Photo by SlapBcn.

Clowns are brilliant. They bring joy and laughter to the world. They’re larger than life, clumsy, confused, very silly, and full of nonsense.

I’ve been reading a lot about clowns and jesters recently, working out how to be a clown in my everyday life. Here’s what I’ve learnt.

Unpredictable Free Spirits

Clowns have a freedom and unpredictability of spirit. They are willing to say, do, and be something different, taking the risk of being ridiculed.

One of the keys to being playful is having a freedom and unpredictability of spirit. In the midst of daily drudge and routine everyday clowns bring sparkles and smiles through a moment of unconscious sillyness or spontaneous dancing.

It’s also true that the world cannot become a better place without people who are willing to do and say things differently, to risk being ridiculed. To stand up against the norms of society is brave and can be dangerous, so getting a few laughs on the way is no bad thing.

Larger than Life

Photo by dct.

Clowns are larger than life; they are disproportionate to the world. This is both in terms of their physical appearance (huge shoes, red noses, crazy hair), and in terms of their emotions and charisma. The happiness and sadness of clowns is both more wonderful and more terrible than happiness and sadness in everyday life.

Maybe wearing a red nose every day isn’t the way you want to go, but think of other things you can do to stand out, make people smile, and get others talking to you. Wear three watches or a kooky scarf, a sparkly brooch or a flower in your hair.

One of my favourite things to do is to wear a cowboy hat when I travel on trains. It’s amazing how many more people talk to me just because I look a bit different, and it definitely makes people smile too.

Clumsy and Confused

Clowns often get confused between what is valuable and worthless, and struggle to tell the difference between truth and folly. In doing this, they embody the confusion and darkness of the unconscious world. This is good for making others think about what is valuable and true. As one academic writer on clowns, William Willeford, puts it:

‘It may be true that our action and knowledge rest on beliefs which we assume to be more adequate than they are.’

A lesson to be learnt from this is the need to embrace complexity. As much as we might love to find a final answer to our problems, a final truth to solve our worries, it can be helpful to realise that the world is rarely as simple as we would like it to be. In knowing this complexity, we are set free from the need to control everything and everyone.

This isn’t an excuse to wallow in our problems and not seek a way out, but it does make us aware that the way out is more likely to be a long and winding road than a hop, skip and a jump.

The confusion of a clown can help to clarify things for ourselves. In the confusion of clowns, we see a dissonance between what is valuable and worthless, and we begin to realise the times that we have listened to the pedlars of broken dreams. We also realise the times that we are truly listening to our real dreams, the inner dreams from the depths of our being.

Full of Common Nonsense

Photo by Yodel Anecdotal.

Jesters – the clowns in the courts of Kings and Queens – would wear bells on their hats. This was so they could shake their heads if anyone tried to instil some ‘common sense’ into them. The bells would drown out what was being said to them.

There is often a lot of sense in common sense, but equally often there is a lot of nonsense. The next time you hear someone peddling nonsense in the name of common sense, remember the bells on your hat, and give them a shake.

The magic tricks that clowns would perform in the courts of Kings, and on the streets, were designed to contrast with the ‘magic’ of the kings and priests that was accepted as common sense.

Some kind of ‘magic’ today means that the majority of the world is caught in the trap of poverty whilst a small minority feast on riches. Some kind of ’spell’ makes us think that this is normal.

Magic tricks make us aware that we may be believing illusions, but also offer the possibility of magical moments of change, when hope breaks through in the most desperate of circumstances.

In Summary

• Clowns are free spirits – a good example to follow.
• Clowns are wacky and larger than life – another great way to be.
• Clowns are confused and clumsy. This can help us navigate the confusion and clumsiness in our lives that we’d prefer to ignore.
• Clowns don’t think much of common sense. They know that being sensible can be a lot of nonsense.

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