Bach Goes Cajun

Sean Grissom is a cute, charismatic, tweedy, talkative and talented cellist who takes the already engrossing cello and kicks it up a notch with Cajun tweaking. Many classical musicians will just come to your event, play and leave with nary a word. Sean Grissom will charm everyone at your event from your antsy 4-year-old niece to your overworked, bored businessman.

Internationally known as “the Cajun Cellist,” Sean has performed his unique brand of Country, Cajun, Classical , Swing, and Rock music from the streets and subways of New York City to the concert halls of Europe and the Far East.  “O’Cello” – his hit one-man show – runs the gamut of musical tastes and vaudeville humor.

Witness his genius here.

Sean can also make his cello FANDANGO!

No stranger to the Kennedy Center, Sean has performed as part of the Open House, as well as hosting a ‘Holiday Vaudeville’ show on the Millenium Stage for the past 6 years, and has been a Visiting Artist.

Sean has produced and released eight recordings – his latest being a 20th Anniversary Edition of his first recording “From The Street”.  He has published over 10 original compositions under his “Solo Cello Encore Series”, and an improvisation book “What! For Cello?”.  He is also a popular lecturer, teacher, and clinician.

He holds a B.F.A. degree in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, a Masters in Music Performance from Hunter College (he studied with Channing Robbins of the Juilliard School), as well as an A.A.S degree in Graphics and Advertising from the Parsons School of Design, and completed the Teacher Training program in the ‘Suzuki Approach’ at the School for Strings.

Sean is so appropriate for almost any event, from the most staid of settings to the shock and awe stage. He would be perfect with a quartet or quintet of musicians or on his own, wooing the crowd with his words. So why not let him regale your guests and make even the most cynical ones crack a smile at his unassuming charm?

For more information about Sean Grissom, contact BONGARBIZ at info@bongarbiz.com or (914) 734-1177.

PAINTED LADIES

Monet & Van Gogh Backs

Dancing Picasso and Monet

Send in the Goofs

Send in the Clowns! Serious times call for silly measures, the kind of guffaw out loud laughs you let out as a kid bedazzled by slapstick humor. Our very latest Geeks of the Week are A+ students in the art of silliness, but act more like the bad kids in the back row encouraging you to play hooky. Armed with wicked hijinks, these merry pranksters interlace their performances with whoopee cushions and tacks for the teacher’s chair.

Lucky you, you can catch the NY Goofs this week at the Flea Theater in Hotel Bananas, a collection of “eccentric dance, musical entrees, bad magic, feats of tossing and manipulation (juggling), Godly and unGodly characters, and a lot of very physical comedy.” Need raucous laughter this weekend? Click on the flyer below!

The NY Goofs are a supergroup of the world’s best clowns whose brilliantly choreographed shows show the true nature of clowning as a skilled theatrical art. Unpredictable, absurdist and skilled in the ways of athletic physical comedy, this is the kind of humor that makes you carry away not just short-lived laughs but an affection for the creativity, beauty and power of theater and the people who make it.

Started in May 1998 by Dick Monday and Tiffany Riley, both former faculty members of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, the NY Goofs were created as a community for clowns and physical comedians to develop and hone material while working and growing together as an ensemble.

The talented group soon went on to perform at Carnegie Hall. In the summer of 1999, the NY Goofs started the Ultimate Clown School, with faculty members including Larry Pisoni, the founder of the fabled San Francisco Pickle Circus, teaching character development, Hovey Burgess, often called the godfather of circus, teaching essential skills and history, Jay Stewart teaching makeup and classic clowning, Evelyn Tuths teaching bouffon lessons, and a rotating faculty.

The NY Goofs have since performed at The Kennedy Center, The Museum of Natural History, The River to River Festival, The Flea Theater, The Out of the Loop Festival, The International Children’s Festival, The Little Orchestra Society, Milwaukee’s Summerfest and Lincoln Center’s Reel to Real.

Monday was the Director of the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Clown College, where Riley taught and choreographed as a faculty member. Monday and Riley have also toured with the Big Apple Circus as featured clowns, and Monday has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Rosie O’Donnell Show and in Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown.

Riley is a member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit, and has launched a therapeutic clown program with Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.

The NY Goofs are available to teach workshops for adult and children and to perform at festivals and corporate and private parties. They can crack the glass ceiling of boring company retreats by providing carefully structured yet fantastically creative corporate team building events.

THE BONGAR CHALLENGE AT DOWNTOWN CLOWN

Olivia Lehrman, Kevin C. Carr at Downtown Clown
ⓒ 2009 Jim R. Moore / All Rights Reserved

On Monday, July 20, speed miming, rapid-fire juggling, fleet-footed unicycling and breakneck acrobatics will take their place as new sports in the pantheon of the Clown Olympics.

If a clown competing in THE BONGAR CHALLENGE doesn’t get his or her routine under three minutes, host Michael Bongar’s stooges will yank the poor rube from the glorious bath of the spotlight so that another aspiring ingénue can take the stage.

Contestants are challenged to present material new to the Downtown Clown Revue that is funny, honest and simple, and most importantly, clocks in at THREE MINUTES OR LESS.

SPREAD THE WORD: THE BONGAR CHALLENGE will reward its most brilliant ruddy-nosed winner with a $200 prize and the chance to audition for a spot on late night television.

The showcase will feature much more than floppy oversized shoes and Rudolph noses. Audience members can expect to laugh and maybe even be enlightened by modern clowns keen on hip irony, impressive acrobatics, juggling, magic and unicycling, singing and instrumentation, and inappropriate behavior of all kinds, packaged in short attention span-sized bundles of three minutes each.

This Olympian event will be judged by a very serious panel of the clown elite that dwells high up in the clouds of Clown Olympus, including:

Dick Monday, former director of Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Clown College

Scott O’Donnell, general manager of the Big Apple Circus and former performer with Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus

Eric Davis, a.k.a. the Red Bastard, clown and performer with Cirque du Soleil

Mark Gindick, winner of the Golden Nose award for Best Clown and currently starring with the Big Apple Circus.

THE BONGAR CHALLENGE
Monday, July 20
8:00 p.m.
The Kraine Theatre
85 East 4th Street
Between The Bowery & 2nd Avenue

To sign up for THE BONGAR CHALLENGE, email info@newyorkdowntownclown.com.

For more information about BONGARBIZ, please visit http://www.MichaelBongar.com or contact Michael Bongar at (914) 734-1177 or Michael@BongarBiz.com.