Marmalade Arrives
I started to play a talking clown called ‘Marmalade’ for making balloon animals, painting faces and busking at the Forks Market.
In this issue: I used to busk by putting out a hat for donations. At first there were dollar bills and two-dollar bills. Then there were Loonies and eventually Toonies. Time went faster for Marmalade because she was only out on weekends. I would also get gigs through entertainment agencies and rove as Marmalade (do walk-about) at festivals. Marmalade wore a polka-dot shoe and a red shoe. Her statement – ‘It’s okay to be different.’ Commedia dell’arte was a form of improvisational clowning that inspired me. Back in Wolseley, the food at Mrs. Lipton’s was delicious. I would spend my tips at the end of the day on chocolate cheesecake. Butter, sugar, cocoa and cream cheese, mmmmm good.
Marmalade and the Formal Wedding
I accepted a clown gig for a woman’s daughter’s wedding reception. She wanted the clown to make balloon animals for the children to keep them busy. Seemed simple enough.
Marmalade arrived with her bicycle pump and balloons at a Wedding Centre in Fort Garry. It was difficult to find the event but given directions, Marmalade stumbled into the right room. The guests were dressed in formal attire, sitting around round tables, drinking wine and eating an elaborate dinner. The head table was on a stage at the front of the room. The beautiful bride, groom and family, were all looking exquisite. Everyone stopped and stared as Marmalade the clown waltzed in and stopped still in the middle of the room. Marmalade had on her bright yellow smock, patched pants and floppy hat. She stood frozen, like a deer in the headlights.
I thought, “Oh my goodness, there’s no kids here. What am I going to do? These people don’t want balloons. Go mime,” I said to myself. “Play what you’re feeling.”
So, Marmalade looked around like she was a stranger who had just landed on the moon and they laughed. She went up and curtsied to the bride and gestured that she would make a balloon for her. Marmalade lifted the pump to make a balloon and it broke. (“Go with it,” I told myself.) Marmalade tried to fix the pump and got into a bigger mess until finally she managed to blow up a pink heart. Indicating that this was for the bride, she twisted two love birds, attached them to the pink heart and with great ceremony, presented them to the bride. With much laughter and applause, the guests responded and the ice was broken.
From out of nowhere, children came bounding, demanding balloons. With a sigh of relief and a thankful prayer to the clown gods, Marmalade sat down and engaged with the children. When she was done, Marmalade waved goodbye to many smiles.
I received a phone call the next week, thanking me for my wonderful contribution to the wedding. I could only shake my head. Poor Marmalade, when she takes off in her station wagon, she never knows where she is going to land.
Popcorn Philosophy - Musing the Ridiculous
The clown’s perspective is ridiculous – or is it? Marmalade wore a polka-dot shoe and a red shoe. Her statement – ‘It’s okay to be different.’
The world of the imagination, that which is meta-physical, is manifested in the physical comedy of the clown. The clown may be engaged in an ordinary task like painting faces at the Forks Market in Winnipeg, as my clown did, but at the same time the clown can engage the audience in an imaginary reality. By my clown’s presence I am saying, “Imagine that I am a clown and that I live in a place with other clowns like me and we do silly things – that don’t always make much sense”. The clown comes to represent the irrational world, a liminal, mythical clown world of imagination and emotions. To the children, often my presence as a clown fits into their view of reality, and they question whether I am an actual imaginary entity. When the families came to pat and feed Pierrot’s imaginary dog, I felt like they had accepted the clown’s invitation to imagine a possibility. Once when I was twisting balloons as Marmalade the clown, I made a mistake and I explained to a four-year old that I was missing a few marbles in my brain, and then I shook my head. The four-year old then stood with his head tilted to one side. I asked him what he was doing. He looked up and said, “All my marbles are rolling to one side.”
Wolseley Tales – Oh for a Piece of Chocolate Cheesecake
The story of Mrs. Lipton’s is not complete without talking about the food. The restaurant opened in 1977. It was impossible to find whole wheat baking in restaurants. It was difficult to find food made from scratch with real ingredients. Mrs. Lipton’s was a natural foods restaurant, not a health food restaurant. They had white sugar on the tables, but whenever they could, they cooked with healthy ingredients.
The only bakery in Winnipeg at that time that made whole wheat baking from stone ground flour was a small operation called “Wheat Song Bakery”. They made the whole wheat buns that Karen put on the menu and that became popular right away. The buns became so popular that the bakery could not keep up the supply. Karen said that when she saw a taxi pull up to deliver just a few buns, she knew it was time to take action. In desperation, Karen rolled up her sleeves and started baking whole wheat bread. The fact that she hadn’t baked bread before, didn’t stop her. She borrowed a Tassajara Bread Book and got started. The bread was a little heavy at first, but soon customers were coming for apricot toast, her Irish Soda bread and her delicious buns and pitas. Not to mention her all-time favorite, spicy pumpkin muffins!
I still remember how good that first muffin tasted when I visited Mrs. Lipton’s, I had never had a whole grain, fresh muffin hot out of the oven before that time.
Chocolate Cheesecake is not a specialty to be easily forgotten. One waitress’s kids used to come from the school bus to Mrs. Lipton’s before she got off at five. She would use her tip money to buy them Chocolate Cheesecake. They would sit on the stools at the counter with big smiles on their faces as they dug into that yummy cake.
Odds & Ends – Franchesina & Harliquino
When I was a young woman at university, I joined a commedia dell’arte troupe. The professor was in love with commedia and shared that love with us. Brilliant young actors played the parts and the trickster, Harlequin, was played by a fellow that went on to become a script writer. I played Francesca, the servant girl, and one of my key roles was to withstand Harlequin’s amorous advances.
I remember one scene which was played differently every night. Harlequin jumps over a wall, seduces Francesca, gives her a message for Isabella and then disappears. Every night I pretended to sweep the stage, wondering what Harlequin would do when he jumped over the wall. One time he was like James Bond in a spy movie, another night we got so carried away – rolling on stage in each other’s arms – that we almost forgot we were on stage. One night we turned into chickens and did a chicken dance – it was out of this world. We were too young to have a very big bag of tricks, but I can see how actors would find things that worked and be able to pull them out at appropriate times. Physical gestures and movements would be developed and provide an indication of the characters that the audience knew and expected.
References
Proctor, Sue. The Archetypal Role of the Clown as a Catalyst for Individual and Societal Transformation. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/977096/
Old Photos
Author as Marmalade at the Forks Market, from The Prime Times, Winnipeg,
June 10, 2010. Issue 11. Photograph by Ken Gigliotti, Free Press Archives. 24