Nouveau Clown Institute Graduation This Weekend!

Assemblage from photos by Juan K. Casado
Jango Edwards' second series of Master Classes at the Nouveau Clown Institute in Barcelona is throwing-down it's graduation on SUNDAY, March 28, 2010, according to new intelligence from Facebook:

Jango Edwards March 27, 2010 at 5:19pm

Subject: N.C.I. MARCH 2010 "CLOWN MASTERCLASS" GRADUATlON 28TH.
I'M SORRY THAT I WASN'T WITH YOU ALL ON THE LAST CABARET BUT I'M SURE IT WAS FUNTACULAR. TOMORROW THE FINAL DAY OF SCHOOL IS AS FOLLOWS.

S.O.S.
CALLING ALL CLOWNS, FOOLS AND STREET ARTISTS:
TODAY WE BEGIN THE BATTLE TO F.T.F.S. IN BARCELONA. YOUR INVITED TO JOIN US AND PARTICIPATE IN OUR NUMEROUS INVISIBLE THEATER MANEUVERS ON SUNDAY, MARCH 28TH BETWEEN 13:30 AND 17:00 HOURS.

13:30 MEETING AT THE TENT (LA CARPA) AT THE BOTTOM OF LA RAMBLA WHERE WE PERFORMED THE "DIANA-CABRON CABARET".

13:30-14:00 ANIMATION AND MANIFASTATION ORGANIZATION FOR "FREE THE F***ING STREETS" CLOWN MILITIA EVENT.

ITEMS REQUESTED FOR THE ACTIONS
TOOTHBRUSH
N.C.I. TEE SHIRT BASE WITH ADDITIONAL JACKET OR SHIRT TO COVER N.C.I. SHIRT.
STATUE ACCESSORY
SHOE BOX PET FOR "BOX ZOO"
RED NOSE (CLOWN CHI)

14:00- 17:00 ENSEMBLE AND TEAM STREET EVENTS.
18:00 GRADUATION ASSEMBLY AT CLOWNFISH, C/CROS
29 bx, 08014, BARCELONA, TEL. 93 432 2814.
DIPLOMAS AND GRADUATION FIESTA.
DON'T BE LATE AND COME WITH FRIENDS IF YOU LIKE.
SEE YOU AT THE TENT

WE ARE FAMILY
JANGO

Check out the wealth of photos on their Facebook Site.
Just follow the links and click away -- the "Pie In The Face Portraits" are pretty funny! AND DON'T FORGET (like I did) John Towsen's Blog with cross-over links and other fun stuff!

Webmaster Michael Created Another Blog!

Yes I did! I'm keeping THIS blog dedicated to Troupers and fellow-travelers.

I'm calling the other one Michael's Blog: To Beat The Devil -- Personal Musings & Items of Interest, but there's some images from the Mime Troupe Saga there, and totally-unrelated stuff as well!

At the moment, it is dedicated to Ada Lovelace Day 2010, with an essay entitled Radioactive Women and Lise Meitner, and you're all welcome to check it out by clicking on the link above.
(The blog for worldwide Ada Lovelace Day is HERE)

I wrote another essay about Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, for this occasion last year called Unnatural Cousins. It's on my "old blog" HERE

Lise Meitner, born in Austria, is the subject of this year's essay. She co-discovered nuclear fission along with her nephew Otto Frisch, and German scientist Otto Hahn in 1938. Being of Jewish lineage, Frisch and Meitner fled to neutral Sweden before WWII began. They received NO credit in the paper which secured Hahn the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944.

Lightening Up:
George Clinton famously said: Mankind is nuclear fishin’ — And the fish on his line is bigger in his mind than the reality of the reel he has to reel it in. You Shouldn’t Nuff Bit Fish!

Where's Katie? Somewhere on Planet Earth!

Katie returns to Dartington Hall in Devon, where she was a lecturer in the late 80's! Anybody know any jokes about Buckfastleigh or Totnes? Fawltey Towers was supposedly set in Torquay, but the venerable old school is closer to Plymouth.

April 3-4 workshops Manchester

April 10-11 workshop Devon England

April 12-17 workshop + performance Berlin Schwelle 7

April 23-May 2 Seoul, Korea, 10th Seoul International Dance Festival

Parliament/Funkadelic's Own Clown, Stozo

Just ONE of George Clinton's crew members on the legendary Mothership -- which landed in major Rock arenas during the mid to late 1970's while the Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe was gigging in small theaters. (The production was designed by Jules Fisher of Kiss and David Bowie fame.) Stozo's given name is Ronald Edwards, and although he's a cartoonist and graphic artist, he is also a professional clown who has performed on TV and all other traditional red-nose venues. P-Funk is and was a band of bandleaders, and Stozo puts out his own music as well -- most recently two volumes of the DigiDonz.
Read about his new CD HERE!

Jango's Nouveau Clown Institute in Barcelona!

Our ol' man Stan is hosting a series of master classes in Barcelona, Spain all month -- Rick Parets and many others were scheduled to share ideas and fun.
This poster (stolen from Facebook) tells about the weekly performances associated with Jango's menage de clowns!
Added 3/7/10: John Towsen is blogging from the NCI -- Here's his LINK, with lots of pictures!

In Appeciation of Jan Jaap Dekker

The Netherlands' own Jan Jaap Dekker was Stage Manager/Photographer/Artist for the Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe in 1976. He continued to work with members of the company and De Melkweg on a regular basis until he up and moved to the USA in 1978.
He helped Stuart, Debra, and Patsy with his own talents when they started Creative Graffiti (see photo below). Utah couldn't hold him, and he's lived in Northern California since the early 80's. He got in touch with Patsy and Webmaster Mike last week via email, and we hope he visits this blog soon!


Debra and Patsy clowning and dancing in Creative Graffiti -- Photo by Jan Jaap Dekker circa 1978.

Footsbarn in Paris 2010

Footsbarn has many cross links with the history of the Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe -- Pierre Byland was a featured performer at LaCrosse in 1974, and many of the Footsbarn actors graduated from Jacques LeCoq's school. The company toured with Friends Roadshow, played the 1st Festival of Fools, adopted stray Trouper Mike Evans, and shared The Road with Katie Duck and Hillary Elmore. Gregg Moore was a member for several years as well. Footsbarn persevered through stresses which often broke up other talented groups. They have literally gone around the world, and will likely do it again before all is said and done.

There's still time to see them in the City of Light!
17 January to 28 February -- Theâtre de l'Epée de Bois
Cartoucherie Paris 12ème Times: February -- tues - sat @ 21h; sun @ 16h


A play for clowns, undertakers, horses, chickens, tractor, gypsies, children, dogs, sheep, violonists, opera singers, bodies, gods, and a fistful of chillies!

From a translated review: Two undertaker's assistants, with the paces crafty devils, make the beautiful ones in the middle of the track. A famous type-setter returned the heart, his coffin is brought solemnly in a cart to horse. The circle becomes the theatre of funeral, accompanied by a trio by classical music. One quotes Shakespeare and Goethe; the small orchestra plays of Schubert. One respects one minute of silence. In the room also, silence!
But ... the first button jumps. A black cock unloads while hopping and comes to perch itself on the coffin. Then it is a cat ... Our two undertaker's assistants (Pierre Byland and Vincent Gracieux) deadpan, make large eyes with each new disturbing appearance of good progress ... the higher bid appears by the interruption of a white horse to the gallop ... Sorry! is the excuse uttered by Paddy Hayter when he makes his interruption on a yelling and noisy tractor ... it is also the title of the most recent creation of Footsbarn Travelling Theatre ... for this spectacle the company joined two others: Charcoals and the Circus Werdyn Tzigane. This last bringing the equestrian key, or rather, equine strength.
... director and joint author Pierre Byland (Charcoals) had to compose skilfully to take into account the talents of all. Swiss, formative clown of generations of actors at the international Ecole Jacques LeCoq, Byland exploits the eccentric sequences, until the final biblical explosion ...
After the Cartridge factory of Vincennes, the company will take again the road. After Tweed, in Normandy, in mid-March, it revisits its origins for the summer in England, then will go to Switzerland, and Belgium, before finishing the year in the south of France.

john fischer was a worried man, whether about the quality of his playing or on the relusts of his attempts to book the mime troupe further into europe is unknown.
maybe it was his way of praying
I myself used this picture at times to try to get gigs, and sometimes it made the deal.....

he could play alongside the friends players easy,
I remember even impronights

Joining the Circus!

Webmaster Mike got an email from Rob Owen, one of the enrollees at the International Mime Festival and Institute in LaCrosse, Wisconsin 1974! He has an interesting story to tell:

...that seemed to be the pace of things there, too much to do and no where near enough time. I got to see Dimitri's second performance and have had the pleasure of seeing him again since then. That was probably the highlight for me though experiencing that much mime in one place at one time was a highlight in itself. It was great to read about and remember the Wonder Bar, arrival of the Friends Roadshow and their show, and think of the many other things that happened at all hours of day or night that weren't part of the schedule.
I haven't done much mime since then though I know it has been a big help when I did some circus clowning and acting. My path after the military was touring with circuses for thirteen years and then working at a family theme park in NH for the past twenty.

Read it HERE (scroll down): http://theatrex.net/theatre/t_comments.htm

Barsham Fair, Suffolk England circa 1975

From Warwick Moreland -- Barsham Fair, which is where Johnny Melville said he met Georgio in 1975.

A friend from way back gave me these two photographs of George. They must have been taken at Barsham Fair in Suffolk England, probably when George was on some sort of sabatical from you guys. Thought you might be interested. I remember the Curiosity Box, it was great with the kids. Years later I saw a fabulous version from the Natural Theatre using a bath chair and three people as well as a small box.
My stage name with Friends Mobile years later thanks to Madness Novotny was Horswick the Horrible.