Photo by Marc Norberg:

Photo by Marc Norberg:

I’m spending the weekend performing my solo clown show at the Waseca Count Fair.  I am savoring the clown’s life, and realizing  how much I miss being on-the-road.

Being on stage and hearing people laugh is making the concerns of my life vanish.  No grant deadlines; no book deadlines; no plays to write, or struggle to produce; just me on stage in a rubber nose.

I think the 25-years that Rosie and I spent clowning on-the-road, while raising our family were our most carefree.

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Photo by Marc Norberg:

I will let Marc’s pictures speak 1,000 words.  I’ll start with with this picture of a scene from The Vaudevillian with Rosie and Arsene.

Photo Marc Norberg:

Arsene in The Vaudevillian.

Photo by Marc Norberg:

Arsene’s shadow from The Vaudevillian.

Photo by Marc Norberg:

Today is the 6th anniversary of Rosie’s 49th birthday.  We’ve been married 29-years, and have been performing together for over 30-years.

What a wonderful ride it continues to be.

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Photo and Graphics by Marc Norberg:

In 2010, I was commissioned by the Southern Theater to write The Vaudevillian, for their 100^th anniversary season. This was my first play that required words, so I approached my neighbor, friend, and master storyteller Kevin Kling, who agreed to collaborate with me on the script.

Before this collaboration my stage productions were performed without words because my credo is that theater should make you feel first, and then make you think. Studies cite that 90% of communication is on a non-verbal level. Thus I create what I call “visual poetry,” of pure image and gesture.

In stark contrast Kevin can just sit on an empty stage, and draw me into an inner landscape of pure emotion through words alone. In an attempt to learn Kevin’s secret I asked him – “Teach me how you make every word a hero?” He shrugged and said, in typical Kevin fashion – “That’s easy, just put ’em in harm’s way.” Through our year-long collaboration, Kevin Kling transformed my work and gave me the courage to begin to believe in myself as a writer of the spoken word.

 This summer Kevin and I are collaborating on Full Moon Circus a benefit to raise awareness and and support for MN350.org the leader in Minnesota fighting against Climate Change.

Photo by Marc Norberg / Graphic Design by Fred Baisch:

Jewel Theatre was a hidden gem above Twin Cities Magic when they were in the downtown St Paul Cultural Arts District.  We produced three full evening show at this magic little theater between 2008 and 2010.

In each production I explored a different aspect of the clown archetype. In this quirky Holiday version of A Life of Serious Nonsense I of course played the White Clown again. Traditionally the White Clown is the high status clown in the circus ring, who is well above the lowly red nose August played by Rosie.

The twist in this show is that it’s a play with in a play. When Rosie and I are on stage we play our traditional clown roles, but then we show the audience our relationship back-stage where our world is reversed and Rosie is in charge. I guess it’s a little bit biographical.

Josette Anotomarchi did another brilliant job of directing Rosie and I in this Holiday version.

Original Art by Cate Whittemore / Graphic Design by Fred Baisch:

This show is the first time we mounted a 90-minute version of The Wacky Chicken Show. Our director Josette did a great job of bringing us deeper into our characters.

I remember we first brought this new version of the show to the Oneida Nation outside Green Bay. For a full week we taught sacred clowning to the tribal children in a school building shaped like a turtle.

At the end of our amazing artist-in-residency we performed The Wacky Chicken Show for the entire tribe. It was a profound experience performing for a community who all intuitively understood the subtext of our show. The man we brought up to lay an egg was re-named by the tribe that night. As far as I know he still goes by the name, Goose who laid the golden egg.

Original Art by Lloyd Brant / Graphic Design by Fred Baisch

I premiered my one-man show A Spirit of Halloween in October 2009.  Josette Antomarchi was the director of the show and brilliantly guided my character through a hero’s journey.

It’s a story of a Fool who is lost at the crossroads between light and darkness, but he finds the courage to laugh during the darkest night of the soul.

I based this show on a character I developed when I was the opening act for the Rock and Roll legend THE DOORS in 2004. I was asked to play a juggling shaman/clown whose role was to raise the spirit of Jim Morrison from the dead.

Photo by Unknown:

Here I am standing between keyboardist Ray Manzarek, and guitarist Robby Krieger of THE DOORS just before the show at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Minneapolis.

Photo by Marc Norberg / Graphic Design by Fred Baisch:

This is a promo postcard from our show A Life of Serious Nonsense that premiered at the Jewel Theatre above Twin Cities Magic when it was downtown St Paul.

This was the second full evening show that I wrote for Rosie and I.  We were also very lucky to again have Josette Antomarchi as the director of the show.  We were lucky to have sold out for the entire run, due to a perfect storm of press.

I think when I look back at this show, I realize what was history making for Rosie and I personally is that this was the show that we first introduced our Emergency Clown Nose®.  Our US Trademarked clown nose in a medicine jar was a central prop in the show, as well as sold to the public after the show.  Now our Emergency Clown Nose® is sold in all 48 of the lower United States.

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Photo by Marc Norberg:

I feel this photo helped define Theatre of Fools for the 21st Century.  This was the last picture that Marc took of me in the 20th Century, but it crystalized the direction Rosie and I were heading.

Marc had just finished photographing my new Chicken Man character to promote my one-man show at Bryant Lake Bowl’s cabaret theater that premiered on January 1, 1999.

At the end of the shoot Marc looked down at my shoes, and realized that they hadn’t been included in any of the shots that day.  He insisted that I return the next morning so he could photograph just the shoes.

This image he captured the next day ended up becoming Theatre of Fools’ logo because it was the perfect masthead for the direction of our work in the 21st Century.  In the following years we developed a series of full evening shows, where I explored a different aspect of the clown archetype in every production. Each of my new characters had one thing in common…      their shoes.

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Note: This photograph is of my hand crafted slap shoes that I made when Rosie and I were performing at the Colorado Renaissance Festival.  During the off days I apprenticed with master shoemaker Doug Gilisppi, who taught me everything I know about shoe making.

Photo by Marc Norberg:

This photo session with Marc was extraordinary.  It was the first photo shoot after he moved into his studio to 711 W. Lake St. in Minneapolis.

I remember feeling like I was inside a womb of light as the camera was clicking away.  I don’t know any other photographer who is a greater wizard with light than Marc.

Rosie and I had both gone through a painful journey to arrive together at this place of peace bathed in light.  The glowing egg represents the renewal of our family through the birth of our son Gabriel.

This photo session was just after we finished documenting on video our full evening Wacky Chicken Show, thanks to a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.  Our good friend Jeff Kraker, from KARE 11 TV,  did a beautiful job of producing and editing the DVD.

This was the first project we had the help of outside director Josette Antomarchi.  Rosie and I had first met Josette backstage at the Guthrie Theater before performing in a benefit for our friend and neighbor Kevin Kling.  Josette was dressed from head to toe in feathers, and Rosie and I were chickens.  It was an artistic match made in heaven.

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