Clown Essay, Research Paper

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

Whiteface

The oldest type of clown is the whiteface, which dates back to the 18th century. The white color of the face was first done with flour. White lead replaced flour, but in the 1880s, when lead was discovered to be poisonous, safer greasepaints were found. 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, the clown gradually replaced the Harlequin character. English entertainer Joseph Grimaldi played an instrumental role in this shift. Still today you can find clowns which will do the whitefaced act but you would have to look along way to find anything also the whitefaced clown does not use the grease paint the use a type of make-up which is thick and very rich in color and you can find it all over the place.

CharacterI In the early 20th century a third category of characterization developed from the so-called carpet clown, who performed short, solo routines between circus acts. These character clowns, as they are known today, include any clown who has a unique routine and who usually works alone or without a partner in a large group. The character clown is the most realistic of the clown types. Character clowns make fun of different features of the human face through exaggeration, including beards, whiskers, warts, large noses, bald heads, and strange haircuts. The most popular character is the hobo or tramp clown, which is probably the only clown type originally developed in the United States. The development of the tramp clown, however, owes much of its inspiration to English actor Charlie Chaplin. During his career, Chaplin played the part of the Little Tramp in many motion pictures. Two other famous tramp clowns are Otto Griebling and Emmett Kelly, close friends who performed in the early and mid-20th century. Griebling developed the routine of banging tin pie plates together and pitting the audience on one side of a circus tent against the audience on the other in a contest of screams and applause. Many circus clowns still use this routine today as a way of warming up an audience before a show. Kelly is probably the best known of the tramp clowns. While working as a young sketch artist, he created his famous Weary Willie as a cartoon character. Willie was a little hobo, who dressed in dirty rags and a tattered hat and was down on his luck.

Auguste

Another type of clown is auguste, which developed in the mid-19th century. One of the more popular auguste clowns was an American named Tom Belling. 1864 in a European performance, Belling, (an acrobat and horseback rider) rummaged through a costume trunk, looking for a new comic identity. Dressed in a torn up coat, an old wig on his head backwards, and red grease-paint on his nose, he was accidently pushed into the ring by the circus owner. Unfamiliar with his new costume, Belling tripped over his own coat and fell on his face in the center ring. The people who seen thisyeelled out August!, German for a stupid, bumbling fool. The auguste clown wears a bulbous red nose, oversize shoes, wigs which are bright colors, and really big clthes that usually never matched. They uaully leave most of there natural skin color showing or use a pink or red makeup instead of the white.There face was usally drawn on to help them give some facial expression. The auguste clown will stumble, slap each other around, and is usually made fun of. Lou Jacobs, the most famous American auguste clown, used to paint large white patches around his eyes. His bald head was shaped like a cone, with red hair around the ear. 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, which is the Mcdonalds profit maker of young childreb and old, and Bozo who now owns his own Tv show with dozens of oter clowns. He was based on the 20th-century Italian clown Albert Fratellini.

New Vaudeville

Modern, or new vaudeville, clowns are clowns who have turned away from traditional clown acts. Usually, the new vaudevillian clown works alone, typically without makeup. The new vaudeville clown seeks to relate with audience members rather than perform for them.

Some of the new vaudeville clowns perform with circuses, while others in theaters. But their routines are based on clowning. An example of a new vaudeville performers include the Bill Irwin early in his new career Irwin was named Willy .a whiteface clown. He doesn t wear makeup anymore instead, he uses his facial expressions to show is comedy to people instead of through the visual.

Clown College Clowning is a technique which has to be taught over a few years they call it the art of clowning it sounds silly but clowning is a very serious job it starts with the way you look all the way down to the way you sound. With the fit clowns there was no school or colleges and it was also if you weren t funny the first time you never will be. But know it is a profession for a lot of peole and if you become good enough you can have a very large profit. Also with the clown college there is more than one kind of clown such as a rodeo clown. He will have to go to school for usually three years which will pay good because it is a high risk job.