tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52273816867569013782024-02-08T08:09:30.642-05:00The Adventures Of Steve & RyanFollow those two intrepid jerks, Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs, as they travel the world, searching for people who like them.
Check back every week for an update.
You'll laugh, you'll cry; it's better than "Cats"!Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-51979747162079583702017-08-25T08:48:00.002-04:002017-08-25T08:48:57.353-04:00"LADY! Get your kid!"<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
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Hi, everyone, Steve Copeland here. Well, the time is almost upon us; in just a couple of days Circus World’s 2017 summer season will be just a memory. It has been an incredible summer, with barely a moment for any of us to breathe, but it sure has been a lot of fun.</div>
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Here’s what’s been happening in our neck of the woods.</div>
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Last week was a particularly busy one. Pretty much every evening after work we had some kind of extra activity scheduled. It all started on Monday night when Johnny Trapino and his wife, Karen, invited us all to their home in Baraboo for a home cooked meal. Karen made lasagna, and it was delicious!</div>
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Johnny showed off his circus models that he builds, and we all had a good time hanging out somewhere other than the circus to talk about……the circus!</div>
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Photos by Johnny Trapino</div>
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On Tuesday evening the Gollmar-Moeller-Ringling Circus Fans of America tent had a picnic for all of us to thank us for a successful summer season. The GMR tent holds a banquet for us at the opening of the season, and then they always have a picnic as well at the closing of the season. </div>
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While we were eating we went around the group and told everyone what our post Circus World plans are. Several of us are heading to the Circus Spectacular at the Big E in Springfield, MA, including Jenny Vidbel and her horses. When it came time for us to announce our plans, Ryan said he was also going to the Big E to clean up after Jenny’s horses. I said that I would be getting a job as a Walmart greeter, and Nico claimed he is going on welfare. </div>
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Pamela and I ate plenty of food at the picnic, but then we went and saw the horror movie, Annabelle: Creation, and afterwards I wasn’t full anymore since it scared the you know what out of me.</div>
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On Wednesday night we had another show at the Ho-Chunk Casino, but afterwards I opted out of the buffet for two reasons: 1) Last week it made me sick and B) I wanted to get a little rest in before we resumed our crazy week.</div>
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(A quick flash forward to this past Wednesday) Just two nights ago we had our final performance at the Ho-Chunk Casino, and it was very memorable. The sound system was not at our stage, so Robert had to yell the whole time, Ryan and Jacob did a juggling duet, and at the conclusion of the show Ryan dropped the Ho-Chunk photo wall on top of me.</div>
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Pamela and I were going to join the gang for one more free casino buffet, but all the cigarette smoke in the air in the casino made me physically ill, and so we begged off and gave our buffet coupons to a couple of our friends who had joined us.</div>
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On Thursday night we had a buyout performance for the Agrace Hospice at 7:30 p.m. Immediately following the water gag a lady from Agrace came out and gave a speech, and then Scott and Dave hosted an auction to raise money for the hospice.</div>
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After the auction Ryan and I personally thanked Scott and Dave for putting our water gag before the special presentation, because the speech from the woman at Agrace was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever heard in my life. Typically in our show business experiences, Ryan and I have usually been slated after such somber affairs, like when we were on Kelly Miller and had to follow a presentation honoring those killed on September 11th. I tell you, nothing makes audiences want to laugh at the antics of two stupid clowns more than remembering a national tragedy……</div>
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Thursday was a long night, because the speech and auction added about an extra hour to the already long big top show.</div>
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We had Friday evening free, but our social calendar was once again filled on Saturday evening, when Jonathon and Susan Lipp, who are on the Circus World board of directors, had us over to their beautiful lake house in Merrimac, WI.</div>
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After touring their huge mansion with an indoor swimming pool and beautiful view of the lake, I tried to comfort my co-workers by saying, “Yeah, but their house doesn’t have wheels on it like ours do!”</div>
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Susan made a delicious meal for us all, and Pamela and I had a lot of fun swimming in their indoor pool with Jacob and the Ramos children. </div>
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Unfortunately both of my ears got clogged from the pool water, and so for a few days I suffered from muffled hearing and the constant sensation that I needed to pop my ears.</div>
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After about three days I could take no more, so I scheduled a doctor’s appointment with a clinic in the Dells. Luckily I booked the appointment early enough, and my visit was in and out, so I didn’t even have to miss the morning makeup show at Circus World.</div>
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The doctor used a device to flush out the excess wax I had built up in my ear canals, and the relief was instantaneous. Best of all, they cleaned out enough wax to make a new candle for our trailer!</div>
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Ryan was disappointed to hear that they didn’t stick an air compressor up my nether regions and blow the wax out that way.</div>
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This past Monday there was a solar eclipse that happened during Nothing But Nonsense, and sure enough, it made everyone act crazy. Beforehand at the big top show there was a little girl that ran up to me after the performance, took one of the light swords I was hawking, and ran away with it.</div>
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Her exasperated looking mother came up to me and said, “I’ll get you the money for that.”</div>
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A few minutes later the girl ran up and took another sword and ran away without even looking at me. I was busy with other customers, so Tatiana went over and collected the money and returned one of the swords to me. A few minutes later the girl came back with her sword, dropped it off, and took one of the smaller lights.</div>
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I made sure to give the mother her extra change as she was walking by, but when I tried to explain why I was giving her more money, I just seemed to confuse her more.</div>
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As Ryan and I were setting the props for Nothing But Nothing, the little girl ran into the ring and began dancing. I calmly told her, “Sweetheart, you can’t be in here, because there are dangerous props that can hurt you.”</div>
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She yelled back, “I want to dance!”, and continued dancing.</div>
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I persisted, “That’s great, but you can’t be in here.”</div>
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She promptly ignored me and continued dancing. Finally Ryan coaxed her into the seats and found a place for her to sit for the show. Just about then her mother came into the Hippodrome and tried to walk into the ring. I explained to her that we had dangerous equipment set up, and she needed to stay out. Just then her daughter ran out of the building into the park. The woman called after the girl, who ignored her, and so she slowly followed after her.</div>
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Backstage I remarked to Ryan that we needed to keep an eye out for the girl since I was sure she would return to the scene of the crime. Sure enough, when I was setting more props, I spotted the girl running around behind our Spike Jones carts.</div>
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I called out, “No! You need to get away from those.”</div>
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Her mother laughed apologetically and said, “She’s out of control.”</div>
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I tersely replied, “Well, you need to do something about it. She could get hurt in there.”</div>
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The mother then half heartedly tried to coax the girl out of the ring, but the girl saw it as a game and kept running away. I went into the ring, placed my hand on her shoulder, and led her to her mother. Both of them left and I hoped the situation was finished.</div>
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Cut to the show. Ryan and I had just finished the opening number, and we were talking with the audience when all of a sudden who should run in but our tiny dancer friend. Her mother stood ineffectively at the edge of the ring and tried to call her over.</div>
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I pointed at the Steve & Ryan sign over the curtain and asked the girl, “Do you see your name on that sign?” as she ran around the ring picking up rubber chickens and bowling balls to throw at Ryan.</div>
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Just then the girl’s mother came into the ring and started chasing the child around.</div>
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Ryan and I just watched, and then I commented, “This reminds me of a scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”</div>
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Ryan mused, “Maybe she’ll turn into a blueberry.”</div>
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Just then the mom caught the little girl, and carried the screaming tot out of the ring to the audience’s applause. All I could do was throw my hands up like someone had just scored a field goal and yell, “Parenting!”</div>
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Later in the show there was a family that came in during the Crying Song. Even with my muffled hearing I could tell that they were making way too much noise. They were talking loudly and taking their sweet time to get settled. Most of the song they were standing up with their backs to us while they tried to get their children situated.</div>
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After spending the four minutes of the song being as much of a distraction as possible, they then got up and started walking up the stairs and then across an aisle during the next scene. I just stopped and watched them lackadaisically trying to find the perfect seats before interjecting, “You guys still haven’t found your seats? Moses and the Egyptians spent less time wandering around than you guys!”</div>
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It was a particularly wacky show, but the audience was with us the whole time, and they ate up all of the interruptions and ad libs. This whole past week has been full of impromptu fun; I’m really going to miss doing this version of Nothing But Nonsense when the summer is over.</div>
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The one bit of sad news from this past weekend was the passing of Jerry Lewis. Jerry is probably Ryan’s biggest comedic influence, so Ryan took the announcement especially hard. Both of us came off the Nothing But Nonsense show on Sunday to see the news on our phones, and I was only grateful that we hadn’t heard beforehand, because I know it would have been difficult for Ryan to get through the show.</div>
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For the past few days Pamela and I have been watching documentaries on Jerry, as well as some of his films to remember and honor his tremendous talent.</div>
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I tell you all this in an attempt to live my life by the words of John Mulaney and Nick Kroll in their hilarious Broadway show, “Oh, Hello”. They said, “When a celebrity dies, blame the year and make it about yourself!”</div>
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I think that is about it for now. I’ll see you all next week when our summer season is finished and I have my first chance to sleep in since May! </div>
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Peace! </div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-58006048430208197822017-08-18T08:39:00.001-04:002017-08-18T08:39:24.631-04:00I'm Seeing Double!<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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Hey everyone, Steve Copeland here. We are down to the wire here in Baraboo; only a little over a week left to go before the end of the summer season. I’m sorry I didn’t post last week, but we have had a lot going on after work, and on top of that, I was coming down with a cold and spent all my free time resting. Here are some of the highlights from the past few weeks:</div>
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First a lowlight…..I’ll get the bad news out of the way so there is nowhere to go but up. Last Friday I went to the Hippodrome building in the morning and noticed that all the lights were on. I then noticed that our dressing room door was open. Finally, I noticed that the lid of our tip jar was off, and the cash inside was gone. Uh oh.</div>
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Upon further investigation, we discovered that a box of batteries had been stolen as well. Ryan’s microphone and belt pack had been taken out of its case and was laid out meticulously, and the frequency had been messed with. Thank goodness it was still there. Our microphones, our musical instruments, nor our sound effects machine had been taken.</div>
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Over at the big top it was discovered that all the candy in the concessions tent, a leaf blower, and the computer that the lights are run off of had all been stolen as well. Fortunately, there was a clue left behind. The dirty so and so who stole everything left his phone at the scene of the crime.</div>
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The police now have the phone, so hopefully after a little good cop/bad cop, the phone will start to talk. Here's hoping some justice will be served up, although I’m sure we won’t get our money back.</div>
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One day during a morning show someone discovered a snake under the bleachers of the big top. Oliver Ramos, owner of the tent, went to investigate and see if it was poisonous or not while a few of us, me and Ryan included, tagged along to satisfy our morbid curiosity. It turned out to be a harmless garden snake, but Oliver wanted to get it safely away from the tent before it freaked out a customer or worse, an animal. </div>
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Oliver borrowed an empty cardboard box from us to try and trap the snake, but it proved too quick and elusive. Ryan and i were watching from a safe distance, but at one point the snake started slithering towards us, and Ryan and I about leaped onto the top of the tent trying to get away.</div>
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Finally Oliver captured the snake and held it by the head so it wouldn’t bite him. He was carrying it to the woods just as Adilson was finishing up his chair act. Since Oliver runs the lighting cues from his computer, he had to make a detour into the tent to change the lights for the next act. </div>
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It was hilarious to see Oliver standing in front of his computer while a snake’s body was limply hanging down from his hand. The audience couldn’t see it, but it was a great visual. For all those concerned for the snake’s well being, he was safely released into the woods, and he's really turned his life around. He now runs his own real estate business.</div>
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Every Wednesday in August some of us performers from Circus World go to the Ho-Chunk Casino for Circus Nights, where we perform a 20 minute show for the casino patrons. A casino is a strange place to give a circus performance (unless you are Cirque Du Soliel), especially a performance that the gamblers are not expecting to see. We set up on a little stage by the bar where we have about six people watching the show, a dozen or so walking by and shooting us curious or wary glances, and then the vast majority of the barflies looking up from their drinks occasionally to stare at us with indifference. </div>
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Luckily the casino and (for the most part) the customers have been kind and welcoming, and fortunately for me and Ryan, we don’t have to perform as clowns. (Our market research has shown us that the last thing a seasoned gambler wants to see is a circus clown.) Instead we wear our Nothing But Nonsense wardrobe and perform as comics. </div>
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Dave runs our sound and coordinates these shows, Robert hosts them, Ryan and I try and amuse ourselves and occasionally the audience with our shenanigans, Jacob juggles, and Wesley performs on the unicycle. </div>
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The first performance we gave was pretty rough. The biggest impact we had on the audience happened when one guy after hearing Jacob D'Eustachio announced, turned to his drinking buddy and said, "Hey, that guy's name is Pistachio." Yep, that was about the extent of the reactions we got for that first show.....</div>
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Luckily the casino shows have gotten progressively better. We just try and have fun, and we hope the gamblers and drinkers do too.</div>
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Right after the Ringling Homecoming, Pamela went to Alabama and the Kure Beach in North Carolina for a couple of weeks to see her family. I was so happy she got to spend quality time with her son, but I sure missed her like crazy. </div>
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I’ve realized that I have become completely dependent on my wife, so when she left I lived like a feral animal, hunting down squirrels and eating them raw, burrowing into the growing piles of filth in the trailer at night to go to sleep, letting my waste fall wherever it would……it was not a pretty picture.</div>
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But Pamela just got back to Baraboo last weekend, and so the last of the squirrel carcasses has been thrown out, and she is making delicious home cooked meals for me once again. Life is good!</div>
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During the first week of August Ryan and I participated in the Give Back concert, which is a fundraising performance that benefits the Al Ringling Theater. This year’s show was organized by Emily, the daughter of our friends, Greg and Karen DeSanto.</div>
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At the beginning of the summer Emily asked us to be in the show, and after throwing around ideas, we thought it would be hilarious to parody the clown act Greg and Karen were going to do by coming out right after them, completely dressed like them, and then try and do the same act they did, only to screw it all up.</div>
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One night Ryan and I went over to the Casa De DeSanto to see their act and then we improvised our version. Once that was out of the way, we had a lot of fun talking late into the night.</div>
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Our original idea was to have Greg and Karen do their act, and then the M.C. would announce, “And now, with a completely original clown act, here are Steve & Ryan”; we would then come out dressed like Greg and Karen, and begin the same act.</div>
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Emily asked that instead, as her mom and dad left the stage, Ryan and I would immediately come on from the other side. It worked great and got a huge reaction from the audience.</div>
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Luckily Greg and Karen had duplicate wigs and wardrobe for us to wear, and we looked pretty damn funny dressed as the Mini DeSantos. </div>
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Even funnier (or scarier) was seeing us during the dress rehearsal the day before when we didn’t wear make up.</div>
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The act that Greg and Karen performed went like this: Greg and Karen entered, and Karen began playing the ukulele. Greg proceeded to eat a banana, and when he finished, Karen would end her song. As Greg would start to leave, Karen would begin playing again, and Greg would have to eat another banana. This happened several times, each time getting funnier as Greg was obviously more and more reluctant to eat another banana.</div>
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In our version, I “”””””played””””” the ukulele (the word played surrounded by many quotation marks since I in fact cannot play the ukulele at all), while Ryan began to eat a banana. Halfway through eating it Ryan dropped it on the floor, but I kept “””””””playing””””””, so he had to finish it.</div>
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As Ryan began to leave I started to “”””””””””””””play”””””””””” again, and when Ryan came up short on having any more bananas, I produced a raw potato for him to eat instead. For the final part of the act I produced a pineapple for Ryan to eat. </div>
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You don't wanna know where I had that stashed.</div>
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Before he could attempt to eat the tropical fruit, Greg and Karen came on stage and confronted us. We acted terrified, but Greg and Karen began to laugh about the absurdity of the situation. We started to laugh too, relieved that the tension was broken.</div>
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Karen then peeled two bananas and gave them to me. She then proceeded to knock them into my face, smear them around, and then kick me in the butt, sending me to the floor.</div>
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Greg then took the ukulele and smashed it over Ryan’s head, completely obliterating it. (Let me tell you, I’ve never been happier to have bananas smeared in my face).</div>
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It was so much fun to get to spend some quality time hanging out with our friends, and it was an honor to share the stage with two of our clowning heroes. I told them that when I was a kid watching them both on Ringling, I never would have thought I’d get to share the stage with them….as them! It was a wonderful and fun opportunity, and I am grateful to Emily for asking us to be a part of the show, and to Greg and Karen for being cool with us parodying their act. </div>
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Well, I think that is enough for this week’s blog. Tune in next week for more!</div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-35366630951574825202017-08-04T11:10:00.002-04:002017-08-04T11:10:57.942-04:00Ringling Homecoming Part II<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
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Hello everyone, everyone's favorite Ringling clown nerd, Steve Copeland, here. A lot of people enjoyed my post from last week about the first half of the Ringling Homecoming in Baraboo, so I hope you enjoy this post as much as I will enjoy reliving the wonderful time we had. Onward! </div>
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Saturday was the 5th Annual Baraboo Big Top Circus Parade. This year the parade was held at 11:00 a.m., so Ryan and I didn’t have any shows in the morning. We got ready and then just had to meet the rest of the Circus World cast at the wagon we were all going to ride on a half hour before the parade.</div>
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It was a bit of a pain finding parking downtown, but I finally found a spot not too far from the town square. I made a bee line for the International Clown Hall of Fame since I knew all the clowns would be drawn there like red nosed moths to a flame. </div>
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I didn’t make it into the building, but there were plenty of clowns milling around, meeting and greeting with the public. I ran around and snapped selfies with as many former Ringling clowns as I could. I was in Ringling Clown Geek Heaven!</div>
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Lara Heidtman Smith. Lara went to Clown College in 1987, toured with both the Red and Blue Units, and guest clowned on the Gold Unit.</div>
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Sean Carlock. He and I were First of Mays together in 2003; him on Red, and me on Blue.</div>
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James "Crickett" McGrath. He and I toured together on the Blue Unit in 2006 and 2007.</div>
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Yosh Schulman and his son. Yosh went to Clown College in 1992, and toured with the Red Unit.</div>
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Sam Drummond and Jim Streit. Sam is my mentor, and he and Jim have been best friends since Clown College in 1980.</div>
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Neal Skoy, and his girlfriend, Courtney. Neal and I performed together on the Blue Unit in 2006 and 2007.</div>
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Kenny Columbo and his wife, Lynn. Kenny went to Clown College in 1975, and toured with the Blue Unit.</div>
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Charles Birkholm. Charles went to Clown College in 1975 and was on the Blue Unit in 1976.</div>
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Andrew Hicks, Wendy Burch (Clown College 1986), and Gregory Parks. Greg and I worked together on the Blue Unit in 2003 and 2004, and Andrew was one of the clowns in the final performance of the Greatest Show on Earth.</div>
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Brian Searle. Brian went to Clown College in 1992 and toured with the Blue Unit.</div>
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Mike "Hillbilly" Weakley. Hillbilly went to Clown College in 1988 and toured with the Blue and Red Units. He was a major inspiration for my makeup.</div>
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Christy McDonald Atkinson. Christy went to Clown College in 1989, toured with the Red and Blue Units, and also was Advance Clown for the Gold Unit.</div>
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Ron "Toto" Johnson and Sandy Weber. Sandy is on the Hall of Fame of the International Clown Hall of Fame, and Toto, one of my mentors, went to Clown College in 1985 and toured with the Red Unit.</div>
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Kevin Carr. Kevin went to Clown College in 1989 and toured with both the Red and Blue Units.</div>
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You guys nerded out yet?</div>
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Eventually I could wait no longer because I was stressed I would either not be able to find the wagon I was going to be riding on, or it would take off without me. I rushed over to find my carriage, but my fears were unfounded. I found the wagon quite easily, and it didn’t start moving until almost twenty minutes into the parade.</div>
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The entire Circus World cast was riding on top of the wagon, which was being pulled by a team of horses driven by a man who has been in every circus parade since 1965, back when it was the momentous Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee, WI. </div>
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I heard later that over 30,000 people came out to watch the parade this year, and indeed, the sidewalks were packed! It was much nicer than last year’s parade, mainly because there was no rain! It was cloudy and there was a nice breeze; perfect wagon riding weather!</div>
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Ryan and I were delighted to see many of our fans in the crowd along the parade route. One little girl even held up a sign that read “Steve & Ryan”. I joked to Ryan that on the other side it said “Go Home!”</div>
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At the end of the parade we had to split so we could make it back to the park for our 1:00 p.m. big top show. Unfortunately we missed out on the Ringling family photo that was taken at the parade’s conclusion. </div>
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Circus World was packed after the parade, so we had two full tents for our 1:00 and 3:30 p.m. circus shows. Even when the park was closed at 5:00 p.m., several of us were still not done for the day. We had to hightail it over to the Al Ringling Theater to get ready for the Sawdust, Spangles, and Dreams show.</div>
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The show was staged as a fundraiser for Circus World, the Clown Hall of Fame, the Al Ringling Theater, and circus priest Father Jerry’s circus retirement project in Florida. The performance was directed by Steve Smith, who has been a hero of mine since childhood. Among his many accomplishments, Steve was the dean of Ringling Bros. Clown College for ten years, and he has been an inspiration to countless clowns. </div>
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Adilson, Gilda, Candice, Jenny, Ryan, Nico, and I were the Circus World performers taking place in the show. Also on the roster was the clowning of Greg and Karen DeSanto as well as Mr. Bill and Michelle Machtel, the amazing quick change act of the Smirnov Duo, the jaw dropping juggling of Christopher Stoinev, and much more!</div>
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Dinny McGuire, long time RIngling and Big Apple ringmaster, acted as the host of the show, and we started the whole thing off with a clown car! Probably my most cherished memory of the evening was waiting in the wings with the other clowns participating in the clown car and joking around with Ryan, Kenny Mikey, Kevin Carr, and “Hillbilly”. It was like being back in Clown Alley!</div>
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For our actual spot in the show Ryan and I performed our carpenter gag. The gag went well for us, but our sound cues were all over the place. I expected as much since we had one rehearsal with the sound guy on Tuesday, and we had no time to review everything before we did the show on Saturday night. Also, we were disappointed that we brought our Instant Reply from Circus World, and we had Robert volunteer his time to come play sound effects for us, only to have the machine not work.</div>
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During the course of the show there was a power surge in the orchestra pit where Robert was set up, and it re-set the machine. The sound issues were a bummer for us, but unless you know the act, I don’t think anyone would notice. The sold out crowd was fantastic and extremely supportive. It was such an honor to tarnish the stage of the Al RIngling, where many greats have performed before us.</div>
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Photos by Mary-Jane Foote</div>
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Nico even got his stage debut doing the pants chase with our friend, “Toto” Johnson.</div>
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When we weren’t on stage, Ryan and I had plenty of time to unwind in our downstairs dressing room.</div>
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We’ve arrived, baby!</div>
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We visited with our across the hall neighbors, the DeSantos, and Radar stopped by to visit with us for the majority of the show. He was even awesome enough to duck out to the Baraboo Burger Company to pick up some appetizers for us starving clowns. </div>
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The finale of the show was a salute to the Ringling showgirls, and it ended with the whole cast rushing the stage and shooting off confetti cannons. Ryan also took a flying leap into the orchestra pit (at the request of Steve Smith), only to reappear with a huge piano teeth grin. </div>
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After the show the cast all lined up to say goodbye to the audience. Ryan and I got lots of compliments on our finale wardrobe, which we had made for Vazquez. The Vazquez brothers didn’t want us out of our agent suits in their show though, so this was only the second time we wore the costumes. </div>
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Thank you to Roy Wells for this picture of me and his daughter</div>
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Sunday was the final day of the Ringling Homecoming. Ryan and I had another fantastic Nothing But Nonsense show, with a good portion of the audience being Ringling alumni. We threw in a few inside jokes for them, but again we were overwhelmed from the reaction we got for the show. </div>
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Right after Nothing But Nonsense there was a farewell picnic next to the Hippodrome building. Ryan and I spent so long talking to people after our show that by the time I made it over to partake in the spread, all the food was gone!</div>
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Just then participants for the hot dog eating contest were being recruited, so I entered at the last minute so I could at least get something to eat.</div>
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We contestants were given 10 hotdogs each, and a time limit of 5 minutes to eat them. I requested mustard to go with my hotdogs, partly so I could get some laughs from the crowd. In the big top show I do a whole bit in our water gag about how I love mustard, so I wanted to play off of that, only with real mustard.</div>
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I really wasn’t in the contest to win; simply to get something to eat and make some people laugh. As the five minutes dwindled down, I realized I had a real shot at winning. Naturally that didn’t stop me from sticking my head under the mustard dispenser at one point.</div>
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At the conclusion of the five minutes, I was tied with my friend, Ron “Toto” Johnson; both of us had quickly downed five hot dogs. It was decided that we would go into sudden death to see who could finish one more hot dog first and emerge victorious.</div>
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I’m not going to lie, there were a few times while choking down that last hot dog that I almost lost my lunch. </div>
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I just kept my eye on the prize (of which there actually wasn’t one), and in the end it was incredibly close. Both “Toto” and I were working on our last bite of hot dog, and I knew that he was about to beat me. I quickly made the decision to try and swallow what was in my mouth, and I figured if it was too much to down and I started to choke, there were enough people around that could give me the Heimlich. </div>
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I swallowed, and emerged a champion! </div>
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My next concern was that I had a big top show to do with a stomach full to the brim with hotdogs. Luckily I had about thirty minutes to digest before I had to do anything too physical. Ryan assured me he was going to punch me in my gut and do everything in his power to get me to puke during the water gag. What a guy!</div>
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Fortunately I did not add another mess to our already messy gag, although my stomach did do a somersault when I threw myself to the floor to avoid Ryan swinging a mop at me. (How many other people can say that about their working relationship?)</div>
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After work several of us got together at Greg and Karen DeSanto's house for a laid back final farewell. Ryan and I had so much fun getting in a quality visit with our friends. It was tough working during the Homecoming because our conversations with people had to be so brief since our time was limited and there were so many people to see.</div>
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Pamela thoroughly enjoyed the evening as well, because she got to visit with some of her female clown heroes and tell them how much it meant getting to know them during the weekend.</div>
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In the end, the Ringling Homecoming was a huge success. A million thank yous to everyone who made it happen. It's a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life. </div>
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Since the Homecoming, things have been pretty calm around Circus World. I've welcomed the break, as it has allowed us time to rest....but only a bit. This seems to be the summer of a million things going on, but most of them have been a lot of fun.</div>
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I've got some fun stuff to share in the next blog, especially about a show that Ryan and I are performing in tomorrow evening. It is going to be a hoot!</div>
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See you all next week! </div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-44645107609069665762017-07-28T11:14:00.004-04:002017-07-28T11:14:57.591-04:00Ringling Homecoming Part I<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Hello, everyone! It’s your favorite Libra, Steve Copeland, basking in the warm afterglow of the Ringling Homecoming.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All I can say is, “Wow!” What an amazing, exciting, and exhausting week we’ve had. I want to start out by thanking Scott O’Donnell, Dave SaLoutos, Greg and Karen DeSanto, and everyone else involved in making the Ringling Homecoming a reality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In January, when it was announced that Ringling was closing down after 146 years, Scott had the idea to tie in a reunion for anyone that ever worked for The Greatest Show on Earth with the annual Big Top Circus Parade in Baraboo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I know it was a lot of thankless work pulling it off, but man was it awesome! Ryan and I had so much fun seeing friends, meeting new people, and getting to strut our stuff in front of our peers and childhood heroes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The fun and excitement happened early in the week when Circus World received a gift from Feld Entertainment: two Ringling Bros. train cars, and a few wagons to boot!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One train car was used for Gunther Gebel Williams’ elephants on the Red Unit back in the day, but it had been re-purposed for horses on the Blue Unit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The other car, car 189, was where the Blue Unit clowns lived from 2006 until the show closed this year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I was on the show when the new 189 came on the road; it was during Winter Quarters for the 136th Edition, titled Circus of Dreams, or Circus of Broken Dreams, as we liked to call it. (Remember? The one where they took the rings away and added a big TV screen.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I, along with the other clowns living on the old 189 car (which was brought on the road in 1995, after the tragic train derailment), were moved to bigger rooms, and all the First of May (new) clowns were moved onto the car Circus World now has.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The reason for the switchover was because the old 189 car had a kitchen, and that was needed for one of the two Chinese troupes that was brought in for Circus of Dreams. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Even though I never actually lived on this car, walking down the hall ten years after leaving the show brought back lots of memories of visiting my friends during train runs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The train cars had a pretty rough ride to Baraboo. Since there were no passengers, they were treated strictly as freight cars and brought here as quickly and roughly as possible. I helped Scott gain access to some of the rooms where microwaves, light fixtures, cabinets, and cushions had created an obstacle to keep doors from being fully opened. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There was a lot of broken glass and other debris to be cleaned up, especially in Room 1, where that occupant had left food in the fridge on their last day back in May. The bumpy ride had caused the fridge to come open, and the contents had spilled all over the floor and stunk up the car. Thanks a lot, Room 1!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Ringling Homecoming festivities began a day early for me and Pamela, because on Wednesday night we went over to Greg and Karen DeSanto’s house to visit with the Smith family, who drove all the way from Idaho to attend the reunion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Mike and Lara (Heidtman) Smith met on Ringling where they were working as clowns, and they now have four daughters who love the circus and performing. Pamela and I had a great time visiting with them and laughing a lot!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As any of you who know me are aware of, I am an insufferable know it all when it comes to Ringling clowns. To Lara’s great delight, at one point in the evening she had to prompt me on the last name of a clown that worked for the show.</span></div>
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I didn’t hear the end of that one for the rest of the weekend!<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Later on in the evening, it came out that for the majority of the evening, the Smith’s youngest daughter thought I was Ryan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">On Thursday Ringling employees began to arrive, and in the evening there was a concert on the town square featuring a band playing live circus music! Pamela and I listened for a bit, but I was more interested in checking out the Ringling flea market where the International Clown Hall of Fame, Tim Tegge, Ralph Pierce, and others had set up shop and were selling pretty much every piece of Ringling or circus memorabilia you could think of! Luckily for my bank account, I didn’t see anything that really caught my eye. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">One of the best parts of being downtown was that every time I turned around I saw someone else I knew. It was so great to be able to see so many friends; there just wasn’t enough time to catch up with all of them!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Friday was the first full day of the Homecoming, and so the town of Baraboo was swamped with Ringling people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Ryan and I had a fantastic Nothing But Nonsense show. During the break in the opening number, the cheers and applause we got from the audience were so loud and enthusiastic that it caught me off guard and my eyes started tearing up. There were a couple more times during the remainder of the opening that I got choked up, but luckily there was a moment where I could go backstage to grab a drink of water and get myself under control. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I don’t think Ryan apprecaited that I chose to take that breather during our big finale duet, though…..</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Friday evening we did a special big top show at 7:00 p.m. just for our Ringling guests. Wow. What a show. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve never performed for such an enthusiastic and supportive audience. Everything we did was greeted with a huge reaction, and Ryan and I were humbled to get a standing ovation at the end of our act.</span></div>
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Ok, so most of the acts got standing ovations as well, but I won’t let that diminish the honor! <span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I just stood there in disbelief and took it all in. I didn’t want it to end, and I soaked up every second so I can relive the moment for the rest of my life. We will truly look back on that night as a highlight of our careers: the time we were able to give back to all the clowns and performers that were superstars to us when we would go to the circus and dream of one day being a part of The Greatest Show on Earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">At the conclusion of the show there was a dinner over at the Hippodrome building where everyone could mingle, and us Circus World performers could celebrate our wonderful night. It was great to get some more face time with our friends since during the day we were kept so busy with all our shows. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">At one point Greg and Karen DeSanto called up Brian Searle, a former Ringling clown and current grizzly mountain man, and raised money to shave his beard. They raised quite a chunk of change for the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">As things were winding down, Robert put the perfect punctuation mark on the ceremony by dropping the bowling balls from Nothing But Nonsense on everyone gathered below. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It was the equivalent of the lights getting turned on at a bar when it is closing time, only more hilarious.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I hope you enjoyed the stories and pictures from the first couple of days of the Ringling Homecoming. Stay tuned next week for the rest of the fun and festivities! </span></div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-57694958263272104962017-07-13T08:29:00.001-04:002017-07-13T08:29:50.091-04:00The Grinches Who Tried To Steal Christmas In July<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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Merry Christmas in July from Steve & Ryan! Nutty ol’ fruitcake Steve Copeland here to tell you all about that wonderful holiday that Circus World celebrated this past weekend: Christmas in July….it ranks up there with Kwanza in April and 4th of July in June.</div>
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Dave SaLoutos, everyone’s favorite jolly ol’ elf, decorated the entrance to the Feld building with Christmas trees, stockings, and wreaths to get our guests into the Christmas in July spirit. </div>
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Our customers could also enter to win the world’s largest Christmas stocking, which was stuffed full of goodies.</div>
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In our big top show we had a special celebrity guest for Christmas in July: Santa Claus….in July! He made a couple of appearances throughout the circus performance, and joined us after finale to say goodbye to all the good boys and girls. Not the bad ones though, Ryan and I threw coal at them.</div>
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I wanted to share a funny story with all of you about last year’s Christmas in July celebration. Ryan and I did a gag in the big top show that involved me falling out of a metal folding chair over and over.</div>
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I can hear you laughing already. </div>
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Anyway, I went through about ten chairs in the course of the summer, because after a week or two of abuse, the chair’s legs would start to bend, or the chair would completely break…sometimes in the middle of the gag!</div>
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We had a chair graveyard outside our dressing wagon, and by the end of the summer the grass was starting to grow over the twisted aluminum corpses. If one of the chairs was just a little slanted but still had a few good sits in it, I would put it outside the dressing wagon so we could enjoy the beautiful weather as we waited for our next cue.</div>
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Anyway, last year during Christmas in July, Santa Claus needed to take a load off while waiting backstage. He spotted one of the chair gag rejects (no, not me and Ryan, I mean one of the chairs), and he hunkered down to relax.</div>
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Ryan and I thought nothing of it, and we were standing off to the side talking. All of a sudden we heard a loud crash and looked over to see that the chair had completely collapsed underneath Santa. All we saw was his jolly boots sticking straight up in the air!</div>
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Luckily Santa was shaken, but not injured, but you can bet your mistletoe that’s an image we’ll never forget! Coincidentally, Ryan and I didn’t get anything for Christmas last year. (Santa also brought his own chair to sit in this year)</div>
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Unfortunately not everyone got into the Christmas in July spirit this year, and a couple of Scrooges came and tried to “Bah Humbug” all over everything. During the morning big top show on Sunday, I heard an unusual amount of cheering during the elephant act. Later I found out that two women, who had jumped a fence to sneak into the park, stood up as soon as the elephants came into the ring, and they started shouting and holding up signs protesting animals in the circus.</div>
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Oliver Ramos, who owns the big top, quickly leapt into action and escorted the unruly trespassers out, amid raucous cheers from everyone else in the tent.</div>
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They were gone before the police could be notified, but then in a Christmas in July miracle, the two dinks then tagged Circus World in a post on FB about how they “disrupted family fun” at the show. Both of their names were clearly on display in the post, and if you looked at their Facebook profiles, they had multiple posts bragging about different places around the state where they had similarly made a scene. </div>
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Scott promptly sent that convenient info on over to the police so they could handle the two grinches. </div>
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Besides the Christmas in July excitement, things have been pretty uneventful around here lately. On Tuesday we had an excellent performance of Nothing But Nonsense. There was a family in attendance that was laughing uproariously at everything we did, and they really got the rest of the crowd going. They had been at the big top show too, and the oldest woman in the family gave a hearty laugh when I did my flip up wig bit in the pants chase. I told everyone that she was my mom, which got an even bigger laugh from the rest of the audience. Ryan and I carried that bit over to our show, and we milked it for all it was worth. Our “mom” loved every minute of it.</div>
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Nico gave me a couple of good laughs in the second big top show that day. When Ryan and I came into the dressing room at one point, we found Nico in the pants looking like this:</div>
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Before I tell you about the second laugh he gave me, I need to provide a little backstory. Dave got Ryan and I two afro wigs, an orange one and a purple one, for our disco production costumes. We haven’t worn them because since we are clowns, they come off as cheap clown wigs instead of 70s disco afros. However, Ryan picked out the orange one until it was ridiculously huge….bigger than our heads! </div>
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Robert was ringmastering Tuesday afternoon, so I wore the huge wig to make him laugh. I made a few afro jokes for the audience before cueing Nico to run out in the pants and start the chase. Nico ran to the front of the ring, stopped, dropped the pants down so his head could pop out, and I saw that he was wearing the purple afro wig. I doubled over from laughter, and the audience got a kick out of it as well. </div>
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It’s nice to have a little fun in the show to break up the monotony, but it’s even sweeter when the audience enjoys it too!</div>
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I will do my best to post next week, but I make no promises. Things are going to be crazy, because next week is the Ringling Homecoming and Baraboo Circus Parade, and pretty much every evening next week we have something going on, whether it is an event for the Homecoming, or something to be done in preparation for the event.</div>
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If I don’t write next week, you can be sure I’ll have a massive post ready for the following week detailing all the fun and excitement that happens at Baraboo’s Circus Week. </div>
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I hope to see some of you there. Take care!</div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-75513683812397043242017-07-06T21:26:00.004-04:002017-07-07T08:55:05.524-04:00Better Homes & Elephants In Gardens<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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Hello everyone, Steve Copeland here. Well, well, well, where to begin? It has been a very eventful week here in Baraboo!</div>
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The town and Circus World was the subject of national news when Kelly, one of our performing pachyderms, escaped the park in the early hours of the morning. Our other elephant, Isla, is quite adept with her trunk, and she loosened some hardware that allowed Kelly to slip out. Kelly walked across the Baraboo River and then started wandering around a nearby neighborhood. Several people spotted her as they went about their morning routines, and so calls were placed to Circus World to let us know that one of our biggest stars was going door to door to let people know the park is still open!</div>
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Dean, who is in charge of the elephants, went to retrieve her from the yard of an elderly lady whose flowers seemed like an all you can eat buffet for Kelly.</div>
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Kelly was escorted safely back to Circus World, and the whole escapade was the talk of the town.</div>
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I don’t know what the big deal is. Ryan and I have been wandering around people’s yards every night this summer, but the second an elephant does it, CNN gets involved!</div>
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The whole thing was excellent publicity for Circus World’s Anniversary Days, where we were celebrating our 58th Anniversary by offering $5 admission to our guests for four days only: July 1-4. As you can imagine, the park was super busy every day, especially on Monday, when there were around 1,400 people in the park. The big top was filled beyond capacity, and another tiger show was added alongside Nothing But Nonsense to accommodate the large crowds.</div>
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That’s right, I said tiger show! Ryan Holder, or Radar as Ryan and I affectionately call him, is here again this summer. He has been touring with the Carden Circus all season, but began performing here on July 1 and will be with us through the end of our season since Carden is on a planned two month hiatus. </div>
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Ryan and I have known Radar since we were all First of Mays on the Kelly Miller Circus back in 2009. He started as a tiger groom and went on to inherit the tigers, the equipment, and the act, and he has really come into his own as a tiger trainer and person who really loves and cares for his animals. </div>
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It was wonderful having such big crowds for our shows during Anniversary days. Nothing But Nonsense was particularly fun, as the rowdy audiences gave us plenty of opportunities to improvise. One memorable occurrence happened when our Borscht-Belt era ventriloquist dummy character, Kreplach, was having his big death scene. Right in the middle of it, someone’s cell phone rang, so I, puppeteering Kreplach, ran up into the audience, demanded she hand the phone over, and then as Kreplach, mercilessly berated the person on the other end of the line. I wish I could know what that poor person on the receiving end of a puppet tirade was thinking!</div>
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On Tuesday, Ryan’s daughter, Abrianna, all decked out in her patriotic best for the Fourth of July, made her debut in Wesley William’s unicycle act. Abrianna absolutely adores Wesley (or Bruce-Lee, as she calls him), and occasionally he will put her on his shoulders as he is practicing on his unicycle backstage.</div>
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During the morning show on the 4th of July he rode into the ring with Abrianna sitting on his shoulders. Tatiana said that Abrianna looked petrified as they rode out, but as soon as Wesley put her on the ground, she styled like a true circus pro.</div>
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Wesley said the next day when he was about to ride his unicycle out for opening, he made eye contact with Abrianna, who shook her head and said, “Not me! Not me!”</div>
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On the home front, Pamela has been working hard to make our home as beautiful and cozy as she can. Last summer she spent a couple of weeks completely redoing the inside; she painted, she put down new flooring, and installed new hardware on the cabinets and drawers.</div>
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Every season she re-decorates our dinette area, and this summer’s decor is one of my favorites. It is so elegant and calming; I love it!</div>
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But my wonder woman didn’t stop with the inside of the trailer. She also created a nice dining area right outside our front door using things found around Circus World. </div>
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We have hosted several dinners for our friends, and Pamela pulls out all the stops to make everything as fancy as possible. We put out our fine silverware and glasses, candles, an ice bucket, napkin rings, and I even manage to keep my feet off the table! </div>
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Pamela’s dinner parties are beautiful, but they sure are a lot of work to set up and clean up! Perfection is important to my wife though, and she works like crazy to make everything perfect for me.</div>
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I’m hoping one day she will share her talents with the world by having her own show on HGTV. In the meantime, I will enjoy having a beautiful wife and home to come to every day after work. </div>
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That’s about all the news that’s fit to print for this week! As always, if there’s anything you’d like to hear about in this blog, please let me know in the comments! See you all next week!</div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-59700696288577117252017-06-29T08:29:00.001-04:002017-06-29T08:35:42.853-04:00Nothing But Nonsense<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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Hello everyone, Steve Copeland here. We have been incredibly blessed for the past week or so by the beautiful weather in Baraboo. Every day has been temperate and completely different from some of the weather we are used to in late June.</div>
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Audiences have been comfortable in the tent and Hippodrome building, and therefore much more inclined to enjoy themselves at our shows. I’ll try and remember these days when we get into the brain melting, armpit swamp inducing heat of late July and August.</div>
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This week I’d like to talk about Nothing But Nonsense, our musical comedy show. I’ve been putting off writing this post for awhile because I’m afraid once I start I won’t be able to stop. There’s a lot I can say on the topic (most of it unapologetically self congratulatory), but I’ll try and keep it streamlined, on topic, and somewhat humble.<br />
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Ryan and I have been dreaming of having our own show for many years now, and so when Scott and Dave asked us to bring our own show to Circus World in 2016 to fill the void left by the departure of Tristan Crist’s magic show, we jumped on the opportunity.</div>
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Ryan and I were thrilled about the fact that we could perform the show as ourselves, and not as clowns, even though it means getting in and out of make up multiple times during the working day. We really wanted to put our sense of humor, and what we think is funny in front of audience without the hurdle of their preconceived notions and/or initial disdain of clowns.</div>
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Ryan and I are also huge fans of Broadway musicals, so in addition to ridiculous jokes and slapstick, we wanted to bring musicianship, singing, and dancing to the show as well.</div>
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On the topic of music, a few years ago we were unbelievably fortunate to be introduced to an amazing composer by the name of Larry Lees. </div>
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Four years ago Larry wrote a Steve & Ryan theme song for us, sung by the man who introduced the three of us, ringmaster Kevin Venardos. You can hear it here:</div>
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When our contract for the 2016 summer season at Circus World was signed, we immediately sought out Larry to write original songs for our show.</div>
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Ryan worked on a couple of songs by himself (he even completely wrote and composed our college fight song, “Like Us On Facebook”), and Larry handled the rest.</div>
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We’ve been so lucky to have Larry since besides his immeasurable talent, he has a very similar sense of humor and way of thinking to ours.</div>
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For this year’s show, writing the music was very much a collaboration, because Ryan and I would have joke writing sessions to come up with possible lyrics for Larry to choose from.</div>
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The entire process this year was very hands on because Larry would send us sections of a song as he progressed, instead of sending us a finished project that he could tweak if needed.</div>
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That way if a lyric wasn’t working for us, we could suggest an alternate joke or lyric instead of simply saying, “We don’t like that.”</div>
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The music is a very big part of Nothing But Nonsense this year. Last year the show was almost a variety show, with very little rhyme or reason, but this year there is a storyline that carries on throughout the entire performance. (Because if the untimely demise of Ringling Bros. taught us anything, it is that story lines always make a show better!)</div>
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The three songs this year range from an opening number heavily influenced by (read: stolen from) Spike Jones, a 50’s doo wop ballad, and an uplifting gospel finale. </div>
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Now on to the script!</div>
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When Ryan and I were in the final months of the Circo Hermanos Vazquez tour in 2015, Ryan and I used our downtime in the dressing room to both write our own versions of Nothing But Nonsense. I was surprised how easily writing verbal comedy came to me, but I suppose keeping a journal for twelve years helped a lot.</div>
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When we were finished Ryan and I read our scripts to one another. Mine was more focused on jokes and story elements, and Ryan’s was mostly possible sight gags.</div>
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We put the two together and created the rough outline of 2016’s Nothing But Nonsense show.</div>
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Last year when Ryan and I were performing at the Circus Spectacular at the Utah State Fair, we had three shows every day for eleven days, with two or three hour breaks between each performance. We used that time to write this year’s version of Nothing But Nonsense, and the fact that we wrote it as a collaboration made it even easier and more fun.</div>
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But there’s more to Nothing But Nonsense than music and words. If you know Steve & Ryan, then you </div>
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know there are a buttload of props too!</div>
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It's all gotta come from somewhere!</div>
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Starting in January of this year Ryan and I began building the props for the new version of our show. We are eternally grateful to the Kelly Miller Circus for allowing us to use their Winter Quarters to work on Nothing But Nonsense. Special thanks to Danny Carey, Tetto and Oscar Perez, and Scott Moss at Culpepper & Merriweather for their help in constructing some of the props, especially anything involving welding!</div>
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This year we had far fewer props to build than we did last year, but we were still working hard all the way up to opening day on May 19th!</div>
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One of the wonderful things about working at Circus World is the freedom we have. It is the perfect place to workshop this show as we continue to make it bigger and better every year.</div>
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That includes the ability to make changes from day to day as we cut out things that were funny on paper and not so much in performance, add in improvisations that got a big laugh, and constantly change the way we do things so the show doesn’t get stale for us or the customers who come back multiple times.</div>
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Like I said earlier, Nothing But Nonsense is very different this year than it was last year, and just until about two weeks ago we were not very happy with the way things were going. The show was very hit or miss with audiences, and we were both fairly disheartened about it.</div>
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Luckily we changed a few key things, and the show finally started to click for us and get much more consistent positive reactions.</div>
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Performing Nothing But Nonsense truly is the highlight of our day, and we are eternally grateful to Scott and Dave for giving us a venue and a sandbox to play and create in, to the people that contributed start up money to us last year as a part of our fundraising campaign, and to the audience members who continue to donate money to us on a daily basis so we can make the show even bigger and better next year.</div>
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We cannot wait to see what the future holds for this show; in the meantime, we’ll have a heck of a lot of fun doing it.</div>
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I’m sorry this post jumped around all over the place; I didn’t cover nearly as much as I wanted to, but I was starting to bore myself, so I stopped.</div>
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If there is anything you’d like to hear about regarding to Nothing But Nonsense, please let me know in the comments. I have some funny stories about the show that I plan to share in a future post.</div>
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Likewise, if there is anything else you’d like to hear about, please let me know. Until next week, take care!</div>
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<br />Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-74404217726023290522017-06-22T08:46:00.003-04:002017-06-22T08:46:52.851-04:00Clown Day<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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Hello everyone, Steve Copeland here. Things are going well at Circus World; it is just crazy to believe that we have been open for a month now! It really feels like we just started yesterday....if yesterday was a month ago.</div>
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One interesting event that happened this past weekend was Clown Day. I don’t know when it started at Circus World, but we were part of it last summer.</div>
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A large number of students from the LaCrosse, WI based Clown Camp made a trip down to visit Circus World and see some of the shows. They then went to the International Clown Hall of Fame, also located here in Baraboo, to get a tour of that amazing establishment as well.</div>
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In addition to our special guests, on Clown Day, anyone dressed as a clown can get into the park for free.</div>
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Last year it was hyped to us that all fifty or so visiting Clown Camp students would be in full makeup and costume. We braced ourselves for that overwhelming tidal wave of bright colors and exhausting one-upmanship, but we were actually disappointed when not one of the students came dressed up. I guess they opted out when they realized they’d have to be in makeup and costume all day. You know, like you do when being a clown is your job....</div>
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I can just hear “Frosty” Little singing, “So ya wanna be a clown…..”</div>
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This year there were only about thirty campers that made the pilgrimage to Circus World. We were happy to see some familiar faces, as well as many new ones. Everyone was very excited to come see our shows, and they were all very nice and complimentary. </div>
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Our morning Be A Clown show was a definite hit for the campers. At the start of the season it was a makeup demo, but it bored the audience to tears. Since we've changed it to a more generalized show about being a clown (covering makeup, wigs, noses, big shoes, props, and slapstick), and infused our own sardonic wit into the proceedings, it has been much more of a success.</div>
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In fact, since it plays so much like a class in clowning, we had several of the students and staff ask if we had adapted the show just for them.</div>
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Nope! We like to give every Circus World guest an in depth understanding of how we work, so they can come along in the future to undercut us and take our jobs! </div>
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After that first show Ryan and I had the pleasure of visiting with Kenny and Brenda Ahern, Darlene Campo, and Joe Dieffenbacher. </div>
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Kenny and Brenda are now in charge of Clown Camp, and I am excited to see what they do with the program.</div>
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Darlene and Joe both went to Clown College with Kenny back in 1983 (a great year…I was born then!) and Brenda went in 1987. All four toured on Ringling, the Aherns on Blue (I saw them at my very first circus in 1989), and Joe and Darlene on the Red Unit’s Pink Panther themed show in 1984.</div>
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Ryan and I enjoyed talking clowning and swapping road stories with the funny foursome.</div>
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Like I said earlier in the post, anyone dressed as a clown could gain free admittance to the park on Clown Day, but I was very disappointed that we saw only three people take advantage of that. Unfortunately, two of them were just a couple of jackasses that really tested the definition of what is considered a clown.</div>
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One was a girl in a one piece jumpsuit. She had white makeup smeared on her face, and she had painted a huge red smile reaching from one ear to the other. On top of her head she wore a ratty rainbow colored afro wig. I was upset that so many people went up to her and asked if she was Steve or Ryan.....</div>
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Her boyfriend was wearing a scary clown mask and a dark, dingy looking one piece jumpsuit; he wore the frightening mask the entire show.</div>
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Everyone in the cast asked Ryan and I if we saw the strange couple in the seats; I guess they were trying to get a rise out of us on account of the scary clown. Our thoughts were if that moron wanted to sit in that hot tent for over an hour wearing a rubber mask, more power to him! It might sweat some sense into him!</div>
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I was really hoping that they would show up to Nothing But Nonsense, because Ryan and I had a great bit planned.</div>
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Ryan was going to announce that our friends from Clown Camp were in the audience, and then he was going to introduce the leaders of the program, Kenny and Brenda.</div>
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I was then going to say it was a special show because our mentors were also in the audience, and I was going to introduce the two scary clowns: the girl as Ronald McDonald’s sister, Myrtle McDonald, and the mook in the mask as “Sparkles”.</div>
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Unfortunately the dynamic duo didn’t show, so we weren’t able to unleash our “ad-lib” on the guests.</div>
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Last year, one of the Clown Camp students auditioned for the opportunity to perform an act in the big top show.</div>
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We were told that there were no acts of a high enough caliber to go in the show this year, which was disappointing to hear.</div>
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Instead, Bruce “Charlie” Johnson, one of the staff members, performed a routine in the place of our pants chase.</div>
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I know Bruce because he and I are on the Board of Directors of the International Clown Hall of Fame, and I also know him from my youth because I would see his name on various clown websites when I was researching the art form. Bruce is a clown historian, and has many articles published online and in different clown periodicals. </div>
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I enjoyed chatting with Bruce during the big top show about his time with Circus Kirk and the five ringed behemoth, Carson & Barnes.</div>
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As the cast was exiting the big top to meet and greet the guests in the reception tent, a little old lady clown whose costume made her look like a cupcake was just arriving to watch the show.</div>
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We informed the cupcake lady that she had just missed the performance, which she was upset about. We informed her that there was another big top show at 2:30 p.m., which seemed to buoy her spirits.</div>
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As Ryan and I were walking to the Hippodrome building to set the props for Nothing But Nonsense, Ryan and I saw the lady walking determinedly towards some unknown destination…a cupcake on a mission.</div>
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That was the last we saw of her....</div>
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At the end of the day I remarked that we hadn't seen her at the second big top show, and I wondered where she was.</div>
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The only logical assumption is that she is still roaming the sixty acres of Circus World grounds, sleeping under wagons for shelter, and eating rabbits and geese for sustenance.</div>
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Aside from Clown Day, everything is going swimmingly in Baraboo. I say swimmingly because it has been raining almost every day lately.</div>
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When we opened it rained for about a solid week, and then we seemed to have two weeks of wonderful drought.</div>
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Now we're back to mud in the backyard and standing water in the tent's backstage. Ah, just like the good ol' days!</div>
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Leave a comment and let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to hear about in any of my next blog posts. I'd much rather write about things that people want to read about.</div>
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In the near future I'd like to talk about our show, Nothing But Nonsense, but I know that's going to be a monster of a post, and it is too daunting a task for me right now.</div>
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See you all next week!</div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-78768711502921869032017-06-15T11:16:00.000-04:002017-06-15T11:17:15.326-04:00Circus Of The Chefs 2017<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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Hello everyone, Steve Copeland here. This week I wanted to talk about a publicity that we all were a part of this past Sunday. It is the main fundraiser for Circus World Museum, and it is called the Circus of the Chefs gala.</div>
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The gala is held in the Deppe Wagon Pavilion, which meant in the week leading up to the event, all of the wagons had to be moved outside. This provided customers with a neat viewing experience of the beautiful artifacts.</div>
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On gala day the park closed thirty minutes earlier than usual, because the event began at 4:00 p.m.</div>
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Attendees were able to visit tables set up around the pavilion where dozens of local restaurants were giving samples of their delicious wares. </div>
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This photo of the 2016 gala is courtesy of Bill Johnsen</div>
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It was our job as performers to stroll around the crowd between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m., mingling and entertaining the guests.</div>
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Last year Ryan and I got many compliments because we made multiple costume changes and strolled around the gala as different characters.</div>
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This year we came prepared and brought costumes and props specifically for the event.</div>
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Our first appearance was as two chefs “from-a dee Old Country” serving popcorn to the customers on a trash can lid. We channeled our best Tim Conway Swedish accents as we tried to get people to “try-a dee popcorn”. As soon as people got the kernels to their mouths, we’d inform them that “we found-a it on dee floor”.</div>
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This is us letting the group know that even though the snack was from the Old Country, the popcorn was new….only the country was old.</div>
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Our next bit didn’t go over as well. I wore a child’s Tweedy bird costume given to us by a friend, and Ryan wore an explorer costume complete with pith helmet; he also popped in his Jerry Lewis “Nutty Professor” teeth for good measure.</div>
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We’d wander around while Ryan would explain to anyone who would listen that he had captured and trained me himself to do all manner of tricks....like speaking English.</div>
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When I would occasionally get out of control, he would use one of Nico’s small Nerf dart guns to tranquilize me.</div>
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The whole thing was a little too surreal for the upper crust of Baraboo, and it didn’t help that the costume meant for children was riding up on me like a pair of Daisy Dukes, showing off my chicken legs. (You’re lucky I haven’t found any photos…..yet!)</div>
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But, you never know if these things will go over if you don't try! The amount of people you scar with your incredibly white legs is a small price to pay for the ever elusive big laugh!</div>
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Our final character appearance of the evening was much more popular. We wore our Brazilian samba costumes from last year’s big top show production number, Mexican sombreros, and tape mustaches. We then wandered around the gala speaking to everyone in Spanish, giving out tape mustaches, playing terrible Mariachi music on our trumpets, and generally setting back American-Latin American relations hundreds of years.</div>
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Photos by Mary-Jane Foote and Tara Zitzner, respectively</div>
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Around 6:30 p.m. our fearless leaders, Scott O’Donnell and Dave SaLoutos, held a silent auction for all kinds of wonderful goods and services. </div>
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After that, the cast of the circus show did the opening number for the crowd, Jacob D’Eustachio did his amazing juggling act, and then we concluded with our finale.</div>
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At the conclusion of the gala all of us changed into our civvies and came back to help clean up, because like Dave told us, “many hands make light work”. </div>
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It didn’t take long at all to get the wagon pavilion back into a semblance of order with everyone working together.</div>
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The highlight of the evening was when Adilson, our own Brazilian Spider-Man, became tired of waiting for the lift to be available, so he shimmied up a wall, scooted along the beams on the ceiling, and then hung upside down by his feet to remove the bunting.</div>
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The show after the show!</div>
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Preparing for and pulling off the gala every year is a huge task that the Circus World staff makes happen every year. They always do a great job, and this year was no exception. Congrats, everyone!</div>
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Before I go, I’d just like to mention that Gala Day was also the anniversary of when I made a very important decision: I asked Pamela to marry me.</div>
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Our friends from Baltimore: Pat and Thom Stevenson, Jim Shores, and Carol Lang, were all visiting, so I told Pamela she should go visit with them and watch Nothing But Nonsense. My plan was to propose to her at the conclsuion of the show.</div>
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It was incredibly hot that day, and the whole show I was sweating more than usual from my nerves. Still, things went off without a hitch, and obviously, she said, “yes”!</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="180" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/170329273" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="320"></iframe><br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/170329273">Steve and Pamela Proposal</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/chrissomer">Chris Somer</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
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Many thanks to our friend, Chris Somer, for capturing this wonderful moment on video. And many more thanks to my beautiful wife, Pamela, for making me such a lucky man.</div>
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See you all next week! </div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-57750678773144195542017-06-08T08:39:00.003-04:002017-06-08T09:20:50.892-04:00A Day In The Life<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
Hey everyone,</div>
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Steve Copeland here. I can’t believe we’re already a week into the month of June; it seems like just yesterday we were starting the summer season here at Circus World, and before I know it, it is going to be August 27th, and we will be back to selling pencils on a street corner.</div>
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One thing that makes the days seem to just fly by is how busy we are. Our work days are so jam packed that we barely have a moment to breathe. If you’ve ever wondered what a day in the life of a Circus World clown is like, you’re in luck! If you haven’t ever wondered that….sorry, this week’s post really isn’t for you.</div>
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I start my day by waking up at 7 a.m. to drink some coffee and catch up on what is going on in the world of social media.</div>
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Then I get ready for the day and head out the door around 8. For the next hour I run errands around the Circus World grounds to prepare for the day. The park property covers sixty acres, so I get my steps in right off the bat!</div>
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I set up the Hippodrome building for our Be A Clown show, I retrieve the costumes for our water gag, I go to the gift shop to peruse the Circus World Library discard book pile for any treasures (always at a very low price), and I pick up the envelopes of money that we use as change when we sell novelty items at the big top show as well as Nothing But Nonsense.</div>
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Next I head over to the big top to fill up buckets of water for our water gag, and then it is back to the Hippodrome to get into makeup for our first show, Be A Clown at 9:15 a.m.</div>
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Originally the show was a makeup demo, where Ryan would talk about the three types of clowns and applying clown makeup while I slapped on my greasepaint. </div>
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However; despite our best efforts, the show was extremely boring, especially for the school groups that come in the first few weeks of the summer.</div>
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We recently changed the show to be a demonstration of what we do as clowns, i.e. hitting each other…..a lot. </div>
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Ryan and I talk about everything that goes into slapstick comedy, like teamwork, training, and safety (the Three T’s), and throughout the show we give examples of the basic slap, pratfalls, and comedy props. We culminate our tour de force of low brow humor by performing a slap-board routine that always wakes up the audience as well as our aching joints. </div>
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After the Be A Clown demo I have a forty five minute break which is my one opportunity to eat during the working day. I go home and spend time with my lovely wife, Pamela, and our cute kitty, Jane.</div>
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Insert baby talk here.</div>
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At 11 a.m. is the first circus big top show. Thirty minutes prior to that I go over to the tent to whip up soap for our first gag, and Ryan and I also sell light swords, coloring books, and other flashy circus junk to the people in the seats. </div>
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I have been enjoying the meet and greet that results from walking the stands; it helps me sharpen my improvisation muscles, it helps get the people to like us before they see us perform, I get to talk to some neat people and answer questions (because I love being an insufferable know it all about circus clowns), and it gives me a chance to just thank people for being here. I think that last part is especially important, because more and more circuses are dropping off the map every year, and I think people should be thanked for spending their ever precious entertainment dollars at a circus, especially a good one!</div>
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During the big top show (which I talked about last week) we have two gags, and we also appear in opening and finale.</div>
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Between those appearances we are re-setting the water gag, I have to touch up my makeup after the first gag, and we also help with a couple of prop changes. We keep very busy during the circus show, even when we aren’t in the ring.</div>
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Once the circus show ends we go into the small tent at the front of the big top and say goodbye to the audience as they leave.</div>
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Ryan and I then book it over to the Hippodrome building to set our own show, Nothing But Nonsense. In the near future I’d like to write a few posts about Nothing But Nonsense; I was going to tackle it in this one, but it is already becoming much longer than I had anticipated!</div>
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At 1:00 p.m. we perform our comedy/musical/variety show, Nothing But Nonsense, which is our favorite part of the day. It is so nice to have a thirty minute time slot where anything goes and we have complete creative freedom over what we are presenting to the audience. A million thanks to Scott O’Donnell, Dave SaLoutos, and Circus World for giving us this opportunity…..and giving it to us again this year even after seeing what we created the first time!</div>
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After Nothing But Nonsense we have a short window of time to reset the show and then get back into makeup for the second circus show.</div>
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Starting in July we’ll have an extra hour between our show and the second big top performance, which we are greatly looking forward to. My lazy butt isn’t going to sit on itself, you know!</div>
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The Circus World grounds close at 4:00 p.m., shortly after the conclusion of the second circus show. I stop by the office to drop off money, and I take the wet costumes from our water gag to get dried. </div>
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After that, I am done for the day!</div>
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It is so wonderful (and unusual) for us to be done with work at four in the afternoon. I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of all the wonderful things to do here in Baraboo, and just up the road in the Wisconsin Dells this summer.</div>
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Since we opened there really hasn’t been a dull moment. I can count on one foot the number of quiet evenings at home that Pamela and I have had since we started working (I only have three toes on one foot). There is always something going on: extra curricular work like fixing a prop or rehearsing something for Nothing But Nonsense, a cast social gathering like a cookout or bonfire, a promotional event for Circus World, hanging out with friends in town, or going on a date with my wife.</div>
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Despite our hectic schedule, I promise I’ll find time to keep up this blog. See you all next week! </div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-23438665487186872742017-06-01T08:27:00.002-04:002017-06-03T08:58:11.270-04:00Under The Big Top<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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Hey everyone, Steve Copeland here. Things are going well here in Baraboo. The cold, rainy weather from our opening weekend is gone, and the days are beautiful now: sunny, with temperatures in the low 70s. We’re enjoying it now before the real hot weather and humidity set in.</div>
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This week I wanted to talk about the Circus World big top show. This year it really is a BIG top!</div>
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For the past few summers Circus World was using a small, intimate Hanneford tent for the big top show, but this year we are working in a large tent owned by the Ramos Bros. Circus. </div>
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It has four towers, a large backstage space, and it seats about one thousand people. The lighting equipment in this top is also more advanced than we were used to last year, so the show really looks like a million bucks.</div>
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Ryan and I actually got to work in this Ramos tent last September when we performed in the circus at the Utah State Fair (more on that in a later post). We were surprised when we heard it was coming to Circus World since it is way larger than anything they’ve used since the last time they had a three ring tent in the early 2000s. </div>
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The Ramos family brought the tent all the way from California to Wisconsin; adding to the long distance, they also encountered some truck problems, so the tent didn’t get raised until a couple of days after it was supposed to go up.</div>
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This delayed our rehearsals, so it was a particularly hectic few days leading up to our opening day on May 19th.</div>
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Still, everyone pulled together and we made it happen, in true circus style!</div>
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We have quite a talented cast this season. The whole show is 70’s themed, and our energetic performance director/ringmaster, Dave SaLoutos, affectionately refers to it as “That 70’s Circus”.</div>
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In the opening number the whole cast is decked out in their groovy 70’s finest, and at one point we all line up and do the Hustle.</div>
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(Not to be confused with the hustle that happens before the show when Ryan and I are selling light up merchandise to the audience)</div>
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Next up is Jenny Vidbel, who will be returning to the Big Apple Circus this fall. She kicks off the opening number with Velma the Wonder Pig, who unrolls a carpet with her snout. Ryan and I wanted that job, but our boss, Scott O’Donnell, said the reward of one Oreo a show we were asking for to do the trick was not in the budget.</div>
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Jenny also performs her liberty horse act and a dog act featuring a miniature pony.</div>
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(All following photos courtesy of Johnny Trapino)</div>
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The aerial portion of the show is handled by Candice Storley, who is a former water skier for the Tommy Bartlett show out of the Wisconsin Dells. Candice performs on the lyra and chiffons, but when she was with Big Apple Circus a couple of years ago, she worked for Irene Espana and understudied in the Espana's Space Odyssey rocket act.</div>
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Candice’s boyfriend, Dean Manuel, presents the two biggest stars of the show (besides Ryan and myself), the elephants! </div>
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Dean was performing with Carson & Barnes up until a week before our season started. While he is here, our friend from our Kelly Miller days, Armando Loyal, is filling in for him.</div>
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Jacob D’Eustachio from New York City does a very unusual juggling act where he gets dressed while keeping multiple objects in the air.</div>
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Besides working cruise ships and all other manner of shows, Jacob has also previously performed for Giovanni Zoppe’s circus.</div>
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Returning this year are Adilson and Gilda Fernandes, who we worked with on Kelly Miller our first year. </div>
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Adilson does his nerve wracking chair stacking act, and the couple also present the Double Wheel of Destiny as a stand alone show in the afternoon.</div>
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Closing the show is Wesley Williams, who has an amazing unicycle act, culminating in a ride atop a 25 foot high unicycle! </div>
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Oh, I forgot the clowns…….they’re a couple of pumpkin butts named Steve & Ryan who make two appearances in the show. </div>
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For the first, they….I mean, we….attempt to wash the ringmaster’s disco suit, and only manage to get water everywhere but on our vinyl ring mat.</div>
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In our second spot we revive that perennial favorite, the pants chase, starring six year old Nico Combs as the runaway pants. The New York Times called his performance “hilarious, with just the right touch of pathos….and starch.”</div>
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As you can see, the show is jam packed with amazing acts, and us. It is an extremely prop heavy show, so much so that the entire cast has to act as the prop crew. When the performers are not in the ring, chances are good they are setting or striking props for the next act.</div>
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Ryan and I even roll out the bull tubs for the elephants, oh the humanity! </div>
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The show is so prop heavy that we took out our original second routine, the carpenter gag, just because it was one more huge prop to set and mess to clean up.</div>
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Instead we offered to do the pants chase to help smooth out one of the more prop heavy transitions and keep the show moving along.</div>
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Yes, I know, such martyrs are we….</div>
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See you again next week for more tall tales and half truths! In the meantime, plan to come see all of the fun at Circus World in Baraboo!</div>
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Ciao! </div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227381686756901378.post-91605962173322526902017-05-25T11:10:00.001-04:002017-05-25T11:10:25.497-04:00Welcome Back, Copeland.<div style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
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Hi everyone, Steve Copeland here. Please excuse the inexcusable absence that this blog has taken for the past year and a half.</div>
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Even though Ryan and I are not touring full time since we left Circo Hermanos Vazquez at the end of 2015, we are still keeping busy working circus dates in the spring, fall, and winter, and since last year, we spent the summer months in Baraboo, WI at Circus World Museum.</div>
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When we were in Chicago with Vazquez, we made a day trip up to Baraboo, where Scott O’Donnell, our long time friend and Executive Director of Circus World Museum, and Dave SaLoutos, ringmaster and performance director extraordinare, proposed that we join the cast of CWM for the 2016 summer season.</div>
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Ryan and I were looking to take a break from touring anyway, but what really sold us on Baraboo was the fact that in addition to circus clowning in the big top show, we would get to produce our own half hour comedy show where we could perform as ourselves, and not as clowns.</div>
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Ryan and I have dreamed of our own show for years, so we were stoked to finally have the opportunity to create it and perform it in front of audiences every day for over three months.</div>
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Thus, Nothing But Nonsense was born, and we are thrilled to be presenting the second incarnation of the show this summer.</div>
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A lot of things have happened since my last post about Vazquez, and I will cover them all in due time. Right now I just wanted to give everyone a quick update to bring everyone up to speed.</div>
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Ryan, his wife, Tatiana, and his children, Nico and Abrianna are all doing great. The kids are growing like weeds; Nico is six and Abrianna is two, and they have both been bitten by the show biz bug. Nico performs in the Circus World Museum big top show regularly with us, and Abrianna also loves to make an occasional appearance in the odd opening or finale number, decked out in her own custom wardrobe of course!</div>
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On my end of things, I couldn’t be happier. In March I married the love of my life, Pamela, who I have been fortunate to spend the past two years with. She works so hard to make everything in my life perfect, from making our trailer beautiful both inside and out, cooking delicious meals for me all the time, and most importantly, loving me, even when I’m a bone head!</div>
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We have been open here at Circus World Museum since Friday, May 19. During the working day from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. we are constantly going. The schedule is jam packed this summer with great shows and amazing talent.</div>
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If you’re anywhere near Wisconsin this summer, do yourself a favor and come check us out!</div>
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Like I said earlier, I’ll delve into greater detail on everything in a later post. Right now I’d like to touch on a subject that has been on my mind lately (no doubt it has been on a great many of your minds as well).</div>
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On Sunday, May 21st, after 146 years, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey gave its final performance.</div>
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Ringling has always been a huge part of my life. When I was four years old, I saw a TV special about the Ringling Bros. Clown College, and I decided then and there that I wanted to grow up to be a Ringling Bros. clown.</div>
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My parents took me to see the Blue Unit of the Greatest Show on Earth in 1989, and except for 1991, 1992, and this year, I never missed a show. </div>
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All through my formative years I would study the clowns in the programs and learn as much as I could about the circus and clowning.</div>
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I owe a lot to the Feld family and Ringling. They gave me a dream when I was a child, they gave me my big break and the start of my career when I was right out of high school, and they introduced me to my partner, who I have been working with for nine years. Ryan and I have had a lot of accomplishments so far, and we have some huge, exciting ones on the horizon as well.</div>
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I owe that all to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and the Feld family. Thank you, from one of your biggest fans.<br />
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Ryan and I, with our families, were able to watch the live stream of Ringling's final performance in the house of Greg DeSanto, one of our good friends, and one of our Ringling clown heroes from our childhoods. Aside from being there in person, I can't think of a better way to have said goodbye.<br />
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Well everyone, please check in every week around this time for a new update. I promise I won’t leave you all in an eighteen month lurch again.</div>
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Here’s to an excellent summer at Circus World Museum! We hope to see you there!</div>
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Steve Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11417560686366819338noreply@blogger.com7