On the Barney Set 1999

Once again I was organizing our photos and other memories to put into our scrapbooks when I came across these papers tucked away into a folder of assorted "this-and-thats". They're "call sheets" for the Barney video "Super Singing Circus" shot at the Las Colinas Studios in Irving, Texas. The working title at the time was "Super-Dee-Duper Circus". The video was shot in August of 1999 and released the following year on May 16th. I managed to get a part as a clown extra. Some footage of that shoot is shown on this blog under the Rancho Ramirez Video Pick #1 which you may have already seen. 

 Note the advance production schedule on the lower left and the Far Side cartoons on the lower right found on all the call sheets. Click on the images to magnify.

Last time I was on the Barney set I was a French magician and had plenty of lines to learn. This time around I had to clown it up for that wacky purple dinosaur. So if you've ever wondered what a breakdown of a day on a Barney set looks like here you go! Again, because of the children on the set the schedule for performers was pretty easy. We had an early call time as is typical for any set but we always finished our day before sunset. That was always nice.

We used our own costumes and did our own makeup and when the cameras rolled did a variety of things to add to the circus fun of the video. Rik Gern, my ol' road buddy from 1994 on the Ringling Red Unit was also part of the cast as was Jimmy Perini, another Clown College grad and a pretty amazing juggler. Working on the Barney set was always fun and quite honestly never felt like work. I wish more sets were like that.