Here Comes Boswick the Clown with Phoebe the Duck

PreS-Gr 1—Boswick the Clown, a popular children's performer in the San Francisco area, is well known for his classic clown routines, juggling, and magic tricks. In this DVD, however, he takes on the role of a children's video show host. Each of the three episodes follows the same format. Boswick starts out intending to do something, forgets what it is, and off-camera children's voices try to remind him. He misunderstands and ends up doing something different. Finally he remembers what he was about to do, which is some kind of craft or activity, and then he demonstrates how to do it. The main problem is that Boswick loses track of his target audience. While the format of the shows is most likely to appeal to preschoolers, many of the jokes and craft ideas are only accessible to older children. In addition, often the comedy skits last too long for a young child's short attention span. Boswick's costumes and makeup are colorful and the set is imaginative, but the camera work, special effects, and music are low tech. Some of the video clips are badly pixilated, and all the episodes are accompanied by a computer-generated theme song that repeats incessantly. Bonus features include routines more like Boswick's stage show—the best part of the production.—Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT