View Full Version : New Vaudeville Clown


Chance Marmalade
02-26-2007, 05:29 PM
I'm a vaudeville style clown performer living in Seattle WA. I've always loved the old silent movies with Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin etc and in 1999 I caught the Broadway show Fool Moon with David Shiner and Bill Irwin. It was amazing. I've been an actor in Seattle since 1992 but that performance sparked a tremendous change in my career goals. I am just now finally getting around to pursuing this art.

Most of my "training" has come from watching the old silent masters and a few of the new ones. I've bought several books on mime, clowning and juggling. I'm writing a two person play in which two vaudeville clowns are late to their own show and I am planning on street performing at every fair I can this year to start my trial by fire.

I have two clown types that I really enjoy playing. One is an old timey stagey Stan Laurel type of character in which I wear baggy pants, over sized dress shirt, suspenders, small clip on tie and a bowler cap. (He does a lot of old vaudeville stage tricks like some hat juggling, magic tricks etc.) And the other is a Shiner inspired clown who is wordless. He speaks only in descriptive whistle. He lends himself excellently to wandering around and general buffonery. With him I wear an ill fitting suit jacket, flooding baggy pants (cut off at just above my ankle) and red Converse which are several sizes to big for me.

I am considering applying to the Clown Conservatory in San Francisco later this year.

whowe82
02-26-2007, 05:56 PM
Welcome! The new Bittorrent.com site has several Buster Keaton movies for free download! Good luck with your clowning!

saphireSue
02-26-2007, 07:16 PM
Welcome and join us for chat on Thur. at 9:00 pm est.

tim
02-26-2007, 07:19 PM
Nice characters. I'm drawn to the vaudevillian (and new vaudevillian) style of clowning, myself. That's really where so much of the artistic element is these days, too.

The Clown Conservatory is an outstanding program. Go for it!

The_Princess_of_Bozonia
02-26-2007, 07:46 PM
Welcome Jeremy, make yourself at home :) I like the videos on your site, I hope you'll add one to your profile:)

Chance Marmalade
02-26-2007, 07:58 PM
Thanks for the warm greetings everyone and I am really flattered that you enjoyed my videos! I am pretty new to clowning so hearing that is really nice!

:D

I was thinking of putting one of the videos up, not sure which though!

Again thanks everyone for a great welcome!

Jitterbug
02-26-2007, 08:48 PM
Welcome! Enjoy the forum--I know I do.
God bless,
Jitterbug

OkiDoki
03-01-2007, 02:34 AM
Love your video's. Very nice and very creative. Way to go, mate. I can imagine that Michael Menes could inspire you. I would say watch some of the videos on http://www.michaelmenes.com/ Some are more circusacts but others give a glimp of being creative and manipalutive with certain props in the same line as you do.

Scruffy
03-01-2007, 03:03 AM
Welcome to the board!

Compass Rose
03-01-2007, 08:23 AM
Welcome to the forum, Jeremy! And thanks for teaching me something new! I always loved the old vaudeville comic geniuses...nice to see their art making a comeback in our generation. Kudos on the vids... brilliant work.