The Snow Clown: Cartwheels on Borders from Alaska to Nebraska

Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

The Bay Area's Jeff Raz presents an entertaining, inside view of his life on the road and at home as a clown, actor, teacher and playwright. Raz explores both ridiculous and profound revelations in his second book about a decades-long clowning career, The Snow Clown: Cartwheels on Borders from Alaska to Nebraska. He notes that as a teacher, a consultant and a medical clown, it takes practice and skill to ask good questions and to be quiet and acknowledge the other person in ways that build rapport. In the following excerpt, Raz has just performed a monologue at the University of Nebraska as his father’s ghost, talking about his suicide. He writes: “The theater is silent. It’s Monday morning … [I’m] determined to let the students talk first. A full minute passes. Another minute. Nebraskans are Olympians when it comes to silence. They win. This is a literature class so I say, ‘Have any of you read …’ A short young woman in a red tracksuit sporting a blond bouffant, interrupts, ‘Did your daddy really kill himself?’” Join us for a discussion on Raz’s life as a performer and the connections he’s made thus far. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Anne W. Smith

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