What do you think?
Rate this book
Making My Entrance Again With My Usual Flair
When an ex-clown tries to go into the insurance business, he gets into monkey business instead.
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 12, 2011
36 people want to read
About the author
Ken Scholes
88 books245 followersKen Scholes is the award-winning, critically-acclaimed author of five novels and over fifty short stories. His work has appeared in print for over sixteen years. His series, The Psalms of Isaak, is published by Tor Books and his short fiction has been released in three volumes by Fairwood Press.
Ken's eclectic background includes time spent as a label gun repairman, a sailor who never sailed, a soldier who commanded a desk, a preacher (he got better), a nonprofit executive, a musician and a government procurement analyst. He has a degree in History from Western Washington University.
Ken is a native of the Pacific Northwest and makes his home in Saint Helens, Oregon, where he lives with his twin daughters. You can learn more about Ken by visiting www.kenscholes.com.
Ken's eclectic background includes time spent as a label gun repairman, a sailor who never sailed, a soldier who commanded a desk, a preacher (he got better), a nonprofit executive, a musician and a government procurement analyst. He has a degree in History from Western Washington University.
Ken is a native of the Pacific Northwest and makes his home in Saint Helens, Oregon, where he lives with his twin daughters. You can learn more about Ken by visiting www.kenscholes.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 29, 2021
“I’m traveling with an incognito monkey in a twenty-year-old station wagon?”
“Yes. You’d better get changed.”
this is just a brief, silly, breezy tor short that reads like a hunter s. thompson mescaline trip or listening to a four-year-old tell you about some nightmare they had with clowns and talking monkeys that weren’t actually monkeys and enough sex and booze in it that you wonder who this four-year-old belongs to and how you even got into the position to be hearing about their dreams in the first place.
that’s all i got for this one.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/2011/01/12/making-...
come to my blog!
“Yes. You’d better get changed.”
this is just a brief, silly, breezy tor short that reads like a hunter s. thompson mescaline trip or listening to a four-year-old tell you about some nightmare they had with clowns and talking monkeys that weren’t actually monkeys and enough sex and booze in it that you wonder who this four-year-old belongs to and how you even got into the position to be hearing about their dreams in the first place.
that’s all i got for this one.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/2011/01/12/making-...
come to my blog! 
December 16, 2021
Welcome to Day 15 of my 2021 25 Days of Short Stories Christmas Advent Calendar. Each day I will be reading a short story from the collection of over 600 short stories and novellas available for free on Tor.com. This is a collection of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. I will be letting fate (and the random number generator) decide what I read each day**.
Day 1: The Art of Space Travel by Nina Allan
Day 2: These Deathless Bones by Cassandra Khaw
Day 3: Swift, Brutal Retaliation by Meghan McCarron> (Trigger warning: Emotional abuse of children and women)
Day 4: Freeze Warning by Susan Krinard
Day 5: Daughter of Necessity by Marie Brennan
Day 6: The Girl in the High Tower by Genniger Albin
Day 7: Come See the Living Dryad by Theadora Goss
Day 8: Black Friday by Alex Irvine
Day 9 Up From Hell by David Drake
Day 10: The Tallest Doll in New York City by Maria Dahvana Headley
Day 11: The Caretakers by David Nickle
Day 12: Your Orisons May Be Recorded by Laurie Penny
Day 13: Of Roses and Kings by Melissa Marr
Day 14: A Christmas Bun for Ulysses by Sarah Morgenthaler**
Day 15: Making My Entrance Again With My Usual Flair by Ken Scholes
What a relief to read a light hearted story about a clown who isn’t anymore and a monkey that is more than it seems. The section about the note the protagonist left for the first woman he ever made love to was hilarious!
You can read Making My Entrance Again with My Usual Flair by Ken Scholes here.
Day 1: The Art of Space Travel by Nina Allan
Day 2: These Deathless Bones by Cassandra Khaw
Day 3: Swift, Brutal Retaliation by Meghan McCarron> (Trigger warning: Emotional abuse of children and women)
Day 4: Freeze Warning by Susan Krinard
Day 5: Daughter of Necessity by Marie Brennan
Day 6: The Girl in the High Tower by Genniger Albin
Day 7: Come See the Living Dryad by Theadora Goss
Day 8: Black Friday by Alex Irvine
Day 9 Up From Hell by David Drake
Day 10: The Tallest Doll in New York City by Maria Dahvana Headley
Day 11: The Caretakers by David Nickle
Day 12: Your Orisons May Be Recorded by Laurie Penny
Day 13: Of Roses and Kings by Melissa Marr
Day 14: A Christmas Bun for Ulysses by Sarah Morgenthaler**
Day 15: Making My Entrance Again With My Usual Flair by Ken Scholes
What a relief to read a light hearted story about a clown who isn’t anymore and a monkey that is more than it seems. The section about the note the protagonist left for the first woman he ever made love to was hilarious!
You can read Making My Entrance Again with My Usual Flair by Ken Scholes here.
September 29, 2013
Merton D. Kamal is a down-on-his-luck circus clown who, after being cajoled into an interview with a former fling at an insurance company by his mother, is tasked with escorting a monkey to New Mexico. Things go about as well as can be expected.
To start, this story is an absolute breeze to read. That’s no surprise seeing how it sits comfortably at an approximate 18 pages in length. This has to be one among the shortest of the Tor Short Stories I’ve since read.
There’s not a lot to say in the way of plot synopsis that wouldn’t inadvertently render the effort in reading the actual story futile by comparison (though you should!), what I can say is that Ken has created a succinct and strange hybrid of a story that manages to provoke laughs just after making you scratch your head in abrupt confusion. For anyone that reads this blog, I know that my synopses can be rather comparison heavy. Know that it’s not done without a measure of self-awareness; Think of it as an happy accidental after-effect of a long compulsory education in binary oppositional thinking.
In any case, “Making My Entrance” felt like a mash-up of Katherine Dunn’s GEEK LOVE and Burrough’s NAKED LUNCH. I mean that entirely as a compliment, but take it as you will. It’s so short, and Scholes’ writing is just so ridiculous and funny enough to justify the length, how could I not recommend it?
To start, this story is an absolute breeze to read. That’s no surprise seeing how it sits comfortably at an approximate 18 pages in length. This has to be one among the shortest of the Tor Short Stories I’ve since read.
There’s not a lot to say in the way of plot synopsis that wouldn’t inadvertently render the effort in reading the actual story futile by comparison (though you should!), what I can say is that Ken has created a succinct and strange hybrid of a story that manages to provoke laughs just after making you scratch your head in abrupt confusion. For anyone that reads this blog, I know that my synopses can be rather comparison heavy. Know that it’s not done without a measure of self-awareness; Think of it as an happy accidental after-effect of a long compulsory education in binary oppositional thinking.
In any case, “Making My Entrance” felt like a mash-up of Katherine Dunn’s GEEK LOVE and Burrough’s NAKED LUNCH. I mean that entirely as a compliment, but take it as you will. It’s so short, and Scholes’ writing is just so ridiculous and funny enough to justify the length, how could I not recommend it?
May 19, 2017
A quick to read short story for free from Tor.com - read it here
Merton D Kamal has just been fired from his clowning job. He returns to his mom, and is employed by an ex to drive a sedated monkey to New Mexico. Only the monkey isn't really a monkey...
Not much more without giving way the whole story. It did feel like this could have been expanded into a longer piece - the door was certainly left open with the ending.
A casual 3 stars.
Merton D Kamal has just been fired from his clowning job. He returns to his mom, and is employed by an ex to drive a sedated monkey to New Mexico. Only the monkey isn't really a monkey...
Not much more without giving way the whole story. It did feel like this could have been expanded into a longer piece - the door was certainly left open with the ending.
A casual 3 stars.
Read
April 10, 2022No one ever asks a clown at the end of his life what he really wanted to be when he grew up. It’s fairly obvious.
I absolutely adored the title and it's honestly what drew me in. This is a rather funny short story about an ex-clown tasked with driving a monkey to Roswell, New Mexico. Really enjoyed it!
I absolutely adored the title and it's honestly what drew me in. This is a rather funny short story about an ex-clown tasked with driving a monkey to Roswell, New Mexico. Really enjoyed it!
November 24, 2016
Making My Entrance Again With My Usual Flair is a bizarre little story about a former clown who is hired to transport a monkey across the US. But the monkey turns out to be an alien, and suddenly the clown isn't so sure about this job... The story feels like an aside off a larger story, which is a neat little frame for a short story. It's not the most groundbreaking story in the universe, but it is worth the brief time it takes to read. (Though I did not appreciate the weird vengeful sex thing going on...)
February 23, 2011
A fun little story.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews