community opportunities & internship fair & circus club
February 1, 2012
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Posted by Jusby the Clown
1st of May’s 1st Parade
January 31, 2012This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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Pie Fail
August 30, 2011How many times does this have to happen? If I’m sitting around without a gig lined up and I get the sudden urge to give away a pie-in-the-face to a former classmate who’s passing through town… Not if… WHEN that happens next, please STOP ME!
Last time I hung out a the corner of Olympia & Washington waiting for Puck.
All thanks to FACEBOOK… instead of relying on instant messages, I’ve got to pick up the phone to confirm the time and place the pieing will happen!
“Aloha, Agent Mousetrap?”
This time, I noticed that Shannon, a former classmate, was updating her status while riding a train between Portland and Seattle. At least, I thought, we would have to meet at one particular spot: the Centennial Train Station in Lacey.
However, trains don’t always run on time.
At 1PM I proposed the pie-in-the-face. She said she’d put her face up to the window. I said that she’d have to step to the open door. I checked the Amtrak website and saw that the estimated arrival was at 2:20.
However, a branch fell on the tracks and the train was stopped outside of Kelso.
At 1:52 the ETA was 3 O’clock.
At 2:17 I had done the fastest make-up job ever. And wore my new Tiger God T-shirt from Dr. Sy Bantam of the Healing Journey Radio.
At 2:30 the ETA was 3:35. I had one of Orion’s classmates over for a playdate, so I figured that I’d let them play at the house as long as possible and keep checking the ETA.
At 2:53 the ETA was 4:05 Then I lay down for a short nap.
At 3:07 @swianecki tweeted Surreal: I’m on a stalled train + old friends are plotting to pie me in the face when I pass through O-lympia! #hijackedbywoodlandcreatures
And the train started moving.
I checked and saw that the ETA was 4:45.
At 4:14 I departed for the station.
At 4:35 She wrote: I was there, camera in hand, waiting for you! The conductor even let me get off the train! Where were you?
At 4:40 I arrived at the station and greeted THE WRONG TRAIN!
“I think you wanted the 506… that was the 516. The 506 came through about 10 minutes ago.”
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Busy Sunday [SITC & 2kid/2clown Party]
August 28, 2011I was flattered when Ned Hayes asked me to provide some professional face painting to support Kids at Play during Sunday’s Sand in the City. It also provided another opportunity for intern “Crystal” to shine.
In email exchanges before the event, I quickly found out that an emergency comedy consultation was in order. They let me know they were providing two palettes of Diamond FX 12 Essentials with four #2 & four #4 brushes. It’s the same palette I use. However, the Hands On Children’s Museum (who sponsors the event) had suggested that painters be prepared for 2500 faces over the course of 7 hours! [uh... six faces a minute?!]
I advised:
I would get way more brushes of varying sizes and shapes. And sponges. And baby-wipes. Just saying.
Especially if you let kids say ‘Tiger’ you need to get a square foot of orange (for example) up in a hurry.
Sidebar: if the paints are not depleted I might suggest you trade those for (a portion of?) the labor of my assistants. Those clowns have been using my paint!
Luckily, it made sense to them, and we had enough paints AND brushes to cover many many faces. Of course, we didn’t serve anywhere near the estimate. In the end, I was able to bequeath my used palette to Crystal and accept a brand new & unopened one as a perk.
“Justin is the consummate professional clown. He loves his work — and it shows! He knows his way around kids, makeup, crowd control, and parents. What I love most about working with Justin is that he strives to create a complete atmosphere of fun — with pies, music, professional props, and all the accouterments. Justin is great to work with — and I highly recommend him to anyone who wants to have a GOOD TIME !!!” Ned Hayes
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Then I rushed home to get into clown and gather supplies [pies, Coke & Mentos, and water balloons]. I had a previously booked party for that evening. The client had called Marie from Sustainable South Sound asking whether I would extend my coupon from last year. She was especially excited when I further offered to bring Crystal as a Buy One Get One special.
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First of May Clown Internship
August 21, 2011
This is Melanie Beth “Crystal” Curran, my First of May Clown intern. Because I first discovered my clown at Evergreen, it has long seemed a natural move to become a clowning mentor for other greeners. So I decided to offer to sponsor either an internship or (as in my experience) an individual learning contract.
http://www.evergreen.edu/individualstudy/internshipinformation.htm < Find or List an Internship Here
I posted a position on Wednesday, August 9th. On Friday, August 12 I got a response:
This is your future employette, Melanie Beth Curran.I have a deep respect for clowning and particularly the history of clowning, as archival research and humorous entertainment are my most developed passions. I live in Olympia Washington and I am ready and willing to work to help you ensure the success of your clowning empire. I am attending a second year at Evergreen starting in late September.I will gladly send you a resume once I am on a computer that contain’s that coveted file. Please let me know if this position is already filled so that I may devise a plan to usurp the throne. I have studied clowning for three years at Wavy Gravy’s summertime circus Camp Winnarainbow in Laytonville California.
We met on the 16th and she worked her first gig on the 21st. We did a five hour face painting gig for the Love Our Local Fest: Northeast Neighborhood Block Party, and I soon found that she possesses mad skillz with paint and brushes.
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By the 29th of August I had a 2nd potential intern contacting me. However, we soon discovered that unless the position was a full-time paid position she couldn’t pursue it.
I look forward to the day when I have more than enough work to cover all my expenses and can afford that kind of intern!
I immediately rewrote the internship description to clarify:
Assist the clown at parties and other events. Support the clown archives: written/ photo/ video documentation.
Position is on-call. No guaranteed monthly wages. Each meal is a banquet, every paycheck a fortune.
This is a hands-on, work-related learning experience. It is not a job-job. Opportunities for compensation will be handled with a fair mix of Show & Business.
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Mud Run and Camp Thunderbird
June 11, 2010Undecided about a costume for my premiere/finale as a Lincoln Elementary employee, I looked for some inspiration on the Camp Thunderbird info sheet. It said: “Water is Off Limits” and that resonated with the global angst about the BP-Gulf of Mexico Disaster, so I dressed in hip waders and brought my blue buckets.
On the way up 101 we heard on KAOS that the annual Evergreen Mud Run was scheduled to begin and precisely that moment, so I pulled over and made like a clown going for a stroll on the beach… perplexed, intrigued and astonished to find nekkid ppl running across the mud flats.
Two pics by Laura Killian. The rest of her FLICKR set> http://www.flickr.com/photos/tricyrtis_hirta/collections/72157624134769015/
A couple of pics by Trish>
“There’s some dirty hippies takin’ a hippy mud bath before they gotta gradjamacate today!”
“Is that a Gooey Duck or are you just happy to see me?”
Then we drove to Camp Thunderbird. I made myself useful at the “Circus, Circus” activity station. I had been led to believe that I was expected, that students would learn to walk on stilts, make their own juggling balls, and practice other skills like slack rope walking. There were stilts there. They had decided against the balloon+sand bag juggling ball construction portion of the circus for ecological+logistical reasons. I’d brung my rubber squirting fish in the bucket and gave tutorials with those. I also assisted with stilt fitting and walking and encouraged one girl to add hula hooping to her stilt walking. She could do it for almost half a minute!
A couple more pics by Trish>
I joined the talent show too late to get a hula hoop, so I faked it.
When they provided one I continued to fake it!
Photo by Julie Montgomery of me during Juggling practice with Eloise.
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Over 200 pied faces ~ EF Students Gone Wild
July 31, 2009
I had ANOTHER new look for the job at the EF school! I picked up this Referee’s shirt at Goodwill during soccer season, and I had intended to take it to Nita to make it more clowny. All it really needed was an assortment of buttons, a wet bandanna, a stopwatch, and an extra loud sport’s whistle! I’m not opposed to having some additional fringe or bells or whatnot added, but it’s not a gotta.
Also I was concerned about the near 100 degree heat. Notice the thermometer in the background. This was an authentic ref’s shirt that features a plastic lining that causes my perspiration to remain a coolant instead of soaking into the fabric. It’s a most curious feeling, however, to be dry on the outside and swimming on the inside. I recommend this type of shirt to any clown who works in the heat of summer, be it parade or outdoor festival or backyard birthday. The ref’s shirt especially conveys some special authority with which you can TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO! And they DO IT!
Which almost brings me to the pie-fest portion… first I did an abbreviated indoor show on the stage of the Lecture Hall, featuring an assortment of my usual tricks but also introducing my new baby Orangutan puppet for a mini-lesson on the Indonesian language. [Orang-Utan means Person of the Jungle. Orang-Utang means Person in Debt. "Like You" sayeth the puppet] All those who had signed the waiver were called up on stage and made to perform as a human machine. Then we sat them down and showed them the Pie Delivery page of my website on the big screen.
Okay, let’s go outside for your prize. Hmmm. Many had changed their minds, or realized that they should not sign anything in this country without reading it first.
But a few brave souls stood up and took what was offered.
Then the idea caught on as they wanted to be in charge of the pie-ings.
I still got to do a few…
Actually, no I didn’t personally deliver another pie that day. I just had to stay out of their way and shout out cautions like:
“Be kind! Don’t hurt anyone! Have fun… and LAUGH!”
When my cooler was completely empty and all my paper towels were gone, approximately 20 more faces had been pied. I will take credit for administering and supervising all faces that get pied during my visits even if I did not personally deliver the pies. I think that’s fair. The law would probably hold me responsible.
Some pied peeps didn’t pose for the pic, but I feel secure in claiming the new total to be approximately 210 pied faces (up from 193).
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More pics from other photogs
April 28, 2009Here’s another one from Fall Arts Walk ’08 I just found on flickr ~
by Ruby ReUseable
It was actually raining outside. I pied one face and called it good.
I had on my foul weather green mock-turtleneck instead of the usual polka-dotted shirt.
While we’re at it…
Here’s an interesting one I got from Miriam Khan. I’m showing EF Students how to twist a balloon doggie in a Lecture Hall at Evergreen.
I don’t have much documentation of that parachute! I wish I had the one where she got pied!
Speaking of pies… I waited almost a year until this guy from the Fremont Solstice festival found me on facebook through our mutual friend, David Raffin, who wrote all those wonderful clown stories.
I’m wearing a mushroom beret that Janeane made.
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Best Of 2008
December 25, 2008
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Pieing video from Super Sat
September 8, 2008Thanks for e-mailing this phone camera video!
Audience support helps keep the media flowing.
Any photos or videos you send are good for discounts on future services.
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American Games at the EF School
August 14, 2008
Thanks to Miriam Kahn I got to be the Special Guest at the Olympia EF School on the Evergreen State College Campus.
I worked up some new material for American Games including the first use of my Red Light/ Green Light LASERS!
Miriam consented to take a Pie-in-the-face. Here’s the first picture of me with nearly a hundred students learning to twist their balloons into doggies.
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And then I was King!
July 16, 2008Leaving Cached-22 a few hours later I heard that “Hello, Olympia” was going off the air after (was it really?) 22 years.
Eric Brinker and Dr. Phyllis Flatbush were having their last annual King of Lakefair call-in competition.
Trish called and nominated me. Then I got a second vote. Then I several more votes. Then I called to accept the nomination.
My platform would be free rides, free pies, and no words or motorized vehicles in the parade.
Then I got several more votes.
All the other nominees had only a single vote including Moses and Richard-the-feather-guy.
Then I won.
Then they played “Magilla the Gorilla”
I was the happiest clown in town.
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A chapter closes on Radio 8 Ball
July 16, 2008Last week I helped make the last episode of Radio 8 Ball on K.A.O.S. 89.3 FM. In fact, I had the distinct honor of being the very last caller.
I asked, “Will the ladies hire me for the wedding shower/ bachelorette party?” The answer, chosen from a random CD put on shuffle function, was John Mellencamp singing “Troubled Land”.
Let me back up. Andras asked me to help by scribing, so he could concentrate on:
a) the sacred duties of performing the divination. That is: shuffling CDs, pressing play, analyzing how a song can answer someone’s question about their life.
b) the mundane duties of operating a radio show. That is: riding the faders, giving the station ID, reading community billboard/ entertainment calendar items, telling the time, etc.
My job was to write down the songs, artist, albums, and record labels for KAOs. Then it turned out he needed me to write down the caller’s handle/ question and artist/ song for archival purposes. My other job was to remain silent during the show, practice my miming. Then, as a gag, I could go into the other room and call in my question.
Okay, fine. “Troubled Land” didn’t give me much hope for the Wedding Shower. It reflected the deeper issues of needing peace. It turns out that I didn’t get the gig, AND I didn’t get to continue in my role as silent scribe on the show.
Fast forward a week. I took the bus to Evergreen and went up to KAOS. I met John Ford. He asked, “What brings you here?” I said, “Radio 8 Ball.”
He looked at me sadly and said, “There ain’t no Radio 8 Ball.”
Then I spoke with manager Jerry Drummond. He let me know they’d ‘made a change’… the prior Thursday.
Then I spoke with Ruth Brownstein. She invited me to attend the trainings to become a programmer myself. The official reason for canceling the show was that Andras hosts a similar [read: identical in most respects] show on an AM station, and that conflicts with their mission statement of ‘serving under-represented voices’. The unofficial reason deducted by an unofficial survey of listeners was: they just don’t like him.
You can read Andras’ side at http://radio8ball.com
Troubled Land lyrics and youtube behind the cut
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Circapocalypse – More Thoughts About Super Saturday
June 30, 2008Another look at the Criss Cross Circus from Hampshire College.
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Super Saturday Revisited
June 30, 2008Thanks to Christian Carroll for this pics.
No small change, please, kids.
The pie will come toward her face, but she will be prepared. She will have this laminated card to use as a scraper so that she will be able to dig her way to safety and eat the excess topping.
From the past, toward the future, and arriving at the present moment which begins RIGHT NOW!
MMM…
Looks delicious, actually.
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