VAUDE_VISUALS

Tonight we saw the Golden Nose Awards Ceremony. IT was a festive evening with Golden Noses going to Eric Davis for “Clown of the Year’. The “Clown Organization of the Year” Golden Nose Award went to Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit. Michael Christensen accepted the award. The Audience Choice award for Best Clown Act went to “Otto and Lewis” and the award was accepted by Brian Foley. His partner Matthew Duncan was in St. Louis getting married. The Audience Choice Best Clown Character went to Brett Alters for his – Squeeks the Clown.

Host and Producer Christopher Lueck leaves the stage a proud man!

Christopher Lueck (and Amanda Pekoe) have  produced the show for the past 4 years and has presented over 400 clown acts during that time. The entire clown community would come out for these shows which happened the 3rd Monday of every month. Christopher announced during the March show that he was going to not produce the show any more and the Golden Nose Awards Ceremony would be his last ‘hurrah’. It was a splendid evening with great performers and organizations getting their just awards. It will be missed!

Great Job Chris. We will Miss You!

The February NY Downtown Clown Revue was GREAT! Lots of variety and enormous talent on stage.

We had Dave McKay from Toronto, Summer Shapiro from San Francisco and Peter Musante from the Blue Man Group. We had Claire Wedemeyer from Chicago and Rob Lok with his two estranged partners Christina Gelsome from Acrobuffos and Erin Schmahl.

If you click on the picture of the MC Christopher Lueck you can see all the photographs from the show.

Click on image for Gallery Launch!

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS © 2010 Jim Moore / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This past month there was a wonderful show which actually happens every month. The New York Downtown Clown Revue. When most people think about ‘clowns’ they have this image pop into their head.

Bozo the Clown

The American public has had almost no exposure to the true ‘european’ style clown. This Bozo image has been popularized by the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus and other American circus shows traveling the country for almost 100 years. Most graduates from the Ringling Brothers Clown College (no longer in existence) are required to wear a certain type of clown costume if they make it to the ranks of the Ringling Bros.& Barnum and Bailey Circus. The impression one gets is that this is either ‘family’ or ‘child’ entertainment. Unlike Europe where they have beautiful theatres devoted to serious ‘clown theatre’ where adults attend without the little ones in tow.  There is a tradition of ‘types’ of clown which goes as far back as the greeks. Author/historian/professor John Towsen could tell you more about ‘history’ of clowns in his wonderful blog and his book CLOWNS. In this interview with the trio Le Fromage Royal all three participants talk about their influences on this ‘new’ old skit.

Le Fromage Royal - ©2010 Jim Moore / All Rights Reserved

Joel Jeske, Christopher Lueck and Michael Richter of “Le Fromage Royal” .

Interview with the cast of Le Fromage Royal at the Krane Theatre, NYC

The evening wasn’t by any means just the Fromage Royal dudes.

Check out the NY Downtown Clown Revue BLOG to see.

In this interview Michael Bongar explains his views on clown, theatre and his creation of the BongarBiz.com empire.

Christopher Lueck of the New York Downtown Clown Revue interviews Michael in the dressing room of the Kraine Theatre.

This monthly show is on the third Monday of every month and presents a wide variety of eccentric and comedic acts that all are derivative from clown. Michael has had years of performing experience and speaks of the art with knowledge and passion.