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Film Review: Monsieur Chocolat
[post 420]Foottit & Chocolat were a legendary clown duo in turn-of-the-century, belle époque Paris, famed for their trailblazing partnership: the first white/black clown duo and first popular clown...
View ArticleComplete Book: Les Mémoires de Foottit et Chocolat
[post 421]As a follow-up to my previous post, here's the complete text of the 1907 biography of Footit & Chocolat. To read, just click on the full-page icon at the bottom-right. (Yes, it is in...
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Your Memorial Day Funnies
[post 422]I sortakinda have this sometimes-but-not-always tradition of using major holidays as an excuse to gift you any cartoons related to physical comedy that I've come across since the last time....
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Video from the Early 1800s! (or, In Search of the Harlequinade)
[post 423](L-R), Joseph Grimaldi as Clown, Tom Ellar as Harlequin, James Barnes as Pantaloon (watercolor, British Museum)The harlequinade is the holy grail of physical comedy. No, not the kind of...
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In Remembrance: Clown Dimitri
[post 424]There are professional clowns today who have never even heard of the great Swiss clown Dimitri, though they owe him a big debt. Dimitri died this week at the age of 80 in the Italian region...
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On the Inevitable Triumph of Clowning and Circus
[post 425]Dario FoIt seems that the world we know is being torn asunder. I speak not of Donald Trump and the wreckage and foul taste of his campaign, though it's in some ways related. I'm thinking of...
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Guest Post: Sacred Clowns by Mike Funt
[post 426]It is a pleasure and honor to have Mike Funt, artistic director of Four Clowns, join us as a guest contributor. Mike is well-known internationally for his workshops in clown, mask, and circus...
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I'm Dreaming of a (White) Christmas Physical Comedy
[post 427]Merry Christmas all!Here's a little physical comedy gem for you from the 1954 Bing Crosby – Danny Kaye classic film, White Christmas. This is Danny and crew in "Choreography," a parody of...
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Guest Post: Michael Evans reviews Lou Campbell's "Emergence of Physical...
[post 428]"Memoirs of Mime for all Time –The Emergence of Physical Theatre in the 21st Century” by Louis H. Campbell[Michael Evans is author of the book “The Great Salt Lake Mime Saga and Amsterdam’s...
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Learning from Animation
[post 429]Book Review: Comedy for Animators by Jonathan LyonsMost clowns I know love cartoons, often having the same reverence for Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny that they have for Charlie Chaplin and...
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The Incredible and Incredibly Funny Wiere Brothers
[post 430]Harry, Herbert, and Sylvester WiereWhen I want to sound old, I like to tell the youngins about how it wasn't always quite so easy to study the work of the classic physical comedians. I'm...
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A Minor Discovery: The Three Loose Screws
[post 431]The Wiere Brothers (previous post) are a hard act to follow. It's like when my clown partner Fred Yockers and I were in the Hubert Castle Circus and had to go on after the boxing...
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Bizarro Cartoon Roundup
[post 432]I collect cartoons —even wrote a book that had some great ones! Of course, I collect those that have something to do with physical comedy, directly or indirectly. One of my favorite...
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Consider it Stolen! —the curious case of "Singin' in the Rain"
Donald O'Connor: "Make 'em Laugh"[post 433]Way back in the day, 1980 to be precise, when I was working with Joe Killian and Michael Zerphy, whenever we saw other performers do a bit we really liked,...
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Ho! Ho! Ho! — A (Baker's) Dozen of Santa's Favorite Physical Comedy Acts
[post 434]Your 3 Santas: Hovey Burgess (left), Mr. Clown (center), and yours trulyHere's a Winter Solstice-Chanukah-Christmas-Kwanza-New Year's present for you, a compilation of Santa's favorite...
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The Acrobatic Artwork That Pretty Much Sums Up 2017
[post 435]Happier new year one and all!As some of you may know, in addition to laughing at physical comedy and admiring all that skill, I am also quite fond of finding Deep Meaning about the Human...
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Book Review: The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day
[post 436]Bottom Line: I wouldn't review this book if I didn't like it. I liked it a lot. I think you will too.Format: Fiction. Connected short stories, but reads like a novel that jumps around in...
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In Search Of: Flip's Legendary Saloon Routine
[post 437]In the 1980s I kept hearing a lot about a highly-regarded physical comedy act by the clown Flip, a member of the New England troupe, Loco-Motion Vaudeville. Loco-Motion had impressed everyone...
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New Podcast: Ridiculous —The Life of a Clown
[post 438]A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed over Skype by Abraham Dover for his podcast, Ridiculous: Life of a Clown. I had fun, and you can see the results here.Abraham describes the project as...
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The Great Debate: Chaplin vs. Keaton
[post 439]Most practitioners and aficionados of physical comedy, myself included, have a strong preference for either Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. So I asked dozens of people in the field to share...
View ArticlePhysical Comedy in the 2018 Super Bowl Commercials
[post 440]Any idea what a 30-second Super Bowl commercial cost this year? Wanna guess? Sure, go ahead... No, not a million dollars. Not two, three or four, but over five million. For 30 seconds. For...
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Women in Clowning, Pre-1975: Part One —in the Circus
[post 439]THE SHORT VERSION:It all depends on how you define "clown." The traditional incarnation of the clown, which we tend to associate with circuses, was a male thing. For the most part, circus...
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Women in Clowning, Part Two: A Research Guide to (pre-1975) Clown(esque)...
[post 440]In mylast post we saw that pre-1975 circus clowning was pretty much a boys club, with a big No Girlz Allowed sign posted on the clown alley door. When we look outside the circus, we see more...
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Women In Clowning, Part Three
In their own words: A Gallery of Contemporary Clown Womenor, They Self-Identify as Women, They Self-Identify as Clowns, Here are their Stories...Reminder: just click on the images to enlarge, including...
View ArticleSid Caesar's "Gallipacci" or the Fine Art of Gibberish
[post 442]Sid Caesar (1922–2014), who I worked with VERY briefly (full story here), was one of the truly great American comedians. He was also the King of Gibberish, fluent in faking many a foreign...
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