Wednesday, november 1, 1978
page C
daily nebraskan
arts and entertainment
Street corner clqwn helps people forget and smile
By Kent Warneke
Wouldn't it be great to be a clown?
Wouldn't it be great to he able to make
children and adults forget all their prob
lems, and sit back and look at the work
with an amusing perspective?
Wouldn't it be great to be mystified,
entertained, and amused all at the same
time?
performance," Willy said, "and that can be communication without having to say a
a very powerful experience. Because when word, that's the part I love best."
people can look at me and we establish eye "It's hard sometimes to get people to
profile
Mark Willy thinks so. And what better
opinion can you get than from a clown?
Willy began acting as a street comic or
"mime" about one and a half years ago on
the street corners of Lincoln. He has only
recently started a service called "Rent-A-Clown,"
which brings him the distinction
of being one of Lincoln's few, if not the
only full-time clown.
Full devotion
After having spent four years in UNL's
Centennial college, taking courses in drama
and psychology, Willy quit this past semes
ter to devote all of his time to what he calls
"a fascinating and sometimes powerful bus
iness." And although on the exterior being a
clown or mime may appear simple, when
one dons the outfit and makeup of a
clown, one also takes on another personal
ity with it.
"When I put on my make-up and
costume, it's like I'm leaving all my
problems behind and taking on a clown's
ideas and thoughts," Willy said, "And
what's great about that is when it comes
naturally to you, you know that you're
doing a good job.
Mime clown
"The type of clown that I portray is
really a mime character, or a clown that
uses very few or no words during his
If c v'r
P v 3 ft
'Aft a "ft j(i
Photo by Bob Pearson
Mark Willy makes a living clowning around with kids in "a powerful lifestyle."
respond to you, but you just have to be
light-hearted enough to enjoy it anyway,"
"It's usually more of a challenge to get a
favorable response from adults or people
who feel threatened and give off negative
responses to begin with," Willy said.
Whereas children are usually a lot of fun
to work with, they always seem to be so
mystified by clowns."
"You have to have a lot of spontaneous
ability to be a clown, a little music, some
magic or the giving away of imaginary
flowers to ladies can win over an audi
ence," he said.
Willy's "Ren t-A -Clown" service is just
getting started this year and he still is
promoting it.
."I usually try to go out on the streets
and perform at least three times a week
and I'm also trying to promote myself
with Parent Teacher Association's and
campus activities. In fact, I think it would
be great working at a fraternity party,"
Willy said.
Willy's "Rent-A-Clown" service basic
ally promotes Marco (Willy), a clown who
brings a party with him. Marco also juggles,
mimes, plays music, including an innova
tive original composition entitled, "I Want
to be a Clown," uses magic and games.
Price varies
"My price varies a lot, depending on
what kind of event I'm performing at. I've
done performances for grade school kids,
old folks' homes and one for a day care
center, including some freebies," Willy
said.
"Clowning, besides being a lot of fun
for myself, seems to bring out the best in
my audience, also," Willy added ."'Quite a
few times I've found myself sitting back
and letting the audience become clowns
themselves and just watching them."
PBS series portrays Curie as flawed human, not saint
By Pete Mason
As every schoolboy knows, Madame
Curie and her husband discovered the ele
ment radium and laid the groundwork for
the world's entry into the atomic era 40
years later.
What every schoolboy doesn't know is
that Marie Curie was a driven woman who
neglected her health, friends, and occasion
ally her husband and children in the name
of science.
Public television has attempted to fill
those educational holes and bring good
drama to the small screen at the same time.
So far it seems that it has done both admirably.
tv review
brooding manner in the presence of
strangers.
It was Madame Curie's shyness, her
singleness of purpose, which was interpret
ed by others as snobbishness or intellec
tual superiority which made her unpopular
among her contemporaries.
Lapotaire plays Curie in an appropriate
ly subdued manner, shrinking back from
those who wish to talk about the small
things in life, pushing herself aggressively
in those conversations about science, the
only time she is truly in her element.
Marriage problems
In Pierre Curie, Marie found an anchor,
a mature pillar upon which she could lean.
He recognized early her alienation from the
rest of the world, understood it, perhaps
was even intially drawn to it.
In the PBS production, the Curie
marriage is not painted as a particularly
blissful union. Marie often dominates,
guides the destiny of the relationship. It is
her indominability, her single-mindedness
in her quest for the atomic weight of
radium which ' forces Pierre to refuse a
teaching post offered him by a Swiss uni
versity. It is the kind of post he has wished
for all his academic life.
Pierre was concerned with the possible
harmful effects of radioactivity and re
searched the possibilities. Through experi
ments he discovered that constant ex
posure to the radium he and his wife
worked with daily was a real threat to their
liver.
Search, for knowledge
Marie ignored the warnings, even con
vinced Pierre to withhold the evidence of
the harm radioactivity could generate, to
guarantee that they could continue their
research unfettered by costly precautions
or governmental interference. It was a clear
example of how Marie Curie regarded her
priorities. That decision spelled out her
credo: the search for knowledge stands
above all else.
So often the great people of history
are portrayed as beings who are a step
above the rest of humanity. We learn that
George Washington never told a he and
Abraham Lincoln liked blacks and a hun
dred other misconceptions, many of which
are never exposed. It's refreshing to see
persons who helped mold our world por
trayed for what they really were, extra
ordinary human beings with many of the
same faults and weaknesses as all of us.
Marie Curie manages to cut through the
myths and shed some light on the real
. person behind the deeds.
Marie Curie, which airs at 7 pjn. on
Wednesdays on NETV, is the story of the
two-time Nobel Prize winner and foremost
woman scientist in history. Marie, played
by Jean Lapotaire, is shown as single
minded, withdrawn and often indifferent
to everything around her but the task at
hand.
Social life zero
In episode one, Marie is presented as an
over-achieving student at the Sorbonne in
Paris, striving to be the best, often forget
ting to eat, seemingly totally ignorant of
most social amenities.
Lapotaire seems to have become totally
involved in the character she portrays. For
all practical purposes she is Marie Curie,
from her taut, peasant's face to her shy,
Graham dance company to perform here
The Martha Graham Dance Company,
one of the most celebrated modern
companies in the world, will appear at
Kimball Hall tonight.
entertainment
notes
Of all the dancers, choreographers, or
artistic directors in the dance world today,
none is considereed better known or more
admired than Martha Graham. She has
created over 150 works, may of them
undisputed masterpieces. She has trained
generations of modern dancers, and her
present company consists of an interna
tional list of great dancers.
This attraction is financed by the
support of the Nebraska Arts Council and
the National Endowment for the Arts
Dance Touring Program, as coordinated by
Mid -America Arts Alliance.
Four familiar faces and one new one
will be seen on stage when the UNL "in
residence" Nebraska Woodwind Quintet
opens its sixth season with a concert at 8
pjn. Thursday, Nov. 2 in Kimball Recital
Hall, 11th and R.
The familiar faces, widely known by
Lincoln audiences, are David Van de
Bogart, flute; Robert O'Boyle, oboe
Wesley Reist, clarinet, and Gary Echols
bassoon. The new face is French hornist
James Wehrman, who comes to Lincoln
from the University of Indiarria and the
Colorado Philharmonic.
The concert is free and open to the
public.
There will be two student recitals this
week, sponsored by the UNL School of
Music. They are free and open to the
public. Wednesday, De Wayne Hughes (sen
ior, trombone); Greg Sprague (senior,
voice) will perform in Sheldon Art Gallery
Auditorium at 3:30 pjn. Thursday, Ellen
Jipp (senior, voice); Mark Dalka (senior,
trumpet) will perform in Sheldon Art
Gallery Auditorium at 3:30 p.m.