I recently had the opportunity to attend a three day workshops, a clown festival, and a clown conference in Montreal. The experience was nothing short of exhilarating and eye-opening. I am always looking for ways to enhance my skills, connect with fellow performers, and stay updated on the latest with what's happening in the industry. I will mention more about the clown festival, conference, and other posts. Here, I will focus on the workshop I took the first three days of my week in Montreal.
Read MoreI've done this trick many times before. This time, however, I'm doing it in front of about 100 full-ride scholarship college students from Emory University. I asked them to count from 10 to 1 in a language they chose. As the students count down, I balance a chair on my face for their entertainment.
Read MoreSomeone smashed my car window. Broken glass was everywhere!
My car was parked in a public lot, and someone decided to break my window after I parked it. I don't know who did this. I was only away from my car for a few hours. It happened in a public car lot. Now, I had to spend the rest of my day addressing this problem. I had to clean up the mess to make the car drivable, and then I had to drive somewhere where I could vacuum the rest of the glass out of the vehicle.
Breaking something can be easy; repairing it will take work….
Read MoreI walked from the parking deck across the university campus and approached the medical school building. The destination is familiar. We've met in this building several times over the semester. I open the door and walk into the halls of the Emory Medical School. I am at the university to co-teach students at medical school as part of Emory’s Arts and Social Justice Fellows Program.
Read MoreOver the past few months, I've enjoyed playing in a different playground. I got the clown around with the Atlanta Opera. Doing this work was a special treat for me. It was my second opportunity to work with the Atlanta Opera.
Read MoreAt first glance, she looked like she is in her 60s. She was lying in her bed with a look of stoic unease. I often see this look on the faces of adults in a way that I don't see in children. A sense of fatigue and weariness is unique to adults. dr. tiny, and I carefully approached
Read MoreAfter another show today, a group of young girls began to crowd around me. Music was playing, so I took out my spoons and started playing them on my hand and leg. As the girls saw this, they began to step closer to me.
Read MoreThe room was full of bodies moving, of people responding to the cues I gave them. They moved eagerly, without reservation. They followed the cues I gave them, each person interpreting the instructions in their way. It was like a room full of people doing the same dance, yet each person had a unique version of the movement. We were suddenly moving together. Suspended in a moment where all that mattered was our movement. We moved, experienced, learned, and shared our experiences.
Read MoreIn the morning dr. tiny and I approached one of the hospital rooms. Inside the room were an eight-year-old girl and her mother. Seeing us, the girl called out. She said, "Hey, are you clowns"? We, of course, said, "yes." The girl was surprised to see us, and she asked if we were "really clowns."
Read MoreThere is a vibrancy in the image heightened by an almost 3-D quality of his body in front of a pattern behind him. Each time I visited the museum and saw this image, I noticed how the young man seemed to float in front of the canvas…
Read More….Sydney Poitier and Helen Donnelly were trailblazers creating new paths, moving us forward to a new normal. Both authentically shared their work with us. We are better because of their art and their lives.
Read MoreWhy it so hard to move this rock…
Read MoreFolks,
I will be involved in two presentations at H.C.I.M., the Healthcare Clown International Meeting. The conference is October 6-8th at The Hague in the Netherlands. The Healthcare Clown International Meeting is a conference of medical clowns from across the world. Three years ago and I was able to attend the conference in Vienna. This year, I'm delighted that they excepted the two proposals for the workshops…
Read MoreHealthcare clowning has always been close to my heart. Over the years, I've watched some programs begin working with adults and eldercare populations.
Eldercare clowning is especially close to my heart because of my experience with my mother, Florence Gordon. Mom played the piano at church. Some of my earliest memories are of my mom playing the piano at church in my hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee. I would sit in the pew during church services and watch mom…
Read MoreOne of the unique challenges in the field now is that there are very few African-American clowns doing this work. When I began this work 21 years ago, I was one of eight people who were hired. I was the only black clown on the team…
Read MoreI've done a lot of soul searching about clowning over the past four years. The soul-searching is led me to question my place in the work. It's made me ask why I value the work I do and, more importantly, why I continue to want to do it…
Read MoreWe're coming up on a full year of the Covid pandemic. The pandemic routine has become oddly familiar, almost comfortable. The pandemic has introduced a schedule for me, mostly staying at home, on the rare occasion going out into public. I'm an introvert at heart…
Read MoreThe recent focus on Black Lives Matter and the racial awakening that began last year renew a focus on an issue that I've wrestled with over these 20 years…
Read MoreTwenty-nine years ago, in 1991, I came to Atlanta to perform at Oglethorpe University. I performed in a tent in the middle of a field. Now, in 2020 I'm back at Oglethorpe University, once again performing under a tent in a field. In 1991,..
Read MoreThe conversation about diversity in the arts and the clowning world continues. I've been in several panel discussions about diversity and people of color in the circus world. In late September, The Play the Fool Festival hosted a talk called "Culture, Identity, and Clowning: A BIPoC Artist Conversation"…
Read More