I was just wondering how many of you guys do the Clown thing on the side, ever had, or would think about doing it…
I have never played the clown and never would. I’ve worked to hard to learn how to ride and Juggle to be a clown.
Re: Clowns
> I have never played the clown and never would. I’ve worked to hard to
> learn how to ride and Juggle to be a clown.
This comment is foolish. Good clowns are highly skilled entertainers
who have worked hard to perfect their art. It’s true that some people
think it is sufficient to put on a silly costume and act like a dork in
public,
but these are not good clowns.
Arnold the Aardvark
Re: Clowns
‘> This comment is foolish. Good clowns are highly skilled entertainers
> who have worked hard to perfect their art. It’s true that some people
> think it is sufficient to put on a silly costume and act like a dork in
> public,
> but these are not good clowns.’
Well said Arnold!
See my website CheckerNuts. It is at www.straitjacketcircus.co.uk
David Straitjacket
i’m with arnie on this one
working as a clown is arguably one of the better opportunities u’ll get to put all the effort u put into learning to good use and entertain some ppl
i prefer not do do clown work myself
this is mainly because i’m not convinced that i have what it takes to pull it off
insecurities they name is dave
i work in the corporate workshop market (juggling) and occasionally i’ll get jobs at functions
the last unicycling job i got was as a faux-cocktail waiter on a uni
good fun and i wasn’t required to do more than ride around carrying a tray
whenever u r ready u can send in the clowns
Re: Clowns
I’ve riden in parades dressed as a jester. I stopped doing that because I
am not a good clown. As it turns out it’s more difficult to be a (good)
clown on a unicycle than it is to do some amazing unicycle stunts. I
respect anyone who can be a good clown.
-mg
“Checkernuts” <Checkernuts.6fav0@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:Checkernuts.6fav0@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> I was just wondering how many of you guys do the Clown thing on the
> side, ever had, or would think about doing it…
>
>
> –
> Checkernuts - Me Fail English? That’s Unpossible
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Checkernuts’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/801
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/18769
>
Re: Clowns
> > I have never played the clown and never would. I’ve worked to hard to
> > learn how to ride and Juggle to be a clown.
>
> This comment is foolish. Good clowns are highly skilled entertainers
> who have worked hard to perfect their art.
I think we were seeing sarcasm at play… ?
> It’s true that some people
> think it is sufficient to put on a silly costume and act like a dork in
> public,
> but these are not good clowns.
You’re right - they’re traffic wardens 
Re: Clowns
On Mon, 17 Jun 2002 22:02:58 -0500, Checkernuts
<Checkernuts.6fav0@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>I was just wondering how many of you guys do the Clown thing on the
>side, ever had, or would think about doing it…
I’ve played the percussion part in Entry of the Gladiators, in a
parade, dressed up as a clown. It was last year, in a
folkmusic/folkdance camp with the theme “Circus”. I unicycled there as
well (not in clown’s costume), and ran a workshop in which me and my
two girls teached six youngsters to ride (a bit). I am embarrassed
about none of the above.
Klaas Bil
The closest I’ve ever gotten to being a clown is making balloons for little kids for a few hours
Why cant people entertain without having to do the clown bit? I have preformed a number of times as a juggler and been well recieved, I have even used comedy in my act. And I did this with no face paint or jokes about what I do. Juggling and riding a unicycle are very skillfull activities I like to show them in that way.
For about a year now I have had orange hair, checkered hair, blue hair why do I do this because I like it, not to be a clown, or for anyone else. People assume because I juggle and ride the unicycle, I do it to be a clown. I try to have some pride in what I can do, that’s all…
And David Straitjacket do you consider yourself a clown? From your website you seem like a well accomplished preformer in many fields but I dont think I would call you a clown in the traditional sence of the word.
in which case checkernuts, u may want to apply some of your unfallible english to clarify what a ‘clown’ actually is before u start casting aspersions
I’ve worked to hard to
learn how to ride and Juggle to be a clown.
they too work very hard and as any circus physio-therapist will tell u, take way more strain (physically) that even the acrobats
i dont want to seem to harsh here
i do want to suggest just a lil’ respect…
walk a mile in someone’s shoes and all that
Re: Clowns
> Why cant people entertain without having to do the clown bit? I have
No reason. Many people do perform that way.
> I try to have some pride in what I can do, that’s all…
But you are still labouring under the delusion that ‘clown’ equates to
‘unskilled’
or something similar. If you don’t want to be a clown that’s fine, but stop
demeaning those who do. As I said, good clowns necessarily have good
technical
skills in addition to the skills required for clowning itself. I think this
proverb is quite appropriate: ars est celare artem (art lies in concealing
art) -
attributed variously to Shakespeare, Ovid and others.
Personally I have never played a clown or performed at all, as I am totally
unskilled :-(.
Arnold the Aardvark
As Defined by Merriam Webster a clown is a grotesquely dressed comedy performer in a circus, or b) : a person who habitually plays the buffoon.
This is the clown I am speaking of.
I think some of you may have misunderstood me a bit, perhaps because I was a big vague in my last post. I do not consider clowns unskilled I agree with you in that it is a very skillfull artform. I just dont like to see extremly talented preformers whom make Unicycling and Juggling seem foolish.
(Its kinda funny because the Orginization I Preform with is the Campus Fools)
This question doesn’t even deserve an answer but I believe Mr. Checkernuts already knows this as well as fully knows the answer to his question.
Here’s my twist on the subject. A friend of mine recently admonished me for not allowing both unicycling and clown work in the little corner of my mind. Fact is, we do wholeheartedly put both together as shown through our pictures of my son’s recent performance: http://photos.yahoo.com/yoopers98
But too often, we all get the “Are you in the circus” or “Hey, the circus is in town” comments while riding in public. In this situation, I feel the circus camouflages our value as sport unicyclists because of an uneducated (unicycling-wise) society. In my mind, the circus-side unicyclers are just as much a part of our society (and our unicycling community) as we are as long as we are permitted to exist in the communities as non-circus unicyclers. But I also realize that the young age of sport unicycling is a factor which will only improve with time. Our unicycle club distinctly pursues unicycle skills with the intent toward unicycling sport competition. In Ben and Brad’s recent clown performance though, the boy’s used the unicycling skills they’ve learned in our club in an entertainment venue as clowns.
As a side note, our club will be spending a fun day at Circus World in Baraboo, WI on August 17. We’ve been invited as special guests to ride in the Circus World parade. We’re looking forward to the trip and it should be a blast of a time!
Bruce
this is turning into a kewl thread
mainly because it’s allowed those of us partaking to state our views and in the process i think we’ve expanded our understanding of one anothers positions
and all of this without violence!!
the differences between reality and perception of reality have definately surfaced again and the inherent dangers of different interpretations of well known concepts
i dont think we’ll see the end of the common assumption of unicycle=circus in our lifetimes
a vast majority of pictorial depictions of jugglers show them in the garb of a clown
i dont think that link will go away in a hurry either
at least not in the mind of joe public
it does place a responsibility on each and every performer in his/her chosen field of skill to aproach each and every performance with the awareness that the perception of that field of skill can either be enhanced or damaged by that performance
i dont want to sound like i’m trying to reduce the fun of performing, 'cause if it’s not fun, it’s hardly worth doing
i’m just rallying against bad clowns, jugglers and unicyclists
they give all us a ‘bad’ name
RE: Clowns
> walk a mile in someone’s shoes and all that
And be careful not to trip. Those shoes are pretty big!
JF
I am seriously pistoff to learn that, after years of grueling training (involving some rather heavy permanent scarring) and conditioning to acquire the lightning-fast reflexes, brute strength, high tolerance to pain, and killer-instinct that I now possess, … ARRRrrrrrgh!!!
Excuse me.
OK… It just bothers me that a composition which, by its very title belongs solely to my brothers in arms and me, should, well, for some unfathomable reason have come to be associated with, with, … pardon me very much… a bunch of guys riding around on one-wheeled horseless chariots! It’s just not fair !!!
If any of you are thinking of riding those things anywhere near the Colosseum, well, … you’ve been warned!
Re: Clowns
Checkernuts
> As Defined by Merriam Webster a clown is a grotesquely dressed comedy
> performer in a circus, or b) : a person who habitually plays the
> buffoon.
>
> This is the clown I am speaking of.
From the OED:
Clown (noun) 1. a comic entertainer … wearing a traditional costume and
exaggerated makeup.
The clown most of the rest of us are thinking of is a comic entertainer.
The clown you’re thinking of doesn’t fit the bill because he’s neither
comic, nor entertaining. He just thinks he is.
> I think some of you may have misunderstood me a bit, perhaps because I
> was a big vague in my last post. I do not consider clowns unskilled I
> agree with you in that it is a very skillfull artform.
Agreed.
> I just dont like
> to see extremly talented preformers whom make Unicycling and Juggling
> seem foolish.
Except that the talented ones don’t really make unicycling and juggling seem
foolish, their skills come through. The talentless ones generally can’t
ride a unicycle and can barely juggle, so they don’t really have the
capacity to make unicycling seem foolish.
The problem (if there is a problem) is that unicycling is linked in the
minds of the public to the talented clowns, and the talented clowns are
linked in the minds of the public to the talentless clowns. It’s not a
direct link between unicycling and talentlessness.
–
Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply) ( http://www.juggler.net/danny )
Recumbent cycle page: http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/recumbents/
“I don’t think proofreading is adequate. All posts should be waxed and
buffed. Then they should wear little tuxedos.” - Greg Harper on usenet
Re: Clowns
In a message dated 6/19/02 12:44:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
GILD.6hkkm@timelimit.unicyclist.com writes:
> I’ve worked to hard to
> learn how to ride and Juggle to be a clown.
>
I for one think this was an ingenous piece of humor and he should at least be
respected for that if not his ideals.
__
Trevor andersen
Congrats Yoopers on your gig. Have fun with it!
So it seems that the majority of you are into clowning and such. Hmm I kinda figured that more people would be against it. I find this quite interesting although I’m not sure why…