Send in the Clowns

My mother used to always joke about having gone to clown college as a way to embarrass me and trick me into believing I came from a long line of "entertainers." One time, she even purchased a clown nose to prove it. Moms! What are you going to do with them? Anyway, I thought I'd use this anecdote as an excuse to talk about clowns (sorry to Lauren and all my other readers who suffer from coulrophobia!). I was originally going to do a post on the circuses of the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but its a lot of reading about the business side of things, aka boring.

Let's start with the mother of all trades, clown college (see what I did there?). Clown college was started by Irving Feld and son (owner and inheritor of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus) in 1968. (Fun fact! Feld Entertainment also owns Disney On Ice, Monster Jams, or monster trucks...fun combination!) That year, the Ringling Circus only had a handful of circus clowns, who were all well into their fifties. They feared that the circus would quickly run out of clowns, so a school was created to train a new generation in the ancient artform. The clown college disbanded in 1997 because apparently clowns came back into mainstream entertainment and the school no longer turned a profit. As a child growing up in the 90's, I apparently didn't get the memo.

There are regional clown styles: the American style--which focused on broad and slapstick humor. This is what was taught at Feld's Clown College. The European style is more stylized and elegant (a-duh).

There are also traditional types: the whiteface clown, the auguste, and the character clown. Let's explore these further.

ONE

The whiteface clown... is self explanatory. It is the highest type in the clown hierarchy and the oldest of clown archetypes. When in performance with other clowns, the whiteface is usually the "top banana" or straight man. Usually wears an extravagant get up or a clown suit.

TWO

The auguste is a completely different clown. He has red face make up and is the joker...pie in the face, knocked down, squirted with water, has pants ripped off (woah- this is getting a little too sexy for me). Think colorful polka dots, long crazy ties, wild wigs, baggy plaid pants, the WORKS!

THREE

The character clown is an eccentric character of some type. A hobo would be a great example. Wikipedia also lists butcher, policeman, and housewife as character types, but if you ask me, that's the stuff nightmares are made of. These guys put a comic slant on the standard human face. That sounds nice, I kind of like that.
Which would you be?

Once you figure out your type, here is how to act the part!

CIRC LINGO!

Here are two examples I crafted when I was reading through the list.

"I'll teach ya flip flaps, great gags, maybe even roman riding... Whatta spec your first act will be, kid! Might even make a horse the first night! Boy, let me tell you, you'll be no kid show when I get through with you!"--Your new manager, when you realize your life long dream to join the circus

"So I says to him, 'show me the alfalfa and then we'll talk cherry pie.' I also told him the only thing I won't do is a sponge plunge. Wha-do-I look like, a forty miler?"--A jaded and money-hungry you, after a few years in the biz maybe, perhaps talking to new manager, in a different circus, you drifter.

flip flaps - backwards handsprings on the ground
gags - a short clown trick that is over too quickly to be its own act
roman riding - a rider standing with one foot on the back of each of the two horses
spec - short for spectacle, sometimes used to mean a colorful pageant during intermission
horse - a thousand dollars
kid show - side show
alfalfa - paper money
cherry pie - extra jobs for extra pay
sponge plunge -
forty miler -

Other gems to incorporate into your daily vocabulary:

"bump a nose"- good luck (actually, this is amateur clown jargon. A true circus clown would most likely say "Go fuck yourself")
brodie - an accidental fall that is clumsy or stupid
trunk up - command to an elephant to raise his trunk in a salute
picture gallery - a tattooed man

So interesting! More clown jargon here!

And now to top it off, here is the Krusty's version of Henry Mancini's Send in the Clowns. Pretty humorous...one of my favorites on The Simpson's Yellow Album, back when that show was GREAT.

Now, I know earlier I was skeptical about the Clown Comeback that wikipedia my scholarly sources spoke of... then I remembered CIRQUE DE SOLEIL! 

Man, that stuff is like extremely awesome!

 Quick question to all you coulrophobes out there,

 do the cirque entertainers scare you? 

Why or why not? 

Now, extra credit question: Who did/does it better? 

OR

A Tramp after my own heart

Discuss! I'll always take Charlie's side in any argument.

 PLEASE COMMENT! You can recommend tips about how I can seem more desperate for wanting you to comment :) 

TRUNKS UP!