Jeff Raz is an American
clown
A clown is a person who performs physical comedy and arts in an Improvisational theatre#Comedy, open-ended fashion, typically while wearing distinct cosmetics, makeup or costume, costuming and reversing social norm, folkway-norms. The art of ...
,
actor, teacher, and director. He founded and served as director of the
Clown Conservatory in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, the country's only remaining professional clown training program from 2000 to 2010. As a performer he has had leading roles with Vaudeville Nouveau, Make*A*Circus,
Pickle Family Circus, and
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil (, ; ) is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Jun ...
.
Background
Raz grew up in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, in the 1970s.
[
]
Roles
A large man, Raz has a long running collaboration with five-foot-tall clown Diane Wasnak as "Pino and Razz".[ The pair performed, among other places, as leads in the Pickle Family Circus.][
Raz toured in 2007 as the "Dead Clown", the lead in Cirque du Solei's production, Corteo.]Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
, Wavy Gravy, Bill Irwin
William Mills Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor, choreographer, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. ...
.
Raz performed in the Flying Karamazov Brothers' Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
production of ''The Comedy of Errors
''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play ...
''.[
In the summer of 2011, he played Aristophanes/Playwright in his play ''The Road to Hades'', performed by the Shotgun Players of Berkeley, California.][''The Road to Hades'' play-bill] He recently performed with California Revels.
Other work
Raz has taught at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College and the San Francisco School of Circus Arts.[ He wrote solo plays ''Father-Land'', about a secular Jew's understanding of the ]Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
, and ''Birth Mark'', about adoption.[ He has written two books ''The Secret Life of Clowns: A backstage tour of Cirque du Soleil and The Clown Conservatory'' and ''The Snow Clown: Cartwheels on Borders from Alaska to Nebraska.''
]
Personal life
Raz describes himself as "very political".[ He is married to Sherry Sherman, a psychologist. The couple has two children, Micah, and Joshua.][
]
References
External links
- professional website
American clowns
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Male actors from Berkeley, California
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