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What it is like to be a professional clown in 2014

Roshni Nair talks to seven full-time entertainers, in Mumbai for the International Clown Festival, to find out the challenges they face and the hard work that goes into the art of clowning

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It all started with Pennywise the Dancing Clown. This fiendish shape-shifter in Stephen King's novel It was brought to life by Tim Curry in a 1990 TV adaptation of the same name. With his all-white face, scarlet hair and rotten, razor-sharp teeth (not to mention his appetite for children), Pennywise embodied the evil clown. Picture a psychopathic Ronald McDonald, and you'll know why Pennywise is widely credited with sowing the seeds of coulrophobia — a fear of clowns.

From Batman's Joker to Twisty in American Horror Story: Freak Show, pop culture portrayals of clowns have mostly been negative. Or at best cynical — as in the case of burnt-out Krusty the Clown in The Simpsons. Recent reports about a gang of clown-costumed delinquents in Agde, France, haven't helped matters. Neither has California's Wasco Clown who became both, an internet sensation and the stuff of nightmares.

"The media blows it out of proportion. I meet maybe one person out of 10,000 who's afraid of clowns. And that's normal. But they make it sound like out of 10,000 people, only one isn't afraid," stresses Ron 'Toto' Johnson. The six other clowns in the green room concur vociferously.

The 'green room' is a 12x8 makeshift tent behind a makeshift stage in the Courtyard of Mumbai's High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel. The event: the International Clown Festival, the brainchild of Martin 'Flubber' D'Souza, founder-director of Mad Hatters and Light House Entertainment. Flubber, as he prefers being called when in costume, has been a professional clown since 1991. He's what one would call a clown college grad, having completed a clown camp scholarship through the University of Wisconsin. "Most clowns in India are from a poor background and earn a living in circuses. But they're not trained well. How many Indians know that being a clown isn't just about putting on make-up and dancing about?" he says.

Indeed, being a clown is no joke. A lot of thought goes into presentation. Auguste clowns have a different get-up from 'whitefaces' and so do hobos and tramps. Clowns who perform worldwide also need to be adaptable and change their acts or dialogues to overcome cultural barriers. Apart from comedy, know-how of juggling, miming, magic, unicycling and balloon sculpting is a must. Bekah 'Lo-Lo' Smith from Denver, Colorado, has been a champion juggler, fire dancer and stilt walker for 12 years. But she doesn't take her skills for granted. She practises for 30 hours every week.

"Ninety per cent of what we do is behind the scenes — practising, writing, travelling. Only 10 per cent of the effort is seen by audiences," says Toto, adding that they write their own skits. A former circus clown with the world-famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Toto started clowning when he was 10 and became a full-timer at 18. "It's all I've ever done," smiles the 48-year-old.

The reasons that led the other four in the room — Deanna 'Dee Dee' Hartmier and Val 'Puff' Meiners from Canada, Molly 'Skiddles' Kleeman from Colorado, and Ravindran aka 'Coconut' from Malaysia — to become clowns are as varied as the skill sets they're required to master. What started as the need of the hour for World Clown Association (WCA) President Dee Dee developed into a profession, but much later. "It was 1995. I couldn't find a clown for my daughter's fifth birthday and decided to fill in the shoes. It was a hobby that became a passion and eventually, my calling," she says.

Asked why she became a clown, Skiddles, who's been making balloon animals, pauses a bit. A crowd is gathering in the Courtyard as organisers test the mic for the umpteenth time and shuffle things around on stage. The performance is a few minutes away. "Mine was more of an empty nest situation," admits the president of the Colorado Clown Alley, who took up professional clowning 18 years ago.

Puff, the most experienced clown in the green room, has been a pro for 34 years. Then there's Coconut, who, as former assistant to Malaysia's Spotty de Clown, found his calling 11 years ago.

The prospects for professional clowns are grim. In March this year, the WCA estimated that there were about 2,500 member clowns worldwide — a 30 per cent drop since 2004. Britain's Clowns International (CI) has seen its membership plummet from around 1,000 in the 1980s to just over 100. The few takers situation means the membership base is aging. And these are vaunted clown associations. Does no one want to be a clown?

In response, Flubber lets out a cartoonish 'wah wah', the sad trombone trope used in animated films. Dee Dee plays things down, saying that people simply have less time for professional associations. "Yes, fewer people pay to get into an organisation and have a membership card.

But the art of clowning is very much alive and growing," claims Toto.

Skiddles is more forthcoming. "There's less work. There was a time I'd do five birthday parties on a Saturday and three on a Sunday. That's not happened for years. People aren't spending on kids' parties like they used to," she says. There's a dire need for clowns to market themselves better and adapt to the times so they can find new avenues to entertain, adds Puff. Which is why many of them travel the world and don't restrict themselves to birthday parties and circuses.

Despite the challenges — of perception, economy, perhaps even personal lives — these clowns wouldn't have it any other way. Dee Dee recounts the time they visited a terminally-ill child in Tata Memorial Hospital. The girl hadn't responded to doctors and even her parents for two months, she says, but ended up laughing and waving goodbye to the clowns after they performed for her. "The doctors were amazed to see the change," Dee Dee smiles.
Clowns who visit hospitals and impart education on safety drills have to know the basics, shares Puff. "You can't just go into an ICU and be loud and crazy. There are certain protocols, like there are when we teach kids about fire and general safety. These things require education, but how many know that?" she questions.

Their influences range from Charlie Chaplin and Lucille Ball to Mr Bean, the Marx Brothers and circus greats like Lou Jacobs (a professional clown for 65 years, Toto informs) and Frosty Little. Comedians like Groucho Marx and Lucille Ball, Lo-Lo says, were clowns but without make-up.

Flubber agrees. "I hate it when people call us jokers. Jokers try and make people laugh. We don't try. It comes naturally to us. We're entertainers, not jokers," he says.

And with that, the 'green room seven' underline what it takes to become a clown.



Clownology 101

Whiteface: The whiteface is the oldest type of clown. White makeup is used to cover the entire neck and face. Whitefaces are often portrayed as the intelligent or sophisticated clowns.

Auguste: Augustes are usually the zany, 'silly' clowns. Their makeup is flesh-toned and their costumes, loud and mismatched.

Character clown: Hobos and tramps are the most popular character clowns. Other characters portrayed include doctors, babies and policemen. Character clowns adopt a comic angle to an otherwise typical occupation or person.


roshni.nair@dnaindia.net, @savagespacetaco

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