1. Introduction
Hello, and welcome to the weekly Clown-Ministry mailing list. This is just a short note to let everyone who’s interested know about new additions to the site, and related information.
And the big news this time around is — the forums are up and working! What does that mean? Well, it means that anybody who has a question, or a suggestion, or a comment, on anything clown-related, is welcome to post their information there for the whole world to see. After all, I’m only 1 little clown — and I don’t pretend to have all of the answers. I don’t even have all of the questions! But you folks know more than you think; and you have valuable tips, stories, skits, feedback, etc. to share. For that matter, if there’s interest, I’ll use the forums to set up a free “classified ad” section to buy, sell, & swap props, costumes, books, et cetera.
And now, back to our regularly-scheduled newsletter.
2. New skits on-line
A Letter from God – a skit for 2 speaking clowns, using a joke about a letter from God to talk about God’s love letter to us — the Bible. As always, feel free to submit your skits or articles!
3. New Articles
Added quite a bit recently. Updated the biography for the late Bob Keeshan, (aka. Captain Kangaroo and Clarabell the clown), and added entries for Pinto Colvig (the original voice & performer of Bozo the Clown), as well as Bozo himself. While on a “bozo” theme, also added a review of “Get Down with the Clown,” a very nice musical CD — I was pleasantly surprised. And, finally, I updated the review of “Harpo Speaks” — one of my favorite biographies. All of these are currently linked from the home page (http://www.clown-ministry.com/)
4. Questions
(this time around, I’m going to include some common questions, that have been asked more than once)
Q: Where can I buy a copy of Red Skelton’s Pledge of Allegiance?
A: From the official Red Skelton site, http://www.redskelton.com/ — run by Red’s widow.
Q: How do I start clowning?
A: Start by reading — there’s many reviews of good introductory books on the site, many of which should be available at your public library. Please read through the clowning tutorial under the articles section. Find a local clown group, either a church group or an organized group of clowns called an “alley” — and above all, once you’ve done that, don the greasepaint and give it a whirl!
5. Web Site of the Week
There are two major clown organizations — Clowns of America International (http://www.coai.org/) and the World Clown Association (http://www.worldclowns.com/) — check them out.
6. Outroduction
This is a weekly e-mailing from http://www.clown-ministry.com/ — if you received this by mistake, or you just don’t want to receive it any more then simply reply to this message with ‘unsubscribe’ as the subject of your message, and I’ll gladly remove you from any future mailings. As always, feel free to submit your own skits, articles, ideas for articles, etc.
Thanks for listening, and bump a nose!
Tom Raymond
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http://www.clown-ministry.com/
“Clowns work like aspirin, only faster” — Groucho Marx