SPRING 2010 ISSUE 89
ISSN - 1359-4893
Page 14 Page 24 Page 36
A Marathon of a Flo’s Clownability Junior Social Show Show Pippa gives us a £7.50 A report on our Flow gives us a report on our first marathon of a report of a recent social held for show held in Milton show funded by Juniors Keynes. our Clownability Fund. 2 Contents 2 Content and Picture Index 32 Looking Up From Down Under 3 Editor’s Thoughts 33 Bonzo’s Bit...cont 4 Chairman’s Chatter 34 Serious Small Thoughts 5 Chairman’s Chatter...cont 36 Junior Christmas Social 6 The 34th Festival International Du Cirque 37 Your Photos 2 7 The 34th Festival International 38 Missive from Leipzig 1 from Hilary Chaplian Du Cirque...cont 39 Missive from Leipzig 1 from 8 A Thank You & To be Hilary Chaplian...cont Remembered Every Year 40 From the Notebook of the Custard Clowns 9 Bonzo’s Bit 41 From the Notebook of the 10 Greetings From Across The Pond Custard Clowns...cont 11 Greetings From Across The Pond...cont 42 Missive from Leipzig 2 from Hilary Chaplian 12 Humour from the Net: The 43 Missive from Leipzig 2 from Latest Darwin Awards Hilary Chaplian...cont 13 Humour from the Net: The Latest 44 Junior Christmas Social Comments Darwin Awards...cont 45 Bonzo’s Bit...cont 14 Milton Keynes Marathon Clown Show 46 Bubblz the Maths Clown 15 Your Photos 1 47 Bubblz the Maths Clown...cont 17 Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild 48 The Uplifting Programme 18 Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont 49 The Uplifting Programme...cont 19 Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont 50 The Uplifting Programme...cont 20 Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont 51 The Uplifting Programme...cont 21 Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont 52 Standing Order Form for C.I. 22 Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont Annual Subscription 24 Flo’s Clownability Show 53 C.I. Membership Application Form 25 Zazzy Comments 54 The Uplifting Programme...cont 26 Zazzy Comments...cont 55 The Uplifting Programme...cont 26 Junior Colouring Competition 56 The Uplifting Programme...cont 27 Calendar of Events 56 Hey I can do This 28 Clowning from The High Diving Board 57 Hey I can do This...cont 29 Join In 58 C.I. Egg Registration Form 29 Calendar of Events 59 Committee List and Contact Details 30 History Lesson 31 Quips for Kids
Picture Index 3 Stevie D 24 Flo (Mother Christmas) 4 Rainbow 25 Zaz from report in paper 10 Toto 25 Zaz 15 The Milton Keynes Group 26 Zaz on unicycle 15 Roly with the aid of Chris Stone and 28 High diving clowns Zaz rehearses his next role 34 BB Bubbles
Content and Picture Index 15 Flo as Mother Xmas 34 It’s all to much for BB 15 Jolly Jingle with Dizzy Dez 37 Ally Pally and Silkie and surprized shopper 37 Pepe and Conk 15 Benjo 37 Rainbow 15 Curley Wurley and shopper 37 Dotty 15 EEK gets his marching orders from Conk 37 Junior Party Group Photo 15 Conk blows the whistle 37 Tisha 17 Hal ‘Kirby Drill’ Brooks 40 The Custard Clowns 19 Hal with Ron Moody and Bingo 60 Sonny & Rainbow at Bognor Regis in 1985 21 Hal leading Clowns’ Procession in 1986 Cover - Matthew ‘ZAZ’ Indge
Editor - Stephen ‘Stevie D’ Davies
Design - Stephen ‘Stevie D’ Davies
Printing - Sarsen Press, Winchester Welcome to the first issue of “The Joey” for 2010 and my 3 first issue as Editor and Co-ordinator of our magazine (this may change at the AGM). May I first of all thank Caroline “Bubblz” Ainslie for all her work on “The Joey” and her enthusiasm that she has shown for the role.
Believe it or not, when “The Joey” comes through my letter box, it is as fresh to me as it is to you. Until now I have not read all the articles that you send in but just laid them out in the magazine. I hope that this can be the case in the future.
I believe our magazine is the best clown magazine around and I’m sure that with your help it will remain in that position. We rely on you, the members, to supply us with articles suitable for publishing and I would like to see more of you supplying items to be inserted into our great magazine. I would also like to see more articles showing how to do tricks or articles about building and using props so here’s your chance. Get writing, taking photo’s etc and let’s see those articles pouring in.
Once again thanks to all who contribute to this great magazine. Editor’s Thoughts Stevie D
Your magazine needs your input. We need articles/ reports, tricks, prop making and prop use, Hi res images. send to: [email protected] 4 Hello Everyone, A new year again, what should we try and do? As I sit here starting to write this, wondering what I might even write about, the news is on, telling of the dreadful devastating disaster of the Haiti earthquake. So I wonder, what is this sad and happy life all about? So far this New Year I have heard so many bad things about people being ill and passing away - and it’s only the 18th day. As I get older I realise how important it is to enjoy life. I believe we are lucky to be able to share and invite others to enjoy.
Talking of enjoying, I have just returned from Monte Carlo where I was fortunate to watch some marvellous exhilarating performances at the 34th Festival International du Cirque de Monte Carlo. I have talked of this great event before, but you have to go and watch to be able to understand how you come away feeling excited and exhilarated. Not only do I feel full of inspiration but a part of me feels scared at the thought I might be back in Monte Carlo in December to perform in the same ring as the wonderful artistes I have just seen.
[Ed Note: see separate write-up on this Cirque Festival elsewhere in this issue]
I will try and share some moments of magic: as music plays a performer (Alain Allegria), all in white, proudly walks into the ring. As he does so a trapeze falls slowly to his level, he stands on the trapeze and calms himself, balancing (using no hands) as the trapeze rises back up into the roof of the great circus tent. My heart is now pumping a little faster as I watch in astonishment that this man has no harness and has no net below, he is relying on his skill and years of practice, using only his body to swing the trapeze from side to side without holding on. He slows the swing down and turns as he swings the trapeze forward and back, now he kneels while swinging again without holding on. My heart is now gulping: to think, one mistake and this man could fall; then from the roof of the tent, he smiles as he grabs a chair hung on a nearby line. No, no, no,
Chairman’s Chatter Chairman’s surely not, I think! Is he mad? He places the chair across the trapeze from front to rear leg at a diagonal, then sits on the chair still swinging, everyone is silent and some cannot watch, now my heart is pumping and I feel hot, amazed and overwhelmed but also glad he comes safely down to ground level.
A non traditional clown, Rob Torres, enters. He is dressed in a light blue suite with quarter length trousers, black polished shoes, a small cone shaped cloth hat and a short dark haircut, carrying a box and a small briefcase. He puts down his tools and allows the crowds to clap, as we clap he reaches up for more applause, and more and more he stretches and we clap, he calms us down taking us low to the ground as he picks up the wooden box: he seems to put the applause into it, opening and shutting the box, he works us and laughs himself as he puts our applause into his box. His hat becomes a tool as he throws it and catches it, playing with the audience he throws it out, as the hat is thrown back he plays catch and then places a cross of tape on his hair so that the participant knows exactly where to throw it too, after so many attempts .YES, it lands on his head, with glee the performer runs across to a lady to take off the tape, he screams, shrieks and cries and we laugh. He walks back to the middle taking off his wig; more laughter erupts as he places his wig back on. He opens his brief case and shares its contents: a set of aluminium juggling cups with which he starts to juggle, performing many great tricks, he stops, awaiting applause, then suddenly he traps his thumb between two cups. He screams with pain and walks in pain towards the same lady beckoning her to kiss his thumb better, she does and he is better. He proceeds with his act adding a fourth cup, 5 yet whatever he does he cannot seem to catch that fourth cup, throwing them down and stamping the ground he bangs his nose and creates another reason for the same kiss from the poor lady, we are all in fits of laughter.
Again he carried on trying to catch the fourth, he puts them down and begins to walk away. You can feel how disheartened he is and we sympathise accordingly. Again he tries and suddenly he does it, WOW, there is an absolute joy all around as we applaud this great entertainer. He jumps for joy and crashes to the ground, doing the splits! Oh dear, he is in pain again as he yelps and holds his lower abdomen area: he struggles up and agonisingly hobbles towards the lady, cradling his privates. She is now crying with laughter as are most of the audience! Just before he gets to her he turns and laughs, waving at us and taking a deserved standing ovation.
A group of performers dressed in farmer-style costumes enter with pumping music, they are Les Chernievsky, acrobats. They dance and start to throw their bodies in ever- increasing difficult acrobatic twists and turns. The audience are spellbound and amazed by their antics. Gasps of breath! A young lad enters on stilts which are about eight feet high, he walks onto a see saw type apparatus holding onto two long poles - silence Chairman’s Chatter...cont seems to be the only way to watch. The audience hold their breath, the performer when ready nods, two others jump down onto the upper end of the apparatus as the young lad flies up and over through the air landing back on his stilts onto the crash mat held by others, gasps are not enough as we applaud unanimously, they all then dance again - each performer smiling as they feel the audience’s hearts. Out from the curtains comes another young lad, this time on a single pogo-stick type stilt. “NO WAY”, I think to myself, as he hops across to the same apparatus, and again we are subject to the agonising torture of watching a somersault and landing. I cannot explain the feeling of watching in awe at these great acrobats: they danced and cheered and yes, another deserved standing ovation from us.
A trio of clowns (Les Rossyann) which include a traditional European Whiteface perform with many musical instruments which include xylophones, saxophones, trombone and trumpets. The xylophones are the first to be played, with great pace, each clown hit the designated notes as the live band above play the background music, faster and faster, faster they go. They finish with splendour. The Whiteface then places a saxophone ready to his mouth, the Auguste picks up a trumpet and places his arm from behind in front of the Whiteface with trumpet, somehow the Whiteface plays the trumpet being held by the Auguste and the Auguste plays the saxophone being held by the Whiteface. The Auguste plays two trumpets with a piercing wonderful sound. I can only be in awe once again.
The circus continues with animals such as lions, elephants, dogs, birds, sea lions and horses. I can’t begin to try and explain, I saw two shows each lasting about four hours and not once was I bored; I have only tried to give a glimpse of some items I saw. To say I am feeling inspired is an understatement.
So in conclusion I go back to the beginning, be inspired: there is a lot of sad news, we are here as clowns to try and help people forget (just for a while) the traumas life may bring. I will try and do that in my little world, with my piece of time I have. I look forward to seeing you all in March at Bognor Regis, I am already planning a parade gag...... , hee hee.
Happy New Year Rainbow 6 The 34th Festival International du Cirque, de Monte Carlo, January 2010 by Clown Bluey
Conk and I once again travelled to Monaco to see the annual Circus Championships and were not disappointed by two magnificent Shows. Acts from all over the world compete for seven prizes, the main three being the Clowns d’Or (Gold), Clowns d’Argent (silver) and Clowns de Bronze (bronze); additional prizes include the Coupe de S.A.S. La Princesse Antoinette, the Prix de Jury Junior International, the Prix du Public and the Prix Speciaux.
This year’s Jury were: Ms Xia Juhua (China), Davio Casartelli (Italy), Mykola Kobzov (Ukraine), Maxim Nikulin (Russia), Bruno Antares (France) and our own Hon Vice- President from Blackpool Tower Circus, Laci Endresz (England). The 1st Show
The first Show was quite a marathon, starting at 8.00pm and finishing at 12.30pm! Totalling 16 acts, but not counting the Opening Parade and the Finale, it encompassed a fantastic variety of acts including four animal acts. I particularly enjoyed the sealion act of Petra and Roland Duss – a fun presentation and you could see the sealions thoroughly enjoying themselves. U.K.’s Martin Lacy Jnr presented his superb group of Lions – his final scene with his huge male lion (which he has raised since a cub), with both of them standing on a large rotating glitter ball, was particularly poignant. There was an unusual trio of large tusked African Elephants presented by Sonni Frankello and there was also a pidgeon act whilst a couple of acts also had a dog involved. Les Rossyann were musical clowns: a traditional Whiteface and two Augustes. Their musical number was good, but their second act in the second half – a hat-throwing sequence was laboured and disappointing. Rob Torres from the USA, a modern clown with no ‘slap’ was engaging and kept the audience’s attention with the ‘applause in a box’ routine and some clever juggling with metal cones. A group of nine pretty girl contortionists from Mongolia worked brilliantly on three separate pedestals, before all working together as one group on one pedestal in the Finale. But there is no doubt that the outstanding acts of the night for me were a group from Cirque du Soleil who were immaculate performing on four Russian Bars simultaneously, and the final act of the evening, the outstanding Les Chernievsky, acrobats from Russia, whose wonderful and daring somersaults on and off stilts was quite breathtaking. The 2nd Show:
At just 4 hours, a little shorter than the previous evening’s Show, but still some great acts. The sealions, the Elephants and Lion Acts were retained, whilst clowns Les Rossyann performed a well-timed ‘catching the bullet’ entree which show-cased how many ways you can fall off or on a chair, with subsequently many broken plates! A good rousing Zulu Troupe with their typical carefree acrobatics set the pace for the evening. A Trio called ‘Starbugs” were three young men resurrecting an old Music Hall entree: perfectly timed physical theatre performed to recorded sound effects, they were very funny and popular, appearing three times in this show, although I felt the third entree was one
The 34th Festival International Du Cirque too many. The Troupe Acrobatique de Shandong, from China, were outstanding – their group acrobatic work immaculate and exciting. A quite wonderful low wire act from Julien Posada, evoking memories of the superb flamenco dancing on the wire of Australian Con Colleano, was spoilt in some ways because of his dark attire and black shoes: a lot of his dazzling footwork would have been much more appreciated had it been easier to see by wearing white or sequinned trousers / leotards and white shoes. So much of his excellent performance faded into the background of this huge ring. La Salima, a pretty girl performing corde lisse in the previous show also suffered in this way: wearing what appeared to be dark blue trousers and top, her act high in the Big Top would have been improved appreciably had her costume not merged into the dark blue of the Tent’s ceiling! The Flying Michaels were an impressive flying trapeze act, but I feel they were not as good in comparison to an act seen last year who attempted and succeeded with a quadruple somersault – but an excellent act, non-the-less. 7 The Finale act was a wild and exciting horse riding troupe, La Troupe Eshembikov – lots of somersaults on and off the horses, whilst galloping at breakneck speed around the ring – very exhilarating and exciting to watch.
An excellent show and one which perhaps was marginally better because it was 30’ shorter! Time and editorial space restraints don’t allow me to comment on all the acts seen, but both shows were extremely impressive, with the Royal Family attending every The 34th Festival International Du Cirque...cont show, HSH Princess Stephanie of Monaco also being the President of the Organising Committee. The 2010 Winners are:
CLOWN D’OR Martin Lacey Jr - Présentation de Fauves Troupe de Shandong - Numéro d’Icariens
CLOWN D’ARGENT Les Flying Michaels - Trapèze volant Les Anges du Cirque du Soleil Troupe Eshimbekov – Djiguites Petra et Roland Duss - Présentation d’ Otaries
CLOWN DE BRONZE Les Garcia - Duo Aérien Les Rossyanns - Clowns Musicaux Sonni Frankello - Présentation d’ Eléphants
PRIX SPECIAL DU JURY Troupe Chernievsky - Numéro de bascule
COUPE DE S.A.S. LA PRINCESSE ANTOINETTE (au plus jeune artiste du Festival) Acro Trio
Could you fill this space? Could you describe how to make a prop? Could you right a report/story about you or about an event you attended? Then contact the editor and send your work in. 8 To everyone at Clowns International,
I just wanted to say a huge, huge, huge Thank You to you all! When I received this winter’s issue of ‘The Joey’ I was off to work and it did me no good as my make up was spoilt from all the tears! But seriously, Thank you so much for all your tributes and memories - they’re amazing. I’m so proud that my Grandad was such a special man and so many people loved him as much as I did.
I hope to still be able to join you at some of CI’s events in 2010 and onwards, the family and I will be making a trip down to Wookey Hole and Clown Bluey sometime in the New Year with all of Grandad’s motley, I can’t wait as I’ve never been to the Clown Museum!
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and all the best for the New Year!
Love and laughter
Ellie-May James xxx (Taffy’s Granddaughter)
To be remembered every year... (I would just like to start by apologising for the delay in getting this article completed)
As I am sure you are all aware, late 2009 saw the passing of Ian “Taffy” James, a great clown, but most of all a great person, whose priority stood always for others before himself. I had known Taffy for nowhere near as long as many of you but had met him on several occasions, usually when he would come to the Bristol Magic Society and sometimes perform some of his great ideas and routines that were sure to have everyone aching with laughter immediately.
On the 5th November a tribute to Taffy’s life was held just outside central Cardiff where myself, and many other clowns attended to pay our respects to a friend and fellow clown. After all the clowns had applied their slap and motley we made our way to the church entrance, where we greeted the family as they arrived to what you might call a quite large turnout. The church full of friends, family and the sounds of an old time barrel organ gave the setting for a moving yet light hearted service. At the front of the church a table was laid out with Taffy’s shoes and trademark cap, in front of which many stood to share stories about his wonderful life and achievements.
The service did happen to fall on my birthday, but I don’t think I could have spent it in a A Thank You & To be Remembered Every Year be Remembered Every & To You Thank A better place and he will certainly never be forgotten.
P.S. A big thanks to Nangaz and Roly for kindly letting me hitch a lift!
Plus a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! Jazzy THE LAST OF THE DINOSAURS 9 By Monty (Bonzo the (almost) famous clown) Wells.
If you haven’t read that excellent book ‘Broken Hearted Clown’ by Butch Reynolds, then you should do. I know that it is out of print but I think there is a copy in the Gallery library, your local library may be able to get hold of it for you or, if you have a spare arm and a leg, David Drummond will probably have one in stock. I know very little about copyright laws etc. but if it is at all possible, I think this book would be eminently suitable for serialisation in future ‘Joeys’. The delight I get from reading it is, apart from the fact that Mr Reynolds writes about acts that I saw as a kid, he gives a very good insight into the nitty-gritty life of a small travelling show. Although his description of the hardships of life on the road helped put me off running away to join a circus, it did not stop me. In fact, it fired my ambition of becoming a professional clown. In 1951 Britain was just emerging from the grip of wartime austerity and I was just emerging from National Service in the R.A.F. and I was about to take the entertainment world by storm, or so I thought. For some reason, I don’t know why, I imagined a comedy entertainer should have a funny wig! Where do I get a wig? An ad in the ‘Stage’ for a firm in Soho called Nathan Wigs sounded promising. The hand knotted, human hair creations from this establishment, I discovered, would cost me more than I could earn in a year - indeed to hire one for a few weeks would cost more than I had paid for my best suit! This was when words like ‘acrylic’ and ‘Made in Taiwan’ were fifteen years or so in the future. My old Mum said she thought that her Dad had had a ginger wig at one time but her sister EmiIy had taken Bonzo’s Bit it along with some other stuff when the old boy died (eighteen years previously)! I paid a visit to Auntie Emily and broached the subject of Grandpa’s ginger wig. Yes, she still had it, she thought. Yes, it was in a brown suitcase in the attic ... if I liked to go up and get it I could have it. I got it. It was a hand-knotted human hair ‘scratch’ wig as worn by many comedy turns (as Grandpa had been) on the halls in the middle to late 1800’s. It was at least sixty years old and it appeared that mice had nested in it whilst it was incarcerated in the attic. Even this I could have lived with, but the large hole cut in the middle, Auntie Emily explained, was where she had used a bit of it for the head of a doll she had made for a raffle for the ‘Spitfire Fund’ back in 1942.
After messing about with unravelled rope, string and crepe hair for a while I eventually gave up the idea of a wig for the foreseeable future. Make-up at that time was not all that easy to get hold of. I suppose Charles Fox was in business but I found a supplier a little nearer home. There was a large music store just a few yards from Aldgate Pump called Ebblewhite & Sons (I forget the initial) and they sold everything musical from a gramophone needle, (ask your Granny what that is!) to a Bechstein Grand piano. In a drawer under the counter was kept a few boxes containing sticks of Leichener grease paint and slim little booklets on ‘Stage Make- up for Amateur Theatricals’. I paid 1/6d (about 8p) for one, took it home and studied it intently, then I started to practise and eventually I could put on a passable ‘5 & 9’ without too much trouble. This was a suntan effect made by blending Leichener No 5 & No 9 (one was a brick red the other was an ivory colour - I can’t remember which was which). The book told you to powder over your make-up with Rose Blending Powder and brush off the surplus with a - wait for it - ‘a hare’s foot’! Ever done it? Well I have ‘cos the book said I should. Although the little concert party I was with normally played church halls and community centres on platforms usually lit with little more than a couple of 100 watt bulbs or open air park theatres with no lighting at all, we all put on full make-up with eye liner etc. because we were ‘On the Stage!.
My clown make-up was a bit easier because I just did what I wanted to. Tried this and that until I got what I thought was a fair clown ‘slap’. I had heard or read somewhere that circus clowns frowned on the younger, newer Joey’s if they painted the big white ‘grin’ around the mouth, they felt they were being ‘forward’ and they should serve their apprenticeship before doing so and I thought, much as I wanted to, I should refrain but for how long? I did a kids show one Saturday in the early sixties for the South Croydon Liberal and Radical Club. Also Continued on page 33 10 Greetings From “Across The Pond”! We all absolutely LOVE clowning when everything falls into place, the audiences respond with laughter and applause, the weather is gorgeous and all is right with the world.
This article is NOT going to be about those kind of gigs!
How do you react when you arrive at an event that has not been advertised very well, has an entrance fee that is too high, and starts off on a day filled with torrential rain?
Some of you might just turn around and head home. Some of you might complain quite loudly to anyone who might listen and make a bad situation even worse. I would hope that most of you would do EXACTLY what 18 clowns…myself included…just did October 1-8, 2009 in Shanghai, China.
The 2009 Shanghai Vogue Life Carnival had the potential to attract tens of thousands of people…but 2 major stumbling blocks came into play.
First, the sponsors were not able to advertise the festival as much as needed. Part of the carnival included the first ever International Body Painting Festival and Competition to be held in China… but even as the event was about to start, the government had not determined whether body painting was “art” or “pornography”. Many meetings were held and many changes were made as to what the models had to wear (final decision: halter tops and bikini bottoms) and when the public could view them. Eventually all of the details worked out and incredibly exquisite and elaborate body painting was on display…but it was too late to do a great deal of advertising to let the public know about it.
Second, the sponsors had set the entrance price quite high. I am not sure whether Greetings From Across The Pond Greetings From they believed that the unique combination of clown shows, balloon fashion shows, body painting, and Japanese animation displays warranted such a high admission or if they simply were trying to make a lot of money or what exactly their reasoning was. It did not work. The “crowds” inside the main stage area remained quite small all week, while the crowds in the promotional (free) areas in beautiful Fuxing Gongyuan (Fuxing Park) were HUGE.
These setbacks…while unfortunate…did not dampen the spirits of the 18 clowns from the USA performing in Shanghai. Neither did the pouring rain that completely washed out our opening day. Each group of 6 clowns presented their 45 minute stage show once that day to an audience of perhaps 8-12 of the festival volunteers who stood huddled under umbrellas. We all looked at it as a “dress rehearsal” for when the crowds arrived and the weather turned nice. While parts of our shows remained under the relatively dry covered sections of the grand stage, other parts took place on the long catwalk…open and exposed to the elements. Many clowns looked like drowned rats as they came off 11 stage…but not a single clown uttered a single complaint.
The weather did improve but the crowds never really did pay the admission price to attend the main stage shows. We performed for anywhere from 20-200 people at each show. Big crowds or small we gave it our all….and the audiences saw some fantastic clowning! Greetings From Across The Pond...cont Of the 18 clowns invited to perform at the 2009 Shanghai Vogue Life Carnival, 15 had performed in China before. I personally knew 16 of the 18 clowns…and can now add the other 2 to my list of friends. Each of the clowns brought their character and talents to the shows…and exhibited ultimate professionalism in the face of adversity.
Backstage resembled the old “Clown Alley” I remember from my days with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus…and well it should as 16 of us had worked for “The Greatest Show on Earth” at one time or another in our careers. Old stories were told, practical jokes were played, and spirits were high. It was a joy to spend time with these fine folks both on stage and off!
The 2009 Shanghai Vogue Life Carnival could have turned into a miserable 8 day (11 for me as I also did a short promotional tour prior to the other clowns’ arrival) “pity party” if a clown had a bad attitude. Yes…the crowds could have been bigger….but they were not. Why worry about that? The folks who did pay admission to see the main stage shows were there to be entertained…and they were! We had the opportunity to perform in SHANGHAI, CHINA with old and dear friends…and do some sightseeing to boot! The crowds inside the gates may have been small but the crowds in the free promotional areas were indeed very large. Really…what was there to complain about…a little rain on the first day?
On a scale of 1-100 I would give my very best trip to China a 98. This was my 5th trip to China to perform in the past 2 ½ years and this was the trip in which I encountered the most “problems’…and it still gets a 90 from me.
How would you have handled being a clown at the 2009 Shanghai Vogue Life Carnival? Would you have moped and sulked and complained…or would you have jumped right in with both feet and had a blast like we did?
With very best wishes to you all and until next time…
“Toto” Johnson www.totojohnson.com 12 Humour from the Net: The Latest Darwin Awards
The Darwins are out!!!!
Yes, it’s that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honouring the least evolved among us.
Here is the glorious winner:
1. When his 38 calibre revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
And now, the honourable mentions:
2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef’s claim was approved.
3. A man who shovelled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.
4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies.. The deception wasn’t discovered for three days.
5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.
6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer, $15. [If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?]
7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly.. He decided that he’d just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.
8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. Humour from the Net: The Latest Darwin Awards Humour from the Net: The Latest Darwin They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, “Yes, officer, that’s her. That’s the lady I stole the purse from.”
9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn’t open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren’t available for breakfast... The man, 13 frustrated, walked away. [*A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER]
10. When a man attempted to syphon gasoline from a motorhome parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted trying to steal gasoline, but he plugged his syphon Humour from the Net: The Latest Darwin Awards...cont hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had.
INTERNATIONAL CLOWN HALL OF FAME AND RESEARCH CENTER SENDS IN THE CLOWNS–AND BRINGS MUCH MORE – TO BARABOO, WI, USA World’s Foremost Organization Dedicated To The Preservation Of The Art, Craft And History Of Clowning Names Greg DeSanto Executive Director
Baraboo, WI (January 18, 2010) – A bright addition to Baraboo’s unique circus heritage was revealed today as The International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center announced the opening of its new headquarters in America’s Circus City.
Internationally renowned for its research and involvement in the art, craft and history of clowning, the ICHOF boasts the world’s most wide-ranging collection of clown artifacts and memorabilia, including wardrobe and props from many of the most famous names in clowning history.
“We are delighted to send in the clowns – and send them to Baraboo, back home where they belong,” said Greg DeSanto, recently named the ICHOF’s Executive Director. Himself a celebrated clown and circus historian, DeSanto, a Baraboo resident, performed at the Circus World Museum for over seven years. He’s also been featured in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the Big Apple Circus and other major shows around the world.
As we expand our presence in Baraboo, we hope that scholars and historians and the public at large will experience our fascinating exhibits and extensive archives,” DeSanto says.
Founded in Delevan, WI in 1986, the ICHOF was created as a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization, honouring and supporting the international art of clowning. The first and only group of its kind, it provides both rich research opportunities and educational outreach, along with the world’s largest collection of artifacts and collections concerning the art of clowning.
In 1988, the ICHOF began enshrining international artists who have enhanced and advanced the art of the clown. Since then, sixty-one performers have been inducted into the Hall, including Red Skelton, Lou Jacobs, Emmett Kelly, Otto Griebling, Felix Adler, Barry Lubin, Bobby Kaye, Jimmy Williams, Frosty Little, Steve Smith, Grock, Charlie Chaplin and Bill Irwin. The prestigious Lifetime of Laughter achievement award is also presented annually.
Fulfilling its commitment to community outreach, the Hall’s Caring Clown program provides therapeutic humour for children and their families at the Milwaukee’s Children’s Hospital. With Long Term Laughter Care, the ICHOF brings fun and comfort to residents at skilled nursing facilities and assisted living centres.
“We are honoured to join the Circus World Museum and the Al Ringling Theatre as key spokes in Barboo’s celebrated wheel of circus history,” adds DeSanto. “We welcome residents and visitors alike to join us in our ongoing efforts to promote and preserve the grand and glorious history of hilarity.”
The International Clown Hall of Fame: http://www.theclownmuseum.org/
Thanks to Pat Cashin’s clownalley.net for this press release: http://clownalley.net/ 14 Milton Keynes Marathon Clown Show A superb effort on behalf of Clowns International saw over 30 Clowns converge on Milton Keynes for a wonderful event held at the centre, proper title ‘thecentremk’, a large shopping complex in the centre of the town. We had been invited to perform as part of the centre’s Christmas Show and were using the opportunity to allow acts to be judged for the annual C.I. Awards.
What a fantastic turnout from the members! There were about forty Clowns attending with thirty actually performing during the show. Zaz had brought his ‘mini-ring’ as a performance space. It was the first time I’d seen it and as well as a large circular mat with wooden ringfence, there is also a backdrop with a ‘centre’ entrance so it has all the trappings of a Circus Ring and gave a really good defined area for clowns to work in. The PA was provided by the centre and although we had a few gremlins with the radio mics, it worked well most of the time.
The judging panel were the ‘three wise men’, Bluey, Chris Stone and Roly. The three wise men analogy was most appropriate for Roly, who’s parade prop was a ‘sit-on’ camel! I hope there’s a picture otherwise I’ll just leave that to your imagination.
We’d been given the arrival time of Noon and after negotiating the many roundabouts of Milton Keynes I arrived just on time. Changing facilities were in the centre’s crèche and it was interesting to see so many large folk trying to sit on such small chairs! There was one adult chair and it was fiercely guarded by whoever had control of it at any time.
At one o’clock we all met near our working area and mingled with the shoppers. Lot’s of fun was had and I enjoyed chasing after coulrophobes – well if they are going to say they are scared of Clowns – might as well scare them say I.
The parade followed and we marched, literally at first, around the massive site. The reason for the marching was that, for those who’ve not tried to organise a group of clowns, it is like herding cats. Whistles, shouting orders and general bullying eventually got everyone into line and off we went … left, right, left, right, keep in line you horrible lot! This military precision lasted about three seconds before the herding cats technique began again.
The performances started at three thirty and all acts were asked to keep under ten minutes. The program was as follows:
Conk, Gingernutt, Flo (as Mother Christmas) and Clown Boris, Bluey and Conk, Tom Fun, Mr Mudge and Pippa, Zaz, Roly, Julius, Julian the Juggler and Pepe, Flo (as Mother Christmas) and Clown Boris (2nd act), Gingernutt (2nd act), Silly Soapy with Cheeky Girl and Cheeky Kid, Jolly Jingles, Jester Jim and Ana Prentice, Dr Quackers and Max, Flo (as Mother Christmas), Dizzy Dez, Julius and Bubblz, Mr Mudge, Jester Jim, Pippa and finally after four hours non stop performance – Bubblz.
EEK was ringmaster and MC for the day, Bluebottle was stage hand and Conk was technical support. Also in attendance were Curly Wurly, Slapstick with his carers Kim and Haley, Stevie D, Alex Oddball and Junior Clown Benjo.
A wonderful day and everyone was exhausted by the end of the marathon show. I think one of the reasons everyone enjoyed it so much was summed up by Flo who suggested that as most Clowns International events are early in the year (New Years parade, Bognor, Grimaldi, Denmark) it was a great opportunity for us all to meet up having not seen each other for most of the year.
Milton Keynes Marathon Clown Show Certainly for me it was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and to introduce myself to some clowns I’d not met before. It was also a great opportunity to see so many clowns working. I always enjoy parades and it was great seeing some tactics used by participants in this indoor environment where bicycles and other vehicles couldn’t be used. Of the acts themselves, some had me laughing out loud and others had me in awe of the skills required.
I had to set off home but a lot of the folk there were all going onto a ‘social’ in a local hostelry – I imagine that is another story!
EEK
Editor’s Note: Our Vice President & Festival Organiser Clown Bluey would like to pass on his thanks to all those members who made the effort to attend this event which was arranged at quite short notice at a very busy time of the year for most clowns. 15 Your Photos 1 16
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www.equity.org.uk [email protected] 020 7670 0235 Royalty and The Guild. 17 It was while I was in the Sussex Guild that I first got ‘acquainted’ with royalty. The big news was that Prince Charles was going to attend Ardingly for the South of England Agricultural Show. We were discreetly told he would be visiting our crafts marquee, possibly talking with some of us about our work. I was to be one of our members to have that honour. Came the day, if the presence of more than a usual complement of police wasn’t a pointer that someone of import was expected the activity inside our tent was. These large plain-clothed rozzers had a more than a casual look around to see what we had under our tables, Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild in our cases, and I wouldn’t wonder, in our pockets as well. Uniformed coppers holding eager inquisitive hounds in check, or nearly so, finished the job. The inquisitive flowing movement of these guardians of the peace then gently flowed out of the tent to do their business in some other spot where the royal footsteps would shortly tread. A period of expectancy then followed. Charles entered out tent later than stated in the itinerary shown to us previously. It appears he had been delayed in another part of the show, by a presentation of some sort. I bet you’ve guessed it. I was the last to be presented of our lot. Whilst chatting to the next table an aide appeared, whisper, whisper, whisper, and they departed. I know I’ve already used these couple of words to sum up various parts of this epistle of mine, but here goes once more: Ahh well! It doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to think if only I had had a few minutes of his time to give him the same demonstration I’d given the honourable professor, in Woking, he might have recognised the two pieces of my work now to be chosen by his friend, for his fortieth birthday! What a to-do. All the ‘nearly got there bits’ came flooding back from previous years. Pierre and I getting on ITV and BBC. Being in a film with Billy Cotton. Filming with Pat Boone and Co. Being a subject for a thirty minute feature for the BBC “Look Stranger” series, and so on. I won’t mention being blown up in Jersey as at least that did make the national press, and of course it was more of a direct hit than a near miss. You can’t help but laugh at the way things work out sometimes, and in Jersey I was in stitches. Seven of them in my forehead! Anyway back to the visit of Professor Laithwaite and his charming wife to see what I could suggest for a suitable royal birthday gift. When you come to think of what a person like Prince Charles would have been presented with from all over the world on occasions, I should have been chuffed, and I was, very much. There was only one snag. At the time I could not betray any confidences of my customers so was unable to talk about it. This is the first time I have gone into any details. I had never thought much about giving specific names for my large sculptures. I should have done so. It would have made it easier to identify them in writing. One of the pieces was designed for the Cathedral exhibition, with a cross in its centre. The other was a continuous saw cut contained in a way that you could wobble it to amuse onlookers. I understand they were well received, and successful. Another time I came within touching distance of the Royals was a fun day put on by the Variety Club of Great Britain. A lot of disadvantaged children were bussed into the grounds of the Mansion House for a day out amongst us clowns. They were feted and fed and we all worked hard to amuse them. The Duchess of Kent was the big draw. She was the guest of honour at a luncheon party put on by the Variety Club as a fund raising event. I enjoyed the food put on for us working outside amongst the youngsters. But my 18 very large clown pockets could not have stretched to the price of a ticket allowing me to eat inside. Mind you, she was worth every penny the paying guests were forking out to sit down with her. I admired the lady tremendously. A true worker for valiant causes. The money raised was to be ploughed into even more of the Sunshine coaches that had bussed the children in for the do. I did notice the sterling work being done by a group of clowns greeting the generous paying guests as they arrived. And I noticed Mr Woo played a leading role here. Afterwards we were awarded beautiful certificates to commemorate the event, and saying ‘thank you’ for our co-operation. David Barnes, ‘Barney’, got in touch again. ‘Would I like to take part in the Children’s Royal Command Performance’? I was unaware of such an event but didn’t hesitate to accept. The performance would be held in the Victoria Palace Theatre. The BBC booked us into a London hotel the day prior to the show. Trevor Pharo, Bingo the Clown, took us both in his car and that made it very acceptable. I always disliked driving into the city. Princess Margaret was to attend. Prior to the star-studded stage show being put on for our young audience, our party of about twenty ‘funnies’ were told to line the stairs leading from the foyer to her box, providing a guard of honour. The press and television crews were very busy on the stairway, causing it to be somewhat crowded. It all went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, I was on the blind side of the cameras up the stairs, so the looking in Londoners were quite unaware of my efforts to look terribly ‘in earnest’ whilst holding my umbrella high above Her Royal Highness as she climbed the stairs. Doing a mix and mingle job amongst the occupied theatre seats, I did notice the television boffins had anxious looks on their faces. An enormous net of balloons hung overhead, and every now and again one would pop off. The young audience loved it, the sound boys were not amused. So the balloons were let out prior to the show being recorded. None of us was invited to do anything on the stage that night. Strange that. Most of us were fully paid up members of Equity and professionals to boot. Perhaps it was because we were more widely referred to as children’s entertainers, and after all the show was the Children’s Royal Command Performance. When the show was on, we discreetly hunted around for any sandwiches that might be available back stage. A few weeks before, the Winter Olympic Games had thrown into prominence a young daredevil skier who had literally flown into everyone’s heart with his giant leaps for English sport. On the Richter scale he had barely avoided dropping off the bottom, but his courage was highly visible to all. It was ‘Eddie the Eagle’. A lovely name to have bestowed on a lovely lad. He had been one of the celebrities of the moment gathered to provide an added attraction for the cheering masses that occupied the theatre seats. Eddie was in the same state as we were, hungry. We met him in the darker depths of the theatre, also on the prowl for grub. A nice lad, and a joy to meet someone who had done something you know you could not have done yourself, even if it had been by ‘Royal Command.’ There is lots of manoeuvring about in these eighties and nineties of mine. Unlike
Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont the running order in a theatre, my memory has a job keeping on the time track. But one thing is certain, all these things happened. So much seems to have been our lot to work through that I wonder how we found the time to do it all. One answer might be in the date of the 16th November 2006. Deena and I had then been wed sixty years. The diamond slot. The cottons, wood, opal, silver and gold have all relentlessly been overtaken along with the rest of the wedding anniversaries. I’ve gathered a few splinters on the way. Once was when after much aggravation on my part my lovely girl threw a hock of bacon at me. I don’t remember whether it was smoked or not. It all ended, as usual, in laughter. 19 We were coming up to momentous times with the Clown Club. And things, they are a changing! So sang Bob Dylan the troubadour. The folk singers had always to put happenings into songs. After a lot of strumming of chords, a preliminary bedding down of the subject, out comes the real message. And that’s what was happening with the International Circus Clowns Club. It was slipping into reality by becoming Clowns International. No longer was the bulk of us having any tie with a circus, in our country at least, let alone touring the summer months away from where we lived. And the modelling balloon industry was beginning to expand quite nicely thank you. The magic shops were also doing well. There was no way of stopping any entertainer putting on a red nose and Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont declaring himself a clown. More importantly I think is the realisation that lots of people like me were having to be part timers. In the beginning I remember at my first meetings with the club, I was loathe to stand up and air my views of the current trends, because I had this feeling of guilt about not being strictly bound to get a living out of clowning. Especially for the amount of wages that had to be demanded to carry you from one engagement to another. The television programme ‘Kilroy’ had us on their programme. His method of creating a discussion for television was presenting two sides of a current difficulty to argue it out in front of the cameras. The invited audience were supposed to be a mix of circus folk and us. Us being the children’s entertainers primarily. But there were no two sides in the studio. There wasn’t one full time circus clown with us there. All the front row were microphoned up and our every word was heard. Members without a mic pinned to their lapel had to wait for Mr Silk himself to thrust the one mobile mic under their noses, for their comments to be heard in a meaningful way. We all liked dressing in a way that put us apart. A made up face and red nose, our object was to create laughter. All over the world my fellow clowns were doing this, but it seemed to me we were working in isolation, and we needed to get together. So we did what other groups in a tight community had always done, we had planned a grand get together, a ‘convention’. The first person I heard mouthing the word was Trevor Pharo, Clown Bingo. Once uttered the momentum started to build. I can only relate what was happening in Bognor Regis. We were not a big town but within a radius of twenty miles or so we had quite an array of non-circus clowns about the place. Bingo and myself were all for the convention being held in Bognor. Butlin’s were keen, and they also held out the prospect of being able to accommodate all the visiting clowns. The local council was supportive, and in the event even the police were encouraged to put on red noses, as a mark of solidarity. Bognor Regis was already in the top register of sunshine resorts, and Royalty in the past had proclaimed its healing attributes, hence the Regis bit. Anyway we were certainly not an unknown backwater, and not too big. We had a very good chance to include the whole community in the venture. It was solely for that 20 reason Trevor and I put so much effort into its beginnings. The fact that we were living locally meant we got called on for all sorts that required a body on the ground. The first official convention programme had fine photos of the organisers, Bingo, Barney and Doni. David Barnes, ‘Barney’, had plenty of experience organising large groups. Don Stacey, ‘Doni’, was a journalist for the “Worlds Fair”, who could make himself heard internationally. Trevor Pharo, was a business representative for a graphics firm, and had enough drive for all of us. My part was as a co-opted member to deal with schools and raise enthusiasm for the ‘Grand Clown Parade from the Bognor Regis Station to the Regis Centre’, as stated in the programme. It didn’t quite work out like that. We all assembled in town by the library for the great walk. We were lucky to have Councillor Mrs Margaret Tullet as Chairman of the Arun District Council that year. A delightful person who was an enormous help in bridging the gap between officialdom and the humble citizen. She became well versed in putting on a red nose as the celebration progressed. We all met frequently. Our friends from Butlin’s, the police, council officials and the clowns. One name that stands out for me, was Roger Quinton, a council officer, who looked after my immediate needs and helped me do the school rounds to bump up interest in the convention. My ploy was get the children interested and excited, then along would come their families as well. Deena and I composed a letter that we sent around to all the local school heads, briefly setting out the marvellous occasion that would soon descend upon Bognor in the guise of a hundred or so clowns. It stated these funny men from all over the country and beyond, had chosen Bognor Regis for their first convention, or get together, and hoped all the good citizens of said seaside resort would join in the fun and entertainments. ‘To enable the children and adults to join in as well, we would like them all to take part in the Grand Procession on the Saturday’. It would make its colourful way through the town to the forecourt of the Regis Entertainments Centre where our President, Ron Moody, would do the honours and officially open the celebrations. ‘We hope the children will want to dress up and join in. To this end, will you allow me thirty minutes of your school’s time to show how easy one can dress as a clown without great expense’. We sent this letter out in plenty of time for the head teachers to make arrangements for the visit. Using the same technique as for road safety, allowing them to select an afternoon or morning visit on a day of their choice, within the period I was touring. Trevor saw to the financial arrangements to spend two weeks work, doing so. The first time out I managed to gather seven schools to visit. Next year I spread the catchment area wider, and so on, with each subsequent convention. In the fourth year I was invited to over twenty-five schools, such was the interest shown. The show I took round to the schools had a similar formula as with road safety. Comedy to gain interest before putting across the real purpose for my visit. Using specially made props I suggested funny items for them to copy if they had no ideas of their own. How to make wigs. Jolly up old footwear. Use patches with stitches that could be taken off afterwards if necessary. Making a red nose by cutting out a space in a red
Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont coloured table tennis ball. Encouraging mums and dads to put on a bit of makeup. Better still, getting all the family to take part.. Reading this now it’s hard to realise that in 1985 there were very few joke and party shops about as there are now. Not in our area anyway. I took a few noses with me. Some with elastic attached as well as the clip on types. Later I left a couple of pages of ideas for the art teachers to add to their own instructions on the subject of dressing up and being funny. Jokes on a stick sort of thing. Give them something they could do whilst walking through town. Wavers, whistles, and the like. Carry a school banner, let everybody know where you come from. The school visits paid off. We had a very good turn out for a first time. I made myself a stop and go symbol on a broom handle to control the children en route. I led 21 from the front. Out went the clowns, the bands, the stewards, and we followed. A small but very pretty children’s marching group, wearing white curly wigs, leading. It was enchanting. Up London Road through the town to the Regis Centre. Crowds all the way, cheering, waving, laughing, some grandparents crying. We slowly wound our way to the Place St Maur where Ron Moody and the organisers, plus distinguished visitors, awaited us in an open-topped bus. I was still busy seeing to the various schools’ children and keeping us all together while the greetings, speeches and other formalities proceeded.
Then a lovely surprise, Mrs Highly, headmistress of Climping School and her Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont husband, also a head teacher, drove into sight in their well worn estate car loaded with soft drinks and biscuits for the young marchers. A much welcomed surprise. She had organised this on her own initiative, unbeknownst to me. Anyway, she taught us all a lesson and in subsequent years we made provision for it to be a properly organised part of the programme. Starting in 1986 I was able, through the generosity of local shopkeepers, to organise a small gift for each child as well. The fact that in the district we had an internationally known company of seaside rock makers, Lewingtons, to call on, helped. I made myself known to them and they kindly did up a batch of rock with the name Bognor Regis, printed in red letters right through. That in itself is an achievement that takes some licking! They never called it a batch, to them it was a boiling, and for us it was at a much reduced price. In 1987 they supplied us with rock bananas. Each year we changed it where we could. Any of these sweetmeats left over we used as prizes for other things. Being an art fanatic and a member of a local art group I suggested to the committee I ran an art competition to bring in that section of Bognor talent. They agreed. With the generous help of my friend Keith Jay, I had one hundred pounds in cash to use as prizes. So with ten prizes of ten pounds each to offer, I enlisted four judges of standing in the local ‘arteries’ to adjudicate. With no exhibition space or stands at our disposal, the entrants were to arrive outside the Regis Centre at a certain time, complete with picture, to be judged. What a cheek. But with the weather on our side and the informality of it all it was a real success. One important reason for this was the work of Mr Scott of JP Printers Ltd., a Bognor firm that supported us all through with their free posters. Our local tradespeople really did all I ever asked for in some way or another. The following year we got art display stands from local groups and lined the shopping arcade with them, so didn’t have to rely on the weather being kind to us. On display in the Regis Centre was a marvellous model circus owned by the Silvers family. I remember Trevor telling me that he’d worked hard to get them there and it was a great success. In the weeks before the convention, Trevor, me, and any clown we could rope in, 22 held workshops over the weekends in the Royal Hall, for the local children. Whether we helped any potential youngster to become one of us, is hard to say, but they were very enthusiastic and enjoyed the romp. We threw in a bit of a show as well, to capture their interest. After that very hectic start, in following years we were more organised. I did a spot on the theatre stage for one of the first convention’s children’s shows. Anyway there was no shortage of volunteers. Deena and I thoroughly enjoyed the gala shows. All the other trimmings such as the civic reception, our closing conference and Annual General Meeting all went well. Of course to me it was wonderful meeting all our clown friends from all over. A very rare occasion, until we held this, our first ever convention. Even then it was only short encounters. They were all busy doing alfresco entertainment about town, in hospitals and public places. Everybody worked hard to make it a success, and it was. And there was no doubt we’d all be doing it again next year. But before that, Bognor town forked out for a very pleasant lunch for all the organisers and co-opted members, in a hotel in Pagham. It was a very nice thank you to all of us who helped make the convention work for Clowns International and the town itself. The amount of publicity, the television coverage and world-wide interest it had aroused was a perfect justification for the title of Clown Town. I know Trevor put up quite a few notices to that effect that might have been frowned upon if permission had been asked for first. So the event went down in history. That is not to say the whole story has been told fully. This is me and Deena’s part in it. It’s time someone drew all these events together while most of us have some teeth left and have not been driven gaga by all the regulations we now have to observe. I am very lucky I came on the scene when I did. I’m not sure if it could have ever started at all in today’s climate. Indeed I’m not sure whether all my school work involving the children could be fitted in now, with the current strictures of today’s curriculum. From my work records it seems as if the pace of life itself had increased in pace and quality. Ideas for new pieces of woodwork came flooding in to me on the workbench. My fun names in plywood came into being about now. Apart from just names I also started what I called ‘small and large’ miscellaneous designs. ‘Shut the gate’. ‘Please, no smoking’. ‘I love you’. ‘There’s no place like home’. ‘Bathroom’. And a great seller, ‘The Loo’. All nicely presented and reasonably priced. It wasn’t long before I cottoned onto the appeal of football clubs. Liverpool was favourite for a long time. Each of these designs sported a football somewhere. In Liverpool of course it was the dot over the ‘i’. In pine also things were happening, I did a series of nursery rhymes, all free standing. The Humpty Dumpty one was a tipper lorry tipping debris from a brick wall, with parts of an egg clearly visible in the rubble. The name Sinbad was being transported by longboat with himself at the tiller. The dot on Christopher’s ‘i’ was a robin. Not back slapping humour by any means, but adding a smile to a design as extra appeal. For one major exhibition I did a selection of the Royal Family in pine. I was told the Queen’s name, Elizabeth II, had the wrong crown over the ‘i’ (I had a Victorian one it seems). The Queen Mum’s was set against a view of the Castle of May. The design I did for Charles and Diana enabled me to suspend a small heart by a nylon thread, to represent the ‘i’ in Diana.
Hal Brooks - Royalty and The Guild...cont I was still making props when the idea for a different sort of bouquet was worked out and made. The prop flowers had room to allow a few fresh flowers to intermingle with, and so keep a sense of reality about them. Of course, hidden in the wrappings was the inevitable target launcher, primed ready with a blank cartridge to send the bunch upwards at the appropriate time. A good prop to be used at fete opening ceremonies. A warning in red letters though to let the recipient of the bouquet know in advance of the outcome and what will happen when an obvious friendly gesture results in the fete being opened with a bang. My birds game came into being now. It was a simple game with five birds that hadn’t yet learned how to fly, aimed at four-year-olds and playgroups. By sitting the birds on one end of a stout but small see-saw arrangement, then belting the other end with a semi-hard mallet, the birds were launched up into the air one by one after all and sundry 23 called out, ‘1,2,3 Fly’. One of our helpers was to catch them in a basket. ‘We mustn’t hurt them if they fall back to earth, you see!’ The real point of this being I tried out working in plastic foam and coloured felt to make the missiles. There was Olly Owl, A Dragon, Clara the Duck, one called Carrot Nose and Beaky. Using a contact adhesive to stick the foam and the coloured felts together, they could be used in any front room or church hall without causing damage of any kind. I found these materials very useful for other games also. They were colourful, light and very hard to damage. It was the beginning of my interest in using other materials, with non-wood sculptures in mind. ‘Royalty and The Guild’ is taken from ‘Hal Brooks Clown Etc. – A Life in the Making’ to be published by Matador 3rd May 2010 Hal Brooks 2010
Watch out for Hals new book
By HAL BROOKS
Out 3rd May 2010
Could you fill this space? Could you describe how to make a prop? Could you right a report/story about you? Then contact the editor and send your work in. 24 On Tuesday, 15 December 2009, I attended St Lukes Primary School’s Christmas festivities. As St Lukes is for special needs children, the session was free, my fee being subsidised by Clowns International’s Clownability Fund. I have attended the school several times in the past - sometimes they pay and sometimes I am able to offer them an extra treat through C.I.’s Clownability.
My brief is usually flexible: this time the ‘plan’ was a 30 minute show and 30 minutes mix and mingle. I have discovered in the past the more visual the show the better. So I juggled with large fluorescent scarves and got one of the pupils up to help. Liam threw and caught one scarf several times. I stole it and incorporated it into my routine. Next I gave him a ball to throw and catch and then throw to me, again incorporating it in my display. We finished with a deep bow holding hands to much applause. Liam was rewarded with a chocolate coin from the production box. I told them I was going to make it more ‘eggciting’ and brought out the egg box. We talked about chickens and how delicate eggs are. I showed a few tricks and ‘accidentally’ dropped one which of course bounced all around the room, as rubber eggs do. I got a volunteer up to help with hatching the egg, in the change bag by sitting on it! He proved reluctant to sit on the bag so after a reward he sat down again. I asked for someone who was willing and up came Michelle. Not only did she sit on the bag but began flapping her arms without being asked. After a loud COCKA-DOODLE-DO she stood up to reveal a small rubber chicken of course! I cried ‘ Michelle you’re a mum, it’s a boy!’ Much applause and rewards.
A bit of magic next and I chose one of the smaller children to turn my ‘sad hankie’ into a ‘smiley’ one with the aid of a change bag and comedy wands. Lots of silly business and a chocolate reward.
I showed plate spinning tricks next, then got four children up for a competition. I spun the plate and the aim was to pass it along the line until someone dropped it. The children completed this task so I had to make it harder. Get the plate, turn full circle and then pass it on, again they all completed this, to much applause. I had to get them out somehow so the next task was to receive the plate, throw and catch it! Three children almost did this but the last girl completed the task. The look of pure joy on Sophie’s face was wonderful. All the children got a coin reward and Sophie a balloon penguin as well, much to her delight.
Flo’s Clownability Show Flo’s By this time 40 minutes had passed so I finished on a high note. I waved the children off to their classrooms and packed up. Out came my bear puppet and we went to mingle around the classrooms. Bear stole lots of buns and had to be told to put them back. He and Flo received lots of cuddles from the more severely affected children who appreciated the more softly, softly approach. My Bear’s favourite rhyme is ‘Round and round the garden’ and this goes down well with the partially sighted as it is very tactile.
As always it was a very heart warming experience at this special time of year. More people should use C.I.’s Clownability Fund and spread a little joy.
Flo Zazzy Comments. 25 Hello Clowns and friends, I am now settled in my new home in Brighton, about 45 minutes from Bognor Regis. As a major British seaside tourist destination, there is always something going on down here and I am always keen to promote my work in and around the city. That’s why I too have used the C.I. Clownability Fund sponsored by “Slapstick” and Chris “Anco” Fincham, giving me a definite booking for the diary and a rewarding and fun time. I helped to make a great fund-raising day at the Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice http://www. chestnut-tree-house.org.uk
Opening the fair and also supporting the cause and the work the Hospice do for many children were Jez and Michael from TV’s CBBC. I also received a nice letter of thanks, and fitted the day around another booking in the evening. I am sure a lot more clowns could use the Clownability Fund in their
area. Zazzy Comments
Did you see ‘Zaz’ at Peter Andrea’s house? Yes, I was called to do his daughter’s birthday: I had no idea it was for the pop singer until he answered the front door. The party was fun, but let down by Peter’s TV management, as they wanted to film it for their TV show, and were very persuading to get me to sign the release form. However, I felt that I had been booked for a children’s party and not a children’s party film shoot. It took me a lot of time in the end, to get a fee, with thanks to the help and advice from Equity. At the party the production management were very forward in telling me that there was no budget for me, and suggested that if I signed the release there may be a future birthday party for her child?.....and that the publicity I would gain for free would be of far more worth.
Why is it, that it seems, the TV industry do not recognise clowns and children’s entertainers most of the time as working artists? I know a few clowns who have bad stories with TV shows; in fact I remember once I was contacted by the Big Breakfast Show, all they would promise was a full house breakfast after the show!
This summer was very last minute on most bookings, the same for many I think, but with a reasonably warm summer I found I was wearing my sunny glasses quite lot. I have found myself at Battersea Park, which is now like a London friendly meet-up for clowns, the wonderful Camp Bestival Music Festival in the children’s field, a magical area were dreams come true. Families were in fancy dress together and fun is in the air. Along with fellow Clown ‘Big Foot’ we had some great shows. I went off-road unicycling dressed as a crazy lost London 26 Zoo keeper riding an elephant which was quite appropriate as the fancy dress theme was animals!
I also took part in ‘Circus in the Square’, three circus cabaret shows held in the open air in Paddington Square in London. I compere’d and also did a spot in the shows; National and regional play week; Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club with Bluey and many weekends performing ‘Covent garden style’ shows on Brighton Pier: sadly, the contract clearly stated no clown make-up – strangely, the management felt that clowns were maybe scary? I tell you the funfair rides are far more scary!! I do hope to change this ‘no clown’ policy in the future as I believe that clowns have a place at the seaside just like “Mr Punch”
I have also got together my own show and circus workshop area, a large 6m ring with backdrop and big yellow flags and am looking forward to using it at C.I. events in the future if and when it’s needed. A visit back to Bognor Regis in August for a crazy new event down the beach: they had teams of two putting together a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, very funny indeed as they started at 11.00am and by 5.00pm were up to their waist’s in the sea!
I don’t think any team actually completed, but great community spirit and fun had by all. Many local people asked me if clowns were back in Bognor in March: Yes, I told them, the red nose brigade will be back here again in March!
Zazzy Comments...cont See you all there! Zaz WIN A ONE YEAR JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP TO CLOWNS INTERNATIONAL. All welcome to enter.
Do you know any young people that might like to join C.I? Give them this page to colour in and enter the competition! They do not have to be a member to enter. They do have to be under the age of 16 on January 1st, 2010.
Send the competition entries with completed name, address, age and phone number to: David “Conk” Vaughan, 193 Shard End Crescent, Shard End, Birmingham B34 7RE Or scan and email them to editor@clowns- international.co.uk
unior Colouring Competition Entries must be received by April 1st J 2010. The winner will be announced in the Summer Joey. Last Issue’s Winner is Owen “Orry” Parker Age 6 Calendar of Events 27
Clowns International Events
May 1st 2010 (in Motley) Birthday of All Clowns. Informal event at Zippo’s Circus. Mid- day Photo opportunity/Press call and refreshments to celebrate “Birthday of All Clowns”. Venue place will be advised on our C.I. Website during the next few weeks.
August 2010 Praia da Vitoria, Terceira, Azores. Clown Festival within the Praia da Vitoria Summer Festival. Dates to be confirmed (usually the 1st or 2nd week in August). A Registration Form and information will be printed in the Summer “Joey”.
September 18th, 2010 Summer Social (C.I. Event) and an invite to participate in Carnival (non C.I. Event), Raunds, Northants. Fun day in and out of clown. Registration form will be in the Summer Joey. Contact Pippa on 07940301865
December 14-16, 2010 “Frankie’s Festiclown Show” for Les Enfants de Frankie Charity, Monte Carlo [Performance day 15th only]. Other days for travel to and fro Calendar of Events and technical rehearsals in this very large 4,000 seat Chapiteau/Big Top venue. See write-up articles in last magazine. Our “Circus Circus” International Clowns Festival will be the last opportunity for you to ‘try-out’ for a Show Spot, or register to attend as a FOH clown. For further details, please contact Festival Organiser Clown Bluey tel 023 80873700 or Francien Giraudi’s Representative Chris Stone tel 01202 301602
December 2010 (casual dress), C.I. JUNIOR XMAS PARTY. Raunds, Northants. Celebrate Christmas with our wonderful juniors. Date to be confirmed. Contact Pippa on 07940301865
Popular Annual non-C.I. Events
January 1st 2011 (in Motley) New Year’s Day parade. Contact Conk for details.
July 2010 (in Motley) The Amazing Great Children’s Party Children with Leukemia, Battersea Park, London. To attend contact: 020 7404 0808; [email protected], www.leukaemia.org
Other Clowning Events
September 2010 Kidology, Wolverhampton, Weekday convention for children’s entertainers
May 2010 Punch & Judy Mayfayre, Covent Garden. London
May 2010 Danish Clown Festival, expanding geographically around Southern Fyn Island. To attend contact Jo Jo: [email protected] www.klovnefestival.dk, www.clownjojo.dk
May 31st 2010, in or out of motley. (Annual event) Clowns attend Joey Grimaldi’s graveside to commemorate his life. Contact John “Frosty” Cooper. [email protected] 28 CLOWNING FROM THE HIGH DIVING BOARD Bluebottle looks at another kind of clowning……………
Clowning as an entertainment is most usually thought of as being an activity to be found in the circus ring. However, as the readers of “The Joey” know full well, these days clowns may turn up in shopping centres, showrooms, the theatre, on films and in domestic front rooms. But for a great many years since Victorian times even, clowns have also featured in Aqua shows and swimming galas where they have got up to various antics that always result in them finishing up in the water as a matter of course. Some of these antics have taken place on the high diving boards and others have taken place poolside, but the end result has always been a healthy ducking. Some of the more clever comedy diving has usually been performed by highly competent divers who are jolly good athletes as well. Although there are still Aqua shows around, they are not as numerous as they once were and it is rare to come across a team of organised clown divers.
In Finland the clown diving shows are still popular and there is one team of clowns in particular who put on very good shows with a variety of antics and stunts to please the audience. This team is the Jerobeam Salakytta Team based in Helsinki. They not only stage comedy diving shows but also take part in comedy diving competitions. Their antics include funny dives, riding a bicycle into the pool from the high diving board, diving with fireworks tied to one ankle, diving in with trousers on fire, getting smothered in slosh on the high board before falling into the pool and many more stunts. These people are expert athletes first and comedians second but they greatly enjoy their clowning. If they could find an opportunity to bring their show to Britain, then they would. The problem is finding an impresario who would like to organise such a show.
Similar high diving clowning also features in mobile aqua shows in America and in other European countries. It is possible to see what they all get up to by having a browse on the internet. I have even found on the internet a Comedy Diving Manual!
Many years ago in the UK, Aqua shows used to be seen on television as did big circuses probably because they were relatively cheap to broadcast. The clowning was usually conducted by teams with such names as Aqualoonies and Aquagoons etc. Such activities in between the more serious events would include sawing through a plank of wood attached to a diving board whilst standing on the wrong side of the saw cut, riding a bicycle off a diving board, leaping into the water with trousers alight, having a Cops and Robbers chase that ended on the high diving board and thence into the water! All the participants would be dressed up in comic costumes, sometimes with a clown-like slap and the “diving” would hardly be worthy of the name. But it was really simply clowning. In most cases it always amounted to contriving to descend from a high diving board Clowning from The High Diving Board into a swimming pool in the most outlandish fashion. Sometimes a little story line was pursued which had to result in the players getting a ducking. There were even occasions when the clowning did not always take place from the diving board but would take place around and in the pool. Rowing boats with holes in the bottom (so that they sank) and bicycles literally being ridden into the pool were not uncommon. The number of ways of falling into a swimming pool fully clothed were endless!
However, the problem with comedy diving shows is that they have to take place in fairly large swimming pools and the participants have to be good at swimming and diving! The clowning comes next. We have yet to recruit a team of aqua clowns to Clowns International but the application forms are ready and waiting! 29 Join in
Hi out there…
It is always Wonderful & Interesting when we get together and share some ‘Time and Space’…
But what about the rest of the Year!!??
There are lots of facilities online through which one can communicate… one of which is
‘Facebook’… (on the internet). Join In
It has been around for quite some time now… and at first I did not really care for it!
Now I am on the way to being hooked!! It gives you the opportunity to stay in touch all through the year and is very little effort (once you get used to it)!!…
You find out what your friends are up to and it is great for sending pictures & posting info… It also has the facility to ‘instant chat’ online.
How about it!
How wonderful it will be to meet up with each other and not have lots of catching up to do.
So guys and girls and clowns out there ~ how about joining in if you aren’t already!
You can sign-up to Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/
Circus Clown Rico Calendar of Events
Other Clown Festivals:
Monaco: www.veress.se/montecarlofestival.htm, www.festiclown.com, Denmark: www.clownfestival.dk, USA: www.clowncamp.org, www.clownfest.com Spain: www.magiclown.org
Clown Training: London, mime at www.playful-clown.co.uk. Bristol, circomedia.com; Bristol, www.circusmaniacs.com; London, www. thecircusspace.co.uk; London, www.contemporaryclowningprojects.com;
Where to see C.I. Members: Roly: www.rolybain.co.uk
Do you have a date’s page you want to have included in the Joey? Let me know: [email protected] 30 History Lessons
From the Chronicles of “Genuine Student Bloopers.” Compiled by Richard Lederer from the writings of mostly high-schoolers. Abstracted by John Dillon. Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies, and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert, where the climate was so hot that the inhabitants had to live elsewhere. Certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain. The Eqyptians built the pyramids in the shape of huge rectangular cubes. The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible -- Guinesses -- Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked, “Am I my brother’s son?” Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. After his death his career suffered a dramatic decline. In the Olympic Games, Greeks ran the races, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March killed him because they thought he was about to be made king. Dying, he gasped out: “Tee, hee, Brutus.” Then came the Middle Ages, when everyone was middle aged. King Alfred conquered the Dames. King Arthur lived in the age of Shivery, and Joan of Arc was burnt to a steak. She was cannonized by Bernard Shaw. Finally, the Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offence. History Lesson In midevil times most people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the futile ages was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses, but also literature. During this time people put on morality plays about ghosts, goblins, virgins, and other mythical creatures. The Renaissance was an age when more and more people felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to a church door for selling papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. Queen Elizabeth was the “Virgin Queen.” As a queen, she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted “Hurrah!” Afterward her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.
MY LIVING WILL
Last night, my kids and I were sitting in the living room and I said to them, ‘I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.’
They got up, unplugged the Computer, and threw out my wine. Quips For Kids 31 Borrowed, ‘alf-inched, nicked by Clown Bluey “What’s your first name?” the teacher asked the new boy. “It’s Orson, Miss. I was named after Orson Welles, the film star.” “Just as well your last name’s not Cart, isn’t it?” “Yes Miss. It’s Trapp.”
A little girl was next in line. “My name’s Curtain,” she said. “I hope your first name’s not Annette?” said the teacher. “No, it’s Velvet.”
Did you hear about the Math teacher who fainted in class? Everyone tried to bring her 2.
What’s the difference between a boring teacher and a boring book? You can shut a book up.
What season is it when you are on a trampoline? Quips for Kids Springtime.
Geography teacher: “What is the coldest place on earth? Ann: Chile.
What can children keep and give away at the same time? Colds.
Did you hear about the snake with a bad cold? She had to viper nose.
What is hairy and coughs? A coconut with a cold.
Teacher: Matthew, what is the climate of New Zealand? Matthew: Very cold Sir. Teacher: Wrong. Matthew: But Sir! When they send us meat, it always arrives frozen!
What insect is like the top of a house? A tick (attick).
What is nothing but holes tied to holes, yet is as strong as iron? A Chain.
What is the best way to raise strawberries? With a spoon.
Sign in shop window: FOR SALE – Pedigree bulldog. Housebroken. Eats anything. Very fond of children. 32 Looking Up From Down Under Clowning in... Singapore!
(c) 2010
My week in Singapore immediately followed my three weeks in Thailand. When I was invited to the Thai wedding, I wrote to New Zealanders I knew who were on the staff of a theological college in the island state and they found uses for a clown.
My departure from Thailand went smoothly. I caught an overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. (On the train another traveller gave me photos from ballooning I did a couple of days before.) I got off the train an hour before it reached the capital, at the railway station next to Bangkok’s airport. That gave me spare hours at the airport so I got two rolls of film processed and explored the building.
I think it’s the biggest airport I’ve ever been in. The largest airline I know of in my neighbourhood, the one I was travelling on, is QANTAS. At Bangkok Airport I found a board listing airlines and the only ‘Q’ on it was Qatar! That made me feel very small. Possibly I was in the wrong terminal. Eventually I found the right flight to Singapore.
Singapore is not ‘third world’ — it has a multi-ethnic population (like London, eh?) and is located in Asia but the prices for accommodation are very Western (unlike accommodation I’ve paid for in Africa and the part of Asia I had just been in).
Accommodation was not something I needed to fret over. I had written to two NZ couples who were in two-bedroom staff flats at the theological college. One couple had two sons, and that family fed me; the other couple’s adult children were not in Singapore and I slept in their spare room.
I performed three times in Singapore: at a school for disabled children, for a class at the college I stayed at, and for a Methodist ‘Sunday School’.
In many cultures children with disabilities are an embarrassment to their families and are likely to be hidden away rather than given an enriched environment. I was glad to be part of the enrichment that children got at the school I visited.
I don’t recall anything of my show for the theological students. I’m pretty sure I was there, and students were there, but after more than 12 years I remember nothing else of it. Just another of the demonstrations of entertainment that I have done for tertiary students around the world. (That looks good on my c.v.!)
Looking Up From Down Under The Sunday School was not a ‘child minding facility’ operating during a church service; it actually was for children who took the trouble to go it, and it was on a Saturday afternoon. I did my usual bubbling, juggling and ballooning and was enjoyed as normal, and then the children had a time of prayer. I was impressed at the maturity of the praying — it wasn’t just ‘God bless the sick people’, it was prayer that God would be with their sick friends and work in them while they were getting better. The church paid me generously and I was taken out for a ten-course dinner in the evening. (In case you don’t know, the number of courses at an Asian dinner is an indication of the number of dishes of food put on the table at about the same time, probably one per diner, rather than a sequence like soup-main-pudding with changes of cutlery for each course in a Western dinner).
Apart from performing, I spent time exploring shops in Singapore. I found a store selling LPs for a dollar (about 33p)! (For young readers I’ll say in the olden days LPs were like CDs, but not compact.) And I bought a few computer books. At Singapore Airport my baggage was overweight. The clerk asked why I had so much. I 33 explained that I had my clown equipment. (My stilts weigh ten pounds — I won’t take them again! I better not buy computer books, either.) The clerk wanted to ask her supervisor what to charge me but the supervisor was busy, so the clerk asked me to do something funny. I blew up a 6” heart for her and she let me through without any penalty. So ended my first visit to Asia since I was five.
Keep looking up! Nigel “Puzzle” Mander from New Zealand
Cont from page 9 on the show was ‘Mandy and Sandy’, a girl with a performing dog (Sandy was the dog). She had in tow a driver/minder/boyfriend who was ex-circus and a great bloke. We swapped gags and got on well. As I started to apply my slap, I told him of my dilemma re the white ‘grin’. He gave me a puzzled look and then smiled and said, “Who gives a **** ? Do it!” I added the white around my mouth there and then, outlined it with a black liner and, apart from a few very minor adjustments, I have worn the same face for getting on for forty years. This fellow also gave me a tip for making a cheap make-up remover. It entailed putting half a pound of
lard into a saucepan, covering it with water and boiling it for ten minutes or so, allow it to cool, Bonzo’s Bit...cont remove the crust that forms on top of the water, put it in a container and you have salt-free lard which removes make-up. I did try this briefly, (in the interests of science you understand!). It worked surprisingly well and removed grease paint and powder thoroughly but the downside is, after a couple of applications your make-up towel can stand on end unsupported and you tend to come away from the job smelling like a half eaten hamburger, but apart from that… I met the guy once more, about four years later. I hailed a cab in Hammersmith Broadway and he was driving it. I didn’t recognise him at first but he remembered me and we chatted for the twenty minute journey. When I offered my fare he waved it away and drove off. I never knew his name or saw him again but I owe that man a lot, as well as my cab fare! Clown noses were also a problem in my early years. I was blessed, I suppose, by being born with a fairly decent clown nose of my own. Reddened with greasepaint, it would pass muster - but again I thought to be a professional clown, one ought to have a false nose. Spirit gum and nose putty were only things you read about in ‘Stage Make-up for Amateur Theatricals’ but I never found a retail supplier. You must remember that only a few years before food and clothing had been rationed and luxuries like theatrical artefacts, usually hand crafted, were very rare and very expensive. I experimented with red painted ping pong balls and sticking plaster to no avail. These were the old fashioned highly inflammable celluloid table tennis balls and me at the time being a very heavy smoker, in and out of motley, the mind boggles!
I eventually got my first clown nose from Davenports. They were made by Jack Hughes, an innovative magic and theatrical prop maker who had just started to dabble with latex. These were his first efforts and were slightly smaller than a tennis ball, but too heavy to be stuck on with spirit gum. They were meant to be held on with string or elastic which I wasn’t happy with, but I found that I could keep one on by sticking a piece of industrial draught excluder across the bridge of my nose (I’m not kidding!) and wedging the nose under my nostrils and over the draught excluder. When my supply of draught excluder ran out and I couldn’t find any more I reverted to flesh coloured Elastoplast. Looking at photos taken at the time I think this was quite effective and imperceptible from a distance and it was only when I started to get closer to my audience doing mix and mingle and table hopping that I looked around and found latex noses imported from the U.S. and started using spirit gum. Costume was not so much of a problem. Early in my career I discovered a couple of shops just off Petticoat Lane that sold second-hand dinner suits for thirty shillings (£1.50), Tail coats £2.10 (£2.50), Bowler hats 1/6d and I well remember a pal of mine buying a genuine beaver top hat fur 5/- (25p). Bearing in mind the average weekly wage in those days was round about eight pounds these were not exactly give-away prices but definitely affordable. Incidentally the last time I tried to buy a second hand top hat was about 1985 when I was told by a rather haughty assistant at
Continued on page 45 34 Serious Small Thoughts I promised to talk to you about hats and hair and pockets this time. First hair. Way back in the beginning, BB Bubbles used to have a wig. I tried out a few different kinds. First a very colourful one. It looked good but it was a bit itchy. Itchy hair is quite annoying when you’re concentrating on being a clown, so I gave that one to my Grandpa since he hasn’t got much hair.
The second wig I tried was soft and red. I wore it at my first C.I. festival. It looked great and it felt great too. The trouble was acrobatics. Every time I went upside down it moved and when I stood up again I couldn’t see. That was a bit of a problem. I thought about sticking it on but if I did, I would have to be BB Bubbles every day and not have any days off. I had to think and think and think about what I should do. For ages I had no ideas at all. Everyone kept saying that the hair looked great but there’s no point in hair that looks good, if it gets in the way of being a good clown. When I was playing, I suddenly figured everything out. BB Bubbles didn’t need hair at all, he just needed a big red hat.
The next day I left my hair at our clown house and just used a big red hat. It was perfect. I found out that a hat is much more useful than hair. It fell off and I had great fun finding about one hundred ways of putting it back on. The more fun I had, the more the audience people laughed. The more they laughed, the more adventures I had with the hat. So my idea for other clowns about hair, is to think about it quite a lot before you decide. Hair looks good but hats are much, much more useful and much, much, much, much more fun.
Now for pockets: Whatever costume you get, make sure there’s always plenty of pockets. Clowns need pockets because you can’t keep all your stuff in your hands because you need your hands for other things like juggling and balloons and stuff. You need little pockets for little things and big pockets for bigger things. But you need to make sure they’re not too big. If you have really big, giant-size pockets you might fall into your own pocket and disappear in the middle of your show.
Pockets are also good for putting hands in. When big girls want to cuddle BB Bubbles I put my hands in my pockets, right down to the bottom and I pull my hat down so it covers Serious Small Thoughts half of my eyes.
There are so many things to think about if you want to be a clown. It is quite hard to make all the decisions about hats and hair, pockets, shoes, make up and all the other stuff but you have to think about it all seriously because you’ll never be a good clown if you aren’t serious about it. Stephen “BB Bubbles” Breen Note from Silly Tilly:
BB Bubbles refers to our “clown house” - that’s what he calls the chalet at Bognor. He thinks it’s a clown village all year round and we own one of the chalets as a holiday home. No one told him this, he just worked it out that way. For his first festival we were on the ground floor and on his second visit we were upstairs. Stephen wanted to know how they moved our house!
Hugs, Tilly xx 35 36 Junior Clowns Christmas Social It is the evening of Monday 28th December 2009, all is quiet, all is calm. Just a couple of hours ago, it was mad - wow! What a party! We had 24 rather crazy people gathered at ‘The Globe’ pub in Raunds, Northants, for C.I.’s Junior Clowns Christmas Social (crazy people are - clowns, junior and senior, friends of clowns and family!)
Up until the 27th December, myself and Bubblz were not even sure if the social was going ahead. Then, a few phone calls later, yup - we had a party on! With all hands on deck I went to ‘The Globe’ to set-up for the 2.00 pm start, it was all exciting! Junior Clowns ‘Trip’ and ‘Shoelace’ helped. 2.00 pm came and went with only Junior Clown Snowball, her mum Michelle and Martin to be seen, where was everyone else?
Within half an hour, Silkie and family (Trish, Ally Pally and Appyanna) showed up, shortly followed by Rainbow and his massive family, Ali, Basher and Tisha, and last but not least, my mum Pauline (Friend of Clowns), Bubblz and Julius. We now had a party on!!
The first thing we did was eat, yummy! (thank you to Ali and Michelle for helping me out with the food). With tummy’s full it was time for secret Santa, presents for the Juniors brought to us by the ever generous Bubblz, making sure each junior clown had something to open. We even had spare presents as prizes for games including a booby prize (a pair of plain black socks), won by Rainbow, ha! ha!
Next it was fun and games time! We put Silkie in charge (or did he put himself in charge???) - he did a grand job I might add. We all sat in a big circle before we started the games, Rainbow made a speech as Chairman (well done) then it was down to the fun, singing, games and of course forfeits. One forfeit had Michelle on her hands and knees, Silkie singing and dancing in Hungarian. My Dave (new clown - ‘Gadget’) becoming a donkey, I sat on him as Mary and Snowball in my arms as the baby Jesus! Julius sung us all a Danish Christmas song which was a lot sweeter to the ears than renditions of ‘Barbie Girl’ and ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’.
The party finished off by Bubblz getting her pumps and balloons out, giving the chance to have a go at making some great balloon creations. The snowman and all the balloons were fantastic, we all had fun creating them.
Time flew so fast we even asked the landlady of the pub if we could extend our time, which was granted, so the party ended around 6.00 pm in the end.
A great time had by all. Junior Christmas Social Bubblz, Julius, Michelle, Martin, Dave, Pauline (my mum) and me stayed to clean up the mess we had made, that was fun in itself! Thanks to all for the never-ending cleaning spree - Henry the Hoover worked the hardest, ha! ha!
Thank you to everyone who came to make the party fun and worthwhile. The Juniors had a great time and I do hope we can do this again in 2010 and with more notice given, make it bigger and better.
Pippa
Sad News
Those of you not on the Dunny mailing list will not have heard but Esme ‘Dotty’ Penfold (centre Picture) unexpectedly passed away on December 7th 2009. A strong supporter of both C.I. and the Holy Fools, we are sure she will be sadly missed. Our deepest condolences to Husband Fred, a Friend of Clowns. 37 Your Photos 2 38 Hello Everyone, I’ve been in Europe for 4 ½ weeks now with 12 ½ weeks and 100 shows to go. I was in Vienna for a long weekend teaching physical comedy to a group of 20 Rote Nasen (Red Noses) Hospital Clowns from Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Chech Republic and Hungary. Next was a week in Warsaw on the jury of an International Puppet Festival where I performed last year. I prefer being on stage than being in judgement of my peers.
I am now in Leipzig, Germany at the Kristallpalast Variety performing my comedy numbers the “Classically Trained Musician” and the “Classically Trained Actress” in a show called “Very British” - the MC is an English comedy magician/juggler named Luke Wilson and there are 4 other Brits - Craig Reid with Hula-hoops, Martha Harrison and Amber Reed on double Trapeze, Arron Sparks with Yo-yo, a Danish pickpocket - Kenny & Joan Quinn, a German - Petra Lange on tissue and hand balancing on a table and another American - AJ Silver, cowboy from the Bronx doing ropes, whips and bolas. We play through Feb. 7 - a three month run.
The audience is really enjoying the show and I’m getting lots of laughs during my numbers and the little bits in between. I was afraid I was going to have to do my Shakespeare (the actress number) in German, but alas, no! The artistic director was afraid the East Germans wouldn’t be open to the English. But because it’s really about the character and the situation and not about the monologue, it’s working fine. It’s not the part that Shakespeare wrote!
We live in an apartment upstairs from the theatre, so it’s very easy to get to work. I managed to wangle some free memberships to a great gym 3 minutes away, so Hilary Chaplain arrived in Germany, Hilary Fonda will leave! It’s a really lovely town with a lot of beautifully renovated buildings and passageways, great bars and restaurants, interesting museums and a lot of music. I’m hoping to get to the swing and tango dance clubs. The Christmas market is about to open and we’re going to have to be very careful about the Gluhwein - hot, sweet red wine that really warms the belly on a chilly winter night.
I really have to learn some German! Being able to communicate in French, Spanish, Portuguese and a little in Italian makes it all the more frustrating not to be able to do it in German. I feel like I’m 10 years old not being able to say anything! And living with a 3 year old who doesn’t speak English, I see it even more clearly. He talks to me in Danish and I just look at him and say “I wish I could understand what you’re saying to me”... and then I ask his parents. But we do OK with sign language - which is how I manage with the people I deal with in the city. Here in East Germany, not many people speak much English. I don’t feel any anti-American tensions here - the people are very nice except for the occasional check-out cashier. But they’re impatient everywhere.
Here is one little anecdote from our opening night. Enjoy and write back with news of your own! It’s a little lonely here in spite of being with a great gang in a sweet city.
IF ANYONE FEELS LIKE STOPPING IN, LET ME KNOW! WE’VE GOT AN EXTRA ROOM HERE AND I HAVE A COUCH IN MY ROOM. I CAN GET EITHER A FREE TICKET OR A 10 EURO TICKET FOR MOST SHOWS EXCEPT THE LATE SHOWS ON
Missive from Leipzig 1 Hilary Chaplian FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS. If you’re coming from the States, let me know - I need a couple of things from home!
On opening night I had one of those great moments in the theatre when there’s catastrophe backstage that goes almost unnoticed by the audience. I was downstairs in the dressing room and I had thought ahead about what I had to do next. In my mind, I was finished until curtain-call forgetting that I had one more entrance to set Craig’s hula- hoops. I hear Kenny straining to say as loudly as he can without being heard, “Hilary, the hula-hoops.” I was out of my chair and up the stairs so fast that I was a mere flash in front of the other cast’s eyes. I rounded the corner hoping that someone was standing there with the hoops, but no. I pulled back and called to Joan to give me the hoops while falling 39 over Petra who was bending over in the corner having just come off stage after her act.
I should have been standing in the wing ready to go on with the hoops before her exit. I was on my knees reaching for the hoops, my hair piece flopping around and my eyes darting about to see if she was coming to my aid. She handed them to me and as I tried
to find the opening of the curtain one shoe came off and my big toe attempted an escape Missive from Leipzig 1 Hilary Chaplian...cont from the other only to become wedged in because of the tape around my foot and ankle - a gag from my piece. I stood up and staggered right into and under the curtain onto the stage. I was about 4 lines late as Luke was explaining to the audience that we were invisibly setting the stage while he was distracting the audience. Problem was, I really was invisible! So I calmly set the stage as I was meant to, with one shoe on, and in pain from the fall and the toe wedged in like Chinese foot-binding, not even knowing if I was bleeding at the knee.
I took the short way off stage instead of my long cross so I could hobble back down the stairs and release my toe. Word got out and both directors knew what had happened by the time we were all back upstairs in the theatre for our opening night celebration dinner. Craig and Joan saw the whole thing from back stage and said they had never seen anything so hysterical in their lives! If only there had been a camera - I don’t think I could have staged it this well! I’m so glad I could provide such special moments for my fellow cast members, but believe me, I’m now early for that cue. In part so I’m not late, in part so that the laughter can die down backstage before any of us have to make an entrance.
Warmest Greetings to all! Hilary Chaplain
Received by email 40 From The Notebook of The Custard Clowns
Recollections of the festival season 2009, from my perspective. Magic, sad and nostalgic and snow! Snow! and more snow! The magic of Christmas for me starts when I start my visits to children’s wards entertaining youngsters who are spending their festive holiday in hospital and are receiving ongoing treatment for their illness but not staying in.
The magic is in their faces when you meet and talk to them. We had a great time. The sad or sadness was hearing the news of the health of Michael Polakovs, circus clown, son of Coco the Clown, who died on December 6th 2009 aged 86. He followed his celebrated father into the sawdust ring as an acrobat, stiltwalker and slapstick entertainer. He travelled to the United States at the end of the 1950’s, when, for the next ten years or so, he appeared under the name of Coco with the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus’s, ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’, although never using his father’s trademark name when over here. For a time he was acting for McDonalds Restaurants chain as their ‘Ronald McDonald’ Clown. It’s incredible how certain names in our everyday language are used to describe a certain activity, e.g. I’m doing the hoovering. Today, everyone will know what you mean. If you said ‘I am going to Dyson the bedrooms’ it has not got that same ring to it. There are others - ask ten people to name a famous clown? Nine of them would say Coco. The power of a name, although I was a bit surprised when I asked a friend of mine recently what he was giving his wife as a present for Christmas, he replied, ‘It’s a surprise, but I am going to Woo her!’ I hope she enjoyed it!
The nostalgic part of my Christmas came in the shape of “Beano” and “Dandy” annuals my wife gave me as some of my Christmas presents. I had been saying on numerous occasions to my grandchildren what I enjoyed as gifts from Father Christmas when I was their age. Over the years, it might have been a radio and film ‘fun annual’, a chocolate pipe smoker’s set, a Toy Post Office set, orange, nuts etc. Alright, I’ll shut up, I digress, but possibly the cheapest of my wife’s gifts gave me a lot of pleasure! Actually, Woo and I have heard from a few C.I. Members over Christmas, about how much work or lack of work many have had. Many have resorted to playing Santa to keep the wolf from the door. Let’s all hope 2010 brings us all untold wealth.
Woo was telling me that prior to the festive holidays he took his wife Isabelle to her doctors for her annual medical check up. Everything was going fine until he commented about her irregular heartbeat. “What can I do about that?” asked Isabel. “You can improve your heart rate by indulging in sexual activities three times a week,” said the doctor. “I think you had better tell your suggestion to my husband,” said Isabel. The doctor went to the waiting room and took Woo to one side and told him that his wife needed sex three times a week. “Which days?” asked Woo. “Well, something like Mondays, Wednesdays From the Notebook of Custard Clowns and Friday’s would be ideal,” said the Doctor. “Okay Doctor,” said Woo, “I can get her here Mondays and Wednesdays, but on Friday’s she’ll have to take a taxi!” ha ha.
Crisis - what crisis? - again!
It seems every so often, that question needs to be asked and is being asked by C.I members while the rest carry on as though everything is alright. So far we are looking for a new Treasurer and new Egg Artist, we have lost over a third of our C.I members the past year or so and still counting. Do we know why they have deserted? Have we asked them? Or perhaps they might come back, who knows! Perhaps there might be 41 some brighter news at our A.G.M. in March.
It was lovely to hear from Happi the clown in Scotland before Christmas. To prove that our column is read by the great and the good, Happi responded to our last column when we could not remember the name of the café where most of us clowns used to meet to taste some of their delicious Lancashire hotpot at lunch times during the clowns’ festival at Southport 1993. The name of the café was PINDERS. Thanks Happi. From the Notebook of Custard Clowns...cont
If the letters page is the heart of any magazine then the Joey is in serious trouble - it seems ages since we had anything like a lively, funny, informative letters page in our magazine. The platform allows C.I members to let off steam, to agreeing, disagreeing, rant and rage, congratulate, express your feelings etc. Why don’t we get letters to be published? If we do why don’t we devote two or three pages regularly to our reader’s views? But if we don’t because members/friends cannot be bothered, we really are in trouble! (ED: We don’t get any, otherwise I would)
Well, we are into 2010, the year when Woo reaches the big O, and not telling you whether there is a six or seven in front of that figure, suffice to say that he will now be at an age whenever he falls asleep that people will worry that he’s dead or if he sinks his teeth into a steak, they stay there. Whatever his age, Woo can still show us all what a romantic smoothly he can be. Mrs. Woo had a good selection of cosmetics and creams for Christmas, all designed to knock years off her age. Well, she thought I’ll give Woo a pleasant surprise. She sat down in front of her dressing table mirror and started applying the creams and potions: a few hours later she sat down next to Woo and asked, “Tell me honestly, how old do you think I look?” Woo replied, “From your skin 23, from your hair 19, from your figure 22”. “Oh you flatterer,” she gushed. “Wait a minute,” said Woo, “ I haven’t added them up yet”.
And finally: We realise that love triumphs over everything. Woo and I wish former Editor Caroline all the luck in the world in her new venture (whatever that is!). The added little quips that used to be added to our work will be considerably missed by us. Of course it will also shorten it. Always keep your personality and humour, it you will get you through most things in life - so does money! We welcome Stevie D into the job and hope you will be as patient with us as Caroline has.
Colin Walker and Bernard Moore - The Custard Clowns
Answers on page 44 42 Hello All! I hope you enjoy these missives - I always love hearing back, but please don’t feel you have to respond! I’m having fun doing them and it’s a great way to get some of my experiences on paper. Skim through, read through, delete...
We’ve been very lucky with the weather so far - some rather wet days, but not too cold. It’s about to change and we’re expecting snow and cold come Friday! The mood here is good and we’re showing the audience a good time with the show!
I’ve had another one of those memorable mishaps during a show. It’s not quite as good as the last one (thank god), but here we go. My Shakespeare piece is about the accidents of a very high status classically-trained actress starting with the heel of a shoe breaking and ending with sniffing glue, all the while performing the monologue. I wear a string of pearls integral to the piece and the other evening I was standing off-stage left preparing to enter when I realized I hadn’t put them on. I turned to Arron who happened to be standing right there because I had asked him to time my piece. In horror I told him I’d forgotten my pearls and he took off across the backstage to dash down to the dressing room to retrieve them. Luke was already introducing me and he could hear Arron running. He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew it couldn’t be anything good. I made my entrance at the proper time, but the entire time I was interacting with Luke - we have a bit that we do before he leaves the stage and I begin - he could tell something was terribly wrong... maybe he’d introduced the wrong piece. I was going through the motions but my brain was crazily trying to figure out how to get the pearls that I could see in Arron’s hands off stage right. After Luke made his exit I calmly looked out to the audience, silently asked them to hold on for a moment, and walked offstage. I returned immediately with the pearls in my hands, showed them to the audience and put them on. They applauded, I accepted, then stopped them so I could perform my number. I was physically shaking until about halfway through the piece. I now have a check list on my mirror and I check it EVERY time I leave the dressing room to go on stage. It has become my new ritual never to be skipped. And then last night, I went through my counting ritual of the 7 items that I need in place before I go onstage, and to my horror I found myself about to go on without my glasses for my musician number. I had done the count and thought I felt them on my head! Luckily I had enough time to run back down to the dressing room, grab them and get back to where I enter with a little time left over to slow down my heart rate. Damn! Even with my ritual... ah well, never a dull moment.
I met one of the great old European circus clowns from Switzerland the other night by name of Walter Galetti. http://www.clown-galetti.com. I didn’t think I’d ever heard of him before, but when I looked at his website and found him on Pat Cashin’s clown website, I realized that he was a familiar figure and quite well known. Then Kenny Quin, our Danish pick pocket, gave me a dvd with his act on it and I realized I knew his work - wish I’d known who he was when I met him. He’s 73 and still performing! He was in town to do a show, but it conflicted with ours and I wasn’t able to go. He didn’t speak any English, but conveyed to me how much he enjoyed my work. He was with a fellow clown called Pidi Oelhafen who said Galetti was clown #1 for men and I was #1 for women! It’s so gratifying to have these older more traditional clowns see my work and appreciate it so much. They were with a fellow from Leipzig who is working on a clown museum
Missive from Leipzig 2 Hilary Chaplian and is collecting things from clowns world-wide - says he hopes to have my shoe for the museum one day. http://www.weltderclowns.de. He’s going to put me in touch with the hospital clowns here in Leipzig.
We’ve done about 38 shows and have 72 to go. We’ve just completed our first 10 show week and hopefully our last. Fri., Sat. and Sun. were double show days and from now until Dec. 23 we have 1 or 2 shows per day, so it’s a very full schedule. This was probably my most difficult weekend as I was asked to perform in the senior residence between shows on Friday evening in our 50 free minutes and the response to the Musician piece was something like luke warm. I was at one end of a large all purpose room with a DJ positioned behind me who introduced me as a world famous musician who had 43 performed all over and was currently at the Kristallpalast across the street. I enter as if late and the audience soon realizes that I’ve been with my lover - I’m not fully dressed and I’m still wearing a handcuff for which I can’t find the key. Normally the response to the piece is gales of laughter and applause. I have no idea whether or not they liked it, thought it was highly inappropriate, or just plain awful! And then on Sunday at the
3 pm matinee, there were about 20 children ranging from about 4 to 12 years old and I Missive from Leipzig 2 Hilary Chaplian...cont can safely say that I broke my record for the least amount of laughter ever for both of my numbers! Again, inappropriate or did they just not get it? The last show of the weekend went great and several other variety artists loved my work and the owner of another variety (who incidentally was the founder of this one) said he would love to see a whole show with my character being the focal point! So if I’m not getting much of a response from the 6 year old set, I’m not too worried.
I try to do something every day so that I don’t feel like I’m finishing one show and turning around and starting the next with no life in between. It just feels like the day whizzes by and I’m back in the dressing room again before I know it. An odd life. Today I’m sitting and writing in a bookstore cafe called ‘something Barnes & Noble’ and will work on editing my new video. I’ve been to the Thomas Church where J. S. Bach worked for about 25 years and is buried to listen to organ music and the choir singing liturgical songs. It was beautiful to sit quietly and listen. So far I’ve been to the Stasi Museum, two contemporary art museums and the monthly flea market and there are about 5 other museums I’ll get to while here. Next will be the Museum of Contempirary History - the years between WWll and the fall of the Berlin wall. The history of this city is as interesting as it was part of East Germany before the wall came down. I’ll try to watch the film “The Lives of Other’s” again after I go. It’s a fabulous portrait of East Germany during that period. I’ve visited Dresden and Berlin since I’ve been here for one night each. I took my beautiful old German Democratic Republic green Diamant with me to Dresden - what a fantastic way to see a city! Dresden was practically destroyed by fire bombs at the end of the war and the renovation has been incredible. Berlin was very chilly and wet, but witnessing the constant changes happening there since the fall and gaining some understanding of the controversies around how and what to renovate and what to tear down is interesting if not fully comprehendable.
Living in a makeshift family is interesting. Not hard, but not always easy. The 5 of us plus child are pretty easy going on this side of the floor, but I am living with a 3 year old and a dog. It means the padding of little feet in the morning when I may not be ready to wake up. And in the night the hallway is like an echo chamber. It’s getting easier to sleep through it as the days go by, but now and then it’s damned annoying. I also find it’s not easy to always have people around. I’m so used to getting up alone at home in the morning and having time to myself before I deal with the world beyond my computer. And as lovely as these people are, I don’t always want to see them. And I mean that in the nicest way!
The Christmas market is the 2nd biggest in eastern Germany after Dresden, and they say it’s nothing like some of them in western Germany. It really takes over the city centre which is filled with people stuffing themselves with foot long Bratwurst and Gluwien, waffles with whipped cream, fried dough and mushrooms in cream sauce with noodles. It all looks and smells great! My favourite thing so far, and one of the only things I’ve indulged in besides Gluhwein, is the fire-smoked salmon with dill mustard in the Finnish market area. I finally had my first Bratwurst at the flea market and after I’d worked thought the part with the yummy spicy mustard, the pork sausage got to be a bit too much pig in my mouth and I threw it away. In between the food and drink stalls are wooden trinkets, silver jewellery, furry things and beautifully decorated Christmas cookies - nothing I’ll buy.
Enjoy the Christmas and Chanukah season where ever you may be!
With love from Germany, Hilary Chaplain 44
The party was great, I loved it, the e , w t games we played were funny and in lo ga a Bubblz helped me make a snowman a as . ns w ll balloon, it was great fun!!! w it a lo s y c a d b he ty ha t ar s Snowball (Chloe Rayson) e p a se e w o th e I t t d m hou ce ye t ti in ) ght ni o a rt s and the par s nj re a n lots ty a e g M ow of f was W lly A d l un! go a . n f C Lov od re un a o e f lle s of e nd Tri ch ie p (Dani i Fr el M M ( oore) A very fun and well-attended event. Thanks to all who made it such a success. Here’s to 2010! of ts lo yone. Laugh a minute, Love Pippa (Natasha Oakes) had er e) great fun had by ev oor M and ou everyone, real it, y han success. Roll on the ed at hank N next event. lov T ( I fun. ace el o Gadget (David Allen) I had been looking forward to it and it h S was so wonderful to finally go to the Junior Christmas Social that Pippa organized in Raunds. We had seven It was a right laf, and brilliant C.I Juniors Clowns as well as that all of always on doing fun Rainbow’s children and partners, things together. hopefully next year there will be more!
(Ashley Brett) Basher We played party games and made a balloon animals (if you can call snowmen animals!!?) We danced and sang and all the juniors received a prezzie (even if they were booby prizes) This was my first C.I social gathering, I
was impressed by the friendliness and Rainbow got the best present- a pair generosity the older clowns showed of socks! towards the junior clowns, and the not so
young friends and family members of the Julius had a wonderful time, thanks clowns. Pippa!!
I really was made very welcome and I Smilez and Giggles enjoyed myself!
Junior Christmas Social Comments Lots of love Bubblz
Pauline (Pippa’s mum)
4. Half Time 5, Do You Understand 6, Reverse Psychology Reverse 6, Understand You Do 5, Time Half 4.
1, Cut a long story short. 2. Fishy Business 3. See eye to eye to eye See 3. Business Fishy 2. short. story long a Cut 1, Answers to Page 41 quiz. 41 Page to Answers a well known hire firm in Covent Garden “If and when we get them Sir, they are approximately 45 eighty pounds”. I used to dye white cricket flannels and white shirts. This was a bit of a ‘hit and miss’ but where could you go in 1953 to buy an orange shirt or a pair of crimson trousers?
I was lucky that my Mum was a very clever, self taught dress-maker/tailor and with her Singer treadle sewing machine she knocked out some pretty good bits and pieces to my very sketchy designs. (I would also add here that when my beloved was auditioning for the role of Mrs Monty Wells all those years ago, it was her ability as a seamstress that helped get her the job.) Despite the fact that I was earning money fairly frequently as a clown and the people who paid me seemed to be quite happy with my work and appearance, I was non-the- less frustrated because, I suppose, I must have had at the back of my mind that somewhere there was a sort of professional entertainers Shangri-La where you could be ushered into an enormous warehouse and wander, at your leisure, selecting. “I’ll take two of those ‘fright’ wigs and a pair of those brown and white clown boots. Is that the only size you have in those red, white and blue striped suits? Then I’ll have to take one of those ‘draught board’ check ones. Yes, the purple and orange one will do nicely” But where was this Valhalla of comedy props and would they let me in if l found it? A short time later, all was revealed. I was browsing among the ‘Biography’ section of my local library when I happened upon the Butch Reynolds book. I had vaguely heard the name before somewhere and as I flipped through the pages a paragraph on page 56 caught my eye. I immediately took the book home and read it from cover to cover and then started all over again. I will quote the paragraph verbatim.
Bonzo’s Bit...cont “The ‘chovey’ (second-hand) shops in small country towns are a mine of useful professional props for the clown: here he can still find those stockings with fierce coloured rings, the decorated uniforms of old soldiers, policeman’s hats, swords, feather boas - all the odd and colourful junk of yesterday which time has turned into perfect comedy stock-in-trade. Women’s old felt hats are especially prized. Strip one of its finery, soak it well in water, put it down over a broom handle and you have the clown’s conical hat for a few pence.”
Written in 1954 this was still true but more to the point, to me it was an eye-opener. There was no Aladdin’s cave of comedy wherewithal! If Butch Reynolds needed a red bowler hat, he painted a one and sixpenny black one. He and others like him patched, sewed, painted and glued and so did Bonzo!. The comedy collapsing umbrella you made from a broken ordinary brolly. That was par for the course. That’s what we professionals did!
I have, on more than one occasion, been called a dinosaur because of my penchant for harking back to ‘The Old Days’ and revelling in unabashed nostalgia but don’t hold your breath waiting for me to apologise. Remembering my early years helps me appreciate today’s luxuries. I can at no great cost or effort get a clown nose that at the age of twenty I would have given my eye teeth for. High street novelty shops will sell you mass-produced, plastic comedy items quite cheaply although the fact that they also sell them to the general public tends to dull the spontaneity of the gag. Fancy dress stores and costumiers vie with each other to sell you outlandish styles in every conceivable hue. Don’t bother to look for Butch’s ‘chovey’ shops, today they are as rare as a hernia at a weight lifters convention. I suppose Charity Shops and Boot Sales have taken their place and I never pass either without a quick look round but it’s not quite the same. Workshops. a fairly recent innovation, means that, rightly or wrongly, experts are prepared to pass on their skills and what were once called ‘trade secrets’. There are three things that cannot be bought, this is because nobody has found a way to bottle talent, package experience and you can’t buy a bucketful of good luck. If you have or can acquire an ounce or more of each of these, then you are on your way. The road to being a funny, entertaining, successful clown has been cleared of most of the obstacles. In fact I liken it to an arthritic geriatric having a stair lift installed and I, like everybody else, appreciate the smooth ride. But it was much more satisfying when I had to climb the stairs.
Be lucky!
Monty 46 Bubblz the Math Clown From Caroline Ainslie, a.k.a. Bubblz of London, England colored are still used in South Africa to My math show uses some unexpected describe their population.] props: Soap bubbles and giant balloons. The young learners I perform for, can't Toni’s solution to this problem is to "train help but gasp at the size of the bubbles the trainers" by running a mathematics and want to come up and climb inside the outreach programme for teachers based at giant balloon shapes that they help build The African Institute for Mathematical which are often bigger than they are. The Sciences School Enrichment Centre nature of my props keeps audiences (AIMSSEC) in Muizenberg near Cape transfixed on the activities which are Town. Math teachers trainers from based around measurement and shape Cambridge and other universities around (geometry). It’s called the Shape and the world volunteer their time at the Space Show. Institute. A IMS is running a c ampaign for “The next Einstein might be African.” Below we created is a giant tetrahedron, They are reaching for the stars, and why a Sierpinski tetrahedron. It’s a fractal; not? These will be the future educators take four tetrahedrons to make a larger and decision makers in South Africa. one, four of those makes a even bigger one. You can get bigger to infinity and In September, I went to J ohannesburg and smaller to infinity. It’s all about scale and Cape Town and visited townships, the concept of infinity. In mathematics, From Bubblz, the Math Clown: shelters, schools and hospital schools. you can express infinity and keep going I performed at the Science Centers in At the age of 42, I was struck by lightning – forever, whereas in the “real” world you Cape Town and Johannesburg. They metaphorical lightning that is – I found out the often can’t. It’s the concept of bussed in “learners” and “educators” meaning of life, the universe and everything! mathematics where there is no barrier, no which is what they actually call the I realized I was a clown! end. Visualizing this is important - the students and teachers. I think it is brilliant mental agility to be able to visualize these In my previous life I was an electronic engineer. to call the students “learners” as it’s concepts is something the South African I have always loved math and finally I knew telling them “It’s your job to be a children in particular, struggle with. It’s what I was born to do. I use my clown to ignite learner.” The township learners were metaphorical, but in a different way than enthusiasm, inspire educators, learners and mostly between the ages of 13 and 16. what they are used to seeing and parents to experience the joy and the spine- The kind of audience that would be really tingling excitement that I feel when I solve a imagining in nature. challenging in the UK, but in South math problem, when I see a beautiful shape or Africa, they just loved it. (Continued on next page) marvel at the moment when a child understands a concept for the first time. Over the last four years I have performed my math shows in schools and at conferences in the UK, Denmark and Poland. My father is from South Africa and I still have relatives there, so I’ve always had a dream of going there. At a math conference in England, Bubblz the Maths Clown I met Toni Beardon. She said “A Math Clown! You’ve got to come to South Africa!” Toni is a mathematics education specialist from Cambridge University.
There is a huge problem with math and science for the under-privileged population in South Africa because during the Apartheid era, there was a law that said the “black” and “colored” people should not learn past a certain point. It was felt that they didn’t need to know much more than to add and subtract to do the jobs they were doing. The law was reprieved after 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, so the problem now is that today’s teachers don’t have enough mathematical and science knowledge to teach the curriculum. [Editor’s note: The terms black, white and
The Hospital Clown Newsletter, PO Box 8957, Emeryville, CA 94662 Vol. 12 No 2 Page 15 of 16 Boy in a Bubble 47 Bubblz the Maths Clown...cont
The Platonic Solids Above Bubblz pulls a giant bubble over a The sessions are intended to be a trigger for Group Activities child. In one shelter I did every child who teachers to run with, using the “follow up [This is from the Post Workshop Book wanted to be in a bubble. packs,” in which we use cardboard boxes, – a 65 page study outline ] string or anything they can get locally so From Shobi: I know we can’t do this in a they can go back to their local schools and Provide groups w ith a bucket of soapy water and hospital, but haven’t you always wanted reinforce what they learned in the show. one shape. to know how to do this? I have, so here it Bubbles are formed inside frameworks like Ask: What can you see? is. I tried it on my neighborhood kids first. It works. the Platonic Solids above. The illustration How many edges does the soap film have? below is made out of bendy straws and How many faces does the soap film have? Inflate two 260 balloons leaving 1½ inches string together, to make a tetrahedron. It is un-inflated on the end. Double tie them then submerged into a bucket of soapy What do you think will happen when you dip it together making one continues circle. water. A description of a group activity is again half way? So with the big circle you need a big bucket to the right. What shape is the bubble? of bubble solution. Fold the balloons like a What a re the differences between the bubble and banana and slide it long ways through the the frame? bubble solution and gently open it out so What are the similarities between the bubble and you have a big loop of bubble film. Put it 6 the frame? inches over the child and at the last minute, lift it up 6 inches or so in the air, then gently Pass your shape to the next group and try a new whoosh it down so the air goes under the shape. Ask the same questions. soap and forms a bubble that can go over What do you think will happen if you pop all the the child carefully not touching the child or soap films so that the bubble inside is free to yourself, it will pop. See photo above. float away? AIMSSEC What shape is the freed bubble? Do the cube last as it is the most spectacular. Teachers that train at AIMSSEC do not pay a penny towards transport, tuition o r living expenses while on the 10 day Bubble Formula ~ Ratio: 1:1:5 residential course. Further training is 1 part glycerine carried out long distance, with the help 1 part dawn or Joy of mentors. What shape is the freed bubble? 5 parts water for stage, 10 if using Answer: A Sphere. outside or smaller place. AIMSSEC is always fund-raising to cover the cost of each bursary (less than Shobi has replace the bubble solution Please contact Caroline Bubblz Ainslie $650 per teacher). Google aimssec and in her bubble bears with this formula select the GivenGain.com pages to at: www.bubblztheclown.co.uk and, can bounce a bubbles on her make a donation if you are feeling email: [email protected] sleeve. called to help this truly worthy cause.
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The Gauteng (SA) Care Clowns pictured above are doing From Lollie, the clown (Samanta Kvalsig of Pretoria) something the UP clowns calls the "LOVE shower" “I would like to say that for me Lollie had to cry before (Risaterapia in M exico taught it to them). A child, parent, or she could really laugh and sometimes she laughs ‘till she staff member controls the flow of love they get by lifting or cries. That to me is true joy – being able to fell that deeply.
The Uplifting Programme lowering their hand. When they've had enough, they just I keep discovering new things about my Care Clown drop their hand. We in turn have our shower love hands out through this awesome organization and at the same time I over them and we keep saying "love, love, love, love, love, am discovering myself a little bit more every day.” love,” lots and lots faster and then slower until they've had enough. It's wonderful! We all learn how to say “Love” in From Jiggles, the Clown (Samanta Kvalsig) different languages: in Xhosa its “Uthando,” in Sotho its “Care clowning has touched and blessed my life in “Lerato,” and in Afrikaans its “Liefde.” ways that will never be explained or forgotten. I am The clowns in the photo are: Spanky ( Innocent Shibambo), Samantha, but I am also Jiggles the Care Clown and before Billy Boy ( Andile Majole ), Ayoba ( Pule M ofodi ), Sparky I could even notice the change, my heart had become ( Henry Letlape ) and Smokey ( Chris Viviers) warmer, my eyes a little clearer to what love really is, and now I'm just grateful.” From Whiskers, the clown (Madie Fourie of Pretoria) From Nikki Jackman, Founder and CheerLady of the “If you share your laughter with someone, it will UpLiftment Programme. comfort them like a warm blanket. It will make them feel safe and comfortable. Laughter can break the darkest, “Care Clowning totally changes your life. At least for cloudiest day into rays of sunshine and happiness. Laughter that time you are in clown, you are practicing being can trigger positive attitudes from the people around you.” completely present and nonjudgmental – being in the best essence of what we are – humankind.”
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The UPliftment Programme is a Care Clowning and JOY activating organization active in South Africa. Through the amazing work of their dedicated and empathetic volunteers, they reach hundreds of children every week. These children The Uplifting Programme...cont are quite often in a hospital for months with very little social and emotional support and upliftment coming their way. Care Clowns visit hospital wards, convalescent homes, and orphanages on regular weekly rounds, sharing play and joy The Republic of South Africa has a population of where there is such a need! Their vision is to share the healing 48,187,637. The capital city is Pretoria, Cape power of JOY. Town is the legislative center, and Bloemfontein Currently in South Africa we have about 25 Care Clowns in is the judicial center. Cape Town, 12 in Plett, and about 12 in Gauteng. Africa is considered to be the cradle of mankind, with some of the earliest human existence Mission Statement discovered in S outhern Africa, dating b ack a lmost "Sharing the healing power of JOY,” we inspire three million years ago. Modern humans have socio-emotional sUPport for the children in homes and lived there for more than 100,000 years. hospitals by training volunteers to become Agents of JOY or The population of today’s South African is: 75% Care Clowns. African, 14% Caucasian, 9% mixed race and 2% of the population are Asians. South Africa has 11 We envision a future where every child is able to share JOY official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, regularly and in turn, others (volunteers) will find purposeful Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, existence in sharing this JOY... UPlifting the spirits of South Xhosa, and Zulu. Africa through Joy." South A frica is a m iddle-income, emerging market Current Programs Care Clowning Nationwide with an abundant supply of natural resources. It has a well-developed financial, legal, School Care Clowning communications, energy, and transport systems. Corporate and Community JOY, JOY talks, laughter, and South Africa’s stock exchange ranks among the JOY sessions 10th largest in the world. It has a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution Formal Affiliations of goods to major urban centers throughout the Novalis Ubuntu Institution - Cape Town region. EMS Emergency Medical Services - Gauteng Growth has not been strong enough to lower Goals and Objectives South Africa's high unemployment rate. There are daunting economic problems that remain from the To reach all the children in hospitals and institutions with apartheid period, especially poverty and lack of long term ailments or fatal diseases, bringing them economic empowerment among disadvantaged consistent doses of UPliftment and JOY right to their groups. bedsides. High crime and HIV/AIDS infection rates still Build o ur network of volunteers and c o mmunity m embers, plague the nation. Although great improvements who are committed to sharing and growing JOY have been made since the apartheid area, the With JOY sharing and original play as the key focus to nation continues to have great racial divides. our healing and development work, we are able to UPlift . . . . amidst all of their social problems a great consistently every week. program of laughter and spirituality is surfacing This includes care clowning in hospitals, outreach to and gaining Upward momentum. HIV/AIDS orphans, TB patients and other orphaned or vulnerable children. We UPlift all in the hospitals and Enter the UPliftment Program...... homes, so the staff and parents share in the JOY too.
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“Great Bliss Is Found ......
From Nikki: From Shobi: I’ve been emailing Nikki for years. W e’ve This has been a very interesting and inspiring personal spoken at length on the phone, but we have never met journey for me. It has been full of lessons, from believing in in person. W ith the magic of Skype we met through the the dream, to finding sustainable ways to sustain the joy and internet and video. We giggled and giggled on the not giving up when things get difficult, and they did, and they phone for 70 minutes. We could finally see each other will. That's just the way life is - the challenges mold us. and talk right there, right here. So here is some of the transcription of that encounter. For me, it's about living with spirit. When I am in an inspira- tional state, I am "in spirit." When it's about the drive and ambition, I'm not in spirit. I can feel the difference as the work lacks that core enthusiastic feeling.
There is also the lesson in this of understanding who I truly am, my strengths and weaknesses. For instance, it has taken nearly six years with “The UP” to own that I'm not an administrator - don't put me behind a desk - Yikes! My strengths are in inspiring people, c reating solutions, discover- ing possibilities and teaching. It was so good to see, that when I let go of trying to do the things I really disliked, there were people who really loved taking on those tasks; and they do the work so well. Tides We've been through low tides and high tides. It was particu- larly challenging in the beginning. When we started in 2003, we started as a volunteer organization and for the first eight months we stayed that way. Then we received funding, and we tried paying Care Clowns a nominal fee. T his meant more administration and we needed a manager just for Care Clowns. W e were only able to sustain this for six months and soon The UP had a whole bunch of dependents with no way of funding them. Starting Over There was no guarantee that our nonprofit organization could keep paying the Care Clowns. We had expected a certain amount of money and it wasn’t coming in. I was then franti- cally trying to find the funds to pay the clowns. A friend said to me, “Sometimes the farmer has to let the tree be and the rotten apples will fall.” So I did that, but it was really diffi- Nikki Jackman, Founder and Project cult. Everyone was angry at me as I had created that depend- Cheerlady of the UPliftment Programme ency. In a way they had a right to be upset because that was the initial structure. We therefore started over and set up a Nikki Jackman is the founder of the UPliftment volunteer organization. There were trained clowns from the Programme. She has been a professional performing salaried who continued working as volunteers. artist since 1990. Her knowledge in theater, stand-up During this process, we found that as soon as we put money comedy, and storytelling, along with teaching drama at into the mix, it became a job for the Care Clown. As a job, it schools, are intricate keys to her natural facilitating and changed the emphasis – it was no longer about the beautiful directing ability, which she has so passionately given exchange that happens when it’s about the spirit of joy and
The Uplifting Programme...cont over to inspiring the UP Program (as it is so called). just being. Her skills and experience include the first hand “Your Care Clown is really the best version of yourself.” learnings of Fred Donaldson’s Original Play, and laughter facilitator training with Dr. Madan Kataria of When we started the project, we said, “The UPliftment Laughter Yoga. program uplifts the corners of our mouths.” Later we realized that with such a broad statement, people don’t quite get what She's an inspirational teacher, joy activist, and leader, we are about. It's not about the clown giving joy, it's about committed to sharing the healing power of JOY. sharing joy. By giving joy, we are receiving joy also, and that flow is healing the spirit. So we have changed that statement to "Sharing the Healing Power of Joy."
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. . . . .When We Share Joy with Another (Continued from Previous Page) example of how Care Clowning changes our lives. During the time that we are “in clown,” we are practicing I visited the Risaterapia Clown Doctors in Mexico City, being completely present, loving, nonjudgmental, and truly where I was welcomed like one of their family. I have so being in the best essence of who we are. much respect for their clown doctor program. For me, the visit was a life altering experience. Before the visit I had One of the expressions I often use is, "We are humankind. been trying to train clowns individually. The Risaterapia Human KIND - not human mean, but human kind." I believe method of training is in big groups, and the groups then that is what we ALL are at the core. Even people who are support each other and other groups. Their system is based committing crimes are not doing it because they are mean on the Scout system. It inspires family involvement and people, they are doing it because that has become the family ethics, so what we learn in Care Clowning, we can solution for them. They don't know what else to do. integrate into our whole life. That is an inspired gift! Andrés Ironically they actually require fear in order to do what they Aguilar, the founder and my host when I was there, says, do.
The Uplifting Programme...cont "Your Care Clown / Clown Doctor is really the best version Another not-for-profit organization that has started in South of yourself." If you have at least once a week to practice Africa has a slogan – “Stop Crime, Say Hello.” They are being the best version of you, that's going to alter your life also inspiring people to appeal to their human-KINDness. for sure. One of our Care Clowns had a burglar invade her house Leaving Fear and Sharing Joy holding her and a friend at knife point. Thankfully, instead of going into fear m ode, she b egan talking to the burglar. H e One of the training tools we learned from Fred Donaldson responded to her by pouring out all his problems. She was (Original Play) in 2004, was how to let go of FEAR and able to eventually get him some help and the whole scenario tune into LOVE. Fred calls his work “original play,” and was life altering for everyone. teaches that, "Play is something t h at is species non s p ecific." He has observed this by playing with wild wolves, bears, The other day one of the Gauteng Care Clowns, Madie dolphins, lions and has even channeled LOVE to calm a a.k.a. "Whiskers," called to check in and shared that her charging rhinoceros. His mental wiring doesn't go into fear daughter came home and said, “Mum, I can see you've just at all (his scientists’ buddies in Switzerland have actually been clowning?” Madie answered, "Oh? Do I still have tested this). Life or society has conditioned us into false fear some makeup on?" "No Mum," her daughter answered, responses. [See Donaldson info on sidebar page 7] "You have not stopped smiling since you've come home." For so long human beings have lived and perpetuated fear. Imagine this. The life (light) switch is off, and we are sitting From Nikki: in darkness. We are coming up out of darkness when we Recipe for Joy turn the light switch on, FEAR goes OFF and LOVE turns (only delightful once shared) ON. 1 Vessel ~ a precious purposeful human being In our Care Clowning training, the whole first day is about 1 cup of good intention understanding oneself and understanding fear. Fear (This is a guideline only -more is Very healthy) manifests in three reactions: fight, flight or freeze. If we can 1 pinch of time (a little goes a long way) analyze any fear-like scenario, we are most likely playing 1 touch of kindness out one of these reactions. It's not always easy to see these 1 heap of love reactions, but they all show themselves in the body in the same way. If we have a fear reaction – fight, flight or freeze For Garnish: – we may alter our breathing. Our bodies may contract and 2 or 3 creative dabs of face paint get tense. We may loose broad focus, and then we can only 1 red nose. focus on what we are defending or escaping. This is not your typical recipe, as it starts with the WE need to be aware of the FEAR reaction and then make preparation of the garnish. a choice to respond differently. We can choose to Take the human being and creatively doodle the garnish BREATHE, LAUGH, and BE CENTERED. Suddenly our focus broadens and we have a realm of other possibilities to on the face. Less is more, especially when preparing to choose from that are LOVING. share joy with the children in homes & hospitals. A little flower or heart compliments the red nose perfectly. We encourage Care Clowns to use exercises, like laughter, Next take the time (just one hour a week) and gently, breathing, and that wonderful “Black Hole” exercise that carefully, totally ego-free, mix the good intention, Risaterapia taught us - making a black hole and throwing kindness and love and enter into a space full of needy all our fear, anger and frustration, into the black hole - children. It's amazing what the joyful mixture of the closing it up and throwing it away. We start all our Care ingredients and the time make – JOY just naturally, Clown sessions by truly being vessels, by emptying of all of magically forms and flows. Within minutes the JOY is our “stuff.” If the fear comes up, we know what it feels like created and shared equally with all. - so we choose to rid ourselves of it. Like many things, the more we practice, the easier it becomes. Many of the Care Clowns have found how controlling our FEAR/LOVE So be part of the positive revolution – become an "Agent of awareness deeply affects every area of our lives. This is an JOY" ( C o ntinued on next page)
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continued on page 50 52 Standing Order Form for C.I. Annual Subscription Standing Order Form for C.I.
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Joy Session for 600 Miners in AngloGold Navachab - Karibib Mine
The mine is in the western part of Namibia, Katima is the The Joy Sessions [pictured above at the mine] are a closest town. The miners w ere being honored for 261 days combination of Dr. Kataria’s Laughter Yoga and what without an injury. They were rewarded with a day full Nikki learned “being a Care Clown, i.e., using play and of industrial theatre, and with a laughter/Joy session by the creativity of being in our inner child.” the UPliftment Programme.
Agents of Joy ~ Bringing Joy into the Communities So the children were running away from either abusive Nikki Jackman ~ Continues from Previous Page scenarios or they were being sent to the urban city streets by their parents to earn money. Our next community JOY A couple of weeks ago I was involved in a Cirque du projects will be in the communities providing fun, play and Soleil’s social circus training. They have a program that joy. It is our hope that the children will be more likely to stay work with vulnerable children who live in shelters. They've in their communities. inspired us to bring JOY into the communities. We've been focusing mainly on the children in need with our A few years back, The UP supported children that were not JOY reach and we realize that some volunteers are interested living in shelters. For these street children, we had a in sharing joy with others in need, like the elderly or program called "Busk Don't Beg." The idea was to have communities. So we have launched "Agents of Joy." This
The Uplifting Programme...cont them learn busking skills. [Busking is street performing for program prepares volunteers to share JOY Sessions in homes donations -- like juggling etc.] We were taking the for the aged and in community venues. It seems that very vulnerable children off the streets two hours on a Tuesday poor communities are taking on more and more stress in and two hours on a Thursday in prime crime time. We these changing times. They desperately need for hope, play would facilitate games and basic busking skills so they and a place to just let go and have fun. We're combining could learn to busk for m oney instead of begging for m oney. laughter exercises with play exercises so adults can be like We did this in conjunction with the police. T he program ran children again. for 2 years. We piloted the community Joy Sessions earlier this year. We realized, however, that if we truly wanted to make a sustainable impact, that we’d have to address the Even though South Africa is so multi-cultural and diverse, communities where the true needs existed. The children our Joy Sessions are inclusive and, everyone is together, as were on the street because they were unhappy and bored in one – laughing and having heaps of fun. We will be training their communities. additional "Agents of JOY" of next year.
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...... Agents of Joy in the Schools
Red Nose Chicken Club The Schools Program, which I hope to see grow to gigantic giggle p roportions, was started in 2005. W e've been working with the Herschel Girls School’s Red Nose Chicken Club. We support them every year with some basic training. They go to a local hospital, Maitland Cottage, twice a month. It's a new group each year. We will be taking this system into other schools next year. The UP's big thing right now is to train more trainers, so we have enough people to teach all volunteers. In the photo below is a graduation day with all the Herschel girls holding their certificates. The Uplifting Programme...cont
Lesley & Sonia (upper left corner) with staff and children of Masiphumilele Creche doing the “Banana”
"The Banana"
It's a call and response song with actions and goes like this:
ALL Banana’s unite [clowns give a salute type action O n the right, a which the children copy and repeat] Herschel Red Nose Chicken Club clown “I said - peel banana, peel, peel banana [children plays with a child in repeat with movements as if the body is the banana and the Hospital. we're peeling it] (repeat the verse),
“I said - slice banana, slice, slice banana” [now the hand slices our body] (repeat the verse),
“I said - smoosh banana, smoosh, smoosh banana” [now the arms smoosh into an imaginary big bowl] (repeat the verse),
“I said - eat banana, eat, eat banana”[now eat big mouthfulls] (repeat the verse)
“I said - eat banana, eat, eat banana” [now eat again big mouthfulls (repeat the verse) - do it faster and go eating crazy,
“I said - ooooh Banana oooh, ooh banana” [buckle over with imaginary tummy ache] (repeat the verse), Above, Carlo Penso a.k.a. Crazy, the Clown, does the “I said - pffrrt banana, pffrrrt, pfffrrrt, banana” [make a "Black Hole" with Herschel Students. We take all our fear, poohey farty sound] (repeat the verse), frustration, anger, worries and throw them into the "Black Hole" And Zap they disappear. After the spontaneous play “I said - pooooeeew banana, peeeooeew, poeeeew and laughter is set free to play and play! banana” [waving hand over nose with stinky “expression” If you are a Care Clown or Care Clown group (no matter how big or small), please see the next page for “I said - flush banana, flush, flush banana” [yup flush an invitation to join The Red Nose Alliance Website. the loo [toilet] www.RedNoseAlliance.org
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Fred Donaldson, A Vision of Hope Through Playing To this day, Dr. Fred Donaldson claims that everything he by Amanda Daniell, Reprinted from knows about Original Play has been learned from the www.TurningOnTheLight.com natural play of children and animals. It is the unspoken language, the language of love, affection and mutual O. Fred Donaldson, Ph.D, a native Californian now living respect that allows for deep communication. The naturally in Sweden and offering international seminars and flowing force of love engages both children and adults to workshops is one of the most exquisite men you will ever willingly surrender their tough exterior for the playfulness meet on this planet. of the youthful child inside. He is Grizzly Adams meets Aikido Master. He has In his Pulitzer Prize nominated book entitled Playing By extraordinary senses, a calm and focused presence and a Heart: The Vision and Practice of Belonging, Fred genuine laugh that comes from deep within. He is as Donaldson describes some of his amazing experiences and comfortable in a lair of wild animals as he is in a explores the very practical idea that there is another way to classroom of children. play in the world and that “you are loveable and there is nothing to fear.” He promotes a sense of belonging and During his workshops children and adults alike watch in self w orth through an attitude o f kindness that is instinctive pure amazement as he gracefully manages 30 children in children, b ut o ften lost through a culture of competition, contained within the area of a large gymnastics mat. isolation and sometimes violence. His workshops, Relying on his instincts, intuition and attention to their non continual research, and his book as well as over 30 – verbal feedback, he gently plays with each child and published articles renew hope and faith in the instinctive offers exactly what they need at that moment: whether it is core of our humanity which is created in love and a deeper rocking a tired child to sleep or allowing an overly sense of purpose than ever imaginable. rambunctious child to vent his anger or excess energy, he always creates a safe place for all participants to play [Doesn’t this sound like a care clown teacher? We clowns without fear. giggle our way around the hospital like little children at play. Just Google “Fred Donaldson Play Therapy” and Fred Donaldson has coined this play therapy “Original read on. You’ll be inspired] Play”. It is one of the most ancient and natural therapies around, yet not fully appreciated until Dr. Donaldson decided to make a career out of studying the behaviours of Bringing Us All Together to Showcase the Global Joy children and wild animals. Movement on The Red Nose Alliance Website. The Up Programme has initialed a website to bring our World He left a high paying job as a Professor with years of family of Care Clowns, Hospital/Clinic Clowns, Clown experience teaching at the Universities of W ashington and Docs together so that we can support and encourage California State Hayward as well as the California School each-other. Please email your group’s details to: of Professional Psychology and moved into kindergarten [email protected]. Please include: Your class where he started to observe these fascinating young Group N ame, C ity and C ountry, Contact p erson, W ebsite children. His naturally loving instincts enabled him to (if you have one) and what venues you clown at: quickly connect with the children and learn about their “no i.e., hospitals, nursing homes, etc. fear” attitudes. www.RedNoseAlliance.org Email: [email protected]
The Uplifting Programme...cont The Hospital Clown Newsletter, PO Box 8957, Emeryville, CA 94662 / www.hospitalclown.com / Vol. 12-2 / UPliftment Programme Page 7 of 7
Hey I Can Do This (reprinted from December 1993 Joey)
The POP TWIST is the LOCK TWIST with extra bubble.
pop Hey I can do This ear twists Some of the models, like the lobster, use a split Bubble. Having twisted an ear, the bubble is squeezed and twisted to form two separate bubbles. You will find this difficult unless the original bubble is really soft. GIRAFFE using a 260 REINDEER THE LOBSTER 57 A Blow up a bubble Increase the length of The lobster is another leaving a 1½” nipple the legs of the giraffe balloon with a pop twist. by shortening the neck. It is a great balloon for B ½” bubble, 2 ½” Then, inflating a second any restaurant or any bubble, 2½” bubble, 260 to all but about 1”, ocean resort. Start with twist together mentally divide balloon in a 260E. Made from a 3” bubble, 2½” half. Make a large ‘S’ twist black balloon your lobster bubble, 2½” bubble, at the nozzle (knot), then becomes a terrifying twist the last two make a second ‘S’ twist in scorpion. together, long neck, the other half. Twist these ¼” bubble, twist antlers where the ears on together, this should the giraffe belong. leave about 1½” head. Down the side street: Turn that giraffe 90o (quarter turn) and you have a new
dog. Hey I can do This...cont
THE RABBIT (holding the carrot)
The rabbit holding the carrot is a very realistic looking balloon. Use a white 260E and an orange 321 for full effect. The carrot is the orange 321 balloon slightly inflated.
A pop twist comes after the splitting of the ear twist. This is done simply with a pin or long finger nail or a little pressure with the fingers. 58
Since the mid 1940’s when founder member, Stan Butt, started recording the faces of members on eggs, Clowns International have continued to encourage members to have their make-up recorded on china pot eggs to be added to the unique collection. The collection is housed in the clowns mu- seum/exhibition at Wookey Hole in Somerset.
Our very talented egg artist produces ‘eggcellent’ works of art, the eggs are not just a record of the clowns facial make-up, but an actual portraiture in miniature.
Have you had your egg added to the collection yet? Once you have ordered an egg for the museum you may order an additional egg for yourself, which will be posted directly to you. Art can never be rushed but we endeavour to ensure that your eggs are finished within one month of receiving your order.
Please cut out, or photocopy the order form below and forward to: The Membership Secretary, David ‘Conk’ Vaughan, 193 Shard End Crescent, Shard End, Birmingham, B34 7RE, England.
Please send good quality photographs (10” x 8” preferred) plus samples of costume material and sufficient wig hair to cover the egg, otherwise the artist can not guarantee to reproduce an exact copy
Clown Name: ______Membership No: ______Address: ______
Egg for Clowns International Collection Qty_____ @ £10.00 = £10.00 (or Vouchure) Additional Egg(s) for clown: Qty ______@ £15.00 = Plus Postage and Packing UK @ £2.50 =
Overseas @ £5.00 =
C.I. Egg Registration Form All cheques, money orders, bank drafts, euro cheques must be in sterling and made payable to; Clowns International or you may complete the credit card details below.
I wish to pay by Visa / Mastercard (please delete as appropriate). Card No: ______Exp Date: _____/______Name on card: ______CVV No ______
Signature: ______Date: ______
I understand that to obtain personal egg(s) I must have purchased an egg for the Clowns International Collection. My signature indicates that I understand and agree to all the above conditions. Life President 59 Ron Moody
Chairperson Vice Chairperson Gordon ‘Rainbow’ Sharpe Ian ‘Gingernutt’ Thom Tel: 07977412328 Tel: 02083104376 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
Special Responsibilities Special Responsibilities Festival and Social Events The Clowns’ Gallery Ltd - Liasion Sub Committee Bluey ‘Clown Bluey’ Brattle (Chairperson) Bluey ‘Clown Bluey’ Brattle Tel: 07889600620 – Liasion The Clowns’ Benevolent Fund Ltd Committee List and Contact Details Chris ‘L.O.’ Stone (Company Secretary) Secretary Membership Secretary Antony ‘Bluebottle’ Eldridge David ‘Conk’ Vaughan Tel: 0845 269 2917 Tel: 0845 269 3648 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Special Responsibilities Public Relations Officer Special Responsibilities Sub Committee Website Administrator Martyn ‘EEK’ Cooper Sub Committee Tel: 012762337 Stephen ‘Stevie D’ Davies Tel: 0151 678 2994 Mathew ‘Mattie’ Faint Tel: 02076080312 Treasurer Co-opted with Special Responsibilities Christine ‘Anco’ Fincham Joey Co-ordinator/Editor Tel: 01442 652384 Stephen ‘Stevie D’ Davies Email: [email protected] Tel: 0151 678 2994 Email: Special Responsibilities [email protected] Commercial or [email protected]
Benevolent Liasion Clowns Museum and Archive Manager Roly ‘Roly’ Bain Mathew ‘Mattie’ Faint Tel: 01454616593 Tel: 02076080312 Email: [email protected]
Please note that these committee positions were correct at the time of going to print and may have changed at the AGM.
JOEY ARTICLE DEADLINES Spring Issue (posted March) 1st January Summer Issue (posted June) 1st April Autumn Issue (posted Sept) 1st July Winter Issue (posted Dec) 1st October