"Use what is unique about you as a person to make your clown character unique." - Kenny Ahern

"A couple of clowns took juggling lessons from me frequently during a two-year period. They never learned to juggle because they didn't like it so they never practiced. Most of the clowns they knew personally were also jugglers, so they thought that was what clowns were supposed to do. We attended a performance by Larry Pisoni. One of the first things he did was pull a flute out of his trunk. After some initial comedy about getting his fingers stuck in the ends of the flute, he started to play it. Discordant notes came out of it. Larry starred at the flute a moment, and then turned it around. This time his playing produced a pleasant melody. My friends were shocked. They had both toured professionally as back up musicians, and they had a professional-quality-recording studio in their home. They had been so focused on what they thought clowns were supposed to do; they had ignored what they themselves could do. They had never thought of using music in their clowning. They experienced great success when they began producing clown song and dance acts. Although I can juggle, I have no aptitude for music. I would fail completely if I tried to perform one of their acts. They are much better at what they do than I could ever be." -- Bruce "Charlie" Johnson, Creativity For Entertainers Volume One: The Creative Process

Singing clowns were a major category of clowning during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but it is seldom seen today. Randy Christensen and Brenda Marshall are among the few clowns that I know who sing while clowning. However, I know many clowns who are able to sing well, but don't use that skill when they entertain. I think the main reason is that they don't have any role models demonstrating how to incorporate singing.

You can find ideas for using singing as a clown by looking outside of the art of clowning. This weekend I attended the annual Kirkland Choral Society Christmas concert. Their theme this year was "O Magnum Mysterium", an early Christian liturgical phrase which in English means, "O great mystery and wondrous sacrament, that animals should see the newborn, lying in their manger." The concert included several compositions based on "O Magnum Mysterium" and songs like "Away In the Manger". It also included some fun compositions about animals. One of these was Eric Whitacre's "Animal Crackers Suite 1 & 2". Whitacre set some of Ogden Nash's humorous animal poems to music. The music was in the grand orchestral style contrasting with the silly words. As I listened to it, I could easily imagine it being performed by clowns. I don't know if a solo clown could perform it, but it could certainly be performed by a quartet. I could especially imagine "The Canary" being performed by clowns because the first line was "The song of canaries never varies." The Sopranos kept repeating "never varies." The rest of the chorus paused waiting for them to stop. Just when the Chorus was ready to go on with the next line, the Sopranos would pipe up with another "never varies." The pauses kept getting longer and longer. Finally after a long pause, the Sopranos sang "never." After another pause they sang "varies." Then the short song was concluded. I could easily picture the frustration on the faces of the other clowns in the quartet wanting to finish the song, but constantly being interrupted by the Soprano.

Sometimes clowns seem interchangeable because they copy each other. That makes it difficult to stand out in terms of marketing. For example, if a client wants a clown who does balloon sculpture they have many possible choices in almost every locality. I like art so I draw trick cartoons as a way of interacting with individuals and giving them a personalized souvenir. I have gotten repeat bookings because my client specifically wanted trick cartoons and I am the only one in my area that performs them. I like to fold paper so I sometimes incorporate origami into my performances.

What makes you unique? What skills do you possess? What interests do you have? What kinds of things do you like to do? What can you do better than other people? How can you incorporate that into your clowning?