Tommy the clown

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Thomas Johnson (born January 9, 1969 in Detroit ), also known as Tommy the Clown , is an American dancer who is one of the inventors of the " clowning " dance style, from which the dance style Krumping later developed. Johnson developed the dance style in 1992 to make clown appearances at birthday parties more interesting. This gave rise to the concept of "Hip Hop Clowns". He and his followers have performed this performance at birthday parties for downtown communities as well as celebrities such as Madonna , Pamela Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer . He gained international fame in 2005 with the documentary RIZE by David LaChapelle .

biography

Thomas Johnson is in Detroit , Michigan born and in the district of South Central in Los Angeles , California grew up. In his youth, like many of his friends and neighbors in the district, he came into conflict with the law from time to time, which ultimately earned him a five-year prison sentence. While in detention, he made up his mind that he needed to make significant lifestyle changes. After his release from prison, he initially took a job as a typist until 1992, where he was hired by a colleague as a clown for her daughter's birthday party because of his entertaining personality. For this performance he created the character Tommy the Clown. Through his experiences with children and young people at this birthday party and other events and as a reaction to the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 , he realized that he was not just an entertainer at these parties, but was viewed by the children and young people as a role model. He created the dance styles "clowning" and "krumping" as an opportunity for young people not to get into the same problems as he did. He is now internationally known as the "father of krumping".

His performances include contemporary music and dance elements and he encouraged the children and teenagers in attendance to join in and dance, quickly gaining a community of supporters from all over Los Angeles. He used this opportunity to give the children and young people the opportunity to focus their interest on dancing instead of drugs or gang crime. To this end, he founded a dance group called "Hip Hip Clowns" with whom he performed at events. The only rules he set up for the group are: "No gangs, No drugs, Do well in school (grades, attendance and behavior) and be a role model by living a positive lifestyle at all times." No gangs, no drugs, be good at school (grades, attendance and behavior) and always be a role model with your positive lifestyle. ")

In 2002 there were over 60 clown dance groups in Los Angeles. To avoid conflicts and escalations between these groups, Tommy himself held weekly dance competitions, so-called Dance Battles, at his academy, where the audience decided who was the best. The popularity of these competitions was enormous and Tommy created and hosted the "Battle Zone" event, a kind of official dance competition in which both regular dancers and celebrities participated. At that time, the clowning phenomenon caught the attention of director and photographer David LaChapelle . Fascinated by this movement, he shot a documentary "RIZE" in 2005 for the media company Lions Gate Entertainment .

Since then, Tommy the Clown and Hip Hop Clowns have traveled all over the world, performing in different places and for various celebrities and spreading the idea of ​​clowning. Another area of ​​activity for Tommy is schools and colleges in the United States. In addition to appearing and visiting various educational institutions, he and the school administration of the City of Los Angeles (Los Angeles Unified School District) organize courses on clowning and krumping in the schools there, following the guidelines of the California Education Standards. He also offers a range of programs for schoolchildren and young people in the local area.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tommytheclown.com
  2. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436724/
  3. ↑ http://www.wma.com/tommy_the_clown/Bio/tommy_the_clown.pdf
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tommytheclown.com
  5. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1815469/maindetails
personal data
SURNAME Tommy the clown
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johnson, Thomas (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entertainer
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan