CLOWN LOUNGE USA

Tucked under the urban ground zero of University Avenue lies the now legendary oasis known as the Clown Lounge. What may appear to be just a cozy bar has been for me and countless others a realm of infinite possibilities. It is an incubator for music, cabaret, literature, performance art, visual art, renegade theater and other manifestations of the human soul exposed in ecstasy and despair. This explosion of talent and warm fellowship was not part of an agenda or grand design. It happened in a spontaneous , organic and necessary manner, with a unique twist that is so rare in this day and age of corporate hegemony. It has become a cultural institution by not being an institution at all.

However original and free flowing the nights came together at the Clown Lounge, it didn't happen without an amazing amount of hard work and dedication. Yet of those who love what they do, it is the final result, not the work, that is always present in mind. I had the extreme luck to get involved in the Clown Lounge when I was asked to fill a bookshelf with books for the patrons. Known as the "book nook", this experiment has been a blast for me, stocking this shelf with head splitting variety that includes radical feminist manifestos, fundamentalist tracts, pulps, foreign language, NRA handbooks, existential philosophy, biographies of washed up actors and everything in-between. Why should books be confined to the coffee shops and libraries? we all know that the bar is where the real thinking gets done. But this is only one tiny feature in this multifaceted bodega.

What really launched the Clown Lounge into the stratosphere was the "Cavalcade of Stars", hosted by Tulip Sweet, Randall Throckmorton and featuring West Bank and South Minneapolis Puppeteers. These evenings, unleashed in the fall of 1995, were part cabaret, part rock concert, part poetry reading, part confessional and part apocalypse. Not in competition with, but projecting itself on an entirely different sphere than the Turf Club upstairs, the cabaret nights helped to build a zeitgeist down in that basement bar that still thrives to this day. Not since pre-war Berlin have there been such raw and deep expressions of the heart and mind. Those nights will be drenched in my memory forever. These events really solidify the Clown Lounge as a space where ideas and action come together, where glory and nihilism collide and the fireworks of human interaction are sparked.

These days the Clown Lounge stage is reserved for the finest local and guest jazz musicians. Spawned in the fall of 1999, these Monday night free jazz "implosions" are delivered like a testament. Packed with young jazz hipsters who hang on every note and old timers who believe that they've died and gone to blue note heaven, even this metal head/punker has gaped in awe at many of their moves.

Once adorned with bizarre and slightly melancholy paintings of Clowns (the finest ones are still on display) the lounge now supports and exhibits original art from all over the world. This is an excellent opportunity for artists to have their work truly seen, noticed, and honestly reacted to.

The Clown Lounge - deep down, after all my grandiose descriptions of its bittersweet haze and delightful vibe, is just a damn fine place to have a drink. You turn around in your barstool taking in the scene, thinking that this has always been this way, that you discovered it, and that you can't wait to tell others about it.

Paul D. Dickinson, St. Paul