A convention of clowns? It’s hard to imagine a round table gathering, including the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Ronald McDonald, with a straight face. What’s harder is to accept it as a fact. There exists an international body of clowns called the World Clown Association, headquartered in Merrillville, Indiana, U.S. The 30-year-old organisation consists of 25,000 members from 52 countries, who make up the executive committee and board of directors, and holds an annual convention complete with lectures and workshops (registrations are currently open for the next one at Bangkok in March 2017). And interestingly, the current vice-president is an Indian from Mumbai. Martin D’Souza, who is known as Flubber in the clown world, was recently in the city, as part of the third edition of International Clown Festival at Phoenix MarketCity.
At the event, we see professional clowns Sparky, Maggie, Benji and Timmyto interacting with the audience. Sparky mostly performs in schools and hospitals back in the U.S., and Maggie, at children’s birthday parties; Benji fuses clowning and theatre, and Timmyto comes from a circus background. Martin, who has been clowning for 26 years, is a Physics graduate who did marketing management before finding his true calling. “I loved conducting games for kids, and realised that I wanted to do more with this passion. Clowning was the best option, and I soon connected with clowns around the world,” he says. He took up workshops and attended classes on clowning.
Like in any other certification programme, there is a structured education for clowning. There are clown camps, presentations, abundant reading material, and videos to learn from. “People are not aware of the range of possibilities when it comes to clowning,” he says.
“There is something called Clown Ministry, where we impart moral values and lessons on religion for children,” says Martin.
But clowning is not a ‘thing’ in India yet, he says, simply because “there is no exposure, education or opportunity when it comes to this field. It has not been part of our culture. We see clowns only in the circus, where they whack each other and act stupid. What they do not know is that we are smart, skilled, and practise our acts for hours before performing. We are not school dropouts.”
Sparky adds, “In India, people are not used to seeing much of the likes of us. Probably that’s why we see an amazing outpouring of people during our shows. Back in the U.S., there are days when I am wearing make-up the whole day. I even go to the nearby grocery store in it, and people do not give a second glance,” she says. Sparky was in her late forties when she took to clowning. “I held a top position in a corporate job, but was crippled by clinical depression. Clowning seemed to fill my empty bucket with love. I went out there, and performed for people; in return, I got twice the happiness,” she says.
“For example, in Chennai last year, I had a very pregnant woman walk up to the stage at the end of the show, look right into my eyes, and tell me that her baby is going to come out healthy, as I made her laugh for the first time in a long time,” she recalls.
But can anybody be a clown? The question whips up a debate among the clowns. For Maggie, it was the skillset of a clown that attracted her to the profession. “Juggling, stilt walking, unicycling… I liked what the clowns did on stage,” she says. But what made her feel like a real clown was when she started wearing make-up and had children surrounding her. Her two cents: “Want to be a clown? Then, you might want to like children first.” According to Martin, “To be a clown, one has to be happy from inside. If you are happy while performing, and go back home feeling depressed, then you are just an actor. It’s important that you don’t perform as a clown, but be a clown.”
Visit www.worldclown.com for details, and registration.
