Last summer I had an offer to perform two shows in the historic 7th St theater as part of Hoquiam’s On Track Art Festival. A stilt-walking, banjo playing clown named Sage dreamed up the show Applaudville as a variety show for members of his group the Petting Zoo Players plus whatever entertainers he could convince to come to Hoquiam.
Time passed and I started to feel out of my depth. I’m used to birthday parties, parades, assemblies and mostly kid stuff. However, I’m eager to develop a more edgy adult-friendly pseudo-anarchist a la burning man style act.
The other acts would be arriving from Seattle, their skills honed on the front lines of the WTO struggle, Black Rock City, and the Cirkus Camps of Babylon.
What I really wanted was more time to collaborate. In addition to a percentage of the door [read: cash from the till], Sage was also offering a night’s stay in a hotel!
Then I happened to see an announcement on olyblog.net for an Introduction to Sacred Clowning, a two part workshop, by donation, held in Olympia. The catch: I had to send a letter of interest, BY SNAIL MAIL.
So I printed up my final Evergreen self-evaluation after I had discovered I was a clown. I said, in part, “The greatest talent I discovered in my own collaborative exploration with the other clowns and circus characters was my adaptability in yoking personal foibles into political satires.” finalclowneval.pdf
I also included the rough draft of my 18 week clowning curriculum I first developed at the suggestion of Adam Fletcher of The Freechild Project.
It includes among other things:
“Week 5: Props
· Is BIGGER better or itty-bittier better?
· Agitprop, propaganda/property = intrinsic value, theft, or support?”
The upshot of which was that Dawn of the Simple Fool’s Silly School of Top Secret Esoteric Clowning was willing to take me on as a student in her class, held at the Waldorf School. Then I had to apologize to Sage. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jusby the Clown 
