VAUDE_VISUALS

Dick Monday founded The New York Goofs with wife Tiffany Riley.

Dick Monday in one of his eccentric moments juggling cigar boxes in the NY Goofs show.

Dick Monday performed with GRANDMA (Barry Lubin) as his partner when they both were with Ringling Brothers Circus.

Here is a video clip (Thanks to Pat Cashin’s Clown Alley blog) of Dick and Barry performing together in 1986.

During the years 1994 to 1998 Dick was the Director of Clown College for The Feld Entertainment Company.

He recruited, trained and created clowns to perform with The Greatest Show on Earth.

Dick and Tiffany split their time between Dallas and New York. (Mostly Dallas!) Between bring up two children and performing in hospitals and other venues in Dallas they are quite busy!

I just finished doing a video interview with Dick Monday about the NY Goofs and it’s history.

Coming SOON!

While researching for this post I found a quote from Dick that I thought was great!

“Utilizing the power of laughter to uplift the spirits of humanity is a huge responsibility and one that historically has been left to the clown. As a clown, I gladly accept this challenge and will strive to parody the power and enlighten the people where ever and when ever it is called for. This is what I do for a living. I’m also good at Ping Pong.”   –  Dick Monday

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.