Comedy

An unassuming, mild-mannered man walks into a library and slowly, methodically, with grace and much humor transforms himself from your everyday man in to a clown. For the love of all things sacred! I don’t even like clowns (except for Bill Irwin because.. well, he’s awesome), why on earth am I willingly subjecting myself to this clown at the library? Because I have kids and I will do just about anything to ~~kill time~~ edu-tain them, so at the suggestion of a friend I go to see Boswick the Clown, expecting my kids to have a good time and having a good time watching them have a good time.

Being an open-minded, opinionated person, set in my ways. I figured I would suffer through this clown (that’s the open-minded part), but I certainly wouldn’t enjoy it. Shows what I know. I enjoyed it so much I approached Boswick afterward and asked if I could feature him on my blog and he said YES!

I asked, the man behind Boswick to introduce himself to you and tell us why in a world so full of anti-clown sentiment, he would choose to don a red nose. Here’s his response:

Just by way of introduction; My name is David. I’ve worked as Boswick the Clown for the last 24 years. After getting my acting degree from Emerson College in Boston, I journeyed to Ringling Brothers Clown College and was molded into a Ringling Brothers Clown. It’s been an adventure taking me around the world and into living rooms in mansions and tenement projects.

I make a living as a clown, I make my living as an entertainer. My audience is (on average) about 6 years old.

I’ve had lots of opportunities to perform for adults. Yes, I’ve done stand up comedy, I’ve done solo magic shows, I’ve been in plays, commercials and movies. I even did a one man play about turning 40 called “Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear” About a man reflecting on middle age. It was funny but mostly moving (I was going for funny and ended up making people cry…go figure).

Through all this, I’ve always returned to performing for children, pretty young children at that. I’m very passionate about children, I study their development and am endlessly fascinated with what makes a child laugh.

Here’s the thing about performing for children. Children don’t judge, if they don’t like something they leave. Children can take an empty box and play for hours, I have to be a lot funnier than a cardboard box.

Children are fully functioning humans, there is no place they have to be, they are whole and complete. Children are mostly thought of as mini adults.

If you look at children they pretend, they play, they act out fantasy…um reminds me of the theatre. Yet, we ignore this, there is not a lot of live entertainment specifically for children. Luckily I took a vow of poverty, so I’m happy performing for the youngest of our society.

There’s lots of talk about what a shame it is we don’t support art in the schools. The secret message, we need more visual arts, more music, more dance. Would a 3rd grade teacher tolerate my pulling kids out of class so they can act like kittens, dogs and elephants? Looks pretty silly to an adult. Yet, this stimulates their imaginations, children become better readers, better students, better citizens.

But that’s a lot of academic mumbo jumbo…I mean, I’m a clown, I shouldn’t think so hard. My goal is to bring children to peels of laughter. I get kids wetting their pants from laughing too hard. I may have to think about pulling my comedy back a bit or keep handiwipes in my clown trunk.

I focus on making kids laugh, the adults are along for the ride. Adults will introduce theatre to children through “A Christmas Carol”. That’s fine but it’s a play for adults with children along for the ride. I’m opposite guy.

Come see Boswick the Clown, watch your kids laugh, you’ll laugh too, you can’t help it, laughter is infectious!

He’s right, laughter is infectious. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, I highly recommend you come and see A Goofy Holiday Show with Boswick the Clown (December 22, 23,26, & 27). Bring a kid and give them the gift of theatre! Use coupon code: “unknownmami” for 50% off.

Disclosure: I am telling you about Boswick because I really enjoyed his performance. That’s all. Just wanted to share.

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Update: Since writing this post it has come to my attention that someone else already had the following great idea and even trademarked it. What can I say, great minds think alike, but even greater minds execute and trademark there ideas. Visit Momedy by clicking the link.

One of the things that I excel at is coming up with “great” ideas that I will never execute. I swear to you that I came up with pet health insurance before it existed. Another “great” one is retractable Christmas lights. You only have to put them up once and never take them down because they retract into strips that match the color of your house. A not so great one (I only say it’s not great because whenever I bring it up my husband rolls his eyes) is my sofa gym. It’s a gym in your sofa! Instead of having a hideaway bed, the sofa stores a hideaway gym. Under the cushions you find weights, a jump rope, etc. You can even pull out one part that works as a rowing machine. It’s for people who live in small spaces but still want the option to work out at home.

Anyway, you get the idea. I spend far too much time on these ideas that will never be.

Well, in honor of Mother’s Day I would like to share my newest, wait for it…Stand Up Momedy Hour! That’s right. What prey tell is Stand Up Momedy Hour, you may be asking? It’s an hour conveniently timed after naps and before bedtime for Mom’s and their kids (Dad’s can come too) where you can get a drink and listen to stand up comedy that has to do with being a mom. It will include some regular acts and also an open mike portion for audience participation.

This idea came to me as I was hanging out with one of my Mommy friends and she reminded me of a joke I made involving baby carrier inserts. Funny stuff, but totally wasted if not told to a Mommy crowd. Lay people would need too much explanation about Ergo’s, inserts, etc.

Anyway, I’m working on the material for this act that will probably never happen, but someday in the future if you drive by a comedy club and the marquee reads, “Stand Up Momedy Hour”, remember you read it here first.

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