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Roly Bain

Roly Bain
Born David Roualeyn Findlater Bain
(1954-01-18)18 January 1954
Died 11 August 2016(2016-08-11) (aged 62)
Nationality English
Occupation
  • Clown
  • priest
Known for Clown ministry

David Roualeyn Findlater "Roly" Bain (18 January 1954 – 11 August 2016) was an English priest and clown who preached and performed as Holy Roly. He helped set up the organisation Holy Fools.

His father was Kenneth Bruce Findlater Bain, a theatre critic who wrote under the name Richard Findlater. His mother was Romany Bain, a freelance journalist. He was one of triplets. He attended St. Paul's School in West London, then read theology at Bristol University and Cuddesdon Theological College. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1978. In 1990 he spent a year at Fooltime (now Circomedia), a circus training college in Bristol, and became a professional clown. He served in parallel as an associate vicar at St Mary the Virgin Church in Olveston.

After serving as a parish priest, Bain decided to convey the Christian message through a different route, inspired by his lifelong love of clowns. His father had written a biography of the famous clown Joseph Grimaldi. As a young boy, Bain had loved the sad-faced clown Coco. So he took a clown's training and became a free-lance clown-priest, presenting the Gospel message through jokes and pratfalls. He performed in churches, conference halls, hospitals, schools, football fields, and prisons. He would enter the venue on a unicycle, open with the invocation "Let us play!", and preach while balancing on (or falling from) a slackrope, a speciality of Bain. Like Coco, Bain performed as an Auguste, a clumsy character who is on the receiving end of water buckets and accidents, and who often works as a foil to the more clever and arrogant stage personality of the white-faced clown. According to Bain, the Auguste role allowed him to provide a mirror to everyday personalities, if it was not too exaggerated. He often took on the roles of the Jester and the Vulnerable Lover. He performed routines like juggling and egg-smashing and blew soap bubbles. According to his website, he had custard-pied ten bishops, and "most were grateful – or at least happy to play".


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