Krusty's Revenge

As some of you may know, I don’t like clowns. I’m not entirely scared of them, but I don’t want them around me in non-clowny environments, either. That’s why I’m still sort of surprised that I even had the Saturday I did.

It was decided that Paul and I would meet up for dinner and head to the DNA Lounge (I thought maybe I could get in for free if I showed them my tatts, kidding) to go to the monthly Bohemian Carnival. I had heard of this through Paul’s other friends Ed and Lauren, and it seemed like it would be a good way to blow an evening. Dr. Madd Vibe (a.k.a. Angelo Moore from Fishbone) has even worked with them before, so my interest was piqued.

Upon entering the DNA Lounge, I am confronted by a band of clowns onstage. Not clowns, like say, those dorks in Panic at the Disco!, or even Insane Clown Posse, but circus clowns. There were about ten of them onstage, bopping along with their flowing clown robes and red noses, and playing a brand of what I’d call “Circus Funk”. It wasn’t too bad, in all honesty, and even evoked some dancing from the crowd.

The set-up of the DNA lounge was pretty great. A nice stage large enough to house numerous circus-folk that was pretty much in view from anywhere. Two large bars were located in the back, one on the main floor and one on the second tier overlooking the stage. To get up and down to the balconies, the stairwells went right towards the stage and then angled back. Basically whenever you went up or down, you were part of the stage for a brief instant, it was an interesting way to construct a venue, but it totally worked.

After accomplishing my mission to obtain cider from the bar, I went back to check out the clown action on stage. About half way through their third song, a trapeze artist appears and starts doing tricks maybe 15 feet from me. No safety net, no spotters, nothing. Just a diminutive girl doing crazy contortions on two pieces of rope and a bar.

Throughout the evening, other entertainers came to perform, both on the stage and off. Although not all of them were necessarily “Carnival” like, it was pretty entertaining. There were fire dancers, beat poets, bungee artists, comedians and DJ’s. There were also two girls who would dance on a pole (they were basically strippers that would intertwine themselves on the pole, but it was “tasteful”). All of this was slowly heightened by the prolific amount of cider that was ingested as the night wore on.

The only times I really had problems were when the clowns weren’t on stage. About 30% of the attendees of the show will dress up to fit the theme of the evening, including a number of clowns. There were a couple of times where I’d be going up the stairs with a clown close behind me. That was my cue to book it up the stairs and then wait for the clown to go by me, I was not remotely interested in having a clown come up behind me.

It was very entertaining overall, and would best be experienced on other substances besides cider, but I didn’t get eaten by a clown, so I give it a 7 out of 10.

jeremy