Circus clown Jamie Adkins brings his shtick to Sarasota's Asolo Theater

By John Fleming, Times Performing Arts Critic
In Print: Saturday, July 4, 2009

Jamie Adkins began his career at 13 in San Diego, where he delighted passers-by as a street performer.
	[Photo courtesy of Jamie Adkins]

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SARASOTA — What is the deal with circus clowns and baldness? There is probably a Freudian explanation, but it never fails that when clowns interact with an audience, they always seem to gravitate toward bald men to mime polishing their heads or otherwise make fun of them.

Clown Jamie Adkins keeps up the tradition of picking on the chrome-domed in his one-person show, Circus INcognitus, at the elegant little Historic Asolo Theater. Adkins also gets in lots of juggling, tightrope walking and foolish pratfalls without overstaying his welcome (as clowns are wont to do) in the hourlong, family-friendly show.

With the graceful moves of a dancer, and clean-cut good looks to belie his goofiness, Adkins is reminiscent of a young Steve Martin. Like Martin in his slapstick prime (say, The Jerk), he has a taste for juvenile humor, such as stuffing an uncomfortable number of ping-pong balls into his mouth to take on the appearance of a deranged chipmunk. The routine in which he catches fruit thrown by audience members with a fork in his mouth, and putting on a catcher's mask to field a melon, is inspired.

There is a classic quality to Adkins' shtick. When a truculent stagehand (the clown's wife) pulls a chair out from underneath him just as he's about to sit down, the effect is hilarious, even if it is the oldest trick in the book.

Adkins, a Californian, has performed with Montreal's Cirque Eloize and starred in Cirque du Soleil's Wintuk at Madison Square Garden. One of the pleasures of his show in Sarasota is that quite a few are scheduled during morning and afternoon, allowing adults to bring children and providing anyone with a good excuse to take a break from the daily routine.

John Fleming can be reached at fleming@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8716. He blogs at Critics Circle at blogs.tampabay.com/arts.

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Circus clown Jamie Adkins brings his shtick to Sarasota's Asolo Theater

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