Circus Clown Gags
The American circus term for a clown's act is "gag"; Europeans refer to it as an "entrée", and amateur clowns sometimes refer to it as a "skit" or "sketch". Gags are the clown's written and rehearsed performances. They can take place in the ring (a ring gag or production gag), on the track (a track gag or a walkaround) or in the seats. They can be done solo, with the ringmaster, with other clowns or with audience volunteers. They have a beginning, middle and end, finishing with a "blow-off". Gag may also refer to the specialized or gimmicked props clowns may use.
Gags can use many different types of blow-off (ending), but some of the most popular are the confetti bucket, the long shirt, a pants drop or the time-honored "all clowns exit running" although contemporary indoor shows may end a clown gag with a simple blackout.
Read more about this topic: Circus Clown
Famous quotes containing the words circus and/or clown:
“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey-cage.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Or else I thought her supernatural;
As though a sterner eye looked through her eye
On this foul world in its decline and fall,
On gangling stocks grown great, great stocks run dry,
Ancestral pearls all pitched into a sty,
Heroic reverie mocked by clown and knave....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)