The Victorian Clown

The Victorian Clown PDF Author: Jacky Bratton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521816661
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
The Victorian Clown is a micro-history of mid-Victorian comedy, spun out of the life and work of two professional clowns. Their previously unpublished manuscripts - James Frowde's account of his young life with the famous Henglers' circus in the 1850s and Thomas Lawrence's 1871 gag book - offer unique, unmediated access to the grass roots of popular entertainment. Through them this book explores the role of the circus clown at the height of equestrian entertainment in Britain, when the comic managed audience attention for the riders and acrobats, parodying their skills in his own tumbling and contortionism, and also offered a running commentary on the times through his own 'wheezes' - stand-up comedy sets. Plays in the ring connect the circus to the stage, and both these men were also comic singers, giving a sharp insight into popular music just as it was being transformed by the new institution of music hall.

The Victorian Clown

The Victorian Clown PDF Author: Jacky Bratton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521816661
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
The Victorian Clown is a micro-history of mid-Victorian comedy, spun out of the life and work of two professional clowns. Their previously unpublished manuscripts - James Frowde's account of his young life with the famous Henglers' circus in the 1850s and Thomas Lawrence's 1871 gag book - offer unique, unmediated access to the grass roots of popular entertainment. Through them this book explores the role of the circus clown at the height of equestrian entertainment in Britain, when the comic managed audience attention for the riders and acrobats, parodying their skills in his own tumbling and contortionism, and also offered a running commentary on the times through his own 'wheezes' - stand-up comedy sets. Plays in the ring connect the circus to the stage, and both these men were also comic singers, giving a sharp insight into popular music just as it was being transformed by the new institution of music hall.

A Society Clown: Reminiscences

A Society Clown: Reminiscences PDF Author: George Grossmith
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "A Society Clown: Reminiscences" by George Grossmith. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Circus and Victorian Society

The Circus and Victorian Society PDF Author: Brenda Assael
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 9780813923406
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This conflict informs us not only of the complicated role that the circus played in Victorian society but provides a unique view into a collective psyche fraught by contradiction and anxiety.

Victorian Comedy and Laughter

Victorian Comedy and Laughter PDF Author: Louise Lee
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 1137578823
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
This innovative collection of essays is the first to situate comedy and laughter as central rather than peripheral to nineteenth century life. Victorian Comedy and Laughter: Conviviality,Jokes and Dissent offers new readings of the works of Charles Dickens, Edward Lear,George Eliot, George Gissing, Barry Pain and Oscar Wilde, alongside discussions of much-loved Victorian comics like Little Tich, Jenny Hill, Bessie Bellwood and Thomas Lawrence. Tracing three consecutive and interlocking moods in the period, all of the contributors engage with the crucial critical question of how laughter and comedy shaped Victorian subjectivity and aesthetic form. Malcolm Andrews, Jonathan Buckmaster and Peter Swaab explore the dream of print culture togetherness that is conviviality, while Bob Nicholson, Louise Lee, Ann Featherstone,Louise Wingrove and Oliver Double discuss the rise-on-rise of the Victorian joke — both on the page and the stage — while Peter Jones, Jonathan Wild and Matthew Kaiser consider the impassioned debates concerning old and new forms of laughter that took place at the end of the century.

Dickens's Clowns

Dickens's Clowns PDF Author: Jonathan Buckmaster
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474406963
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
This book reappraises Dickens's Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi and his imaginative engagement with its principal protagonist.

The Golden Age of Pantomime

The Golden Age of Pantomime PDF Author: Jeffrey Richards
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 085773587X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
Of all the theatrical genres most prized by the Victorians, pantomime is the only one to have survived continuously into the twenty-first century. It remains as true today as it was in the 1830s, that a visit to the pantomime constitutes the first theatrical experience of most children and now, as then, a successful pantomime season is the key to the financial health of most theatres. Everyone went to the pantomime, from Queen Victoria and the royal family to the humblest of her subjects. It appealed equally to West End and East End, to London and the provinces, to both sexes and all ages. Many Victorian luminaries were devotees of the pantomime, notably among them John Ruskin, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and W.E. Gladstone. In this vivid and evocative account of the Victorian pantomime, Jeffrey Richards examines the potent combination of slapstick, spectacle and subversion that ensured the enduring popularity of the form. The secret of its success, he argues, was its continual evolution. It acted as an accurate cultural barometer of its times, directly reflecting current attitudes, beliefs and preoccupations, and it kept up a flow of instantly recognisable topical allusions to political rows, fashion fads, technological triumphs, wars and revolutions, and society scandals. Richards assesses throughout the contribution of writers, producers, designers and stars to the success of the pantomime in its golden age. This book is a treat as rich and appetizing as turkey, mince pies and plum pudding.

The Education of a Circus Clown

The Education of a Circus Clown PDF Author: David Carlyon
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 113754743X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
2017 Freedley Award Finalist, Theatre Library Association 2016 Best Circus Book of the Year, Stuart Thayer Prize, Circus Historical Society The 1960s American hippie-clown boom fostered many creative impulses, including neo-vaudeville and Ringling's Clown College. However, the origin of that impulse, clowning with a circus, has largely gone unexamined. David Carlyon, through an autoethnographic examination of his own experiences in clowning, offers a close reading of the education of a professional circus clown, woven through an eye-opening, sometimes funny, occasionally poignant look at circus life. Layering critical reflections of personal experience with connections to wider scholarship, Carlyon focuses on the work of clowning while interrogating what clowns actually do, rather than using them as stand-ins for conceptual ideas or as sentimental figures.

Clowning and Authorship in Early Modern Theatre

Clowning and Authorship in Early Modern Theatre PDF Author: Richard Preiss
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107036577
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Richard Preiss presents a lively and provocative study of how the ever-popular stage clown shaped early modern playhouse theatre.

The Clowning Workbook

The Clowning Workbook PDF Author: Jon Davison
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350050490
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Using the techniques and insights of clowning, this book draws on original workshops and research to provide practical clowning exercises to develop wider acting practice in innovative ways. The book offers guidance and explanation to key concepts in clowning, including the dynamics of the clown-audience relationship; the relationship between script, text and improvisation; and movement and voice, offering fresh and inspiring angles from which to view actor training. The Clowning Workbook for Actors and Performers is part of the acclaimed Theatre Arts Workbooks series and features its characteristic blend of student-focused exercises with pedagogical tips for teachers.

Circus Mania!

Circus Mania! PDF Author: Douglas McPherson
Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
ISBN: 0720613868
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
A history of the circus from its origins in the Roman times, through its establishment in Western Europe, and to the modern day circus—absolutely diverse and captivating Circuses have existed since Roman times, but centuries later, the circus world has never been more diverse and captivating, the global success of Cirque du Soleil testament to its enduring and universal appeal. Traditional family circuses for kids, arty cirque-style shows for adults, circuses in tents or in theaters, circuses with animals or without, cabaret-style hybrids on the burlesque circuit—this is an expert guide to their extraordinary history and culture. The circus requires a unique type of performer, people who blend the discipline of sports stars with the razzmatazz of showbiz; itinerant but clannish entertainers who have often had circus blood in their families for generations; world class gymnasts who risk death twice daily and help take down the big top afterwards. This history offers a journey into this unique world, each chapter an access-all-areas pass to a different circus, talking to the trapeze flyers, clowns, animal trainers, and showmen about their lives, work, families, customs, and traditions.