I’m very into clowns. No, not in that way! And not all clowns. I have no affinity for scary clowns like Pennywise, serial killers who dress as clowns, or jam-faced yama-yamas wearing PJs, adorned with a rainbow wig and ratty tennis shoes while acting the fool outside a car wash. But I do like real, professional clowns, those highly-trained, ridiculously skilled, and remarkably funny jesters who landed in Las Vegas to hone their craft on and off the Strip. There have been many over the years and a lot of them are formally trained! (Did you know Penn Jillette was a clown college grad?)
Spiegelworld is the current big name on this front, but many similarly themed compendiums of crazy-good have graced stages of different sizes in our community. What started for us with the Gazillionaire and Penny Pibbets at Absinthe has expanded to a list of countless great performers who borrow from the true clown tradition and make it their own with an injection of outrageous humor, naughtiness, and a brash approach to the human condition. The sadly short-lived Mavericks at Cheapshot was another example of where true-at-heart clowns, with skills from sword swallowing and juggling to you-wouldn’t-believe-it, could light up a room.
The Cirque du Soleil practice of featuring clowns in both the preshow and main productions is another great glimpse into this world. From the original Mystere clowns, Francois Dupuis and Benny LeGrand, to the multi-talented Jimmy Solnina, Cirque has showcased a deep roster of clowns in and out of the show who truly work for their money.
No surprise, Circus Circus also has a long tradition of top clowns roaming the grounds, including the storied Blinko of my youth and a ragtag crew from the late 1990s that wound up being part of my close social circle — if only those house parties were recorded. These are the folks whose names you may not recognize, but who charmed and warmed hearts for almost a decade. Many have quietly folded into our community but their impressions, literal and figurative, will last a lifetime.
