Bobbo the Clown

I just spent an hour watching Bobbo the Clown make people laugh. He's a very funny performer with a non-stop stream of one-liners and surreal balloon creations. Kids, as you can see in the above picture, stand, watch, listen and laugh and when they finally walk away they are wearing big grins as well as funny balloon hats. Bobbo's been doing this for a long time and he does it very well. If you see him, don't just walk by. Trade a few quips and you too will walk away grinning.

Victoria Day Parade

Congratulations to everyone who guessed the answer the yesterday's question correctly. Of course all those people and many more along Douglas Street were awaiting the annual Victoria Day Parade. Victoria Day has always been a special day in this city named after the young queen and the parade contained most of what you would expect, including the Shriner's ever-popular clowns.

Oak Bay Tea Party Parade 2011

What most of us think of as "Victoria" is actually a cluster of smaller entities that are so close together that they are indistinguishable except on paper. One of these is the city of Oak Bay. Oak Bay holds an annual celebration called the Oak Bay Tea Party, unlike its more famed namesake in Boston in that it is so named in honour of the especially tea-drinking, British nature of the city and has a Mad Hatter/Alice in Wonderland theme. It's a very much more neighbourhood style of event than the Victoria Day Parade and the marching bands are local. Below is a taste of the Lambrick Park Secondary School marching band in case you missed the parade. The Tea Party is a two day event that also includes a carnival midway, an air show and bathtub races. We'll see some more of it here later this week.

Clowns - Victoria Day Parade 1

Victoria always celebrates Victoria Day with a parade and over the next few days I will share some of the photographs I took of this year's. To set the mood here's a couple of photos of clowns. They are always always fascinating subjects since there is a double layer to their features - the makeup and the expression underneath it, each giving added depth to the other.

Clown

A classic feature of any parade or fair is a clown. In this part of the world, clowns are most often provided by the Shrine Temple, a voluntary organization that supports children's charities. The clown above, who appeared in the Oak Bay Tea Party parade was, according to the International Shrine Clown Association, an "Auguste" type of clown:

His is the most comic face. His make-up is a flesh color (pink or reddish or tan) instead of white. His features (usually red or black) are exaggerated in size. The mouth is usually thickly outlined with white, which is often also used around the eyes. Outlining is very important. Gradual shading of colors is often used. He will usually have a ball nose, but there are many exceptions.

Clowns have been around for a long time. According to the International Clown Hall of Fame:

First known clown was a pygmy presiding as a court fool at the court of Pharaoh Dadkeri-Assi, Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty. In 1818 BC, one of China’s rulers, neglecting ancient religious rites, filled the court with clowns. His successors restored the rites, but also kept the clowns. One of China’s jesters, Yu Sze, is remembered as a national hero because he saved the lives of thousands of laborers when he kidded the Emperor Shih Huang–Ti out of having the enemy side of the Great Wall whitewashed in 300 BC.