Comedy coeds in threes, said circus clown
Christy McDonald, giving a serious lesson
on what's funny to a group of sixth-graders
from the Academy for Academics and Art
last week.
How do you listen earnestly to someone in a pink wig and sticky
makeup and long, pointy shoes? It's a little easier if you're
wearing the same sort of outfit.
In a room filled with clowns- Lance, Leo and Christy from Ringling
Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus and about 40 students who
perform in the school's clown group- the pros taught the kids
a few new tricks. Often by playing the jokes on one another.
You need a setup, Christy said, a build up and a blow-off.
"Look for these things in comedy," she told them. "You'll
find a pattern."
As she talked , Lance, who plays the mischievous goof, searched
diligently around the room for the proverbial pattern while sounding
high-pitched squeaks.
Leo, the straight-man of the threesome, scolded and subdued Lance
as Christy talked, rolling his eyes and holding his squealing
colleague by the collar.
The student group is more singing and dancing, said Marlando
Powers, one of the kid clowns. But they recognize what 's funny
as well as anyone, laughing wildly at Lance's mimicking Leo.
Without saying a word, Lance became the favorite, using his silly
movements and strange noises to entertain. The other two clowns
explained some traditional clowning skills- juggling, riding
the unicycle and pie throwing- and the types of gags they perform
in almost 50 cities each year. |
To demonstrate the rule of threes, the
clowns offered this:
* A setup. Christy told Leo she's got a skit where he
gets to be the King Bee and she's the Worker Bee. Leo, the sophisticate,
immediately warmed to the idea of being King as she explained
the dialogue.
"Go gather the pollen," Leo said in his demanding voice.
* The build up. Christy busily ran the rows of the audience
picking pretend pollen from the children's outstretched fingers.
Returning to the stage, she sneakily filled her mouth with water
and stood before the King.
He said, "OK, give it to me!"
* The blow-off. You guessed it- water in his face,
The children roared, and Lance quacked.
The kids also tried out some of the juggling pins and bean bags.
They already knew the basics of makeup and clothes. Their questions
were about the show.
"How do they make fire come out of the guy's mouth?"
one wanted to know.
"You mean Vesuvius, the human volcano?" answered Christy.
"He uses a liquid, it's extremely dangerous."
The pros told about clown college, where they were trained for
the circus , and about traveling and living on the train 11 months
of the year.
Christy, 33, said she'd been with the circus for three years.
But at age 2, she wasn't set on clowning.
"I wanted to be an elephant rider," she said. "But
I wanted to be a circus performer. I started clowning about 12
years ago."
Trey Worley, a student at AAA, isn't eying a career of his red-nose
and rainbow-striped hair routine.
"I like the singing and dancing," he said, "but
I want to be a Lawyer." |
