WEBVTT

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And one last,
having to do with--

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I was down at New
College in Florida.

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The Barnum and Bailey
Circus Clown School

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was across the way.

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I was curious about the clowns.

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This is a "Speech to
the Student Clowns

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at the Circus Clown School
at Sarasota, Florida."

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"You innocents who
want to play the clown

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should be wounded
combat veterans first.

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You have to get the
gut feeling, how when

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the fallen gladiator with
a face white in shock

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with two red spots of
panic on his cheekbones,

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and his eyes animal
with black grief,

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got the sign thumbs
down from the emperor.

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A bloody clown
stripped off his face,

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put it on, and danced around
the ring with a slapstick sword

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to tickle a crowd as the corpse
was dragged off by the heels.

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This went on for centuries
until you took up the mask

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and made it sad, or worse,
giggled and made it sweet.

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What happened?

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When serious art dies in its
wisdom, in American innocence,

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even the bloody old
farce of death dies.

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Art must be ugly
or lovely, or both

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to be beautiful, but not nice.

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Terrible in it's pitiful
humor, but not cute.

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Go ask the nasty children
about this some night

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before they're put to sleep.

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They clown around
with the fiends."

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