CLOWNING THROUGH, Written by: Frank Foster [in collaboration with Willian G. Bosworth]

EDIT:  I am returning to this entry to make a slight edit.  I have made copious notes on the various circus books I have read over the past few months.  When I first posted this, I was eager to get a book review out, so before I had a chance to type up my notes, I went ahead and published the review.  Unfortunately, this resulted in a slight error on my part.  I mentioned how at times I felt the circus tent sounded like a ship at sea.  I thought this was my own impression, but it had slipped by me that this is in fact Foster's image.  I have edited the text below to reflect this.  In the immortal words of Madeleine McCann's parents; Oops.

Bizarre.  It was April 16th and I had just finished my first book on clowning.  I closed the cover, turned on my laptop, and clicked into the Google homepage, only to be greeted by the following video:

It was embedded above the search bar on the Google main page.  It seems April 16th is the birth date of Charlie Chaplin, and that 2011 is his 122nd birthday.  Why is this bizarre?  Well, perhaps that is too strong a word, but at the very least it was a highly unlikely coincidence.  Read on...

Apparently the beginning is a really good place to start, so I'll do that now, with the second paragraph.  When I got my hands on the first batch of clown and circus books I had ordered, I was faced with the difficult choice of where to begin.  Did I start with one of the pristine new editions, or did I go for the dusty old hardback?  Well, I am a romantic, so there really was no choice. 

  As Clowning Through is out of print, I had to secure a second-hand copy.  Though the yellow felt binding barely holds it together, and loads of the pages are printed crooked, it is quite a beautiful little volume.  There is something romantic about reading an old book: the smell and feel of the yellowed paper, the delicate touch required to turn the pages.  You feel like you are reaching into the past and grabbing it straight out of someones hands.  Imagine the look on that person's face, when the book they were enjoying is plucked from their grasp as if by nothing.  The thought of that was all I needed to make me begin my studies here!

  So, four paragraphs in, what of the text?  Clowning Through is a slender volume at 162 pages, and it makes for a very quick and easy read.  It is written in an unadorned and straightforward manner, and one could easily complete it in a day.  While you might be quick to laugh at the idea of a book about clowning, this is no comedy.  Clowning Through isn't about clowns, but rather the people beneath the make-up.  It's about the struggle to follow fragile dreams amid the harsh realities of life.

  Clowning Through isn't a single narrative, but rather is composed of a series of mini-biographies, each detailing the life of a different clown that the authors have worked with over the years.  Each biography is told in just a few short pages, and is packed with the details of their varied and unique lives.  No sooner have you learned about Joe Craston, and his disastrous attempt to direct a circus in Argentina, than you are introduced to Coco, the Russian son of a cobbler who ran away to join the circus, later served in the Russian Army in the fight against the Bolsheviks only to be captured, escape, join a band of Mongolian gypsies, and eventually manage to return home by disguising himself as a woman and sneaking over the boarder.  Coco has barely left the stage when McGeachie the Scottish dwarf steps forth, and you learn his tale of woe, about how he was so badly bullied as a child that it left him with irreversible spine injuries, which ended his clowning career before it could properly take flight.  Each story is short, well composed, and riveting, and though we only skip through these lives, they are never treated as trivial.  Not all of the accounts are as striking as the ones I have mentioned, but none of them bore.

  As these personal trials unfold, the authors paint the backdrop of the larger world of the circus.  Though all of these performers come from radically different backgrounds, the text conveys a real sense of community.  Despite their disparate lives, they were all united by the circus.  Frank Foster himself lived in this world, and while it is alien to me, the down to Earth homeliness of his prose made it feel warm and appealing.  It is not an easy existence he describes, but these people willingly 'clowned through' their struggles because this was the only life that made them happy.  I personally have great admiration for anyone who follows and achieves their dreams.  I found plenty to admire here.

  There is a certain romanticism here as well: the outlandish world of the circus, the life of the performer, living on the road, or more accurately, living in the ring.  For these people the road was just the mundane reality in between shows.  Foster opens up with a small piece of verse:

Sturdy "King-Poles" unpatched canvas,

Like a ship with expert crew

Where "Tenting" people live like humans,

And "Tober Homeys°" get their due.

  This image is further realised in the story of Beasy.  One night, while in the audience at a show in France, a great gale sprung up.  Everybody lost their heads as the wind whipped and tore the tent.  Beasy stepped in, took charge, and got everything under control as he roared, "Lower the necks!"  How could one not imagine a ship struggling against a storm?

  Each story in Clowning Through is preceded by a sketch by Clifford Hall, who spent time with all of the clowns involved before finally capturing their essence on the page.  This is a really nice touch.  I liked to flip back to this picture once I had read the story, and see how much of their tale I could detect in their faces. 

  If I was to level any criticism against Clowning Through  It wasn't written by novelists, but by circus men who wanted to capture something of the world they knew before it faded away.  While the writing is rather basic, it is frank, to the point, and most important, heartfelt.  It does not require reams of text to achieve its goal.  Much like the artwork, these stories are sketches.  Part of the magic is in letting your imagination colour them in.

  In conclusion (or should that be clown-clusion - holy shit; I'm hilarious; where's the nearest circus?!), Clowning Through provided me with several hours of worthwhile entertainment that I wouldn't take back.  I learned some things I wouldn't have otherwise, and I met a host of characters whose stories are worth hearing.  Many books deliver much less.

The last thing to discuss here is all of that malarkey I opened with, with regards to Charlie Chaplin. Halfway through Clowning Through there is mention of a style of acrobatics known as Risley.  Named for John Risley, it involves juggling things with your feet, you know, like balls, clubs, children.  Yes, children.  I'm not kidding.  They were known as Risley Kids.  This particular aspect of the routine has, unsurprisingly, fallen out of practice, due to the fact that it essentially involved kicking the shit out of a child in order to make people laugh (it's political correctness gone mad, I know).  It even inspired a rhyme:

Risley kids and slanging duffer*,

Lord only knows how much they suffer!

The authors imply, though do not explicitly state, that one notable Risley Kid was none other than Charlie Chaplin.  The veracity of this claim is unclear.  Chaplin was certainly born into a family of entertainers, but it is unclear as to whether or not he was involved in the circus.  However, (and again, coincidentally) earlier this year, a letter emerged which claimed that Chaplin was born in a gypsy caravan, which would lead credence to the authors assertions. 
  Regardless of his origins, Chaplin was essentially a clown, and this is true of many other classic performers and characters from early cinema such as Laurel and Hardy, and the Three Stooges.  The Marx Brothers began as a vaudeville act, a genre of theatre whose roots are firmly in the circus.  There is a strong argument to be made that this clowning tradition is carried on in modern times by characters such as Mr. Bean, Ace Ventura, and Enda Kenny.

  So that's what constitutes 'bizarre' in my world.  To close, here's a picture of a fantastic looking evil clown:

Next up, some korny music.

* A slanging duffer is a reference to the general Auguste or utility clown, and the rough usage he habitually received.
°  A tober homey is slang for the toll collector.