Lost Another Great One

I just found out that Lorene Yarnell of the comedy mime team Shields and Yarnell died of a brain aneurysm on the 29th of July. She was only 66 years old. She was a great mime, dancer and clown and Pam idolized her. We both remember them from our childhoods watching their weekly variety show filled with wonderful comedy and dance routines my favorite of which was the robotic "Clinkers", who could never seem to get through a simple activity, like breakfast, without making a huge mess of themselves and their dining area.

While living in Dallas, we had the good fortune of not only seeing them perform live but thanks to Pam, we also got to meet them. It was either 1997 or 98 and I have a newspaper clipping somewhere to confirm it. We caught their show down in Irving and after the show Pammy said we should just wait around on the off-chance we could catch them on the way out the theatre and sure enough we did. I couldn't believe it. There they were, two legendary performers, coming our way were: Shields and Yarnell. Pammy was tongue tied so I started the introductions, we told them how much we loved their show and how we loved mime as well a our background as circus clowns.

They were the nicest people you could ever meet and I forgot to mention that as we introduced ourselves Yarnell gave us hugs. It was like magic. After gushing about them we talked shop. We were just fellow performers chatting about clowning, circus, theatre and mime. It was only for a few minutes but those few minutes live on in our hearts.

Around a year or two later, we met Robert Shields at the North Park Mall in Dallas. We were working at Le Theatre de Marionette and were backstage when in walks Mr. Shields. He was in town(I can't remember why) and shopping around when he saw the puppet theatre. Apparently he loves puppets and wanted to check things out. Pammy and I were working on set pieces and marionettes when he showed up in our dusty backstage. We told him about the time we met them after their performance in Irving. He told us he was set to direct the Ringling Brothers clowns in Winter Quarters that year and was really looking forward to it. It made Pammy and I want to get back on the road so bad. He also told us about his art gallery in Sedona, Arizona where he sells his art. Then somewhere in the midst of or conversation he did the neatest thing of all. He gave us a mini workshop in mime. We were floored and loved it.
Shields and Yarnell were kind and generous to us and we feel blessed to have crossed paths with them. The world is a little sadder place with Lorene Yarnell's passing and makes one wish that if reincarnation is real they should put her at the the head of the line.