The 18th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Mark Twain.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

Mark Twain is one of the most important comic voices that America has ever produced. Born in the tumultuous 1800s, his humor helped heal a divided nation, and was a vital comic lubricant as America suffered the birth pains of the 20^th century.  Twain believed, “Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away.”

The genius of Mark Twain is that he exposed the folly in everyone, including himself. Twain once wrote, “I have no race prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.”

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The 17th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Uncle Sam.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

As I posted yesterday, Uncle Sam’s signature goatee, top hat, and red, white, and blue spangled costume was modeled after 19^th century American circus clown, Dan Rice. Below are Rice’s famous costume pants.

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The 16th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Dan Rice.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

Dan Rice is the most famous person that you’ve never heard of even though his goatee, top hat, and red, white, and blue spangled costume became the model for Uncle Sam in the 20^th century.

Rice was a contemporary of English music hall clown, Joseph Grimaldi, but instead of imitating Grimaldi, he developed a uniquely American comic voice that influenced Mark Twain as a boy.

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The 15th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is George Fox.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

George Fox was one of the most famous American clowns of the 19^th Century. He was a contemporary of Englishman, Joseph Grimaldi, and like Grimaldi he never performed in the circus ring, but was a star of the stage in New York. When the Civil War broke out Fox immediately volunteered and fought in the First Battle of Bull Run. Afterwards he returned to the stage until 1875 when he began losing his mind. Tragically he died shortly afterwards at the young age of 52. It is speculated that the toxic lead in his white make-up caused the insanity that led to Fox’s early death.

I guess that’s the professional hazards of being a clown.

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The 14th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Joseph Grimaldi.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

Grimaldi is considered the father of the modern clown.  He was the first to wear the classic clown make-up of white with red grease paint smeared on his lips and cheeks, as if he had just eaten a stolen cheery pie. Today all clowns are called Joey in honor of Grimaldi,

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The 13th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the season is Heath Ledger’s Joker.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

The clown as a monster is the least understood, and most frightening aspect of the archetype. In ancient mythology the trickster traveled between heaven and hell to deliver vital messages back to mortals. Unfortunately, America doesn’t have its own myth of the clown’s origin. Because of this vacuum we have developed a fragmented perception of the clown as either a bad children’s entertainer, a pitchman for hamburgers, or a monster.

To help heal this rift I wrote my own mythic origin story of the clown for the American imagination called, The Land of Clown. This year I was awarded a Minnesota Arts Board grant to adapt The Land of Clowns to the stage with the help of master storyteller Kevin Kling, premiering April 1, 2016 at Open Eye Theatre.

Stay tuned…

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The 12th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Jon Stewart.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

Jon Stewart’s commentaries on The Daily Show shined a beacon of sanity on our crazy world. His wry wit illuminated whatever hypocrisy was infecting the daily news cycle. He served as our comic antibody against the corrupt corrosive elements in government, the media, and all power centers that he directed his razor sharp satire.

I miss you Jon…

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The 11th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Donald Trump.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

Trump takes the prize for the greatest ignoble clown of our time. I stopped laughing at “The Donald” the day Jon Stewart retired. I posted to my blog that day, Now that Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show the only hope for America is if he runs for president. Without his daily voice there is no sane person left on television to stop a Trump presidential win.

Today, I renew my call for a Jon Stewart presidential run. If Jon doesn’t heed my call then everybody better get used to hearing, President Trump.

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The 10^th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is Will Rogers.  In this series I’m exploring the noble as well as ignoble clown.  Each day through Christmas look for posts to my blog, www.LloydBrant.com, of a different public figure that either delighted in playing the clown, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as a clown.

Will Rogers is also part of my special series of historical figures that dedicated their lives to changing the world through the wisdom of humor. Rogers first gained notoriety as a trick roper when he roped a wild steer escaping into the audience in a wild-west circus playing Madison Garden in NYC. He was immediately picked up by big-time vaudeville. The first time he talked on stage was after was advised to introduce a complicated rope trick for a better audience response, but the response from the New York audience was laughter at his slow Oklahoma drawl. Rogers quickly cashed in on his unexpected gift for comedy. His homespun humor spoke simple truths that made you laugh even if the barb was directed at you.

The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers: “There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

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The 9^th Emergency Clown Nose® pick of the Holiday Season is our current US Congress.  In this series I’m exploring noble as well as ignoble clowns. Through Christmas I’m posting different public figures that either delight in playing clowns, or that the public has unfortunately chosen to paint as clowns.

A long time ago Mark Twain wrote, “Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

The same truth could be said today.

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