Clowns are predominantly physical performers, and there are a number of different traditions and ‘schools’ of clowning. Clowns often operate through self-deprecation, and so whilst we laugh at them they also illicit our empathy. With their historic connection to the court jester, clowns can share a similar function socially and performatively: to create an uncomfortable type of laughter in which we are implicated in social dysfunction. Often performing in exaggerated or oversized brightly coloured clothing and with extraordinary non-realist make-up, clowns have larger-than-life physical personae, sometimes grotesque and at others simple, but overstated. Clowns often perform with high levels of physical risk as part of their movement vocabulary. Whilst having an arsenal of tricks, jokes and comic performance strategies, they also have to be able to work spontaneously and directly with their audiences’ response as well as with their fellow performers.
Image: Courtesy of Avner Eisenberg
