets.

And, like that Icarus of Greek mythology, our Icarus may learn a bit of humility as he meets The Betrothed, a creature of great beauty. She guides Icarus, and in her giving to the young stranger, discovers her own metamorphosis.

Looking over all that live in the forest of Varekai is The Guide, a wise old man who guides the changes that are necessary for the journey that Icarus is on.

And Mooky is there to guide the audience’s journey of discovery through Varekai.

“One of the more powerful scene is called Nightmare, and it is the most important scene as Icarus meets with the crippled angel. In this scene Icarus sees himself in both the future and present and he is taught what will happen if he does not get up and walk. Move forward,” Carragher says. “Like Icarus Mooky gets knocked down and comes back even stronger. She gets the last laugh.”

Which is important for a clown.

“There is no fourth wall between us and the audience, and when I see young kids in the audience I recognize that I was that kid, and I was in awe, and I hope to do the same for kids,” Carragher says.

Carragher describe Mooky as playful and like many a young child, wants to have a good time. She is very happy, playing against her partner, who is very serious.

“Clown Masculine is much more serious that Mooky,” Carragher says. “And because he is so serious, he create a perfect counter to Mooky’s playfulness.”

Varekai is the creation of a large crew and cast working behind the scenes including:

Guy Laliberté, founder and creative guide, Dominic Champagne, writer and director, Andrew Watson, director of creation, Stéphane Roy, set designer., Eiko Ishioka, costume designer, Violaine Corradi, composer and musical director, Michael Montanaro and Bill Shannon, choreographers, Jacque Paquin, acrobatic equipment and rigging designer, Cahal Mccrystal, clown act creator, François Bergeron, sound designer, Nol Van Genuchten, lighting designer, Francis Laporte, image and projection designer, Nathalie Gagné, makeup designer and André Simard, acrobatic performance designer.

If attending the show with children, first visit the biography pages of these talented people and discuss how they would contribute to a show like Varekai and then have them watch to see if they can see the work of a make up artist, hear the sounds of a sound designer, or marvel at the unique costumes that help to tell a story while allowing the performers to be able to move.

L.A. Circus

 

Photo shared by Tiffany Riley.

Bob Zraick, Danise Payne, and Dick Monday performing on the L.A. Circus in the 1990s.

All three are Ringling Clown College graduates and have had long and varied careers in the circus and entertainment worlds.

I would love to see video of the three of them working together if any exists!

Pricilla Mooseburger: Ringling Magic Gag

Tricia Manuel, aka Pricilla Mooseburger, performing her rabbit in the hat gag for Come In on the Blue Unit's 114th Edition in 1985.

Tricia still performs this routine as part of her shows.

24 Hours in the Life of a Clown Trailer

This past weekend I signed up for the Criterion Channel, and one of the pleasant surprises I found was this short film from 1946 about a day in the life of Aristodemo Frediani, better known as Beby.

Beby was partnered for many years with Antonet.

At the time of the filming he is seen performing with his new partner, Maïss, at the Cirque Medrano in Paris, which was a filming location for Fellini's, I Clowns, and also where Buster Keaton performed in the 1940s.

It isn't ground breaking cinema, but it was a fun look at two real clowns of that era. The Criterion Channel offers a two week free trial, and the film is only 18 minutes long, so......

(Also, the film has English subtitles even though the trailer does not)

Dime and Connie Wilson

 

Photo by Paul Gutheil. 

Dime and Connie Wilson performing with ringmaster Billy Martin on Vidbel’s Olde Tyme Circus.

W.C. Fields - The Golf Specialist 1930

One thing I love about clowns and comics that came out of vaudeville and burlesque (and also older European clowns) is how polished yet natural their material is.

The Golf Specialist is a perfect example of an act that has been honed night after night on the road until every laugh is milked from the situation. 

Enjoy!