Laughs For The Left Behind, a Benefit for Our Friend, Pat -NJ Photographer
This is a post that needed to be written a long time ago. It’s still difficult because Pat was a friend of ours, a really good childhood friend of my husband’s, best friend of his sister’s and the best friend of my friends here in town. It’s weird, Shannon and I grew up together, then we moved back to Bordentown. My husband and Pat reconnect via Facebook and find out that Shannon’s husband, John, is Pat’s best friend! It was perfect since we all share the same sense of humor, political views, and John and my husband both work in tv.
We found out about Pat’s passing as we were literally driving down to Ocean City, NJ last summer of 2016. I mean I was reading Pat’s posts on FB I think an hour or so before? Next thing I knew, I get a message on FB that he died while my husband was driving. It was horrible and we couldn’t do anything until we reached our destination. I mean at first we thought it was a prank, but no our Ring Master was gone at the young age of 48.
Pat was happily married to his wife Terry and have two amazing boys together. Their wedding was at Madison Square Garden with Pat in full clown makeup from when he was in Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
To read a great tribute to Pat go here:
http://www.clownlink.com/2016/07/rip-pat-cashin/
There are links to his wedding and more.
The funeral memorial was touching, sad, and full of people cracking jokes and stories. Afterwards we all went to a great place called The Circus Drive In, which is now closed unfortunately.
I found an article about it here
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/people/2016/08/22/circus-clown-dies-but-legacy-lives/88813922/
A group of his friend want to do something, so a celebratory comedy show was out together to benefit the family, friends and community.
http://www.clownlink.com/2017/04/laughs-left-behind/
I quote the article:
“The Laughter Arts Foundation (headed up by Michael Rosman) is putting on the event to remember Pat and to raise money for the family and for the clown community.
The evening will be headlined by Tony Award and MacArthur fellowship winner Bill Irwin.
Other performers include:
▪ Archie Cobblepot
▪ Barry Lubin
▪ Circus Stella
▪ Dick Monday & Tiffany Riley
▪ Drew Richardson
▪ Eepybird (Maine)
▪ Greg DeSanto
▪ Hilary Chaplin
▪ Jeff Gordon
▪ Kevin Carr
▪ Mark Gindick
▪ Michael Rosman and others!
It was held at the Seashore Day Camp and School on April 8, 2017 at 7 pm. Pat was, let’s say an avid collector, of all things that had to do with the circus. So there was a silent auction of his collection, people who volunteered to get a shaving cream “pie” in the face, and more.
We brought our daughter to this fabulous event and had an amazing time! I used my Canon 5D Mark III and I let my daughter use my Olympus mirrorless camera outside. The lighting was what it was and while they had an official photographer who used his own lighting, I of course stated out of the way and captured the event from where I was sitting among friends in the front. There is video, but I think it’s still being edited, I’m not sure. But I can’t wait to see it, and I’m not the only one! LOL
Being among so much talent that night and seeing our caught taking it in was amazing. Meeting people and friends that we know via Facebook was great too. And hearing the stories, I mean there should be a book.
I quote the FB Page https://www.facebook.com/LFTLB/ for the event:
I need to thank a lot of people…I’ll divide them into the audience people, the committee people, the performer people, and the donor people,. In many cases, people were part of more than one group.
I thank the audience and especially the VIP ticket people for buying the tickets and expending the costs and effort to attend. We actually had people who flew in just to see the show. Thank you all.
I want to thank the committee people for sharing the vision and saying ‘yes’ to everything I asked. Committee people included Joey K, Phil, Brenn, Archie, Cybele, Doug, Kevin, Shane Hansen, and Greg
Here is a partial list of some people I’d like to call out for specific help. It includes committee people, performers, and other overall helpful people:
Joey Klein for doing so so so much of the detail work, including handling and posting our social media content, and donating the shaving cream
Damian Blake for the logo,
Phil DePalo for the background support, the ticket website, handling the finances, and riding shotgun.
Cybele for driving VIPs Gary Schwartz for playing piano
Members of the Williams family and Cashin family for many many tasks including airport runs, helping with diet coke setup, babysitting, concessions, clean up, etc
. Doug Young for pipe and drape
Anthony Parziale for the video screen and the poster work
John Frangio for sound
Steve Sarafian Photos and Sharon (Stranger Cinematics) video Greg DeSanto for handling the sale of the collection pieces.
Brenn for waiting patiently till I needed her, then stepping up perfectly,
Joseph Salamone (and other Shrine Clowns)
Archie and his wife for poster layout work,
Dexter for picking up 250 whoopie cushions,
Spencer Dystra and Owen Sahnow – stage hands/tech
Elmo for being especially handy and helpful
, Shane Hansen and Andrew Scharf
, Joe Holiday for lending me a valuable prop that didn’t make it into the show
Thank you performers,
Kevin Carr
, Hilary Chaplin
, Greg DeSanto,
Archie Cobblepot
, Mark Gindick,
Jeff Gordon,
Fritz Grobe,
Bill Irwin,
Barry Lubin, Joey Klein
, Dan McCallen,
Dick Monday,
Harley Newman,
Tiffany Riley
, Drew Richardson,
Ethan Rosman
, Sophia Rosman
, Steve Voltz
Doug Young.
The numerous people who donated but didn’t attend ( including these few who donated last minute; Greg May, Center Ring Circus School, Ted Baumhauer- Flower City Vaudeville, Ted Lawrence- Slapstick Science, The Bindlestiff, Family Cirkus, and Keith Nelson and Stephanie Monseu personally, Linda DePalo (for buying 140 2 liter bottles of Diet Coke) Randy Cabral and many more.
Many many people donated to the family shortly after Pat died through the GoFundMe site https://www.gofundme.com/patrickcashin before they knew about this show. We thank them for their support.
Of course we are indebted to John and Sharon Villapiano owners of Seashore Camp and Day School http://seashorecampandschool.com/ for giving us their space to use, and for bringing in risers and hundreds of chairs, and a mop and bucket.
I’m sure that there are many others I am neglecting to list here, including people who did helpful things that I don’t even know about. May you all know that I appreciate your contributions.
Thank you again Joey , Phil, Sophia, and thank you Terry, Shane, and Jamie”
Warning! There are a LOT of images in this post. I meant a TON! However if you’re a fan of magic and the circus, then this post is perfect because people traveled far and wide to be a part of this event. This is a place for fans, family and friends to see what transpired and the amount of people and amazing talent who came together for Pat and his family. They did have it recorded, and I know that I’m not the only one who can’t wait to see it. I would also love to see the photos from the other photographer, I’m sure that they were amazing!
Now…On With The Show!
The entertainment started outside with EepyBird.com Stephen and Fritz. They are best known for a viral videos on youtube that involves Mentos and Diet Coke.
Our daughter took the above and 2 bottom photos with my Olympus. That’s my camera’s flash in the image.
EepyBird.com with one of Pat’s brothers. My husband took a cellphone video of their performance. I’ve never smelled that much Diet Coke in one place at one, and yes..it was an amazing experience!
Terry and the boys with the guys of Eepybird.com and that’s John in the background helping to clean up.
My husband took my Olympus for a bit.
Terry, myself and I think that’s one of Pat’s brothers.
Like I mentioned, I was taking pictures many as a guest and as a family friend. I didn’t want to use my flash if at all possible. But later on, the lights were dimmed and I had to. I think these are in order to the performance, but if they’re not, I apologize in advance. Enjoy, and please, share your thought in the comments section below.
Archie Cobblepot and Joey Klein
That’s Pat and Terry’s youngest son, he’s quite the showman already <3
Drew Richardson
Dick Monday & Tiffany Riley
Greg DeSanto and
Jeff Gorden
Apparently our friend John had just the right kind of noggin he was looking for! LOL
We all loved this, his two daughters sitting behind me were cracking up saying look at daddy! I know that my husband was laughing and so was Pat somewhere, laughing his ass off at John.
A celebratory comedy show to benefit the family, friends and community Left Behind by the unexpected July passing of Patrick Cashin.
A celebratory comedy show to benefit the family, friends and community Left Behind by the unexpected July passing of Patrick Cashin.
A celebratory comedy show to benefit the family, friends and community Left Behind by the unexpected July passing of Patrick Cashin.
Bill Erwin, here, Bill was talking about other clowns taking your ideas and you’re like…..
.
Bill Erwin is known for being Mr. Noodle and in a music video Don’t Worry, Be Happy. But his career is so much more than this and it was amazing to meet and chat with him. This act was great!
Bill and I 🙂
Our daughter was trying something and it didn’t quite work out so my husband got in his trunk of “Old Stuff”.
I love this images of the four of us, thanks Bill!
This is Barry Lubin, “Grandma”, and I remember seeing him perform as a child at Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
This is our friend Harley Newman, he’s know for quite a few sideshow acts and awesome stuff!
Circus Stella with their beautiful rescue dogs!
Thank you to everyone who let me take their pictures that evening. If I made a mistake on a name or website, please let me know. If anyone is interested in an image, just contact me.
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