Clown

I

Introduction

Clown, performer, usually in a circus, who plays the fool, performs practical jokes, and does tricks to make people laugh. Other names for clowns include buffoon, jester, fool, conjurer, mirthmaker, tumbler, gleeman, mime, actor, harlequin, merry counselor, comic, and puppeteer. Although there are many types of clowns, each clown develops a face, meaning a performance personality. A clown’s face, once established, becomes the clown’s unique personal property.

II

Types

Faces and styles of circus clowns originally developed from specific performers and their routines. Most clowns fall into four basic categories: whiteface, auguste, character, and new vaudeville.

A

Whiteface

The oldest type of clown is the whiteface, which dates back to the 18th century. The white color of the face was originally achieved with flour. White lead later replaced flour, but after the 1880s, when lead was discovered to be toxic (poisonous), safer greasepaints were introduced.

The whiteface clown evolved from earlier whiteface theatrical entertainers. One of the most popular whiteface characters in history is Harlequin, a comic personality in the Italian theater form commedia dell’arte. English actor John Rich, who performed in the early and mid-18th century, was the most famous Harlequin of his time. After the mid-18th century, however, the clown gradually replaced the Harlequin character. English entertainer Joseph Grimaldi (whose name led to the designation of every clown as “Joey”) played an instrumental role in this shift. He introduced his character as Clown (a word long used to denote a buffoon, jester, or rustic fool) to London theater audiences in the early 19th century. Clown quickly gained popularity over Harlequin. Grimaldi appeared as Clown in dozens of performances, including Harlequin and Mother Goose (1806). His makeup consisted of exaggerated eyebrows, geometrical patterns on his cheeks applied over a white base, and a blue topknot on his bald head. Grimaldi is considered the most famous clown.

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In the early 19th century, while Grimaldi was entertaining audiences in London, French performer Jean Gaspard Deburau was capturing the imagination of audiences at the Théâtre des Funambules (Theater of the Ropewalkers) in Paris. Wearing white makeup, a skullcap, and a white suit, Deburau was a juggler, acrobat, and mime. He played Pierrot, a naive yet prankish character created in the late 17th century. Deburau brought a new air of calculated mischievousness to Pierrot that bordered on the sinister.

From Deburau’s time until recently, the whiteface clown largely performed in ways similar to Deburau’s techniques. Like Deburau’s interpretation of Pierrot, the whiteface was a mischievous clown who tended to be bossy and liked to play tricks. Modern whitefaces, however, are often characterized more by sadness than by mischief-making.

If a whiteface’s painted features are naturally proportioned, the clown is a neat whiteface. Neat whitefaces were popular for many decades but became rarer in the 20th century. If a whiteface’s features are oversized or otherwise exaggerated, the clown is called a grotesque whiteface. Grotesque whitefaces are common in American circus history. Two famous grotesque whitefaces, active in the first half of the 20th century, are Joe Lewis, one of the first clowns to pretend to be a police officer, and Paul Jerome, whose makeup suggested widely separated front teeth. The most famous grotesque whiteface clown is Felix Adler, who performed in the early and mid-20th century. Adler carried a tiny umbrella and wore a padded rear-end extension, long yellow shoes, and a tiny hat. He based his clowning on simplicity and surprise.

B

Auguste

Another type of clown is the auguste, which developed in the mid-19th century. One of the more popular legends about the origin of the auguste clown involved an American performer named Tom Belling. One night in 1864 during a European performance, Belling, an accomplished acrobat and horseback rider, rummaged through a costume trunk, looking for a new comic identity. Dressed in a ragged coat, a tattered wig placed backwards on his head, and a grease-painted red nose, he was mistakenly pushed into the ring by the circus owner. Unfamiliar with his new costume, Belling tripped over his own coattails and fell flat on his face in the ring. The audience shouted “August!,” German slang for a stupid, bumbling fool.

The auguste clown usually wears oversize shoes, a bulbous red nose, wigs of bright colors, and mismatched, oversized clothing. He may leave most of his natural skin color showing or use a pink or red makeup base instead of white. Facial features are painted on in black and red. The lower lip and eyes may be outlined in white to exaggerate facial expressions. The auguste clown stumbles, performs pratfalls, slaps and is slapped, and often is the butt of jokes. Auguste routines have grown more aggressive, physical, and slapstick in nature since their first development.

Lou Jacobs, the most famous American auguste clown, painted large white patches around his eyes. His bald head was shaped like a cone, fringed with red hair around the ears, and topped with a tiny fedora. Jacobs also wore a red rubber-ball nose. He retired in 1988 at the age of 84. Two of America’s most famous clown characters also fit into the auguste category: Ronald McDonald, created by the fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s, and Bozo. More than 200 actors have played Bozo, including such notable public figures as television weatherman Willard Scott and television executive Fred Silverman. Bozo’s image, one many people associate with clowns in general, is based on the auguste face of early 20th-century Italian clown Albert Fratellini.