Venice's Education Legacy:

"Clowns to the Left of me........"

In 1968, with many of its clowns aging and circus audiences demanding fresh talent, Irvin Feld, head of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, conceived a unique institution—the Ringling Bros. Clown College. He aimed to cultivate a new generation of "Ringling-style" performers, blending slapstick, mime, acrobatics, and makeup skills into a rigorous training program 

 

Located in Venice, Florida, the college offered free tuition (though students paid room and board) and enrolled 30 to 50 students annually, with an 8:1 ratio of men to women. Sessions ranged from 13 to 10½ weeks, later shortened to eight. Students spent long hours daily learning everything from juggling and stilt-walking to costume design and clown makeup—often studying classic routines from Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and The Three Stooges.

 

Each year concluded with a high-stakes “Big Show,” where performing material gained entry into Ringling’s official rotation for the upcoming season. Graduates were offered a one-year contract with the circus—a term few declined, though early exceptions included famous alumni like Penn Jillette and Bill Irwin 

 

Over nearly 30 years, the Venice campus produced approximately 1,400 graduates trained in Ringling’s ethos of physical comedy and audience connection. The college relocated in the 1990s first to Baraboo, Wisconsin, then later to Sarasota, before closing in 1997—its mission fulfilled, with many alumni teaching clowning worldwide