Grandchild #3 seems to be on the way, so this’ll be brief and may be interrupted by a dash to the hospital.
Have had a GREAT first week of Buster’s Red Nose Revue on the road with my library show, ‘A Fool’s Tools.’ Nice, big, responsive audiences for two shows last Tuesday (July 2) at the West Linn Public Library and this week in Tigard, Hillsboro, and Cornelius to kick off the Washington County tour. That audience in Cornelius sounded and acted like 300! They really raised the roof on that charming little library.
Daughter Kate’s old grad school roommate Trish and her fiancé Kurt were in the Tigard audience (yes, apparently this is what 24-year olds do on a typical Tuesday evening), so I picked on Kurt to ‘volunteer’ for one of my bits. What a good sport! And unconfirmed reports were that they loved the show!
The one thing learned (and repeated over and over again) is ‘listen to and take your cues from the audience.’ In West Linn, “your foot is still moving” led to an improvisational pre-show warm-up routine in which (you guessed it) my foot kept tapping to the music. In Hillsboro, pre-show
clown stretching in front of the audience – which warmed them up and relaxed and focused me – turned into some funny clown dancing to my come-in music. What a boisterous, interactive crowd they turned out to be! And in Cornelius, the audience wouldn't even let me sit down on my chair to start my first bit! All it took was a little clown butt waggle, and we were all off to the funny farm. I can still see the joy on the face of a little girl in the front row who kept turning around to gleefully point out to her mother what "payaso" was up to.
Learning a lot, sweating a lot, growing a lot as a performer. Clowns clown. That’s what we do. And the audiences pick us up and lead us down this misguided path to discovery, shared adventure, and laughter. What
gifts!
Eager to see what the next one brings. Hope to see you down the road. Got clowns?
Peace and laughter to you. Now, about that impending new grandchild . . .
Have had a GREAT first week of Buster’s Red Nose Revue on the road with my library show, ‘A Fool’s Tools.’ Nice, big, responsive audiences for two shows last Tuesday (July 2) at the West Linn Public Library and this week in Tigard, Hillsboro, and Cornelius to kick off the Washington County tour. That audience in Cornelius sounded and acted like 300! They really raised the roof on that charming little library.
Daughter Kate’s old grad school roommate Trish and her fiancé Kurt were in the Tigard audience (yes, apparently this is what 24-year olds do on a typical Tuesday evening), so I picked on Kurt to ‘volunteer’ for one of my bits. What a good sport! And unconfirmed reports were that they loved the show!
The one thing learned (and repeated over and over again) is ‘listen to and take your cues from the audience.’ In West Linn, “your foot is still moving” led to an improvisational pre-show warm-up routine in which (you guessed it) my foot kept tapping to the music. In Hillsboro, pre-show
clown stretching in front of the audience – which warmed them up and relaxed and focused me – turned into some funny clown dancing to my come-in music. What a boisterous, interactive crowd they turned out to be! And in Cornelius, the audience wouldn't even let me sit down on my chair to start my first bit! All it took was a little clown butt waggle, and we were all off to the funny farm. I can still see the joy on the face of a little girl in the front row who kept turning around to gleefully point out to her mother what "payaso" was up to.
Learning a lot, sweating a lot, growing a lot as a performer. Clowns clown. That’s what we do. And the audiences pick us up and lead us down this misguided path to discovery, shared adventure, and laughter. What
gifts!
Eager to see what the next one brings. Hope to see you down the road. Got clowns?
Peace and laughter to you. Now, about that impending new grandchild . . .
RSS Feed
