"When Clowns Make Rules..."

“Clowns Protecting Clowns...uh huh?”


When I got out of Clown College, there was a big uproar and protest for the movie, Shakes The Clown. Still a bit baffled by the protests and how simply weird that appears.

Why would a clown protest...um...anything? Clowns are pretty much one step ahead of protests. Clowns make fun of normal things like protesters.

So, I had just left Ringling Brothers Clown College and was completely baffled by the idea of protecting the image of the clown. I mean, who cares? I don’t want bad clowns around but again, bad clowns just don’t get work, good clowns do It all gets sorted out.

I started noticing a very strange concept in the world of clowning, the world of rules and regulations.

There is a set of rules by either Clown’s of America and The World Clown Association. These organizations are there to organize events, oversea rules for clubs, they have a monthly magazine and offer advice. Great organizations for the amateur clown, that is clowns that want to put on make up as a hobby.

Rules: things like “don’t smoke while in costume” “don’t eat while in costume” “don’t swear”

Generally speaking, I’m not for clowns smoking but I can think of reasons I might as a clown, it might be a pretty outrageous way of getting laughs or reflecting bad habits in society. Because it would annoy the %$#$ out of one of these rule following clowns, I might do it, it would be really funny.

I don’t swear, as a person and a personal choice, I don’t swear. As a clown, I work with the pretty young, so I wouldn’t do that as per my own rule. But, it would be pretty funny to see a swearing smoking clown.

I was thinking about Yucko the Clown Howard Stern regular and the Damn Show on MTV. He’s a disgusting swearing, racist clown. I don’t think he smokes but he should.

What’s pure clown about him is that he makes us uncomfortable about what we think we know about the world. When we hear him spout racial invectives, it’s confronting to our self righteousness. It’s a brilliant clown move. In a world that goes so far as declaring there is no more racism (uh, huh, sure...)he is over the top crazy racist, with clown make up.

With clown make up, you don’t take that person seriously but if a clown is shouting out horrible comments, it’s awful but is making you laugh because it’s so absurd. Or maybe you are agreeing. And that should be pretty confronting as well, take a look at yourself.

So, how can you have rules?

You can’t, unless they are personal, (like mine where I won’t swear). At the same time, clowning is an artistic discipline and it has rules of form and action. Jackson Pollack had rules within his anarchy of art. If you don’t know Jackson Pollack, he’s the one that originated paint splatters, you may know him as artist people say “this is 5 million dollars, my five year old could do that”.

Blanket rules like “don’t smoke” are useless to the clown. You want to make a pretty powerful statement break those rules.