BANANA/BANDANA: Carl-Einar Hackner (Melbourne Comedy Festival 2011)

He won the festival and then came back and did the Fun Magic Coloring Book for an encore.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOM PARISH!

POODLES HANNEFORD AND PERCY CLARKE (Undated, Circa 1930s)

Poodles Hanneford and Percy Clarke

ROSE HANLON (Undated, Circa late 40s)

Felix Adler in walkaround costume and Rose Hanlon of the famous Hanlon-Lees family.

JE SUIS CHARLIE

Courtesy of Beth Grimes

LOU JACOBS AND BLUCH LANDOLF (Undated, Circa 1930s)

Lou Jacobs and Bluch Landolf

JE SUIS CHARLIE

Courtesy of Greg Parks

FRANKIE SALUTO, JIMMY ARMSTRONG & SHORTY HINKLE (Undated, late 50s/early 60s)

Frankie Saluto, Jimmy Armstrong and Shorty Hinkle.
This may have been taken in the very early days of the Beatty-Cole show.

BERNARDO CRESPO: Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus (Circa 1970)

SHRINE CIRCUS PARADE: Austin, TX (1960s)

At the :18 mark look for International Clown Hall of Fame inductee Ernie "Blinko" Burch riding atop a truck, shooting balloons out into the crowd and wearing the same outfit he wore at the 1964 World's Fair putting this roughly in that timeframe.

If someone out there knows who the producers were for the Austin, TX Shrine dates in the 60s we could probably figure this out. Gil Gray did the Texas dates for many years. Blinko did a lot of work for Al Dobritch.

RBB&B: Under Canvas (Home Movie Footage 1950s)

Look for glimpses of Paul Jung's "Adam Smasher", Emmett Kelly, Charlie Bell, Paul Jerome, Joe Ward, Felix Adler and Paul Wenzel's silk and wire elephant/butterfly costumes all in three rings and two stages and all under canvas...

HAPPY LOU YEAR!

A very happy 2015 to one and all and a Happy Birthday to legendary American circus clown Lou Jacobs, who performed with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for 60 years, and was born January 1st 1903 in Bremerhaven, Germany.

MERRY CHRISTMAS: Peace On Earth, Goodwill to All (2014)

WALTER DARE WAHL AND EMMETT OLDFIELD: The Patty Page Show (1956)

CLOWN WORKSHOP WITH STEVE & RYAN IN FAIRFIELD, NJ: December 11, 2014

If you are a clown in the NY/NJ/CT/Eastern PA area, DO NOT MISS THIS WORKSHOP NEXT WEEK!!!

HOUSCH-MA-HOUSCH

SPIONE: Clown Scene (Fritz Lang, 1928)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACKO FOSSETT (11/11/22)

Photo courtesy of Sue Lenz

6 Comedy Lessons that Chuck Jones Learned From Tex Avery

Courtesy of Cartoon Brew

Click to read the entire piece written by Chuck Jones for the Sunday, August 31, 1980 edition of the Los Angeles Tribune.

In this 1980 tribute to legendary animation director Tex Avery, fellow legendary director Chuck Jones shared six lessons that he learned about comedy from working with Avery in the 1930s. The advice remains essential to any animation director working today:

1. You must love what you caricature. You must not mock it—unless it is ridiculously self-important, like the solemn live-action travelogues of that day.
2. You must learn to respect that golden atom, that single-frame of action, that 1/24th of a second, because the difference between lightning and the lightning bug may hinge on that single frame.
3. You must respect the impulsive thought and try to implement it. You cannot perform as a director by what you already know, you must depend on the flash of inspiration that you do not expect and do not know.
4. You must remember always that only man, of all creatures, can blush, or needs to; that only a man can laugh, or needs to, and that if you are in that trade of helping others to laugh and to survive by laughter, then you are privileged indeed.
5. Remember always that character is all that matters in the making of great comedians in animation and in live-action.
6. Keep always in your mind, your heart and your hand that timing is the essence, the spine, and the electrical magic of humor—and of animation.

PUDDLES PITY PARTY: Hallelujah (2014)