A week or so ago I got a call from Jon from the clown band Gooferman. We partied together at Lucent L’amour and he had been thinking about getting a truck similar to Bessie. His intention is to have a rolling food, ice cream, and coffee truck that can pull up anywhere and set up shop with tables and chairs out front. The focus isn’t on the products they’ll be serving but on the conversations that they’ll strike up. If you’re a clown, even out of character, you’re bound to be pretty good at striking up converstations with complete strangers.
While we were filling in each other about what we do, he mentioned that Gooferman was going to be playing at Jumbos Clown Room in Hollywood the following week. For years I’ve been wanting to go to Jumbos. Everytime I would drive down the Hollywood on the North side of the 101, I’d be reminded that I had yet to stop by. As usual, my first thought was, can we shoot it? With a few calls we were good to go and I called up Timothy to see what he thought about it. Clowns, Dancers, and Ice Cream are a match made in heaven for a photographer and Timothy and I knew that this might be one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. We wisely decided to do it right and Timothy picked some lights to make sure we had all our bases covered.
We rolled up just past ten and were pleased to find that a parking spot had been saved right in front. Gooferman finished their first set as we were getting everything ready. Then the fun began. I tried by best to round up as many combinations as possible with dancers, clowns, and even strangers that stopped by to see what was going on. After a while they started their second set and I ducked in for a couple songs. It’s gotta be rare to find a band that can pull off playing in an exotic dance club. Gooferman nailed it with a perfect mix of upbeat songs with driving bass lines that got the girls going.
Jumbos is the perfect place for someone who wants to get a drink and have a good time. Although it’s ofter referred to as a strip joint, the girls never completely take their clothes off and therefor the crowd probably has a higher women/men ratio then any other club in LA. I’m not sure if it was just because of the free ice cream, but everyone who was working there was extremely friendly. Stop by sometime, you’ll be glad you did.
