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Clowns find laughs in aging

Holliday and Moore return to Oak Bay United with road-trip adventure
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Holliday and Moore are Scott (Holliday) Smith and Jim (Moore) Ricks of the Sunshine Clown Society are on tour with The $2 Suitcase.

Scott Smith and Jim Ricks reintroduce Holliday and Moore to the Oak Bay crowd with another installment of the aging clowns’ adventures – this time on the road.

Holliday (Smith) and Moore (Ricks) carry the audience along with them as they struggle to make sense of their vagabond existence in this tale of desperation, hope and the power of friendship.

“At a basic level it is really about two older men who are long, longtime friends who have been travelling performer clowns,” Ricks said.

They perform in an old-fashioned vaudeville fashion including juggling and those sorts of endeavours.

“A story unfolds through the course of the show. Somebody is pursuing them and they take refuge in the hall where the audience is gathered,” Ricks said. “In the course of it we learn some things about them.”

Now in their seventh year of doing clown shows, care clowning and clown training, they are on tour with The $2 Suitcase.

“They’re really down-at-the-heels guys but they are fun and talented and entertaining,” Ricks said.

“It’s about how as we get older and maybe less capable, how we sometimes decide or choose to go ahead and do what we love doing, even if it may not be as great as it used to be.”

The show is suitable for all ages and has no profanity or coarse language.

“What we found with Dancing with Fish is when we had children in the show they instantly got it,” Ricks said.

The $2 Suitcase runs April 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Oak Bay United Church, 1355 Mitchell St. Tickets $10 at the door or online at thesunshineclownband.com.

 

cvanreeuwyk@oakbaynews.com