Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College was an American circus school which trained around 1,400 clowns in the "Ringling style" from its founding in 1968 until its closure in 1997.

History

Clown College was the brainchild of Irvin Feld, the owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and longtime Ringling clown and front man Bill Ballantine. In 1968, Ringling had only a handful of clowns, most of them over fifty years of age. It was clear that these performers would not be able to go on forever. But there was a dearth of suitable replacements at that time. So Feld decided to create a school to train a new generation in this ancient art form.

Feld also saw the potential public relations opportunity in having a place that could become the Mecca of clowning in the United States. In addition, he wanted to use the school as another way of keeping his show more attractive to audiences than his competition, and have a place where he could guarantee getting an endless supply of new talent.

Circus World was planned in September 1972 to have the clown college's campus on site.

In 1984, after Feld's death, Kenneth Feld, his son, took over production of Feld Entertainment and the Ringling shows. In 1993, the clown college was moved from the Venice Arena to Baraboo, Wisconsin. Because of the "three ring" configuration of the Ringling show, and the bigger arenas that were needed to present such an attraction, audiences were larger and many patrons sat in balconies or upper decks, far above the action. In order to reach the people in every area of these larger arenas, clowns on the Ringling show had to design their makeup to be seen at a distance, and use their props and clear physical movements to show the audience what was happening during a gag, no matter where in the house they were seated. The training given here was tailored for the Ringling show, but could be transferred to other circus styles.