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Title no. 1: Circus Clowns Title no. 2: Short Takes Vol. 06: Boffo Bits Title no. 3: Be A Clown Date: Nos. 1&3: 1982, no. 2: 1983 Description: A “Clownucopia” of mayhem and merriment. Comments: A cursory glance at the characters and material of the regular “clowns” on the Wallace & Ladmo show, Boffo, Tubbo and Perky, is all one needs to discover how Wallace truly regarded the baggy pants set. Every time he asked, “Aren’t clowns funny?” we knew the question was rhetorical. However, when his guests were the genuine article he was never less than absolutely gracious. In the clip Circus Clowns, to promote the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus engagement at the Coliseum, three clowns (I’ve been told that the small fellow is Jon Weiss, the clown with the red hair is Chris Shelton and the one with the blue hair is Larry Lee) perform some juggling high jinks. At the conclusion of their stunt, inexplicably the two other clowns gang up on the little guy and administer a few blows with their juggling pins—an impromptu moment that Wallace, standing behind, is clearly enjoying. (An interesting story: when I discovered this clip and was editing it to preserve for posterity, I wished I knew the identities of the three clowns. If there ever was a record made of their names, I doubted I’d find it more than 25 years after their appearance on the show. I happened to be working on the same cruise ship with a friend of mine and former Ringling Brothers clown, Steve Patient, and asked him if he knew who they were. He recognized one of the guys, and posted pictures of the other two on Internet clown sites. Less than 24 hours later the clown community responded and I had the names of all three guys. How’s that for a size 36 shoe to the pants?) In Short Takes Vol. 06: Boffo Bits are two near complete clips featuring Ladmo and Boffo. I’m thrilled to discover these bits have survived for they both contain some wonderful moments—especially the second where Boffo demonstrates the clown skills he no longer posses. In the third clip Be A Clown, Orson laments never having been a real clown. This bit didn’t quite work the way I had planned—the song Orson sings wasn’t supposed to get laughs from the kids in the audience, yet it did. This threw me off because I realized my next line, “They’re not laughing,” which was the setup to the end of the bit, wasn’t going to make sense anymore. My attempts to salvage the bit don’t really work—but at least I manage to get through it. Dan Horn |
