The Education of a Circus Clown: Mentors, Audiences, Mistakes (Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.60 (925 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1137554819 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 219 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2018-02-05 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
John Towsen said Learning his craft one mistake at a time. Dave is quite the Renaissance man: writer, teacher, historian, actor, lawyer (!) and, last but not least, clown. His narrative of attending Clown College (1976) and touring with the Blue Unit (1977) stands above most circus memoirs not just because he’s a better writer —it’s a good read— but because he actually focuses on the performer’s struggles to stay vibrant and funny from day to day, audience to audience. He doesn’t try to pass himself off as a super clown, just as a reasonably skilled and talented individual learning his craft one mistake at a time.Read my full
He graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, served in the US Army, earned his JD from Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and received his PhD from Northwestern University, USA. David Carlyon is author of the critically-acclaimed book, Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of. . He is Adjunct Professor at Iona College, USA, has worked as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, Flint, USA, ta
David Carlyon, through an autoethnographic examination of his own experiences in clowning, offers a close reading of the education of a professional circus clown, woven through an eye-opening, sometimes funny, occasionally poignant look at circus life. However, the origin of that impulse, clowning with a circus, has largely gone unexamined. The 1960s American hippie-clown boom fostered many creative impulses, including neo-vaudeville and Ringling's Clown College. Layering critical reflections of personal experience with connections to wider scholarship, Carlyon focuses on the work of clowning while interrogating what clowns actually do, rather than using them as stand-ins for conceptual ideas or as sentimental figures.
If you don't well, then you're missing something wonderful." - Murray Horwitz, Tony Award-winning playwright (Ain't Misbehavin'), creator of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and a former Ringling clown. The Education of A Circus Clown is a rare exception because David Carlyon is both a professional writer and a professional performer who offers us not just a behind-the-scenes look at life in the clown alley of the world's largest circus, but also an honest and at times anguished analysis of the performer's daily struggle to be funny. Davis, American Studies and History, University of Texas at Austin, USA, author of The Circus Age: American Culture and Society Under the American Big Top, and editor of Tiny Kline, Circus Queen and Tinker Bell: The Life of Tiny Kline"The literature of clowning, like that of other performing arts, is full of anecdote-laden me