Philipʼs career as clown happened by chance and has prevailed because of love. He has been performing, teaching and supporting the circus arts with an emphasis on clowning since graduating from both Duke Universityʼs Theatre Program and Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Clown College in 1988.
Philip was partly educated in England performing in both stage musicals and conventional theater; significantly as Pozzo in Samuel Beckettʼs masterpiece Waiting for Godot. The Beckett role was the first of many which relied on Philipʼs innate talents for theatrical mime. Many great roles followed including those as a ghost, a carrot, a cactus, a horse, a beaver and a goat ( sometimes all in the same show!) He has continued to study the craft of clowning through workshops, master classes and private instruction with Raye Birk, Nancy Gold and Dimitro Bogatirev.
Clowning has taken him across the United States and around the globe performing for the likes of, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disneyland, Knottʼs Berry Farm, the Royal Family of Brunei ,Ocean Park in Hong Kong and the Korakuen Amusement Park in Tokyo Japan. Philip is the stilt walking owner and co-producer of Jumbo Shrimp Circus. In his capacity as co producer and director, Philip is responsible for the JSCʼs amazing shows and performing the role of straight man, Epoxie.
With the desire to share his love of circus arts with the community in which he lives, he was the first Los Angeles based teacher selected for Cirque Du Solielʼs “Cirque Du Monde” program that teaches runaway youth the arts of the circus . Recently Philip was featured in the critically-acclaimed theatrical clown show "Agaboom" at the New Victory Theater in New York City. The show was created by Dimitro Bogatirev formerly of Cirque Du Solielʼs “Allegria” and “O”.
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