Random Celebrity Photos! Vol. Two: Lou Jacobs & Frosty Little

OK, these folks only qualify as celebrities if you are a big circus fan or even scarier, a big fan of circus clowns. However, these two guys are pretty well known by their faces alone and since I rarely post anything about my clown days, I thought I'd share these.

Lou Jacobs was a circus clown for as long as anyone could remember. For all I know he was created by God on the 8th day and then some time afterwards He created the circus. In any event, this guy was in the circus biz most of his life. He entertained untold millions of people and was a staple of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Aside from his countless gags and routines which made him a legend in the business, he was in the film, The Greatest Show on Earth. His very famous clown persona was featured on a postage stamp, making him the only living person to be on a U.S. postage stamp at the time. During his lifetime he came to be known as the world's most famous living clown.

I came to know Lou when I was a student at the Ringling Bros. Clown College in 1988. He was still an active performer, though he was for all intents & purposes, retired. Funny thing about circus lifers, they're all "retired in between gigs". Every year he would come in to pass along some of his genius about the business and teach the students about the art of clowning.

I cannot lay claim to any life-altering friendship with the man. I enjoyed what little time I got to spend with him and he was always very nice to me. He'd answer all my questions and offer advice whenever possible. About the only good story I can share about our time came when we were preparing gags for the big "final exam" show.

I was working out the details of a walkaround gag (a gag where clowns stroll around the ring, stopping at intervals to quickly entertain a section of the audience before moving on). This gag was kind of unusual, but I won't go into the boring details about what was involved with costuming, timing, etc. If I can find the photos of me in the suit I'll post them and explain later.

Anyway, this was a gag that centered around a quick-change on my part and I had to make everything work well at the exact time as well as express some sort of character and emotion while in this thing. Lou told me in his thick accent that these types of gags are among the hardest to pull off and I should expect to work a lot to get it right.

When the time came for all the students to debut the walkaround gags for criticism from the master, I was among the most nervous, as was my partner. We went in, performed the gag a few times, and awaited critiques. After watching the gag a few times he pulled me and my partner over to him. Expecting the worst I was surprised to hear that we "did it perfectly" . He then looked at me and said one of the highest compliments I could have received, given the source, "You got it. You KNOW funny!"

At Clown College they always had one day set aside where Lou would don his famous face and attire and pose for photos with all the fledgling clowns. That is where I got this snapshot. Notice the grey cap I'm wearing. I stole that from my dad and he was always bugging me about that.

Moving along with the circus theme, I have a photo of me, in character, alongside a guy who could probably lay claim to being the current most famous living clown, Frosty Little.

Frosty is a great guy and he's got more of the funniest show business stories than anyone else I can recall. He, like Lou Jacobs, is responsible for creating some of the all-time greatest circus gags and is something of a genius in the funny biz.

He was the guy that you would have to impress when creating those walkaround gags. I never got a single walkaround gag of mine approved by him and therefore they were never produced. I have no idea who wrote the gag I performed for the big show, but I always considered it a failure of mine that I never got Frosty's approval on something I wrote.

Of course, every full-length stage gag I wrote was accepted and performed in the big show and at least one was approved by show owner & producer, Kenneth Feld, for use in the touring Ringling show. So at least I had that going for me. I suppose I'll have to dig out photos of "The Pizza Gag" for you later.

Once again, I have no great lasting bonding moments or stories to share. I do have this photo and some good recollections of Frosty being a very likeable man with a great sense of humor. About all I can do is share this photo and leave you with the words Frosty scrawled on all of my walkaround gag submissions.

"No. See me. -Frosty-"