“Change is the only constant.”
- Heraclitus (535 BC – 475 BC)
Wow, things sure do change when you blink and it’s 27 years later!
I had one of those Rip van Winkle moments last week when my wife Sharon and I went to Vancouver BC for a little getaway. It had been 27 years since I’d last spent time in Vancouver, and one Kodak moment gave me pause to think about what had changed within that picture frame, in my clowning, and in my life.
In three words . . . just about everything!
We went to Vancouver for a concert, with one-day stopovers in Seattle both going and coming back to visit with daughter Kate. (Terrible traffic both ways! Construction delays, accidents caused by careless drivers, under-capacity road, bridge, and tunnel infrastructure – sure cure for road trip whims!!) While in Vancouver, we did the whirlwind of requisite things to do: Capilano Suspension Bridge, Stanley Park, Chinatown, Gastown, Harbor Centre, Skytrain, sushi, walking walking and more walking, and the Granville Island Public Market. All this the same day as the Loreena McKennitt concert that evening at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
It was on the aquabus from Granville Island back to the dock at the foot of BC Place that I took this shot (photo right) and had a then-and-now moment.
This is looking east on False Creek, with the green glass BC Place building on the far left and the geodesic domed Science World on the right. These are the only two buildings still standing and in use on the former site of EXPO 86, the world’s fair staged in Vancouver in 1986. BC Place had been the British Columbia pavilion and the dome was the Expo Centre during EXPO 86. The rest of the site has been redeveloped into seawall walkways, parks, and high-rise apartment complexes. Off-site on Vancouver’s north shore, but connected to the main EXPO site by Skytrain, still stands the old Canada Place pavilion with its 5-sail roofline, now a hub for cruise lines, trains, and busses.
I had been at EXPO performing with good buddy Angel Ocasio for a week-long run at the Oregon Pavilion, doing 2 or 3 shows a day of our show, ‘Buster and Willy’s Suitcase Circus,’ in the theater, as well as meet-and-greet with people waiting in line to get into the exhibit. During that week, we bunked with community education colleague Bill Price out in Burnaby east of Vancouver, took the Skytrain into the EXPO site, got into
character and shared warm-up space with an ultra-talented musical family from eastern Oregon in a small backroom masquerading as a dressing room, and got to walk the fairgrounds and take in the other dazzling pavilions and performances in our ‘spare’ time. (I still remember fondly the crack-up Czech physical comedian, Andrej.) And we did it all for free. For the grand, international experience of it all.
Here’s a neat article on the EXPO 86 street entertainers, http://www.juggling.org/jw/86/4/expo.html, as well as a web site, http://bobbea.com/expo-86/index2.html, full of EXPO history, photos, participant memories, a look back in 2001, and a “What ever happened to" section.
What role did that EXPO 86 experience play in the development of ‘the clown’ over the past 27 years? It was an international stage on which
to exercise and stretch and learn about and develop our ‘clown’ and what worked with a live audience. It laid the foundation for Buster's character development, since it was so early in my clown life. And it set the tone for rehearsal excellence and persistence, performance intensity, stage presence, audience interaction, work with a partner on stage, and humility (in heavy doses).
So, what’s happened to ‘the clown’ over those 27 years? Angel moved to the Portland (OR) area shortly after EXPO 86 to take on clowning as a
full-time career, established himself as a top clown and comic in the region, nationally, and internationally, became the Clown Prince and special project coordinator of the Portland Rose Festival, and has given life to legions of new clowns and characters as the leader and instructor of the Festival’s Character Clown Corps. He is, to this day, a great friend, mentor, supporter, and payaso amigo.
With Angel’s move to Portland and full-time clowning, I too went solo, changed from whiteface to a European style auguste, and adopted a non-speaking physical comedian persona. After finishing up a 34-year career in public education this spring, I made a quantum leap from part-time to full-time clown this summer. Challenging AND exciting stuff!
I had one of those Rip van Winkle moments last week when my wife Sharon and I went to Vancouver BC for a little getaway. It had been 27 years since I’d last spent time in Vancouver, and one Kodak moment gave me pause to think about what had changed within that picture frame, in my clowning, and in my life.
In three words . . . just about everything!
We went to Vancouver for a concert, with one-day stopovers in Seattle both going and coming back to visit with daughter Kate. (Terrible traffic both ways! Construction delays, accidents caused by careless drivers, under-capacity road, bridge, and tunnel infrastructure – sure cure for road trip whims!!) While in Vancouver, we did the whirlwind of requisite things to do: Capilano Suspension Bridge, Stanley Park, Chinatown, Gastown, Harbor Centre, Skytrain, sushi, walking walking and more walking, and the Granville Island Public Market. All this the same day as the Loreena McKennitt concert that evening at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
It was on the aquabus from Granville Island back to the dock at the foot of BC Place that I took this shot (photo right) and had a then-and-now moment.
This is looking east on False Creek, with the green glass BC Place building on the far left and the geodesic domed Science World on the right. These are the only two buildings still standing and in use on the former site of EXPO 86, the world’s fair staged in Vancouver in 1986. BC Place had been the British Columbia pavilion and the dome was the Expo Centre during EXPO 86. The rest of the site has been redeveloped into seawall walkways, parks, and high-rise apartment complexes. Off-site on Vancouver’s north shore, but connected to the main EXPO site by Skytrain, still stands the old Canada Place pavilion with its 5-sail roofline, now a hub for cruise lines, trains, and busses.
I had been at EXPO performing with good buddy Angel Ocasio for a week-long run at the Oregon Pavilion, doing 2 or 3 shows a day of our show, ‘Buster and Willy’s Suitcase Circus,’ in the theater, as well as meet-and-greet with people waiting in line to get into the exhibit. During that week, we bunked with community education colleague Bill Price out in Burnaby east of Vancouver, took the Skytrain into the EXPO site, got into
character and shared warm-up space with an ultra-talented musical family from eastern Oregon in a small backroom masquerading as a dressing room, and got to walk the fairgrounds and take in the other dazzling pavilions and performances in our ‘spare’ time. (I still remember fondly the crack-up Czech physical comedian, Andrej.) And we did it all for free. For the grand, international experience of it all.
Here’s a neat article on the EXPO 86 street entertainers, http://www.juggling.org/jw/86/4/expo.html, as well as a web site, http://bobbea.com/expo-86/index2.html, full of EXPO history, photos, participant memories, a look back in 2001, and a “What ever happened to" section.
What role did that EXPO 86 experience play in the development of ‘the clown’ over the past 27 years? It was an international stage on which
to exercise and stretch and learn about and develop our ‘clown’ and what worked with a live audience. It laid the foundation for Buster's character development, since it was so early in my clown life. And it set the tone for rehearsal excellence and persistence, performance intensity, stage presence, audience interaction, work with a partner on stage, and humility (in heavy doses).
So, what’s happened to ‘the clown’ over those 27 years? Angel moved to the Portland (OR) area shortly after EXPO 86 to take on clowning as a
full-time career, established himself as a top clown and comic in the region, nationally, and internationally, became the Clown Prince and special project coordinator of the Portland Rose Festival, and has given life to legions of new clowns and characters as the leader and instructor of the Festival’s Character Clown Corps. He is, to this day, a great friend, mentor, supporter, and payaso amigo.
With Angel’s move to Portland and full-time clowning, I too went solo, changed from whiteface to a European style auguste, and adopted a non-speaking physical comedian persona. After finishing up a 34-year career in public education this spring, I made a quantum leap from part-time to full-time clown this summer. Challenging AND exciting stuff!
And Sharon became fiancée and then wife of 26 years and counting, as well as mother to my children and dogs.
Looking back, it was such a brief chapter, but it sure changed the trajectory of my clown growth and life itself. It was an opportunity seized, and pretty much everything changed ever after.
Looking back, it was such a brief chapter, but it sure changed the trajectory of my clown growth and life itself. It was an opportunity seized, and pretty much everything changed ever after.
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