Today is my mom, Florence Gordon's birthday. I'm writing about her now, but I think about mom all the time. One of the things I remember most about my mom was her unassuming nature. She didn't make a big deal about herself. However, She was a force to reckon with…
Read MoreThis summer, I received an award. It’s from the Tanne Foundation. The foundation identifies artists and supports them with the award…
Read MoreI went to my area carrying my props, juggling balls, baseball bats, and my juggling hat. As I was getting ready to perform, I heard a voice. It said, "I went to high school with you."
Read MoreDr. tiny and I were doing our musical yo-yo routine. dr tiny does his best yo-yo tricks while I play the ukulele. The patient was a 10-year-old Hispanic boy. He sat in his wheelchair and laughed as tiny went through his yo-yo repertoire.
Read MoreI had the pleasure of participating in the second Decatur Dinners on August 25. There was an earlier dinner on April 28. These dinners offer an opportunity to discuss racial issues in a way that is personal and intimate and hopefully in a way that leads to more conversations and progress…
Read MoreOK, something that's been on my mind recently. It's a song. It came to me when I was listening to a jazz station on Pandora. The music got my attention…
Read MoreA seven-year-old boy stands up from his chair and looks at the clown. The boy has a serious look on his face. The clown looks back with an expression as if to say “what should I do?” The boy looks at the clown and gives him a big gesture…
Read More“I don’t want to be in this picture either,” I said.
We were taking a picture because mom was insisting on it. Moms do that sometimes. When her mom told us to pose together for the photo, I saw the look on this 14 year old’s face; the eye roll topped off with practiced indifference…
Read MoreToday my partner and I walked into the emergency department. The ED was not busy. There was silence in the room. The unit secretary had just taken a phone call, a nurse was typing at her computer, a maintenance worker had just repaired some equipment.
Read MoreWe approach a patient's room. My clown partner, Dr. Gizmo waited outside the room. As I walked into the room, I saw a mother and a young girl, about eight years old. I asked the young girl if she had seen another clown in the area…
Read MoreOn July 2-4, I attended the Circus Arts Therapy Training at Carrie Heller’s Circus Art’s Institute. This training was an opportunity to step back and look at the social circus work I’ve been doing. I first began doing social circus work in 2001, with Cirque du Monde…
Read MoreIn my post on June 15, I mentioned the monuments at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. There was a story about these monuments in the June 27 edition of the AJC. Dekalb County is in the process of accepting its monument from the memorial.
Read MoreThis thought made me think of the lyric, "this is not my beautiful house .." from the Talking Heads song, Once in a Lifetime. It was my reaction that Marcia saw. Thinking of this song made me smile.
Read MoreMarcia, Grace, and I went on a trip to Alabama last week. We visited the locations on the Civil Rights Trail in Alabama. We started at the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham. From there we went to Selma, to see the Edmund Pettus Bridge…
Read MoreTiffany Riley has written a book about medical clowning. I’m pleased to say that she decided to include an essay I wrote in her book, Beyond the Red Nose – The Serious Business of Healthcare Clowning.
Read MoreI was strumming my ukulele as I walked through the hospital. One of my clown partners was with me singing along to the music. As we were traveling down the hallway, I noticed a woman with a subtle look of confusion on her face…
Read MoreI was hired by Liquid Sky Entertainment to perform at The Battery outside SunTrust stadium before Braves home baseball games. I've had a lot of fun working with the artist there.
Read MoreI had a great day working in the hospital today. My partner was Reuben Haller, who like me is a musician. Working with Reuben got me thinking about the different ways we use music as clowns in our work in the hospital…
Read MoreFear of clowns #3 - A solution.
In my previous post about clown fears, I talked about ways of dealing with Coulrophobia, fear of Clowns…
Read MoreI grew up in the shadow of my big brother. He was an artist before I was. I watched as he learned to play music, and as he began his life in visual art.
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