We, Cowboys    Based on the comic movie ‘Go West’ by Buster Keaton of 1925       written by/with Charlie.translate1 'I work here', was the first thing Buster said to me. I was standing at the well drinking water from a saucepan and wasn't exactly in a talkative mood. A little earlier that day my favorite cow Brown Eyes had been put to the milking test and failed to give any. This means on our ranch to be sat apart on the field with cows destined for slaughter. You must serve some purpose in here, can't be just standing around like that Buster was d ..read more

Like many people, Pieric Furic became a clown against his will. Having a burning desire to become a doctor, his parents forced him to become a clown. He tried to meet them in the middle by suggesting the compromise of becoming an equestrian instead. That, at least, had some elegance to it. Unfortunately, fate worked against him. Djiboudjep, the only horse that didn't run away when he went out to buy one, was the kind of horse that would have turned even the noblest of people into clowns. Pieric told me he had no inspirations or examples while creating what was meant to be a classica ..read more

Is our general approach of saying no to kids' violence and forcing them to say they're sorry actually (conciously or not) saying no to the development of their humor?   From mid July until mid September I participated in Jon Davison’s Clown Studies course* where we met weekly on Zoomwith people from very different countries, time zones and backgrounds to exchange thoughts about all things related to clowns and clowning. Often we’d watch a video in the shared screen and then talk about it afterwards in the ‘normal’ screen where you see everybody. After seeing this clip focussing on the c ..read more

Why would Bert Williams have to transcend his color? – A dialogue with Meredith Gordon In the process of transforming the first movie that was acted, directed and written by a person of color, 'A Natural Born Gambler (1916) by Bert Williams, to a short illustrated story, I consulted Meredith Gordon on the topic of Bert Williams' use of the Blackface that was used at the time by minstrel performers (often white folks) to make fun of black people and earn an easy living with it. I've written on this topic on this blog before, here: https://collectingclowns.blogspot.com/2019/07/black-face-clown ..read more

The subway scene of the dramatic silent movie ‘Manhandled’ with Gloria Swanson is the third scene that I transformed to a short illustrated clownish story as a part of the Cinema to Fiction project. When you look at my earlier posts 'The Detectress' and 'A Pair of Tights' you can see what those stories are like. The post on Hulot explains the origins and inspiration for this project. This scene in Manhandled was quite a tricky one in to do in thesense of trying to see the fun of it. Embedded in a movie that is dramatic and not comic, this scene stands a bit apart. If I see it in the light o ..read more

An Valenteyn has worked for Cliniclowns Belgium for fourteen years now, coaches new cliniclowns, has done theatre work in which clowning plays an important role and will soon be starting to teach together with Maria Cavarretta. When I saw this video on the ‘health care virtual clowns’ facebook page it deeply touched me and it made me laugh at the same time. The group was founded by Patrick van den Boom during the confinement to make it possible for clowns to share their work and to reach each other. At that time I actually felt quite disorientated and overwhelmed. ‘Everyone’ seemed to be sa ..read more

When you just want to get some ice-cream with a pair of tights ... Marion was holding four new ice-cream cones in her hands while trying to shake off the big brown dog that was attacking her. The four-legged friend had probably been attracted by the ice-cream that she had already dropped on the sidewalk earlier. She hadn’t had any hands free to open the door with and so she’d given it a powerful kick with her leg outstretched. After she quickly walked through the door, she stopped too close to it. The swinging door kicked back and the sidewalk was littered with ice-cream. Her boyfriend Stua ..read more

The detectress’ hunt for the mysterious envelope                                     The detectress was on the lookout in a dead end alley when the most notorious gang member of a group of Chinese criminals came running towards her. Our detectress managed just in time to hide behind a crate that she held in front of her face. From behind that crate she saw the mysterious envelope inhis hand.  Just after she cam ..read more

During the confinement period I started a new project, making drawings and writing fictional texts based on scenes of clown cinema. It has been very enriching to me, it helped me to look better to the scenes, more thoroughly, from all kind of angles and sides, in order to choose the right perspective, in order to translate it to this other form, or to catch its ‘essence’ in a drawing. Other than with writing ‘about’ something, it becomes something in itself, and itgives me the feeling of having grasped the scene or the movie in a very profound way. It also helps me to think about what I fi ..read more

A clown is someone who feels confident while falling on his face, and insecure while getting uo and finding back his balance. - Andre Riot-Sarcey -  I started doing a slapstick course recently and since then, I can’t stop trying things out wherever I am. The street has in fact become one big playground – every threshold, every edge of a sidewalk is a chance to stumble and fall. Waiting at a traffic light, I chase my boredom away by practicing destabilisation – I lean over towards one direction and just before falling over I re-find balance while leaning over towards another one. Several ..read more