Bring on the Clowns [Hardcover]

Beryl Hugill (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Book Sales (March 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890093431
• ISBN-13: 978-0890093436
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,443,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A WONDEFUL BOOK AND AN IMPORTANT PART OF MY THERAPY, August 28, 2010

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bring on the Clowns (Hardcover)

Being human has placed me into in to the category of being all too human. Like most folks I have certain little hang-ups, fears and to be honest, an eccentric sort of quirkiness. Now one of my strengths is that I can be brutally honest with myself and fully admit to my foibles and my weaknesses, and try my best to face them and correct them...sometimes successfully, sometimes not, but at least I try.

I have had two major phobias that have haunted me since my earliest memories. The first is alektorophobia, the fear of chickens. They have unreasonably terrified me all of my life. The second is coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. Shear horror, terrier, anxiety and physical illness here people, I can tell you; cold sweat, shaking, and when I was a wee one, screaming my lungs out.

I took steps as a teenager to erase the chicken thing. No macho kid growing up in the Ozark Mountains can fear anything, much less the lowly chicken. The shame was almost unbearable. Kids, including girls, use to make chicken clucking noises behind me just to seem me shack, yell and quiver...it was mortifying. I had to do something. An old man who I knew at the pool hall told me that the best way to get over fear was to face it head on. So, I decided to immerse myself in chickens. I worked for chicken farmers (which included my future father-in-law), and hung around chickens and chicken people. I would go to my next door neighbor, who raised fighting cocks, and spend hours just setting in the chicken pens, eyeball to eyeball with some very mean aggressive creatures with attitudes. Actually, I think for a period of time people would drive by just to see the strange skinny kid setting in the chicken pens. Hey, it paid off. While I am still uneasy around these birds, I can now handle them and live with them. As a matter of fact I raise them. Granted, I make my wife collect the eggs, but I have made good progress and no longer whimper when I have to feed and water them.

Now we come to the clowns. Still after all these years I am still terrified of them. I no longer scream and cry, but I can assure you that I want to! What to do, what to do? Well, I decided to try my chicken curing method with clowns recently and have started with this wonderful book. I figure if I can start with baby steps, i.e. looking at pictures, reading about them, learning and attempting to understand them, I will work up from there and actually, eventually, maybe be able to see a live one and possibly even talk to one. I am dreaming, I know, but I am the sort that has to have a goal.

This work was published back in 1980 and is one of the definitive studies of clowns; its history, evolution and state of the art at the time the book was published. This is a large book and is beautifully illustrated with 47 color illustrations and 161 black and white. These illustrations consist of drawings, art reproductions and photographs, all quite well done.

The text takes us through the history of the clown starting with ancient Egypt, China, and India, through the padded buffoons of Greek drama and the dwarfed and deformed figures that made up royal households, to the era of court jesters, and describes their function and role in society and the form of their entertainments. The author then works through the ages until modern times.

Harlequin, the Auguste clown and the white-faced Pierrrot are all there along with the great comic geniuses from Grimaldi, Debureaux, Pickelherring, the Fratelli brothers and then delves into the era of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers among many, many others.

Techniques of these as the evolved throughout the ages are addressed; what was funny then is not necessarily funny now, but on the other hand some of the material is timeless.

The position of the clown in different societies is discussed in full...their role, how they were perceived by the different classes of the different societies they acted their part in. Fascinating stuff, I must say!

The text is very well done in this work and the illustrations are not only beautiful (from my point of view; in a very, very creepy way), and extremely informative. I have absolutely no intention of every becoming an expert on clowns, but I have to admit that much of the information he author offers is very interesting and as a matter of fact, fascinating.

If you have an interest in clowns and their history, this is a wonderful book to own. I personally checked my copy from the library and I do not want to have it in the house or in my sight for any great length of time. I did not sleep well just knowing it was under my roof. I am hopeful though that this may be the first step in my road to recovery.

Don Blankenship

The Ozarks