The 10^th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Will Rogers.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

Will Rogers is also part of my special series of historical figures that dedicated their lives to changing the world through the wisdom of humor. Rogers first gained notoriety as a trick roper when he roped a wild steer escaping into the audience in a wild-west circus playing Madison Garden in NYC. He was immediately picked up by big-time vaudeville. The first time he talked on stage was after was advised to introduce a complicated rope trick for a better audience response, but the response from the New York audience was laughter at his slow Oklahoma drawl. Rogers quickly cashed in on his unexpected gift for comedy. His homespun humor spoke simple truths that made you laugh even if the barb was directed at you.

The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers: “There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

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The 9^th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is our current US Congress.  In this series I’m exploring noble as well as ignoble clowns. Through Christmas I’m posting different public figures that either delight in playing clowns, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as clowns.

A long time ago Mark Twain wrote, “Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

The same truth could be said today.

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The 8^th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Buster Keaton.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

I selected Keaton to be a part of a special series of historical figures that dedicated their lives to changing the world through the wisdom of humor, and also completes the trifecta of the great silent movie comedians.

Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd are the three greatest influences in my career as a professional clown. From my early twenties I have worn the baggy pants of Chaplin. In my mid-thirties when I first needed prescription eyeglasses I of course chose the classic round style of Lloyd. Then when my Father died my Mother gave me his grey Stetson fedora, which I immediately blocked into a porkpie, like the hat worn by Keaton.  No matter what the current fashion this odd patchwork of Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd has been my signature street dress for twenty-five years.

My son tells me my taste in clothes is like a broken clock… I’m in style about once a decade.

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The 7^th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Harold Lloyd.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for my posts of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

I selected Harold Lloyd to be a part of a special series of historical figures that dedicated their lives to changing the world through the wisdom of humor. In his career Lloyd made more movies than either Chaplin or Keaton. He gained broad public success because his character represented the everyman.

Lloyd’s humor was always about the struggles of the common man. He believed, “The more trouble you get a man into, the more comedy you get out of him.”

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The 6^th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of this Holiday Season is Charlie Chaplin.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas I’m posting a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

The great Charlie Chaplin is my second in a special series of top picks from historical figures that dedicated their lives to changing the world through the wisdom of humor. I’ve always believed that the clown is a tragic figure who is safe to laugh at because they are the ones willing to take the fall for the rest of us. As Chaplin said himself, “My pain may be the reason for somebody’s laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody’s pain.”

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The 5^th Emergency Clown Nose® pick is William Shakespeare.  In this Holiday series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas I’m posting a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

Today I’m introducing the first of a series of special top picks chosen from historical figures that dedicated their lives to changing the world through the wisdom of humor.  Shakespeare was a noble fool who played the King’s jester, which transformed western culture.

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

William Shakespeare / As You Like It

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The 4th Emergency Clown Nose® pick for the Holiday Season goes to the GOP Presidential Clown Car. In this Holiday series I am exploring the noble as well as the ignoble clown. Every day I’m posting to my blog a different public figure that either delights in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

To be fair most of the GOP candidates wouldn’t normally be painted with the clown’s broad make-up brush if it weren’t for Donald Trump, who is my first ignoble clown pick of this series. What makes Trump dangerous is that he’s ignorant to the fact that his actions are that of a clown.

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The real Patch Adams is my 3^rd 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.

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Patch Adams is the 2^nd Emergency Clown Nose® pick of my series of public figures wearing red noses that I plan to post on my blog through Christmas.  I started this series with Einstein in a clown nose.  By setting the bar so high, I knew my second choice had to be the wisest clown of my generation, Robin Williams. 

In this series I will explore the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day I’ll post a different person that either delights in playing the clown in public, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown

Robin Williams chose to live the life of a noble clown dispensing a brand of humor that heals.  Unfortunately, all humor is rooted in suffering.  My heart broke the day that Robin died. 

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I choose Albert Einstein as today’s Emergency Clown Nose® pick.  Look for my selection of a daily public figure that I plan to post to my blog from now until Christmas.

Einstein was quoted saying, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

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