VAUDE_VISUALS

Sometimes a show comes along that is so different that anything you have seen in a long time. Funny, original, intelligent, and physical comedy at it’s best. That show is titled “666“.It comes to NY from the Madrid based  group Yllana.

MAKE SURE YOU SEE THIS SHOW!

It may be that another show of this calibre will not hit NY for sometime. One of NY’s most ingenious performers ZERO BOY is currently appearing in this show.

It is an amazing roller coaster of laughter from sight gags and physical comedy par excellence!

I loved it! See it!

Raul Cano looks at his magazine with wild eyes!

Zero Boy, Lance Windish, Jeff LaGreca waiting to 'fry' the convict.

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!

Caroline as 'RATAPUCE'.

Laila - Poster Child for NY International Festival of Clown Theatre 1983

Poster Shot for Festival

Caroline had seeked out the ‘masters’ and studied in Paris with acrobat Tudor Bono, mime Etienne Decroux, and music teacher Betsy Jolas and Michel Debost.

In 1971, in Paris, she co-founded ‘The Palace of Wonders’ with street performer, eccentric Jules Cordiere. Her character Ratapuce traveled the globe for 10 years with The Palace of Wonders. After coming to New York she started ‘Pandemonium and the Dragonfly’ performing as a singer, musician, clown and actress.

In 1988 she joined the Big Apple Circus and began a love affair with Clown Doctoring.

Dr. Josette Giraffe was born!

Dr. Josette Giraffe

Being awestruck by Baudelaire,and Camembert she (with a few grants) moved back to Paris to create Le Rire Medicin, the first group of it’s kind in Europe. This highly improvisational team was interactive with the healthcare professionals and had ongoing medical and artistic training. (Read more about Clown Doctors in France  here!) Today Le Rire Medicin is present in 15 French hospitals and employs 80 specially trained professional hopiclowns. Caroline and Le Rire Medicin are presently creating a school to train future hospital clowns. Caroline co-wrote with Dr. Bernie Warren The Clown Doctor Chronicles (Albin Michel 2001, Rodopi 2003and Les Editions Rire Medecin in 2008). She also received one of France’s most prestigious awards in 2002 The Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

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Like I said she is a hard act to follow.

Keep  up the great work Caroline!

One of the most interesting performers that I have photographed recently is Glen Heroy. He is a cameleon! In one show he is Dame Edna and in another show he is Elton John.(along with many others.) He plays the spoons like nobody I know and is an amazingly funny clown. I ask Glen to work with me on a new project I am doing. THE CLOWN UNMASK. A photographic study of the eccentric clown performer as himself and in character.

I am posting 2 shots of him in character personas. I did a photograph of Glen in a nice quiet apt. with beautiful window light.I think the visuals tell the story about a very talented and extremely versatile performer.

Glen Heroy as Dame Edna at the 2007 New York Downtown Clown GOLDEN NOSE AWARDS

Glen Heroy relaxes with a smile!

He worked with the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit for many years.  And has worked in the ring with The Big Apple Circus. Along with all his character performance work currently he also works with The Maestrosities. (The Coolest Band Ever!)

It is performers like Glen that inspired me to photograph clowns and eccentric performers in the first place. I look forward to seeing him again soon  on stage and off.

Had fun at the Big Apple Circus and found Joel Jeske after the show chatting with BAC’s favorite grandma!

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.

On the first Monday of the every month BINDLESTIFF VARIETY SHOW is held at Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The host Keith Bindlestiff attempted to complete the Kendama Blockhead this past Monday. I have been videotaping all his attempts all the way back to August ’09. I am sure he will get it one day!

Here is a video where he provides the unknowing audience members with a short education on what the ‘Human Blockhead‘ is and then attempts the Kendama Blockhead. The variety show is a mix of acts ranging from singing to burlesque to trapeze and back to Kendama Blockhead. All for $5.00. Well worth the visit and time. This show included the likes of Baby Seals, Jan Manke, Kitty Cockpit, Coney Island Chris, Magic Brian, Zero Boy, The Maestrocities, and Mika.

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Paul Zaloom had much experience performing before he started his one-man shows. He was the ringmaster for the Bread and Puppet Circus in Vermont every summer for years. He started performing with them at the age of 19 and still does when he is in Vermont.

Paul Zaloom and I started working together on making pictures for his puppet shows in early 1978. The first of the shows we worked on was “The World of Plastic”. Paul has a very individual style to his work and it wasn’t difficult to carve photographs out of his shows that were very representative. His bulging eyes and expressive face lend themselves to very funny and theatrical images. It seems that the New York Times and other papers in NY were very appreciative of my style since they could use them in any way they wanted graphically on the pages of their paper.

Show titled WORLD OF PLASTIC. © 2009 Jim Moore

Our next project was for his show in 1981 titled ‘Zaloominations‘. We decided to be a little more playful and use some more drastic lighting to accentuate the event at hand. The piece is called Industrial Park. Here we have Paul with a semiglobe hat and plastic exhaust piping that has a puppet lobster claw with binoculars. A stunning image that was used many times in the media.

Show titled ZALOOMINATIONS © 2009 Jim Moore

The next show was titled CRAZY AS ZALOOM and the piece we did this photograph for was “In The News“. A few of the topical issues in the news in 1982 included pollution, internet and garbage. Paul was savvy in using found objects that reflected these issues in his shows. We wanted to get across the absurd and yet important issues by using these objects from the show in the photographs. A lot of times these visual images never appeared  in the show in the  same configuration as they did in the photographs. They were created custom for the photographs with Paul and I brainstorming for hours together to get the right look.

Paul Zaloom in his show CRAZY AS ZALOOM./© 2009 Jim Moore_All Rights Reserved

The following show Paul ask that we do a specific image for the flyer. He knew exactly what he wanted for the show and we set out to create a visual that worked for his concept. The show titled CREATURE FROM THE BLUE ZALOOM was presented in 1984. We set up a table top and seamless paper on top of it so Paul could ‘cross the desert’ in the studio. With pith helmet and the dehydrated look on his face we came up with this picture.

Paul Zaloom in his piece THE FUTURE from his one man show CREATURE FROM THE BLUE ZALOOM/© 2009 Jim Moore

At the same session we did another series of photographs for his piece titled BASIC INTELLIGENCE. Here Paul dressed up as a Russian soldier with cigar and moustache drinking a glass of ‘whoknowswhat’?

Paul Zaloom in his piece 'Basic Intelligence' from CREATURE FROM THE BLUE ZALOOM/© 2009 Jim Moore_All Rights Reserved

As we worked more and more together we really did get good at making wonderful potent images that sold the show and his ideas.

In 1986 we worked on his show THE THEATRE OF TRASH. This photograph was from his piece In America. I really liked this image as it had a feeling of horror mixed with scifi.

Paul Zaloom in his piece 'In America' from his show THEATRE OF TRASH / © 2009 Jim Moore

In 1991 we worked on his show MY CIVILIZATION. Here we used many different techniques to create the images. Backscreen projection, and other technical changes from our usual bag of tricks. Here is Paul with student learning and READING the ABC’S.

Paul Zaloom in his show MY CIVILIZATION/ ©2009 Jim Moore_All Rights Reserved

Paul moved to Los Angeles around 1998 and started working on a new TV show called BEAKMAN’S WORLD. It was a delightful cross between Mr. Science and Pee Wee Herman’s. Of course Paul was Beakman. Based on a very successful comic strip of the same name. It was very successful show and  there is a ‘Best of Beakman‘ on DVD.

Today Paul is creating more wonderful shows and hopefully we can work again on some inspired images. Here is a excerpt from one of his shows posted on YouTube.

The performing artists of NYC would not be who there are today without the help of one very brave and unstoppable woman. Ellie Covan. Starting as a salon in her Paris apartment in 1985 she found a way to have performers show their new work without the worries of critics and the press. A laboratory for performing and literary artists. Since 1985 she has had a Dixon Place on East 1st . and on the Bowery and became the resident company at the Vineyard Theatre‘s 26th St. Space. The overwhelming support and success of this venue convinced Ellie and her board to secure a permanent home in New York City. Tonight (12/2/09) she along with hundreds of supporters and performers celebrated the OPENING of the new permanent home of DIXON PLACE. A custom built facility with 2 stages and a community space for neighbor events. Located at 161A Christie Street in New York Lower East Side. The sponsors, foundations and Corporations that have made this new space possible goes on for several pages. The evenings festivities included performances by Regina Nejman & Company, Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, Vivian Stoll, R. Sikorykak, David Michael Friend and Nicky Paraiso. The audience joined in for a song with Nicky Paraiso and the Hot Keys.

I was delighted to be able to video tape Jango Edwards’ clown workshop at The Brick Theatre in Williamsburg. It was held Nov. 9th thru the 11th 2009 in association with Jef Johnson’s CLOWN LAB.  I have edited a short excerpt of the workshop and posted it here.  Jango hasn’t been in the US for over 27 years. He was delighted to teach both in New York and Baltimore. He has started the Nouveau Clown Institute in Barcelona and will be having month long workshops there starting in March 2010. Many professional clowns and movement teachers will be doing workshops and performances. Jango started the FESTIVAL OF FOOLS in Amsterdam in 1975. Now Jango’s focus is on the NCI and teaching, performing worldwide. I will be working on the Jango Interview and post it here later next week.