3rd EMERGENCY CLOWN NOSE® Pick / #next364 #rednose

#1 Patch Adams

The real Patch Adams is my 3rd Emergency Clown Nose® pick of this Holiday Season. In 1989, at the International Clown Festival in Philadelphia, Rosie and I first heard Patch speak.  I felt like I was meeting a fellow traveler from a past life. Ten years earlier I had written a mythic origin story of the clown for the American imagination called, The Land of Clowns. Patch seemed to leap off the pages of my story like one of the fictional characters in the flesh.

Afterwards I sent Patch my story asking his advice, and received back a very kind letter complementing my work, and inviting me to join him on his annual trek to the USSR. His advise to me was that he enjoyed the story that I had written ten years ago, but what was I doing today? I was never able to travel to Russia with Patch, but I took his advice to heart, and I’ve tried to live each day as if I were a flesh and blood character out of my story too.

This year I was awarded a Minnesota Arts Board grant to adapt, The Land of Clowns to the stage with the help of master storyteller Kevin Kling, premiering April 1, 2016 at Open Eye Theatre.

Thanks for the advice Patch.

*<[:o)