"The audience can be played like a musical instrument."
April 6, 2015 9:59 AM Subscribe
I wanted to know why Emmett Kelly was such a big name. I mean there was no shortage of tramp clowns. Why was he a star? I was going to make it my business to find out. When the famous Joey[3] joined on in Altoona, I watched every thing he did. There wasn’t much to watch. He had no props. He did no bits. He did not participate in the producing clown’s gags. He simply wandered around eating leaves from a head of cabbage. Mostly, he just sat in the audience, in full costume, looking sad, like Chaplin’s little tramp, eating cabbage. I was mystified, and disappointed. Why would a sharp guy like George A. hire such a lame act to do practically nothing? I didn’t get it. What’s so funny about eating raw cabbage? …by Lee Kolozsy at Sideshow World
Emmett Kelly on What's My Line, playing Weary Willie
The tension and release of variety act shows (which is what a circus act is) is an incredibly finicky thing, and making small adjustments in what the audience thinks is about to happen and what actually unfolds can dramatically change the energy of how all the acts are perceived. It sounds like Kelly had a good eye for and lengthy experience in how this worked, and was making all the right calls to really boost that circus beyond where it had been before.
Really a nice little read. Thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 10:52 AM on April 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
Really a nice little read. Thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 10:52 AM on April 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
That's great. It should be mentioned that "the famous Joey[3]" is Emmett Kelly.
posted by languagehat at 11:03 AM on April 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by languagehat at 11:03 AM on April 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
What a great little story. I love the bits of lingo, like "Mickey Mouse in the glass house."
posted by slogger at 11:10 AM on April 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by slogger at 11:10 AM on April 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Dramatic tension should always build. Laughter is the release. One must be careful not to undermine the desired effect."
This is the hardest thing to work with, honestly. Whenever I direct comedies, I try to remember that the funny part is the thing that's the least important to the show, because if you get the tension and the setups right, the funny line, or bit, or silliness is just going to flow into the audience, and they'll reward you with a laugh every time.
posted by xingcat at 11:15 AM on April 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
This is the hardest thing to work with, honestly. Whenever I direct comedies, I try to remember that the funny part is the thing that's the least important to the show, because if you get the tension and the setups right, the funny line, or bit, or silliness is just going to flow into the audience, and they'll reward you with a laugh every time.
posted by xingcat at 11:15 AM on April 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
Thanks for sharing! I am always baffled by how great performers structure their shows, and it's great to follow along as Lee Kolozsy learns about how Emmett Kelly adapted and revised their show. Makes me want to go to the circus!
posted by lacallenueces at 11:25 AM on April 6, 2015
posted by lacallenueces at 11:25 AM on April 6, 2015
Curiously, the skills involved in programming a really great show are very similar to the skills required to plan a fantastic lesson. You have to be able to focus your audience at the beginning, and draw them in, and then use variations in pacing and energy to take them on a journey that leaves them in a place you have chosen.
It's super fun. The more you learn about it the more there is to learn!
posted by emilyw at 11:46 AM on April 6, 2015 [3 favorites]
It's super fun. The more you learn about it the more there is to learn!
posted by emilyw at 11:46 AM on April 6, 2015 [3 favorites]
Terrific. Really out of sight.
posted by From Bklyn at 11:53 AM on April 6, 2015
posted by From Bklyn at 11:53 AM on April 6, 2015
I clearly need to go back and watch a lot of What's My Line? Arlene Francis tears it up in that clip.
That's great. It should be mentioned that "the famous Joey[3]" is Emmett Kelly.
If you click the number links it takes you down to the bottom of the page, to the appropriate footnote that will explain the excellent lingo. Use your back button to return to your spot in the text, or just read them all at once.
posted by carsonb at 12:17 PM on April 6, 2015
That's great. It should be mentioned that "the famous Joey[3]" is Emmett Kelly.
If you click the number links it takes you down to the bottom of the page, to the appropriate footnote that will explain the excellent lingo. Use your back button to return to your spot in the text, or just read them all at once.
posted by carsonb at 12:17 PM on April 6, 2015
Kelly was revolutionary. That sad hobo clown? He created that, inspired by, as I recall, actual hobos who would sometimes grab work as roustabouts with circuses. And so he did the sort of work the roustabouts would do, as this story indicates: setting things up, cleaning things, helping with costumes. His approach was so unusual that it took him a decade to convince circuses to let him try the act out.
He was also a hero:
This is Kelly helping to put out the Hartford circus fire of 1944. 165 people died. From a story in Life magazine:
But what saved many lives was the way Kelly acted as a traffic cop. He hurried people out of the candy vendor's exit. He kept fear-crazed crowds moving. He directed dazed children to safety in a nearby field. And as he shouted orders above the panic, Kelly forgot for once that he was ever shy about using his voice.
posted by maxsparber at 12:27 PM on April 6, 2015 [21 favorites]
He was also a hero:
This is Kelly helping to put out the Hartford circus fire of 1944. 165 people died. From a story in Life magazine:
But what saved many lives was the way Kelly acted as a traffic cop. He hurried people out of the candy vendor's exit. He kept fear-crazed crowds moving. He directed dazed children to safety in a nearby field. And as he shouted orders above the panic, Kelly forgot for once that he was ever shy about using his voice.
posted by maxsparber at 12:27 PM on April 6, 2015 [21 favorites]
This is Kelly helping to put out the Hartford circus fire of 1944. 165 people died.
Charles Nelson Reilly tells the story of the Hartford fire as a kid in the audience. From that day, he always had a phobia about sitting in the audience.
posted by dr_dank at 1:00 PM on April 6, 2015 [8 favorites]
Charles Nelson Reilly tells the story of the Hartford fire as a kid in the audience. From that day, he always had a phobia about sitting in the audience.
posted by dr_dank at 1:00 PM on April 6, 2015 [8 favorites]
Emmett Kelly shows up in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 short Here Comes The Circus. They were pretty kind to him overall, especially considering their remarks about the rest of the act. ("Oh no, they're doing it clown style!")
Joel: "Hey, that's Emmett Kelly."
'Bots: "Ah, that's pretty good!"
Joel: "No, I mean it, it's Emmett Kelly."
Later on after the narrator identified him:
Joel: "You see? Emmett changed management soon after this."
posted by JHarris at 1:11 PM on April 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
Joel: "Hey, that's Emmett Kelly."
'Bots: "Ah, that's pretty good!"
Joel: "No, I mean it, it's Emmett Kelly."
Later on after the narrator identified him:
Joel: "You see? Emmett changed management soon after this."
posted by JHarris at 1:11 PM on April 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
I clearly need to go back and watch a lot of What's My Line? Arlene Francis tears it up in that clip.
Make sure to check out the episodes where Groucho Marx sits in on the panel. Both John Daly and Dorothy Kilgallen spend a half hour losing it over and over.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:27 PM on April 6, 2015
Make sure to check out the episodes where Groucho Marx sits in on the panel. Both John Daly and Dorothy Kilgallen spend a half hour losing it over and over.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:27 PM on April 6, 2015
The slang name for clowns comes from Joseph ("Joey") Grimaldi. He died in 1837.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:25 PM on April 6, 2015
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:25 PM on April 6, 2015
Sideshow World then got me egressed to the Flea Circus (scroll down for images)
posted by ovvl at 8:44 PM on April 6, 2015
posted by ovvl at 8:44 PM on April 6, 2015
>This is Kelly helping to put out the Hartford circus fire of 1944.
Growing up in a Hartford family with many stories about the fire*, I only knew him as That Clown That Helped During The Fire; as a kid I thought that was the thing he was famous for, rather than actual clowning.
*Basically, my entire family exists because my great-uncle got sick that day and they weren't able to go to the circus.
posted by tchemgrrl at 8:29 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Growing up in a Hartford family with many stories about the fire*, I only knew him as That Clown That Helped During The Fire; as a kid I thought that was the thing he was famous for, rather than actual clowning.
*Basically, my entire family exists because my great-uncle got sick that day and they weren't able to go to the circus.
posted by tchemgrrl at 8:29 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
> If you click the number links it takes you down to the bottom of the page, to the appropriate footnote that will explain the excellent lingo. Use your back button to return to your spot in the text, or just read them all at once.
Yes, I did all that, that's how I knew what it meant. My point was that it would have been a courtesy to add that information in the post. One shouldn't have to read not only the linked article but the footnotes to understand a pullquote.
posted by languagehat at 8:51 AM on April 7, 2015
Yes, I did all that, that's how I knew what it meant. My point was that it would have been a courtesy to add that information in the post. One shouldn't have to read not only the linked article but the footnotes to understand a pullquote.
posted by languagehat at 8:51 AM on April 7, 2015
One shouldn't have to read not only the linked article but the footnotes to understand a pullquote.
Even without the footnote, it was obvious from context that "Joey" referred to "Emmett Kelly."
posted by Shmuel510 at 9:14 AM on April 7, 2015
Even without the footnote, it was obvious from context that "Joey" referred to "Emmett Kelly."
posted by Shmuel510 at 9:14 AM on April 7, 2015
But not to "lead clown."
I've read quite a lot of literature by former circus and carnival workers, and there is a lot of this sort of thing, where they'll just talk carnival spiel and put a glossary at the end. It's fine in its way, in that it plunges you into their world, but it's also disruptive to the flow, especially as carnival and circus folk had so much slang that they might as well have been speaking another language much of the time. There is probably a better way to introduce this sort of cant, but, then, most of these writers are not professional authors, but people relating their own experiences, and so they come up with whatever solution they can.
It's something I've actually started to like about this sort of folk writing -- how often they adapt techniques from academic writing, like footnotes and glassaries, to the needs of their writing, even though their writing is so untrained that these fussy academic techniques seem odd. It's not really code switching, in that the authors aren't attempting to use a different voice than their own, but more the feel of somebody addressing problems of communication with a very limited toolbox.
posted by maxsparber at 9:40 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've read quite a lot of literature by former circus and carnival workers, and there is a lot of this sort of thing, where they'll just talk carnival spiel and put a glossary at the end. It's fine in its way, in that it plunges you into their world, but it's also disruptive to the flow, especially as carnival and circus folk had so much slang that they might as well have been speaking another language much of the time. There is probably a better way to introduce this sort of cant, but, then, most of these writers are not professional authors, but people relating their own experiences, and so they come up with whatever solution they can.
It's something I've actually started to like about this sort of folk writing -- how often they adapt techniques from academic writing, like footnotes and glassaries, to the needs of their writing, even though their writing is so untrained that these fussy academic techniques seem odd. It's not really code switching, in that the authors aren't attempting to use a different voice than their own, but more the feel of somebody addressing problems of communication with a very limited toolbox.
posted by maxsparber at 9:40 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
> Even without the footnote, it was obvious from context that "Joey" referred to "Emmett Kelly."
It wasn't obvious to me, and I don't think I'm an especially careless reader.
posted by languagehat at 12:27 PM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
It wasn't obvious to me, and I don't think I'm an especially careless reader.
posted by languagehat at 12:27 PM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
When young people ask you for the secrets of success, direct them here.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 5:54 PM on April 7, 2015
posted by halfbuckaroo at 5:54 PM on April 7, 2015
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