The Glories of Gloria Revue

By: Mooky Cornish
(Who created the show and directed it is not given.)
From: Canada ( Guest teacher at the Clown Conservatory and worked with Cirque du Soleil .)

Clowns first of all must always be there in the world they create and be there totally. I want to be taken into their world, which is totally real for them, and believe everything they are doing. With the show that I saw it missed that element. The funniest part was an audience volunteer that Mooky knew whose first language was not English trying to read words in English. He was wonderful and totally real. Yes sometimes an audience member can turn a show around at least for a moment – but one needs to know how to carry that new energy on. But there were a few major obstacles that caused problems for the show. They were the set and costumes, which is a major part of the show.

Costumes looked big and expensive and there were countless costume changes. The changes took so long Mooky played dvd’s of old performers, great veteran vaudevillians. Many times she announced their names like they were part of her show– she also used modern era television show dancers. This was to fill in time during her costume changes. Having costume changes in a show is great, many costume changes can be wonderful and great performers can do these changes in seconds. Because the changes took so long it would be good to see something more creative done with the problem. The set looked very nice and looked was very complicated as well and to deal with.

Once I did Saturday Night Live; there is twice as much material as needed for the show. The piece I was in was complicated big set. Funny but complicated and someone that had done several shows told me we will be cut. I asked why. Because the complicated set pieces always get cut. They were right. Simple can be a very hard place to get to.

The clown show Burnt Umber did one thing very right which I love to see…and shows appreciation for everything that was done and thanking all of the people and companies that have been involved in any way to create the show. They had a great program; half of a piece of paper that credits everyone. I wanted to see a program with credits for The Glories of Gloria Revue for who made the costumes, who made the sets, credit for all the film clips and the names of everyone in the films, music credits etc. When you use other people’s talents to create a show – give them credit it goes a long way. Give yourself credit for what you did. People want to know. This is not only for this show but several shows can used a simple program to give credit to people involved.

Next show: Wednesday October 24 at 9PM, Saturday October 27 at 8 PM and Sunday October 28 at 3:30 PM
By Stanley Allan Sherman