Fools’ Medicine Show / #next364 #rednose

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#1 T of F Medicine ShowPhoto by Jeff Kraker:

This is the last in a recent series of posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, that has told the history of our EMERGENCY CLOWN NOSE®, as well as exploring the hopes and dreams for the future of our new venture, EMERGENCY RED NOSE® Productions in 2016.

Tonight I’m writing this backstage waiting to perform my one-man medicine show at Sample Night Live in downtown St Paul at the Landmark Center. For the past year I’ve been working with my director Josette Antomarchi on fine-tuning the show. Together we have showcased my one-man show at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, Minnesota State Fair, as well as being the featured artist to open, as well as the closeout the season for the 2015 summer performance series at Caponi Art Park.

These recent blog posts have chronicled a long artistic journey that has literally transformed my life. Ten-years ago is when Rosie first came up with the idea for our Emergency Clown Nose®, but my journey began 1981 when I wrote The Land of Clowns. At that time I was touring my one-man clown show to schools across the Midwest. As a young clown I quickly learned that I only had three minutes at the top of the show to either change the audience’s perception 180 degrees from what they thought a clown was, or risk being eaten alive.

I realized that because our country is young we do not have a cultural reference for who the clown is. The clown in ancient cultures worldwide is considered sacred. I wrote The Land of Clowns as my attempt to fill our cultural void with an origin story of the clown for the American imagination. I’m thrilled that with the help of Kevin Kling, I will be premiering the stage adaptation of my myth of the clown on April Fools Day, at Open Eye Theatre.

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