Colbert to Take Over for Letterman

In honor of CBS's announcement that Stephen Colbert will take over for David Letterman, here is my favorite clip of my favorite Buffon clown:

The Daily Show
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Servant Reunion

This weekend I was able to join reunion of the cast of the Servant of Two Masters that I directed a couple of years ago. in fact, although we didn't plan it, but it just so happened that we had our reunion exactly two years to the weekend that Servant closed. This was one of the shows I am most proud of directing. It was such a cool and fun production of the show, and this cast was fantastic.

Not only was everyone in the cast a phenomenal performer and clown, everyone was a great person, and we are all still pals. It was nice to get everyone together in one place again, though. Great, great fun.

 2014

2012

The astute among you may notice that I am wearing the exact same thing in both pictures. That is not on purpose, I just don't have a very large wardrobe.

Kino Kabinet Presents Teatro Idiota

Once a month, I curate and evening of clowns on film at the Schkapf Theatre in Hollywood. It's a really fun evening, and hopefully, if you are in the area, you can make it. See details and Facebook invite below:

Teatro Idiota began, basically, as an excuse for people I like to get together and watch hilarious movies and have refreshments. Once a month I host an evening of watching clown movies and movies derived from clown, anything from Chaplin or Keaton to Laurel and Hardy or the Marx Brothers to Looney Tunes to Steve Martin to Will Ferrell. Essentially, anything clown related from the past or present is fair game. I'll have a brief introduction on the background and how it relates to the art of clown, and then afterwards we can have wine and cheese and snacks and a lovely discussion about the movies.

The evenings will be the last Thursday of the month, except this month, which due to a scheduling conflict will be on a Wednesday. If you can't make it to this one, we'll keep you updated on future ones. Here's the skivvy, er skinny, on the March date:

Where: Schkapf Theatre, Hollywood, CA

When: Thursday, April 24, 7:30 pm until not too late, since it is a school night

Admission: 1 bottle of cheap wine (less than $10) or a cheese of some kind. We will all share and have wine and cheese. I'll also provide popcorn and fruit during the movie.

Program: The Warner Bros. short "I Love to Singa" with Steve Martin: The Television Stuff. Steve Martin's work on television in the 70's is some of the greatest clown work you can watch. This evening will curate some hilarious shorts and sketches from Martin's work on his own specials, SNL, and a host of variety shows, some of which hasn't really been seen in 30 years.

Click here for the Facebook invite.

I'll just leave this here...

Because, well, it's great.

Book of Mormon

Last night I had the great pleasure of seeing Book of Mormon at the historic Pantages Theatre at Hollywood/Vine. (A first for me.) At this point the show has been around for so long that one more review is going to mean nothing to anyone. The long and short though is that I thought it was fantastic. It was hilarious. It was irreverent. It involved me and my fellow audience members. It was a great piece of theatre. It's everything about theatre that theatre in 2014 should be.

I was really pleased that even though the show has been around a few years now and everyone I know has seen it, I managed to not know much about the show going in. It was fantastic to, in the age of the internet and spoilers and everything, be able to have that experience again. At first I thought, "Okay, this is going to be fun. Silly. I get it." Then there was this number:

Not my video, nor the cast I saw, just one I found on YouTube. After this number I realized it was just going to be fun. It was going to be spectacular. I had few qualms with any of the performances. For the most part I was wowed by everyone, but for me our Elder McKinley, Pierce Cassedy, was a stand-out. What an amazing performer.

I'm so glad I finally got to have this unbelievable theatrical experience.

Clown in Art

A Hungarian artist who looks as severe as this...

...is not someone who I would expect to be filled with whimsy, but László Moholy-Nagy is full of surprises. 

Here is a work of art that I have long been a fan of. It's a small 10x12 inch work of ink and crayon on paper that proves you can find clown in almost any medium.

I think this is a fine example of clown work in the form of visual art. The more you look at it the more you see the fly and the more the narrative begins to clarify itself in your imagination. It becomes clear that this is physical comedy, slapstick even. I know when I look at it, I immediately smile. On Wikipedia, the definition of slapstick, and I think it's a good one, is comedy "involving exaggerated physical activity which exceeds the boundaries of common sense." Is this not most assuredly that?

Okay, but clown purists will tell me that clown is not just about physical humor. There's vulnerability. There's a connection with the audience. I don't know about you, but the tiny little dots and short lines do show vulnerability to me. You see how the life of this little fly is rife with peril, constantly on the move.

The connection with the audience is the one that confused me at first. Unlike if I were performing as a clown on the stage or in the circus, this is a medium--like Chaplin or Keaton on film--where there cannot be direct eye contact between audience and clown. But for me the moment you learn the title is the moment of connection for the clown and his audience. You go to a museum and see this piece. You walk over to it. It looks interesting. Then you look over next to it and see the title, "Diary of a Fly." In that moment you have a connection with the clown-artist. You can see him giving a sheepish shrugging look as if to say, "Well?" And you think, "Ahhhhaha. I see what you did there."


For me, this little drawing is as much a clown piece as Lorenzo Pisoni climbing the ladder in Humor Abuse. What do you think? Can you find clown in this?

King of Clowns

Over the past couple of weeks I had the privilege of reading the autobiography/memoir of Adrien Wettach, known to most around the world as Grock, King of Clowns. I knew nothing more about Grock when I started the book as you probably do now reading his name. Grock never really made the big splash in America that he made other places, mainly Europe. He did one small run in New York early on in his career and decided that Americans didn't have the right sensibility for him, and thus decided not to perform here anymore. As such, if you say his name to an American, you will probably get a quizzical look, but if you ask a European if they've heard of Grock, you will probably also get a quizzical look. However, it will be more along the lines of, "What? Of course I have. Who hasn't heard of Grock?"

You see, in Europe Grock was just as famous as a theatre clown as Charlie Chaplin was as a film clown. The two had a great admiration and respect for one another. Each thought the other was far more talented than himself, which is no small sentiment considering the egos of both men. Grock was for a period receiving the highest salary any entertainer in the world had ever received. He made enough money in his fifty year career to purchase the Villa Grock, a palatial estate in Italy.

And yet almost no one in America has heard of him.

Which is why I have made it my mission to educate Americans on Grock. If you're looking for something to read, this biography is great. It doesn't matter that you don't know who he is. I didn't when I started reading the book. He is such a charming and witty character, you fall in love with him on page one, and you don't stop. His writing style is so casual and conversational, you feel like you just have this amazing entertainer with 70 years of stories sitting next to you regaling you with tales of his first time on a high wire, riding around in sports cars, or begrudgingly being forced to perform for Hitler.  He is so fascinating, and I cannot recommend the book highly enough. If you're looking for a fun read, Grock: King of Clowns.

And he's a little video footage of his show. The dialogue is in French, but it's pretty easy to follow, even for a non French speaker.