Calliope CLOWN Head sculpt

One of the things that fascinates me about the 19th Century is the fact that the Clown's of that time period were actually rather scary. I had bought a Carnival Organ for my Show and wanted to top it off with a Olde' looking Clown Head.

We are so used to seeing Bozo the Clown or a Ronald Macdonald sort of Clown... but I wanted to make something a bit more disturbing. 

I have many vintage books on circuses and clowns, and started to look at the type of clown that was used on Carnivals and in circuses from 1870 to 1905. There were many different types, but most were Auguste or Pierott clowns...... and THEN I stumbled upon the 'Grotesque Clown'!

In Europe back in the 19th Century, this clown was actually quite frightening.

The Great George Fox

Sometimes the clown's could be rather serious and pompous, coming across as sinister instead of playful.

So, I wanted a clown head for my Carnival Organ that would reflect that time period.

The sculpt started with a styrofoam ball and some paper clay.

preparing the materials

I took chunks out of the styrofoam ball until I had a rudimentary face.

It don't look like much... yet.

I then began to apply the paper clay to the styrofoam ball and started to sculpt a face. It was pretty rough and simple at first.

He starts to look like a head

The next step was to add some expression to the head that would be the basis to the detail later. His nose was so large it kept falling off during the sculpt, but after around 3 tries it finally cooperated.

He smiles.

I decided that I was going to use glass eyes in his head instead of wooden eyes, because I wanted his eyes to look alive and wet.

Now he can see...

When it came to painting him, I started with a dark purple as a under coat, because I wanted it to come through the lighter colors of paint I was going to add later.

I also added a lower set of acrylic dentures into his mouth, to give him a surreal look, kinda between Alive and Sculpted.

He seems very happy with his color!

And finally, I painted the rest of him and added the details. He is now seen on top of my 120 year old Carnival Organ. I will be bringing the Carnival Organ with me when I set up my Showman's Caravan... so that we have sweet carnival music to listen to during our travels.

My clown is complete!

I have many more projects on the go to get ready for the FIRST summer out with my Showman's Caravan... stay tuned!

Building a Showman's Caravan Part 12

The building of the Last Showman's Caravan in Canada is done.

And NOW, the task of booking and performing the Show goes into high gear!

As promised, I have some exclusive pix of Prof. Crookshank in front of the Showman's Caravan that will be used for advertising purposes. I wanted to let you see them before they become a part of our ad campaign.

I hope one day you will come and visit Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show and enjoy a day of strangeness and whimsy.

Prof. Crookshank welcomes you!

There is nothing like Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show ANYWHERE!!!

The Doctor is IN.

Prof. Crookshank's Miracle Elixer will cure all of your problems!

My Elixer is Not guaranteed for a week, Not guaranteed for a month, Not guaranteed for a year.... not guaranteed for a lifetime. Hell, it's not even guaranteed!

Come and visit me this summer... you won't regret it!

Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show will take you on an adventure down the rabbit hole and beyond the locked doors of sanity. Things are about to get Strange.

Prof. Crookshank is hitching up the horses and starting his journey into your world very soon! Get the kids and Grandma... we are going to have a Hootenanny!!!

Keep up with his adventures and Tours by going too http://www.miracleelixer.com

See you there!!!

all photos taken by Ward Wright

Building a Showman's Caravan Part 11

What an EPIC Day!!!!

TODAY, we finally completed the Last Showman's Caravan in Canada!!!

It was an exciting time, right from when I got up at 8:13am. I showered and drove the 98km. to the Ranch... and lo and behold, Ward and his brother had created an amazing ramp system to help make the moving out process as easy as possible.

Now, remember, the Caravan had been inside of the workshop during the course of the winter. And if you go back and look at the size of the Caravan, compared to the height of the ceiling... you will see that there is only a 3 inch clearance.

Many people have emailed me stating that I had made some sort of logistical building mistake, while working on the Caravan in the workshop... but, Ward and I had it all worked out way back when we first started. And NOW we were going to put the idea to the test. This was a mondo exciting time, because we could see that this could go two ways... and we were hoping that it would be the Positive, Happy Way ;)

Take a look at the first picture, you can see that there is little to no room for mistakes.

The Caravan inside the workshop

The Caravan had to be rolled onto small skids, so that it could be pushed out of the workshop. This was a very tense time as we began to move the Caravan forward.

slowly rolling the Caravan out

Once the Caravan was partially out, we had to place a large iron rolling bar beneath the floor of the Caravan, so that it could roll onto the wood planks outside.

Caravan on rolling bar

We were not out of danger yet, half of the Caravan was still inside of the workshop, and one false move and we could rip off the top of the Caravan!

looking from inside of the workshop (note the ceiling)

What made this process so cool was the fact that Ward and his brother were very calm as they methodically moved the Caravan out of the workshop. And THAT was something that I have not encountered with many people in my past. If this was being done in Toronto, I bet apples to oranges, that there would have been many nervous breakdowns in the first hour of moving the Caravan. But, Ward and his brother were confident with their abilities and they took things nice and slow. I was truly Amazed with how well they worked out all of the problems that had arisen during the initial moving out of the Caravan from the workshop.

rolling the Caravan forward

Over a two hour period, the Caravan was slowly moved out of the workshop.

When it finally cleared the doors, we all felt a sense of accomplishment. PHEW!

Tadahhh!!!!!!

With the Caravan successfully out of the workshop, it now came time to prepare the wagon wheels for attachment. The steering tongue was old and rotted, but Ward fixed it so that it would work for the time being.

preparing the lower end of the wagon

The Caravan had to be winched up by hand, so that the front would be high enough to accommodate the front section wheels.

winching up the Caravan

We took the front of the wagon apart so that we could move it under the Caravan's carriage. The Caravan had to be winched up 3 feet off of the ground, to get the front wheels to fit underneath it.

the front wheels in place

Now we had to winch up the back to get the back wheels into place. Because of the weight of the Caravan we had to pile planks up one by one until it was level with the front.

planks in place for the back wheels

After around an hour of hard work, the back wheels were lowered into place.

We had to dig ruts into the ground to accommodate the back wheels.

placing the back wheels onto the Caravan

The final step was now done! We had the top of the Caravan on the lower end of the wagon, we had been looking forward to this day for 5 months! Huzaaaah!!!!

The Showman's Caravan completed!!!!!

What a GREAT DAY! Ward and his brother and I felt like we truly accomplished something... and it was time for celebrating!

An EPIC Day!

We are very happy with the way the Showman's Caravan has turned out, and now that it is up on its wheels, I will take a few weeks to paint and detail the Caravan even more. But for now, the Caravan is complete!.... or as complete as it can be (we have some wonderful detailing to do now.)

Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show

 Thank you all for taking the journey with us as we built Canada's Last Showman's Caravan! In the past few months we have had people checking out the Blog from Germany, Japan, England, France, Italy, China, the USA, Canada and many other great countries.  Over 3800 people have checked in during the past month alone!

I will be posting more pix of the Showman's Caravan with Prof. Crookshank in front of it in the next little while... so stay tuned! And don't forget to visit http://www.miracleelixer.com for all of the Tourdates and adventures as we take the Caravan out this summer to various Carnivals, Festivals and Events!

A BIG thank you goes out to Ward Wright and Paul Huether,for making this Dream happen!

The adventure continues......

Building a Showman's Caravan Part 10

Well, here we are... close to completion of Canada's Last Showman's Caravan!

After 5 months of toil and hard work, we are finally making the last lap to victory.

It is amazing how much the Caravan has changed since its inception. I always had a clear idea in my head as to how the Caravan would look... but as we played with the build and toyed with the concept it became more and more of a beautiful and strange contraption. Old ideas were thrown out the window as form and function began to dictate what should go where. 

As you know, because you have been following the progress from day one... this Showman's Caravan was going to be different. And as we kept adding more and more detail to the Caravan, I found many different ways to make it whimsical, strange and interesting. Because of my background in Sideshow and Freakshow's, I have brought to the table some rather eccentric deviations to the Caravan concept.

These next pix are a bit of a spoiler for many of you before it is completed, because you are seeing the Caravan almost finished... but NOT up on the carriage wheels yet.

The last step happens tomorrow.... and then the Showman's Caravan will be completed, except for some minor cosmetic details, once it is moved outside.

And so, here it is... the bulk of the Caravan done.... ENJOY!

The doors to the Miracle Elixer Distillery

With the doors completed, I wanted to make the inside of the doors functional... so Ward and I added some shelves and a couple of extra details. I also wanted some old Medical styled charts that I could elude to during the show... so, I put them into the doors.

A peek at the finished Miracle Elixer Distillery

The back porch was alot of fun to work on, because there was so much detail that could be added to make the porch a nice little nook to hang out on when the show was not going on.

The back Porch door

The railings were to be as ornate and colorful as any Circus wagon from the past.
But I still wanted the colors to be deep and rich in tone. And the overall look to be well used and weathered.

Porch railings painted and aged

The back door had to look like it had seen a century of use... so, we used old barn wood and searched for antique iron door hinges and it was fortuitous that Ward had an old iron door handle from his grandfathers house. I wanted the lock on the door to be large and old... so, I found on Ebay, a lock that was over 100 years old in perfect working condition.

close up of door handle and lock

The front riding area had to look as good as the back, so we designed a nice little window with shutters and added riding lanterns to the sidewalls. Both the front and back have tin ceilings. But the best part of the front is the Screaming Banshee Skull that Ward and I created. (the skull has been detailed even more since this photo was taken)

upper portion of front drivers area

And finally, a pic of me and Ward standing in front of the 'almost' finished Showman's Caravan. 

Me and Ward after a long day and night of work.

It is almost done... the final lap is coming around the corner and we are excited to unveil the Last Showman's Caravan in Canada very soon! Stay tuned!!!

The FINAL CHAPTER is coming NEXT Blog!

Making a Vaudeville Comedy Prop

I have created, painted and built my productions from scratch.

One of the things that excites me about New Projects, is the need to make interesting props and backdrops that will take the audience on that extra special journey into my World of Strangeness.

I had decided to make a prop for Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show that I had once made 20 years ago (but sadly is gone now)

I call the prop, 'The Disgruntled Customer'.

It started with a wig head...

wig head with a liddle carved out of it

 

 

I then laid down some plasticine onto the wig form to create a rudimentary face.

Face taking shape

NOW, the fun reeeeally begins!

I made up a batch of paper mache .... that's right kids... Paper Mache!

And started to apply it to the sculpt. The process was slow one, because I had to let each layer dry as I went along.

around 13 layers were applied

As day became night, I worked on.... the next step was to put the glass eyes into place, before any more detail could be added to the sculpt.

I took this photo without a flash, I like to work in muted light.

I then sculpted on top of the paper mache, a paper clay polymer. This was used to create detail and flesh out the face.

he starts to become a character

After around a day and a half, he was ready for painting.

Head dry and ready for paint

The next step was to paint the under color, always moving from darkest to lightest.

and so the painting begins...

Once the yellow ochre was dry, I added a lighter skin tone over it, keeping the wrinkles and crevices darker.

and now some light color

 Finally, I added to the face, more color to create detail and depth.

face almost done

And finally he gets put onto a fancy stand and is given clothing. Now he works for me in my show :)

NOW That's one Disgruntled Customer!

Play Laugh Learn

Building a Showman's Caravan Part 9

As we draw closer to completion, the next big step is to add the detailing and age the painting on the Caravan. One of the things I wanted to make sure was, if you got reeeeal close to the Caravan, it would still look like it was over a 100 years old.

Lower Trim on sides of Caravan

Everything was well thought out months before we got to the final lap, so that nothing would be left to chance. I had studied aging and fauxing paint for many years and wanted to make sure that everything was as perfect as possible to my sensibilities.

I have studied film and how they aged props and sets for period style movies, and I have always been fascinated in how the people in Bali and Indonesia create furniture and sculptures that look 100's of years old.... yet were made in the past year.

My signs, my paintings... everything had to feel old, worn and archaic.

wooden lettering aged

One of the things I felt was needed for Prof. Crookshank, was a Oval framed portrait of the character on the side of the Caravan. So, the first thing we did was design a oval frame to work with.

wooden frame designed and cut out

Next I kicked back in my studio and began painting my self portrait. I wanted the painting to be whimsical and wreak of the Victorian mysticism that permeated my past work.

painting half finished

Once the painting was finished, I brought it back to the ranch and we attached it to the Caravan. Once again, I spent time re-working the frame and adding some aging process to the whole piece once it was permanently attached in its place.

Prof. Crookshank portrait in place

Even more details are being added this week as we prepare to finally add the top portion of the Caravan to the lower wheel portion. The last Showman's Caravan in Canada is almost complete!

The Story continues in Part 10

Carnival Diablo is now 19 Years Old!!!

It seems like yesterday that I walked into the old Liquor Board Building in Calgary Alberta and decided that I was going to open a Stationary Tourist Attraction.

It was February of 1992 and I was looking for a rehearsal space to practice my Medicine Show. I bumped into a well known eccentric character while waiting for a traffic light to change in downtown Calgary.His name was Fred Hollis, Fred was well known in the entertainment sector. So, I decided to strike up a conversation with him while we were walking. 

I had told him that I was looking for a space to rehearse my Medicine Show, and he said he knew a guy that was running a Gallery in the old Liquor Board Building downtown and may have some space in the back. That sounded good, so Fred and I set up a meeting to see the space. When we got there the curator, Minon Classen greeted us and showed us the back area of the building behind the Gallery. It was a large space, wide open and relatively clean. I struck up a deal with Minon to use the back area for rehearsal and commenced to set up my show for practice. I went there every day to work on my show and tinkered with new routines and ideas, trying to make my Medicine Show the best it could be.

Strangely, everyday that I was there I would always look to my right and see a rickety set of stairs that went up to an old painted Red Door. It was weird to see this door, never used and shining like a beacon every time I entered the room. ( it never really had a shine, but was certainly a mystery)

After about a week of rehearsing, I decided to ask Minon what the Red Door led too.

He told me that it was just an empty warehouse space, unused for over 20 years.

I asked him if he had a key to the door, and he said that he could get one. And so, the next day Minon and I went walking up the old rickety steps towards the Red Door.

There was an old lock keeping it shut and slowly Minon put the key in the lock and gave it a turn. The lock clicked and the Red Door swung open, revealing a palatial warehouse space almost a block long, with 14 foot ceilings. At that moment, everything came into perspective and I decided to create a Stationary Tourist Attraction that would house my grandfathers collection of FREAKS and Anomalies.

It was Amazing! The place was perfect for my idea and HUGE!

I asked Minon if I could rent the upper half of the building and he said YES!

I knew from the day I saw the space that I would call it Carnival Diablo, because I loved the idea of people coming to play at the Devil's Carnival.

I started to move my stuff into the building in late February and began putting the word out that I was going to open a large Freak Museum and Sideshow Attraction.... the people came out of the wood work wanting to help in any way they could. I had carpenters, painters and artisans all wanting to help see this project happen.

A friend whose father worked at the Palliser Hotel (the Hotel Queen Elizabeth stayed at whenever she was in Calgary) had donated twelve 15 foot curtains from the Hotel that could be used for Freak Artifact installations. An old Circus carpenter came out of retirement to build grandstand seating for the stage show and the chief electrician for the Andrew Loyd Webber play The Phantom of the Opera, did all of the electrical. Plus, the Calgary Planetarium, created a star chamber in the ceiling, so it looked like you were outside while in doors.

My design for the interior was rather extravagant, as we created what looked like an out door set of an old 19th Century Carnival. It was quite the undertaking. When you first entered, the first thing you came to was our concession stand, which was designed to look like an old Gypsy Caravan. Next to the concessions was Clown Alley, which housed old Victorian Carnival Games of Skill... and as you turned the corner you came to a large archway sign that said 'Carnival Diablo'... and you entered the Victorian Carnival Freakshow. The lane was set up with old Victorian street lamps and each major exhibit has its own environment. At the end of the lane was the stage show which played nightly 6 days a week.

I had over 120 Freak Exhibits on show and also Live Entertainment ranging from Celtic Bands to Living naked Human Statues painted white that would stand for 4 hours without moving. Every Tuesday was Movie night and I would show a strange and obscure Horror film or Animated Feature on my grandfathers Edison Projector.

The first Carnival Diablo article and it was BIG!

Click on article to make bigger

 We were open Tuesday thru Sunday from 5pm to 5am, and saw many people visit after midnight. This was the biggest, non-licensed Entertainment venue in Calgary and it had a strong underground following.

click articles to make larger

The shows at night were first performed solo by me, but as the first month wore on, I decided to train people to become Human Marvels.... and so, Carnival Diablo the Ultimate Sidehsow was born!

a rare photo of me opening Carnival Diablo 1992

This was the beginning of Carnival Diablo's history, and it has morphed and changed many times over the past 19 years. I have trained over 40 professional Sideshow Performers since I started my Sideshow in 1992. And I have created many attractions since the inception of Carnival Diablo.

As I move closer to my 20th year in the Sideshow industry, I have even larger and more extravagant plans ahead!

Here's to all of the people that helped make Carnival Diablo such a Great success and also a BIG THANK YOU to all of our dedicated fans for staying loyal for so many years!