Library Brings A Clown

Chip Bryant Puts On a Hilarious Show At The Montauk Library

The best compliment a performer can have is to see the wonderment of each children's eyes and to hear the sounds of their laughter. Such was the ambiance of last Wednesday's auditorium when Chip Bryant, the Silent Vaudeville Clown came to the Montauk Library with a program called "Listening with your Eyes!"

From the start, one could see that Mr. Bryant was determined to get audience participation. As more and more people came in, he would move a perfect stranger to sit with another group just to mix us up.

Decked out in black suit, vest, white shirt, red tie, white gloves and top hat, he made sure everyone who came in got his attention.

Mr. Bryant opens his act with a noisemaker imitating a bee trying to chase him all over the room. He was so convincing, one could actually imagine the direction the bee was going. After several failed attempts, he finally catches the bee and gave it to a lady behind me to hold. He then took a bow.

As the audience clapped, we realized that the lady had perhaps killed the bee. Mr. Bryant took the bee back and proceeded to give him CPR. Lucky for the lady, the bee was revived. The audience clapped some more.

In the next skit, Mr. Bryant was shown carrying his hard green suitcase across the stage and proceeding to walk with it. Each time he took a step forward, the suitcase would remain behind him as if suspended in air. No matter what he did, the suitcase would not budge. He jumped over it, walked around it, and still the suitcase would not move. I thought that was a difficult and clever trick. His cloth bag trick was also entertaining. Each time he reached inside, there would be another bag of a different color that would come out, then another. A little girl behind me asked, "How does he do that?" Mr. Bryant heard her and asked her to call him later by phone, so that he could tell her.

His balloon tricks were also amusing. He pulled out a white long balloon from his pocket and tried to blow some air into it, but couldn't because he was blowing it from the closed end. The children would try to get his attention to tell him to blow at the other end. After succeeding, he shaped it into different forms and different colors.

One of the highlights of the show was when Mr. Bryant got help from a young girl holding a microphone, then pulled out a monkey from his big black trunk that sang Bob Marlin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" song. The monkey was so convincing the audience really thought he was the one singing and not just a tape being played. The movement of the monkey's mouth and the song were very well synchronized.

In between acts, Mr. Bryant would throw an imaginary object to the audience for them to throw back to him as if to catch into a plastic bag. When the audience failed, a huge garbage bag was taken out. All this time I could hear giggling throughout the room. I too found myself laughing hard. Mr. Bryant also did some juggling with bowling pins and was quite good at it. Most of the time, he would just juggle two in one hand while the other pretended to juggle.

The fifty minutes show went so fast that the audience was left wanting more.

After the show, many stayed behind to "talk" and compliment him. I was lucky to get his autograph and actually hear his voice. "Listening With Your Eyes" was certainly a night to remember. If anyone had a problem, all was forgotten during this show. That's the magic of Mr. Bryant. Thank you for bringing laughter to Montauk.

Mr. Bryant is a registered nurse. A graduate of West Virginia University, he has worked in medical and cardiovascular intensive care, spinal cord and head injury rehabilitation and neurology. He also studied at Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's Clown College. How fortunate he is for being able to make sick people laugh and get well in the process. After all, laughter is still the best medicine. For more info contact his website www.chipbryant.com.

- Patria Baradi Pacis

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