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Pines of Sarasota Foundation. It was envi- sioned as a community outreach program of Circus Sarasota. "Oddly enough," Snow remembered, "our association began when we needed a per- former in a hurry for a humor show one evening. The scheduled act didn't show up. Joe Barney, a famous clown visiting the area, and Chuck were in the audience. 'You're on!' I told them. Chuck became Elvis Presley in an instant, and Joe belted out a zany med- ley of Broadway tunes. They brought the house down." "Let's have them here on a regular basis," Pines of Sarasota CEO John Overton said between fits of laughter, as Snow tells it. Snow, the Selby Foundation and the Pines Foundation made it happen. That was 15 years ago. "Chucko is a grand master at bringing people together," Snow points out. "From his bag of gags, he takes jokes, music, dancing, hugs and hand-holding to create a safe environment." An art teacher for the Pines Memory Unit remembers the time Sidlow recognized Carmen, a former circus colleague. He stopped in to admire her painting. Non-verbal skills had become her form of expression, even though she was once a glamorous performer. Sidlow began to draw a cartoon of a lady rid- ing Jumbo the elephant, Carmen's role in the 1952 movie The Greatest Show on Earth. At first she stared. Then she shrieked. "Me?" "Yes!" he replied. They hugged and laughed together as onlook- ers applauded. "We concentrate on the healthy part of people, not the sick part," Sidlow told me recently. "Sometimes the box is a little damaged on the outside, but the inside is pure gold." Debbie Morrill, the activities director at the Senior Friendship Centers' Living Room, agrees. "Chuck has a magical way of unlocking memories and feelings for our participants." For Chuck Sidlow, virtuoso, it is all in a day's work. F o r m o r e , v i s i t S i d l o w 's w e b s i t e , worldofchucko.com, or visit Noriko's Facebook page: Moshi Moshi Bonjour. % Image courtesy worldofchucko.com Sarasota News Leader April 18, 2014 Page 110