Photo: Norman Blake
If you’re looking for post-season Claus education, the Coney Island Clown Skool may be for you. Or maybe not, if you prefer a more traditional setting in a hotel conference room.
I, Ann Votaw, wrote a detailed account in my personal newsletter. I just loved the week-long intensive, but I signed up specifically because I did not want a traditional experience. I wanted to learn real performance skills taught by real professionals. As Clauses, we are a class of clowns whose actions are exaggerated and meant to be watched.
My favorite Santas are current or former clowns with a 360-degree sense of themselves and their physical actions. Clown-Santas tend to be good actors and supportive colleagues.
Here’s what I learned on a very serious, academic-professional level:
🤡Mime through Broken Box Mime Theater
🤡Magic through Flavors of Magic
🤡Puppetry with a master Disney puppeteer
🤡Juggling and plate spinning with Kat Alexander
🤡Clown coaching with Big Apple/Ringling Brothers veterans:
Glen Heroy, Santa and Coney Island Clown Skool founder
Jeff Gordon or “Gordoon”
At the end of the intense week, we put on a quality show that included exceptional photography by Jim McDermott and Coney Island archivist Norman Blake.
Photo: Norman Blake
Photo: Jim McDermott
You may not want to take this course for a few reasons, if you are a Claus professional more used to traditional settings.
Here’s why:
⛔Getting to Coney Island from Midtown Manhattan takes at least 90 minutes
⛔Coney Island is gloriously seedy and surrounded by sketchy hotels and apartments
⛔Fellow students are non-confirmists who often sport piercings, tattoos, and “they/them” pronouns
⛔Many classes required students to be in strong physical shape
Photo: Ann Votaw inside the Coney Island Sideshow room.