books

Numbers, Scenes and Gags

Baugé, Isabelle (1995) Pantomimes, Cahors : Cicéro Éditions.

Ceballos, Edgar (1999) El Libro de Oro de los Payasos, Mexico D.F.: Escenología. (Note: this is basically a translation into Spanish by Margherita Pavia of Remy’s Entrées Clownesques)

Denis, Dominique (1985) Le Livre du Clown, Strasbourg: Éditions Techniques du Spectacle.

Denis, Dominique (1997) 1.000 gags de clowns, Strasbourg: Magix Unlimited.

Gordon, Mel (1983) Lazzi, New York: Performing Arts Journal.

Lane, Lupino (1945) How to become a Comedian, Frederick Muller.

Musson, Clettus (2003) World’s Best Clown gags, New York: D. Robbins & Co.

Page, Patrick (1977) 150 Comedy Props, Patrick Page.

Rémy, Tristan (1962) Entrées Clownesques, Paris: L’Arche.

Rémy, Tristan (1997) (trans. by Sahlins, Bernard) Clown Scenes, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.

Autobiographies and Biographies

Bellos, David (1999) Jacques Tati, London: The Harvill Press.

Boz and Cruikshank, George (1846) Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, London: Richard Bentley.

Buten, Howard (2005) Buffo, Arles: Actes Sud.

Chaplin, Charlie (1964) My Autobiography, London : The Bodley Head.

Cogollos, José Pavia (2005) El Cuerpo y el Comediante: Chaplin y Keaton, Valencia: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.

Findlater, Richard (1978) Joe Grimaldi: his life and theatre, Cambridge: CUP.

Fisher, John (2006) Tommy Cooper: Always Leave Them Laughing, Lodon: Harper Collins Entertaiment.

Fratellini, Albert (1955) Nous, Les Fratellini, Paris: Éditions Bernard Grasset.

Grock (1931) Life’s a Lark, London: William Heinemann Ltd.

Karandash (1987) Karandash, Moscow: Москва искусство.

Kelly, Emmet and Kelly, Beverly (1996) Clown, New York: Buccaneer Books.

Martin, Steve (2008) Born Standing Up: a comic’s life, London: Pocket Books.

Marx, Harpo (1962) Harpo Speaks! New York : Limelight Editions.

McKinven, John A. (1998) The Hanlon Brothers, Illinois: David Meyer Magic Books.

Patkin, Max and Hochman, Stan (1994) The Clown Prince of Baseball, Texas: WSR Publishing.

Popov, Oleg (1970) Russian Clown, London: Macdonald.

Poliakoff, Nicolai (1962) Coco the Clown: by himself, London: Dent and Sons Ltd.

Rheuban, Joyce (1983) Harry Langdon: The comedian as Meteur-en-Scene, London and Toronto: AUP.

Romanushko, Marga (2008) Leonid Yengibarov: clown eyes of a poet (клоун глазами поэта), Moscow: Москва Гео.

Rumyantseva, N. M. (1989) Clown and Time (Клоун и Время) Moscow:Москва искусство.

Slavskiy, R. (1980) Vitaly Lazarenko, Moscow: Москва искусство.

Webber, Kimberley (1996) Circus!: The Jandaschewsky story, Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing.

History

McManus, Donald (2003) No Kidding!: Clown as Protagonist in Twentieth-Century Theater, Newark: Delaware.

Rémy, Tristan (1945) Les Clowns, Paris: Grasset.

Robbins, Norman (2002) Slapstick and Sausages: the Evolution of British Pantomime, Devon: Trapdoor Publishing.

Schechter, Joel (1985) Durov’s Pig, New York: Theater Communications Group.

Schechter, Joel (1998) The Congress of Clowns and Other Russian Circus Acts, AK Press.

Towsen, John (1976) Clowns, New York: Hawthorne.

Wiles, David (1987) Shakespeare’s Clown, Cambridge: CUP.

Theory and Analysis  

Beeman, William O. (1981) “Why Do They Laugh? An Interactional Approach to Humor in Traditional Iranian Improvisatory Theatre: Performance and its Effects”, in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 94, No. 374, Folk Drama (Oct. – Dec., 1981), 506-526.

Bouissac, Paul (1972) Clown Performances as Meta-semiotic Texts, Language Sciences, 19, 1-7

Bouissac, Paul (1997) The profanation of the sacred in circus clown performances, in Richard Schechner and W. Appel (eds.), By Means of Performance, Cambridge: CUP, p.195.

Goudard, Philippe (2005) Anatomie d’un clown, Vic-la-Gardiole: L’Entretemps éditions.

Little, Kenneth (1993) Masochism, Spectacle, and the “Broken Mirror” Clown Entree: a Note on the Anthropology of Performance in Postmodern Culture, Cultural Anthropology, Vol.8, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), 117-129.

Teaching

Clay, Alan (2005) Angels Can Fly, a Modern Clown User’s Guide, Newtown, Australia: Artmedia Publishing.

Gaulier, Philippe (2007) Le gégèneur/The Tormentor, Paris: Éditions Filmiko.

Wright, John (2006) Why Is That So Funny? London: Nick Herne Books.

Anthropology

Makarius, Laura Levi (1974) Le sacré et la violation des interdits, Paris: Éditions Payot.

Wright, Barton (1994) Clowns of the Hopi, Arizona: Northland.

Applied Clown

Adams, Patch (1993) Gesundheit!, Vermont : Healing Arts Press.

Adams, Patch (1998) House Calls, San Francisco: Robert D. Reed.

Miscellaneous

Miller, Henry and Miró, Joan (1999) La sonrisa al pie de la escala, Barcelona: Circulo de Lectores.

Pierron, Agnes (2003), Dictionnaire de la langue du cirque, Editions Stock.

where to buy clown books

Good clown books are not easy to find. Many are out of print, so below are included some websites that deal in second hand books, particularly in English, Spanish and French, as well where to buy Philippe Gaulier's book direct (in French/English, or Spanish editions).

Iberlibro
Librería Yorick
Alibris (UK)
Filmichko (Gaulier)
Amazon
Amazon France

other resources

blogs and websites


Clown Alley - Pat Cashin's blog, bursting with info, photos, videos and knowledge.
Circo Méliès - full of well-researched articles on cinema and clown, circus and vaudeville, with some excellent video links.
Clownlink - a wide variety of news from the world of clown from a North American perspective.
Clown Brasil - informative clown news from Brazil.
All Fall Down - John Towsen's (author of "Clowns") recently revived blog, with some interesting source material.

films and videos


Baks - a truly outstanding collection of films of clowns (several full-length): Yengibarov, Popov, Beby, Karandash, Grock, etc. (in Russian).

museums and libraries

The Clown Museum (Somerset, UK)

Club de Payasos Españoles y Artistas de Circo

Emmett Kelly Museum

The American Vaudeville Museum