Tiffany “Slappy” Riley and Dick Monday fall on their faces routinely while performing on stage, but it’s all in good fun.
Clowns are expected to fall down in comical ways, and the seasoned Peekskill clown couple is happy to meet audience expectations.
Riley and Monday, who’ve been married for 27 years — performing together even longer — are part of the Omnium Circus, which brings its show, “I’m Possible,” to the Paramount Hudson Valley Theater Nov. 3.
“The Omnium Circus promotes full inclusivity,” says Monday, 71, who has been clowning for more than 50 years. “There are disabled performers in the show: an aerialist without legs, a gymnast in a wheelchair doing a hand-balancing act, a co-host who is deaf and signs.”
The Slappy and Monday act has been enjoying success for the past 30 years, ever since Monday persuaded Riley, 60, to become a clown.
Inspiration & Inclusivity
The “I’m Possible” show encourages the young and old alike to have courage, strength and perseverance, through a death-defying, inspiring, madcap circus with no limits, boundaries and barriers, according to the Omnium Circus website.
This message of inclusivity resonates with the couple. “Omnium’s ‘I’m Possible’ show illustrates that anything is possible, no matter what your circumstances are, even for a kid from a Nebraska farm town who wanted to be a clown,” says Monday.
As a child, Monday dreamed of joining the circus. “The simple beginnings of growing up in a Nebraska farm town in the 50s, and having the circus come to town was very impressionable to a little kid,” he recalls. The circus also exposed Monday to inclusivity.
“Our town had no black people, and only one Jewish family. In the circus, I saw multiculturalism. There were people with limps and all kinds of disabilities,” he explains.
Growing up, he initially wanted to be an acrobat. As the Nebraska state champ springboard-diver, he had mastered jumping and mid-air movement. His clown career took shape, he recalls, after an embarrassing mishap as a ninth-grade gymnast performing for elementary schoolchildren. Running down the mat at great speed to do a flip, he tripped and fell flat on his face. “When I got up, 300 kids were roaring with laughter. I figured I could either start weeping, or do it again. At that moment, the little devil in my head said, ‘Why don’t you trip and fall again?’”
“As I tripped again and got back up, everyone erupted in laughter. They thought that I had meant to fall both times.” On the third try, Monday completed the jump perfectly, and his clown career path was born.
Performing All Over the World
Riley’s and Monday’s careers are impressive. They’ve performed all over the world with more than 30 circuses, including the Big Apple, the Lone Star, and Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, where Monday attended its Florida-based Clown College, and later directed the school in the 90s until its closure in 1998. In addition to performing, they founded a New York clown school and a Los Angeles circus, mentored up-and-coming clowns, participated in improv groups, toured with Sesame Street Live, and launched a non-profit organization, among other achievements. In addition, Monday performed with the Groundlings, a Los Angeles improv and sketch comedy theater, where comedians like Pee-Wee Herman, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Lisa Kudrow, and others got their start.
With their exaggerated facial expressions, tutus and outlandish costumes, enormous clown shoes, fun props, bubbles, and water, the two juggle, dance, sing, and pantomime in creative skits. They’ve been touted by the media as some of the best clowns in the business.
It all started when Monday graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in radio, TV and film, and turned down a job offer in the field for his dream of joining the circus. “I didn’t want to accept the job. I wanted to go to clown school,” he says with a laugh. When Ringling Bros. soon hired him, his dream came true.
In addition to performing, Monday founded the LA Circus. When the circus needed a choreographer, a colleague recommended Riley, who was working in New York City and touring with shows like Sesame Street Live and the Muppets, the “big-heads” as she calls them. The Texas native had an acting degree from New York University.
Riley went to Los Angeles to interview, accepted the choreographer job with Monday’s circus, and soon found herself performing after he needed a woman to fill in on a bicycle skit. “The more I did the art of clowning, the more I realized it was all the things I loved,” says Riley.
It Takes Two to Tango
The couple fondly recalls the moment they fell in love. It was while practicing a slapstick tango act — a wannabe serious dance riddled with whimsical lifts, unfortunate falls, and a costume malfunction for Riley. Monday recalls: “We were both in other relationships, when we realized we were working with someone who we really enjoyed. We both loved parody and satire, and that’s how we approached our new relationship.”
The couple married, and settled in Texas to raise a family, toting their two young kids to performances around the world.
When their son and daughter, now 24 and 21, were grown, Slappy and Monday returned to New York, something Riley had yearned for since college. “I’m a New Yorker in my bones,” she says. In 2022, the couple moved from Brooklyn to Peekskill. “This area has a clown community,” Riley points out with a smile. Good friends had moved nearby and recommended that they house hunt in Peekskill.
The couple is quick to praise the city as a great hometown. “It’s walkable, has a multicultural feel, good transportation to New York City, places to hike and kayak, and a busy arts community. There’s always something going on,” says Monday. Riley adds: “We’re not here a lot because of our traveling – about a third- to half-the-year — but Peekskill is a welcoming place to come home to.”
The Mondays are especially comfortable here because of the many friends from the clown community who live locally, including several members of the New York Goofs, a New York City clown school the Mondays founded in 1999. Original members of the Goofs, which still teaches clowning, include Peekskill residents Hilary Chaplain, Tina and Michael Bongar, Nancy Smithner and others in surrounding towns.
Bringing Humor to Hospitals
The Mondays also run the Laughter League, a non-profit they started to provide clowns to children’s hospitals and Alzheimer’s patients, a cause close to Riley’s heart since her mother suffered from dementia. Supported by donations, Laughter League brings humor and play to the healing process in hospital rooms.
Of all their work, Slappy and Monday count the Laughter League as the most rewarding. “Clowning is a beautiful art form, it’s a connector of people,” explains Riley. “We can reach just about anyone and meet them where they are with humor.”
Monday adds: “Our purpose is to empower sick kids. We engage them by being the dumbest person in the room. The kids start to help us, and the process of helping us helps them. That’s our goal. To bring patients and families some moments of joy. When we leave that room, we hope the glow holds over them.”
To see Slappy and Monday, get tickets to the Omnium Circus. The show begins at 3 p.m. Tickets start at $27.
