“Everybody Was Colored except the Boss”

This chapter is framed by Brandi Catanese&s;s preference of racial transgression (pointing out racial difference) over racial transcendence (glossing over racial difference). It covers the long history of Black performance in the US starting in the nineteenth century and moving on to the twentieth-century Black vaudeville circuits, with most attention paid to the Theatre Owners Booking Association, or TOBA. This chapter considers Sherman H. Dudley, a Black clown who started his own Black circuit, and other Black clowns who performed racialized stereotypes for Black, white, and mixed audiences as they toured the United States, including the Jim Crow South, carrying the comedic-anarchy and their unique perspectives on Blackness, Asianness, Mexicanness, and whiteness with them. Case studies: Yellowface clown Harry Fiddler, comedy duo Moss & Frye (Arthur G. Moss and Edward Frye), and dancer, choreographer, and clown Aida Overton Walker.