The 2010s and Clowns

I haven’t touched this blog in years. Still saving my money. Still gathering clown supplies little by little.

The 2010s was not a good decade for family friendly clowns or people wanting to be family friendly clowns. The family friendly clowns. First there was the clown shortage in 2014 reporting that membership was declining for World Clown Association (WCA) and Clowns of America International (COAI). In 2016 there was the great clown scare. The clowns feared their life and business. And could not go out in makeup. But their clown organization membership cards served as a kind of clown ID and kept them for being mistaken or arrested. Just remember to call the police before going to an event in clown just to be sure. In 2017 Ringling brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus closed their doors. Will clowns be extinct by the next decade? Maybe? I’ll say no. Perhaps not the kind of clown you see today. I think they will either stay the same with the “old guard” clowns supervising or adapt into something different. I think many clowns are just “out of touch”. Maybe but maybe not in a way you’d like to be.

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The Clown Door

So I thought I knew what I really wanted with my clown. I thought I was going to go through my personal clown door. I begged and pleaded with that door. Threw fits in front of it. I tried to force it open. I tried to blow it open (3 Little Pigs style). After I thought about it maybe that is not even my clown door I thought or others convinced me it was. And what really awaits on the other side? Is it a zonk door? Or is it even a door? It could be a painted door on a wall like in the cartoons. For now since I don’t know where my clown door is or what it even looks like now. I am taking a hiatus from clowning for now.

There is really no other way around this. I mean I thought about this really hard. Is what they want from you anyone who strays is punished. So when I come back I hope to be the best clown’s clown ever! To adhere to the most rigid and strict rules and codes of clowning. To be an indistinguishable individual clown.

It’s been so easy and dumbed down that anybody with a few basic skills can do it. Get yourself a nice costume learn, a few skills learn, a few jokes, and get an education and you are a clown. The most important thing I need to achieve this lofty goal is money. And if my calculations are correct. I would probably need about $5000. To get started. Since I do not have that kind of money at hand or anything close to it I’m going on an indefinite hiatus from trying to become a clown. Only when I reach that pinnacle of clowning will I become a real clown.

Plus I feel a little cheated a lot of them said it would be easy. All I needed to do was ABC and buy XYZ. And that was it I would become a clown almost immediately. I’ve been so worried about doing it right and not getting it wrong. When there is external pressure or perceived external pressure.

You clowns let me into your very strange and secretive world. I’m very thankful for that. I felt like George Costanza when he goes to that exclusive club that turned into a meat packing plant when him and Jerry visited it.

Like many beginners I felt I didn’t fit in because I didn’t have the right stuff. I have been an admirer of clowns for about ⅚ of my life. As a child I had lofty dreams of running away with the circus. And back then for some reason I thought being a clown as some type of glamorous occupation.

But I have a word of advice for a lot of clowns or well if you are a specific type of clown and that is to make newcomers aware of all the clown rules that exist. To tell somebody who is thinking about becoming a clown or somebody just starting out. Those rules are there and important and must be followed to the letter.

I decided to take an indefinite hiatus until I have the time and money to be a clown.

 

Beginner’s Suck

Why are you not allowed to suck as a beginner? Why is that like a great taboo or something? Why is it when you start something you have to be good at it immediately?

I was thinking about the character Beginner. Beginner from the anime Mon Colle Knights. I’m going by the Saban dub instead of the sub. If you are not familiar with this show she is more or less a bumbling magician. She was one of my favorite characters in the show. She had a hard time summoning monsters because she is a Beginner. She was really bad at it first and then got better at it as time progressed.

Look at her. Isn’t she so cute? Look at those blue pigtails. I wouldn’t mind wearing a blue pigtail wig as a tribute to her character. I know clowns are not supposed to do that. That is frowned upon.

I really liked the Saban English dub of the show. It used to air on Fox Kids from 2001-2002. I thought it was a really good  and funny show. You should check it out if you want to.

The Day the Circus Died

Since Ringling Bros announced they are shutting down last month the optimistic clown part of me thinks the circus will never truly vanish. It will come back in a different form.

Some of the complaints besides the animal rights activists was people complaining that the show was outdated. Sometimes “tried and true” jokes and routines can’t go on forever.

For many performers (including clowns) it was the big time you aspired to go to. It was like that little kid who played sports and dreamed of going pro. But that pro sports league closed down. That’s how I saw other circuses that they were the minors and the Ringling circus was the pro league. A lot of people liked to compare it to a Broadway show, but I think about sports. Sorry, all I could think of was pro sports.

Clowning will never really go away either. That too will come back in some other form. The circus is not the only place for clowns. I think the clowns might want to open up education programs to help train people interested in clowning. Being a former Ringling clown is a big selling point.

The circus arts will never truly go away. People will always want to learn them. They make for interesting conversations.

 

 

Busy Life

*dusts off blog*

So where I have been? I haven’t posted an entry in months. Busy. Not really with clown things, but with life.

I thought maybe I should promise to post more content. I can’t make any grantees so I won’t.

I usually have something up my sleeve anyway. Sleeves? What sleeves? These short sleeves? It’s warm in the suburbs of Los Angeles. I’m usually wearing a t-shirt. Trust me on this one.

The trickster personalty for my clown comes my own trickster personalty.

 

Up Your Clown Cred

Like I have mentioned before I have no performing arts background in anything. No dance, singing, playing a musical instrument, acting, mime, improv, stand up, poi, diablo, juggling, balloons, puppets, stilts, magic, fire eating, etc.

What is an aspiring clown to do? Well take some kind of acting class of course! This is like common knowledge clown advice.

So I did. I thought I save a few bucks by going to the community college and take a theater class. I told myself I would not chicken out like last time, and to actually stick with the class no matter how much I hated it.

It didn’t work out for me. I was more frustrated than anything. Although I did learn a bunch of fancy acting terms/jargon.

After I thought about it did my clown really need that much coaxing out? One day I was writing a story about my clown; nothing uncommon for me there I’m always writing about something. It made me realize that my clown character is as much alive on paper as she is through my development of her. Not that I wrote a predefined personalty and profile for her like age, birthplace, and other things. I realized that writing, acting and clowning are all a bit similar all 3 of these things need a huge vivid imagination. Like a clown a writer needs a writer’s mind and heart. Perhaps I have a writer heart and a clown heart and they beat together.

The one thing that appeals to me about developing a clown character is that when you are acting you are portraying a character somebody else thought up. The clown is an extension of yourself. It’s my own character that I came up with. She can do or be anything I dream up for her.

After being so frustrated with my theater class the only thing it did make me realize I have no other choice I have to go to Moosecamp. Now I’m going to have to scrimp and save every penny to go. Aside from hoping to win a sizable lottery jackpot.

I read something somebody wrote about clowning and they said that a clown can be one of 3 things; funny, skillful, or photogenic. Or a combination of them. I would hope I have the first skill listed or want to. I do understand that not everybody’s brand of humor is going to be liked or universal. I would love to be a photogenic clown! Since I’m not very photogenic in my pedestrian life. And since appearance is highly valued in the real and clown world I’m not gonna fight it too much anymore.

 

No Foolin’

I thought today was a good day to post a blog entry.

I’m talking a break from clowning again. I really need to focus on school. One of these classes is a makeup class for one I did poorly in. Ok almost failed.

Well here are some pictures I drew of Doe Eyes when I was bored a few days ago, and added an extra something to them in paint. I think the Powerpuff Girls style one looks more like South Park style.

 

Unprofessional Looking (A coat of paint and a great looking outfit)

So I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Appearance is very important. If you come from my hometown area (Los Angeles) this is something you think about quite frequently. It’s in a lot of job listings and everything.

So there is a lot of finger pointing among the clown community at “ugly” unprofessional looking clowns. Especially in the form of back handed complements.

Are clowns really that shallow?

According to some all I need to become a clown is get some greasepaint (and learn to apply it properly), and a great looking outfit. That’s it?! That’s all I needed to do!? If it is then I would have started like 10 years ago.

Then I hear things like it doesn’t matter how you look as long as your heart is in the right place.

So what is it?

Is it purely about your looks or is there something more? Or are they horrible performers are trying to compensate by looks alone? So many times I see clowns say great costume= great performer. I don’t want to say that clown is a bad performer that clown might just have a really awesome costume. I cannot judge them on performance ability if I have not seem them perform. That would just be unfair.

If the only thing that separates clowns from comedians is a matter of dress. I’d be in good company.  I won’t mind really. There are some clowns that have all these little sayings about how donning the slap and motley shows your dedication to clowning. Then there is the argument that a costume doesn’t make you a clown, and that there are many people who dress up as clowns who are not clowns.

Where is the line drawn?

*looks around to see if an angry mob of clowns is after me*

 

Just a Pretty Face (for now)

Since Doe Eyes is in the process of being pieced together. I found out that she is incredibly vain about her face. When I put that makeup and become Doe Eyes I can’t stop admiring how cute I look as a clown. This is the totally opposite of my pedestrian personality. I don’t wear everyday street makeup, and I’m not vain about my looks.

I do like that the vain personality of my clown came naturally to me. It was not a preconceived character trait I made up for her. She does not a have an elaborate backstory. Trust me I could probably write one in no time flat! Those can be too restrictive on a clown character.

I was reading about how actors (and some clowns) get into character, and one thing that helps many of them is getting into costume and makeup application. That simply changing their appearance helps. I just like to disassociate myself with my regular appearance. Actors are working from a script and such. Most clowns are building their clown “from scratch”.

I’m a novice. This stuff is all new to me, so I will try to use all the methods I can to bring out my inner clown. All the methods I find that work for me personally.

Hobo Kelly

Have you ever heard of Sally Baker or her clown character Hobo Kelly? I was thinking about the Froozles. It’s an old show from Los Angeles. I heard it was syndicated to other places in the USA. Anyway for those who don’t know this was a show from the late 70s early 80s about puppets, but there were human characters too. Hobo Kelly and Muffin a toyboyish looking character. This show is very low budget and cheesy, but in a nostalgic way. Lots of bad green screen. Officer Byrd also made appearances. When you get safety advice from that famous police parrot. I can’t say police man because he is not a man he’s a bird.

Hobo Kelly was on Los Angeles television for a long time my mom watched her in a different show when she was a child back in the 1960s.