Some Items of Coney Island Clown News

Once upon a time, contemporary variety arts and theatre information was a prominent content stream on this blog…but frankly few people read those posts, so I took them (and there were hundreds of them) down and stopped writing new ones. Of late we’ve dipped our toe into those waters again as an experiment, because we love to support what’s going on. The whole point is to illustrate the continuum that began in the past, leads to now, and will inform the future.

And there is all kinds of timely news about Jelly Boy the Clown (Eric Broomfield) to report. The most time sensitive is that he will be on America’s Got Talenttonight (Tuesday, June 11 at 8pm EST) on NBC. It’ll stream later, but it’s often exciting to watch a first airing. I happen to dislike this show (the reasons why will rate its own post at some point) but the spectacle of one of our own taking the national stage is always exciting.

I’ve watched Jelly Boy from afar since around 2007, by way of Myspace I think, when he was one of the Squidling Brothers. I only appeared on a bill with him once, at Coney Island USA, about five or six years ago, and on that occasion he dialed in from the road via video, so I’ve not really met him. The thing to know is that that make-up look is permanent, just like The Joker in Batman. He’s a multi-talented sideshow performer with some pretty intense skills, who originally came out of the Philadelphia scene. In 2013 he suffered bad burns in an apartment fire (not from fire eating). Like so many artists, he was uninsured, and the medical care he required was an extreme challenge. A documentary about him and his experience A Clown’s Recovery came out the following year, and may be watched on Amazon.

Jelly Boy has had subsequent tragedies. He fell off a roof in 2017, breaking multiple bones. And he suffered the loss of a brother. All this and more about Jelly Boy are chronicled in his new book Memoirs of a Coney Island Clown: Jelly Boy’s Sideshow Saga, published by Outside Talker Press. Get it here! And watch him in action tonight!

In related news (and I’m shocked that I haven’t mentioned it here yet, although it’s still several months away) is that friend and frequent collaborator Glen Heroy has launched the Coney Island Clown Skool, whose inaugural session will be from November 10th to the 17th. Glen has done an incredible job of organizing this thing (at the instigation I believe of mutual friend and collaborator Rob Prichard) and it includes such highly respected faculty as himself, Matt Mitler, Joel Jeske,Miss Ekaterina, Michael Trautman, the folks from Broken Box Mime Theater, et al, with (I am very proud to say) a keynote opening day lecture by myself! The tuition for this intensive is a steal at $750. Get all the info, including how to register, here.