Clown

A clown follows 4-year-old Heidi Miller yesterday at Penn's Landing, where more than 300 fishing boats, runabouts, cruisers and sailboats were showcased at an in-water boat show this weekend.

BATAVIA, N.Y. - A Massachusetts man whose colorful golf attire was briefly mistaken for a clown outfit has been charged in New York with driving a golf cart while drunk. The Genesee County sheriff says authorities got a report that someone dressed as a clown was operating a stolen golf cart in the western New York town of Batavia on Sunday night. Deputies found 37-year-old James Straub, of Stoneham, Mass., driving along a road. He wasn't dressed as a clown - just wearing some colorful clothing after an outing at Terry Hills Golf Course.

Al Rios, a three-year veteran of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, clowned around yesterday at Joseph Leidy Elementary School in the city's Parkside section. He talked about community and teamwork. The circus comes to town June 1.

DALLAS - Nick Rainone found his identity in face paint and clown shoes. His father is a clown. His mother was a clown. His fate, it seemed, was set from the beginning. But as a teenager, Rainone rebelled. He joined a punk rock band, got some bad tattoos, and began running from his parents' influence, only to find that what gave him the most happiness was the laughter of others. He found it again on a recent Friday when he earned a chance to become a traveling clown with the Ringling Bros.

A hush fell over the room. A brightly painted clown face peered through a slit in the curtain. "Is anybody ready to get started?" the clown asked. "Yes," the young crowd said. "Let's try it again. Is anybody ready to get started?" "Yeeees," the children shouted as their eyes grew and smiles widened in anticipation. "I can't hear you," the clown teased. "Yeeeessss!" they screamed, unable to contain themselves any longer. The clown bounced onto the stage as the children jumped to their feet, whooping and gasping with joy. The clown, who called himself Cowboy Mike, rode into Pennsauken on Wednesday with a message for the youngsters at St. Cecilia's Catholic School.

The great ones defy the traffickers in words by the very breadth of their lives - where does one grab hold of them when it comes time to explain who they were and what they were? Where does one begin an appreciation of John Birks Gillespie? How does one hug a mountain? The easy way is to start with his humungous cheeks. Dizzy was the answer to every photographer's prayer the instant he addressed his jauntily cantilevered trumpet and put those natural twin bellows to work. One of life's more perplexing mysteries is why Eastman Kodak never gave him the key to Rochester for inspiring the sale of literally millions of miles of Super-X film.

Because female clowns are a new development in movement theater, one would anticipate a sameness in their approach. The surprise of Movement Theater International's program of three female clown acts last night at International House was its utter diversity. Gardi Hutter, wearing an outrageous costume and a champion of the pratfall, was a traditional clown. Julie Goell's act was a dramatic narrative replete with song and dance. And Tanya Belov worked like a stand-up comedian. Even though I was able to see only the first part of Belov's routine (because of press deadlines)

A lot of clowns went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art yesterday. Some were professional. And the rest were . . . OK, no jokes. The rest of the clowns were kids. The occasion was the opening of a major art exhibit, a serious art exhibit. But that was not obvious from the sight of mimes and jugglers and a clown on stilts, working on the broad, high piazza that fronts the museum. It was not obvious from the sight of kids and their parents inside, sitting in waves up the grand formal staircase, watching other jugglers and other mimes, all weavers of fantasy.

By a happy stroke of programming, satirist Paul Zaloom and clown Kenny Raskin turned up in the same place Saturday night to give an International Movement Theater Festival audience a sampling of the New Vaudeville from different points of its compass. Their appearances on the stage of the MTI Tabernacle Theater in University City was a one-time-only event, which is too bad. Surely there is a sizable public in Philadelphia for such top-drawer talent. I mean, look how successful Penn & Teller were downtown earlier this season.

Shobo, Shady, Polka, Dot, and the rest of Kapo's Gang begin their monthly meeting at a Cherry Hill church with a prayer. Then the fun starts. "Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha," the 20 or so professional clowns chant in a circle, practicing Laughter Yoga with a visiting instructor (and civilian), Melanie Galioto. The mostly middle-aged men and women are not in costume or in character, but soon enough everybody is laughing spontaneously, including me. Especially me. "You're like a big cartoon character," observes Mark St. Marie, 50, a Philadelphia firefighter who lives in the city's Bridesburg section and performs as Buster T. Clown.

A is for April, A is for ambitious, A is for Awesome Fest. Throwing a first-anniversary bash for itself - and for genre film/midnight movie/doc-centric Philly audiences - the Awesome Fest is basically taking over the month, mounting screenings in Chinatown and Fishtown, Penn's Landing, Old City, and University City. "It's a birthday party celebration, and we really want to kick off these festivities with a bang," says Josh Goldbloom, the fest's tireless founder and artistic director.

  Zion Spearman tried not to laugh as a costume artist smeared white makeup over his face and painted his lips gold. The 10-year-old noticed a box of red foam clown noses on a table at the Sheraton Hotel in Center City, where participants in the annual Thanksgiving Day parade gathered in the predawn hours to prepare for their march. "Do we get the ones that squeak?" he asked. Zion was one of 22 children who led the first crew of clowns in the city's 92d annual parade Thursday.

TERRELL OWENS recently told ESPN's Stephen A. Smith that he was retiring, then quickly added, "I wish today was April 1st, April Fools, because I just got you. " The funnyman went on to say he expected to be playing in the NFL in "a month or less" and will "be even better next year. " The only problem is he's a free agent without a team. The 37-year-old Owens, who played for the Bengals last season, had surgery on a torn ACL in April. When asked what a team would get if it signed him, Owens replied, "They gonna get the T.O. that they expect.

BATAVIA, N.Y. - A Massachusetts man whose colorful golf attire was briefly mistaken for a clown outfit has been charged in New York with driving a golf cart while drunk. The Genesee County sheriff says authorities got a report that someone dressed as a clown was operating a stolen golf cart in the western New York town of Batavia on Sunday night. Deputies found 37-year-old James Straub, of Stoneham, Mass., driving along a road. He wasn't dressed as a clown - just wearing some colorful clothing after an outing at Terry Hills Golf Course.

ALLENTOWN - A woman who donned a clown suit and robbed a bank a year ago was ordered Friday to spend two to 10 years in prison. Carolyn Williams, 44, was sentenced in Northampton County Court. She pleaded guilty in June to a felony robbery charge. Williams made off with about $7,000 after wearing a garish outfit, red nose, and rainbow wig into a Bethlehem Township bank last August and saying she had a bomb. - AP

Florence "Flossie" A. Picariello, 61, known for her work as a volunteer clown, died of brain cancer Tuesday, July 5, at her Bensalem home. Mrs. Picariello donned a blue wig and costume and, using the name Blue, did clown ministry at churches and charity fund-raisers in the Philadelphia area. She was president of the Mid-Atlantic Clown Association for three years, until 2008. In 2009, Mrs. Picariello won the association's Clowntarian Award for organizing the annual conventions of the roughly 300-member group, according to Sandi Smith, the treasurer and a longtime friend.

There's nothing funny about dressing like a clown to rob a bank, says an Eastern Pennsylvania prosecutor. "I'm going to ask for the maximum sentence," which is 20 years, said Patricia Mulqueen, assistant district attorney for Northampton County. Last Aug. 6, someone with a rainbow wig, a red nose, whiteface, striped socks and a riotously colored frock walked into a KNBT Bank in Bethlehem and, warning of a bomb, demanded cash. Within a couple of hours, police found Carolyn A. Williams in a nearby park, smoking in the getaway car with clown clothes and makeup, more than $7,000, a phony bomb, two real guns, and a big excuse: Men said they'd hurt her kids if she didn't pull off the heist.

There are indeed parallels to be drawn between training pit bulls for dogfighting and soldiers for war. The Kevin Augustine-helmed Lone Wolf Tribe, in its production of Hobo Grunt Cycle , takes an unusual approach to connecting these dots, while adding a few extra in the form of life-sized puppets and clowns. The results - maddening, touching, manipulative, ridiculous, often all at once - highlight Augustine's considerable artistry, while simultaneously showcasing his equally considerable hubris.

"Higher, higher!" the kids squealed, peering up from the marble floor of the Franklin Institute at a bumbling clown who had just launched a rotating spool into the air from a tightly pulled string. The students were watching physics in action. "Higher," they pleaded, until the clown launched the prop, known as a diabolo, again, about 50 feet high this time, towards the lofty, ornate glass and stone ceilings of the Ben Franklin Memorial hall. As they applauded, the students yelped and laughed, and with any luck picking up a little science in the process.