Amuse Bouche Finis

Hello All,

I am sorry to say that the festival has ended and that I was unable to post to the blog due to continuing browser issues on my ancient home computer.  Now that I've made my excuses, the shows I saw all had great laughs and merits worth mentioning even though I am unable to elaborate.  What I can say is that the festival is a fantastic gathering of the clown community, made up of artists living locally and worldwide.  Among the clowns who participate and attend as audience, the atmosphere is one of camaraderie and mutual love of this very special art form.  For the general audience, I hope they appreciate the difficult nature of creating a clown show.  They are always guaranteed some laughs even within shows that don't quite work at every turn.  The performers are mightily talented even when the acts are rough around the edges.  The beauty of this work is that it evolves with time, and early works repeated over years become great acts we welcome again and again.  Also key to the festival are the exchange of ideas, styles and techniques that make up a great deal of the post-show socializing amongst the clowns. 

I would like to acknowledge my colleague and friend, Deborah Kaufmann, for her excellent eye and nimble pen.  We attended many of the same performances.  Deb's blog is worth reading for all that I didn't get to say.  She more than makes up for my lack.  Thank you to Robert and Audrey for allowing me to blog, with all the flops therein.  Thanks to all the clowns who make up our funny and dear-to-my-heart community.  I've said it before and I'll say it again--you rock!  Over and out folks.  ~Nina

Amuse Bouch continues to amuse

Saturday night I attended Bezinkule, written and performed by Christopher Rozzi, directed by Tasha Gordon-Solmon.  Christopher is a terrific writer and performer.  The songs in the show were especially funny.  There was no proper curtain call at the end of the show for us to applaud the performer.  Fortunately, that is something easily remedied in upcoming performances.  I look forward to seeing what future work Christopher brings us from his fertile imagination.

Dear friends and followers:  I will be away from the festival this week, returning for the final week of performances.  Enjoy the festival in the meantime...

Amuse Bouche 2011 Opening Remarks

Greetings friends.  Glad to be back at the NY Clown Theater Festival.  Has it been a year already?  Lots of laughs so far and many more sure to come.

This year the LeRoy Sisters (Aimee German and Jenny Sargent) opened the festival hosting the preview cabaret on Wednesday September 7, 2011.  With their delightful vaudeville act complete with dance numbers, numerous costume changes and Canarsie accents, they guided us through a selection of the shows.  A great way to kick off the festival, that promises to bring lots of laughs.  You can see the full calendar of events on the bricktheater.com website.

Thursday, September 8, 2011 brought Flocked as performed by Audrey Crabtree and Gabriela Munoz.  Two birds living in neighboring cages, representing the side by side cultures of the U.S. and Mexico.  These are well-matched, strong performers, not to be missed.

Next came Hew Parnham performing Odessey Schodyssey.  His clown, Shmoo takes us on a very personal journey.  His companion is Petal, a feather from a duster.  Many characters emerge from Hew's vivid imagination during the course of this engaging story.   Be sure to catch his show on Sunday, September 11th at 5 pm.

A quick disclaimer:  Due to technical difficulties I have been unable to post until now, and with time constraints, have kept my comments extremely brief.