All posts by Rich Potter

About Rich Potter

Rich Potter's formative years were spent dreaming and drawing. Undiagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder until his 40s, his travels have spanned 22 different countries. His appearances in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and on The Late Show with David Letterman weren't interesting enough, so one year, he completed a painting every day. Now he writes, performs comedy and produces a monthly clown cabaret in Washington DC. And other stuff, too.

Circus and Politics

Happy First of May!

The First of May is, in circus tradition, considered the first day of the year wagons will be able to make it along the trails without gettting stuck in the mud. The beginning of earning season! People who wanted to be part of the circus found this the best entry point. As in any job, the new hires are the greenest. The least experienced. The “dumbest” when it comes to the ways of the circus, which has many specific customs, methods, dangers, vernacular phrases, and other idiosyncrasies. The new hires are known as “First of Mays,” and as human nature can often be, when they inevitably mess up (or get pranked upon), they provide entertainment for the more experienced cast/crew.

In March of 2019, our nation was in the throes of a very distasteful political climate. As a former circus performer, I found myself feeling trauma to my psyche every time “Circus” and “Washington DC” were put into the same sentence. I poured my anguish into a meme, which resonated with my extended circus family all over the world and got shared thousands of times on social media. I guess it touched a nerve.

So as a shameless, but lazy self promoter, I share it here for the web, where social media doesn’t go so search engines can make me famous again. Have at it, Googlebots!

Photo of Lou Jacobs, beloved, iconic Ringling Bros. circus clown for over 60 years.

Text for accessibility:
People keep referring to happenings in Washington DC as a circus.
For the record, I worked for Ringling Bros.for a significant part of my career.
Everything was run tightly and efficiently with no room for bullshit.
(well, there was every other type of shit, but only in the literal sense)
Furthermore, a circus is made up of people from all over the world: male, female, straight, gay … We worked hard, were tough as nails, and we looked after each other.
Artists, athletes, lighting/sound techs,vendors, riggers, prop handlers, train crew, and shit shovelers all worked together for a common goal.
If this country were run like a circus, our problems would disappear overnight.

Hello, New York!

So, about 3 months ago, The Wife and I packed up our cats and moved to Brooklyn, NY, after nearly a lifetime in Maryland.

Rich next to grafitti reading, "The Rich Killed NYC"
I didn’t do it!

Three months. And I’m still unpacking. But then, we were in the house in Maryland for 24 years and I never fully unpacked there either, so…

My first act as a New Yorker was to rent a storage locker.

The Wife and I refer to it — not as something cute like “the shed,” or “the garage,” or “the attic,” but rather, “The Saviour.” Without it, we’d be crucified (or at least squashed akimbo) by all the plastic tubs full of our worldly, semi-useful belongings. As it is, I’m struggling to find wall in my tiny apartment office (which a couple New York friends have called “palatial.”) And our previous house was tiny, by suburban Maryland standards.

Since moving, I’ve been knocking on doors, meeting people, buying coffees, and exploring shows and venues. I’ve done some performing, including some traveling back to Maryland for extant gigs.

In Big Apple, however I’m gathering much information about what opportunities exist in this city of 8.6 million people, but there’s still a few fire hoses to drink from. Probably the most notable work I’ve done is a number of dates with The National Circus Project, teaching circus skills to children. Not the end goal, but honest work.

More later; just saying hi to the blogosphere. So hi!

013 Trees, WW1, and Ketchup

A walk in the woods with nothing to say delves into trees, poetry, WWI, world culinary and etymological history, and a fart joke.

 

012 My Renaissance History

A little navel-gazing about how I got started in the Renaissance Festivals as an awkward teenager with almost no performing experience.

These exploits include finding funny things to say, funny things to do, what things are not funny, and my shoulder-brushing with three people who went on to become celebrities.

011 Renaissance Man of Fortunes

This time Rich explores an ongoing gig, working as a frontman for a fortune telling booth at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Looking at crowd work, salesmanship, and the dilemma between the art and the mission.

010 Comedy in Prison

So last week, I went to perform my comedy/juggling act a local juvenile detention center. At first, I thought it would be immigrant teens separated from their parents at the border. The revolving door quality of the facility makes it difficult to predict who will be in at any given time. All that could be counted on is the age: 14-17 year olds. Not my typical demographic, but I jumped in with both feet anyway, to “give back” to some who may not normally be exposed to the type of entertainment that I do. Hat tip to Alain Nu, the Man Who Knows, for connecting me to  the fledgling program.

009 Teaching the Circus

I spent the last couple weeks teaching at a summer youth circus camp. Some insights into learning theory, comedy theory, childlike thinking, and a touch of scatology.

008 Blues Brothers, Belushi and Clowns

We explore the “Clown’s Eye view” of classic comedy movie, “The Blues Brothers,” (1980) and look at some of the ways that this modern era movie touches on timeless clown archetypes and situations going back hundreds, if not thousands of years.

007 Labor of Love

This time, Rich is tired, semi-coherent, and is barely vertical. On the plus side, it’s the shortest podcast to date. Tune in next week when he’s more awake.

Recorded while walking down the double yellow lines down the middle of his neighborhood’s main road at midnight. A couple edits were to remove the sound of two moving cars encountered during the recording.

Action podcast!