Pedagogy of the Clown: Clowning Principles in Education [1st ed. 2023] 3031392205, 9783031392207

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Pedagogy of the Clown Clowning Principles in Education Sean McCusker

Pedagogy of the Clown

Sean McCusker

Pedagogy of the Clown Clowning Principles in Education

Sean McCusker Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing Northumbria University Newcastle, UK

ISBN 978-3-031-39220-7    ISBN 978-3-031-39221-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39221-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Paper in this product is recyclable.

Preface

The clown moves into the spotlight on the stage. He pulls behind him a chair. He does not focus on the audience until he is ready; he moves into place and their expectations build. At just the right moment, he turns and acknowledges the crowd, by which time they are ready, eager to see what he will do next, to see what he has for them. Faeble Kievman, for it is he, has perfected the art of charging the atmosphere so that his audience are excited and ready to engage. It is an art which no doubt many teachers would like to master. Clowns do it all the time, though their approaches might vary: some announce their arrival with noise and fanfare, others with dramatic props, yet others with silence and stillness. However, they do it; they do it with a keen awareness of the audience and with the purpose of building anticipation. Then the show begins. Newcastle, UK

Sean McCusker

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Acknowledgements

My first and greatest thanks go to my wife, Oakleigh, without whom this book could never have existed. Her empathy and patience in guiding me through conceptual understanding, her willingness to engage and play with half-formed thoughts and her ability to spin gold from the straw which I often brought to our discussions cannot be overstated. I only hope I have done justice to her contribution in these pages. The writing of this book has been a journey, albeit one in which I wandered off the track, got lost and walked in circles before finding a route which brought me to a destination at least near the one which I set out for. Many people have accompanied me at various stages of this and I owe them a debt of gratitude. Thanks to friends and colleagues at Durham University, particularly Jim Ridgway, who for the last 20 years has joined me in subversion, saying things people don’t usually say, talking about things people don’t usually talk about and thinking things people don’t usually think. Thanks to Steve Higgins, who along with reading draft sections has accompanied me playfully, engaging with ideas and being open to discussions on any topic, from Rambo to Rimbaud and in so doing encouraged the disposition which led to the idea for this book. Thanks also to Ray Land, who over discussions in Malaysia, managed to communicate what these Threshold Concepts are all about. I’ve nearly got it. Thanks also to Mike Fleming and Andrew Davis, for deep wisdom and encouragement. I also want to thank friends and colleagues at Northumbria University, for creating the environment for these ideas to flourish. Specific thanks go to David Nichol, for keeping me grounded and introducing reality where vii

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it was needed, and to Martyn Hudson, for his years of youthful exuberance, through to his years of wisdom, insight and tranquillity. Thanks to Mike and Gail Welply, for their encouragement and dedication to reading and editing drafts of this work. I can’t find the words to thank you enough, but I am sure you would be able to do so and perfectly punctuated too. Any remaining errors are mine. Muchísimas gracias a Andrea Jiménez, quien me introdujo en la práctica del payaso y me ha hecho sentir incómodo, torpe, avergonzado y perdido. También me ha enseñado mucho sobre lo que significa ser un payaso, la mayor parte de lo que yo sé y muy poco de lo que ella sabe. Thanks to Rowan van Muysen, who has contributed to explorations of clowning, with his involvement along with Andrea Jiménez in the “Modern Jesters” project, funded by the Imagination Lab Foundation, which also deserve thanks and acknowledgement. This book has been in development for just over six years, but its underpinnings go back much further and there are many people I should thank for nurturing and encouraging the intellectual curiosity and playfulness which led to its production. In my personal life, I must simultaneously thank and apologise to my family; my parents, Eddie and Mollie McCusker; and my brother, Eamon, who have all, at times, had to put up with my own forms of foolishness, but always understood and gave me the space and support to develop as I needed to. To the children in my life, Joe, Anna and Connor and Lylah, who, since they came into my life, have all inspired me and challenged me with their naivety and their wisdom, but greater than this, for allowing me to play with them; I am hugely indebted, please don’t stop. I have been very lucky over the years to have had the company of the CNY group; ‘Dangerous’ Jennie Macdiarmid, ‘Safe’ Jennie Dickerson, Billy Bodles, Eric Taylor, Lloyd Cresswell, Steve Rush and Tim Gough— greatly missed, for their actions of challenging, subverting, comforting and bringing joy, each as needed. All of these people have in some way contributed to the completion of this book and all should take a moment to reflect upon what they have done.

Contents

1 Introduction  1 Part I Clowns in Historical and Contemporary Contexts  11 2 I nternational Clowns and Clown Societies—The Role of the Clown Across Time and Space 13 3 The Clown in Society 37 4 Negative Portrayals of the Clown 55 Part II Clowns and Education: Introducing the Clown-Teacher  73 5 Lecoq and the Modern Clown 79 6 I mprovisation, Risk and Failure, Connection Through Reflection Perspectives Through Narratives of Modern Masters 97

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7 C  lowning and Creative Teaching: How to Be a Clown-Teacher113 8 Clown Pedagogical Spaces125 9 Conclusion143 Index149

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Overview This book makes the case for the introduction of clowning approaches and techniques to the teaching profession. It views clown principles and philosophies from the point of view of an educator and concentrates particularly on those aspects of clowning which are recognised as effective in teaching and learning. It looks at four questions concerning the role of clowning in education: • What is it to be a clown? • How does the art of clowning relate to the practice of teaching? • How can teachers be more clown? • What is the place of the clown in the educational domain? The first half of the book looks at the various manifestations of clowns across history, literature and culture. It makes the case that clowns exist and have always existed in forms beyond the slapstick performers one sees in the circus on the local green. It shows the long and rich heritage of clowning and the important roles that clowns have played in diverse societies. Where the focus is on making the case for the recognition of the place of clowns in society and the contributions that they have made, two clear themes emerge. The first is that clowns are experts in communication

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and good communication is at the heart of good education. Education is about the communication of knowledge and ideas. It is also about allowing learners to communicate with teachers, so that the state of their knowledge and understanding is apparent. The second theme which emerges from our understanding of clowns is in the metaphysical space which they occupy. Their persistent and universal occupation of the space between statuses situates them in liminal space, the same space traversed by learners within the theories of Mezirow (1991) and Meyer and Land (2003). The second half of the book looks at these themes in greater detail. Firstly, by looking at the educational and pedagogical qualities of clowns and clowning embedded in their communication and play with their audiences through a review of clowns and clown trainers and their view of the meaning of clowning. Secondly, by a consideration of learning as a journey which necessarily requires the traversal of tracts of wilderness, involving disorientation, doubt and isolation. This metaphor of the educational journey is influenced by Van Gennep’s (1960) description, in the early twentieth century, of rites of passage requiring a separation and seclusion ‘in the bush’ and by Turner’s (1982) suggestion that ritual passages of status are often accompanied by a physical passage in space, even if as small as the crossing of a threshold.

Motivation In trying to understand the key messages which emerge from this wide-­ ranging exploration, it is worth reviewing the motivations in writing this book. In recent years there has been a need to reconsider the nature of education and how it is achieved. Teaching and learning are increasingly seen as a collaborative endeavour, moving away from strongly instructionist models which focus on delivery of content to passive learners. Whilst there is still space for that in certain topics, within certain disciplines, teaching is increasingly seen as an endeavour in which the teacher is also framed as a learner and learners are framed as creative and critical thinkers with their own forms of knowledge and understanding, which must be appreciated in the construction of the learning environment. Freire’s (1993) proposal of a move away from the banking model of education towards a ‘libertarian’ reconciliation of the teacher-learner divide, such that both became teachers and learners, seems particularly apposite at this time, as teachers and learners need to adapt to keep up to

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date with the new learning environment and develop the tools and spaces to allow them to challenge normative approaches to education and find new ways of connecting and relating to each other that are not based on increasingly outdated hierarchies of power and control in the classroom.

Pedagogy for Contemporary Learning The nature of knowledge and the way it is developed is changing. The ubiquity of technology, borderless communication, globalisation and the way these have changed our access to and relationship with knowledge and expertise require a reconsideration of the role of the teacher and of the skills required of the learner. In an era where there is ‘fake news’, conspiracy theories and distrust of expertise and mainstream media, combined with multiple channels of communication and information overload, the skills of information access and retention become less valuable commodities and those of information literacy, synthesis and criticality come to the fore. In such times, proficiencies required to navigate the social and professional environments in which young people will find themselves are difficult to predict, many of the skills we taught in the past have become obsolete and many of the skills we teach now may well become obsolete in the near future. There are a number of pedagogical principles and theories that are endorsed within teacher education and professional practice. These include some favourites such as formative assessment and feedback, reflection in practice and on practice, co-constructionism and student-centred learning. These constructs are well-defined and conceptualised within the education research literature. However, it is a challenge to find ways to encourage teachers to internalise the principles which underlie them. The threat arises from the implementation of these strategies in mechanistic ways, which follow the letter rather than the spirit of the pedagogy. This book suggests that by approaching these pedagogical principles from a different perspective and adopting them through experience of a completely different profession, teachers may find them more relatable and accessible. Furthermore, the adoption of clown characteristics may allow teachers to augment their teaching repertoire and allow them to approach teaching in new and creative ways. Additionally, by recognising that clowns are at their best when revealing their authentic selves, teachers may learn to adopt teaching identities more aligned with their own traits and characteristics, teaching in a way which celebrates these rather than hiding them.

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The Clown The clown is a ubiquitous figure across many cultures, sometimes loved and admired, other times distrusted and reviled. The clown evokes diverse reactions from people, depending on their experience, their cultural history and their position in society. Whilst the clown can be found in many cultures throughout history and across the world, they present in different ways, perform different rituals and hold different positions in society depending on where they are found. Yet, despite these various and varied contexts, there is a commonality in the role of clowns across time and geography. In this book I try to identify the essence of what makes a clown across cultures. The challenge of this book lies in persuading the reader that the clown should be taken seriously and has a contribution to make in the educational arena. At the mention of clowns, most people immediately think of the traditional circus or birthday clown, and whilst these have their place in this analysis, this first impression makes the task of persuasion that much more difficult. Within this framing, the clown is seen only as a mirth maker and whilst many see there is space for laughter and joy in the classroom, fewer see the pedagogical value of the character of the clown in his many varied forms. The suggestion within this book is not that the teacher put on a red nose to walk into the classroom as a clown, instead, it is that there are many of the clown’s philosophies, ideas and even practices which we should integrate into our teaching practice. These clowning principles, from rich histories and cultural traditions, align with many of the pedagogies practiced in schools today. The hope is that through observing and understanding clowns and their actions, teachers can allow their practice to shift a little and allow their inner clown to emerge alongside their inner teacher. Theories about pedagogy are well established and supported by evidence. However, their adoption and implementation are less straightforward. Educational change is notoriously difficult. Training and retraining teachers in pedagogical practices is not as simple as the retelling of ideas and methods, even to the most eager of learners. As the psychologist and educationalist Robert Mager (1968) wrote, “If telling were teaching, we’d all be so smart we could hardly stand it” (p. 7). Teaching, including teaching teachers, requires a more thoughtful approach. Authors such as Fishbein and Ajzen (1977), for example, suggest that beliefs and attitudes play a large part in intentions and behaviour. It is with this understanding

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in mind that this book sets out to develop an alternative perspective on those sound pedagogical principles. This book is the product of thinking, reading and observations of teaching and teaching trends over many years, an enduring interest in clowns and clowning, and the crossing of those two streams. It is not intended as a manual or even a guide on how to introduce clowning into education. It contains no definitive answers or recommendations. It merely asks the reader to reconsider their view of clowns and what may be learned from them. It also raises a range of teaching methods and approaches which, through practice and empirical evidence, have gained some traction in recent years. As an author, I have tried to offer up clowning and clowning philosophies as a fit for teaching practices, but this is a reflection of how I see the overlap of these two worlds. It needs to be made clear at the outset that clowning is not proposed as a metaphor or analogy for teaching, the argument within this book is that teachers pay attention to clowns in all their guises, perhaps going so far as to engage in clown training, to better understand and practice those aspects of clowning that can be beneficial to them. The reader is required to do some work too. In using the methods of the clown to illuminate the realm of teaching, I still leave dark shadows and unexplored avenues, even those areas I present are open to reinterpretation or argument for they are a first consideration of the union of the two domains and as the saying goes “Never do anything for the first time”. Clown Terminology Throughout this book, the terms Clown, Jester, Fool and others are used interchangeably. However, the most common term for all these, where a general term is used, will be ‘clown’. This is not because there is no recognition of the differences between the forms, the differences are acknowledged where relevant, for example, in the context of Shakespeare’s clowns and fools in Chap. 2, where one is identified as a ‘rustic bumpkin’ and the other as a more sophisticated wit and each serves a different dramatic purpose. Nevertheless, there is much that unites these different incarnations and to nuance the terminology when dealing with the characteristics of the genre would break the flow and introduce differentiation where none is required. Furthermore, the nuance of terms of Clown, Fool or Jester is less relevant when we look across cultures. Clowns as encountered by

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cultures in, for example, North America, Asia or Africa are known by different names and do not fit so easily into these predominantly European categorisations.

Structure This book is conceived in two parts. In Part 1 the reader is introduced to clowns and clowning in a range of historical and contemporary contexts. The main purpose of this part is to give the reader a good understanding of the wide scope of clowning and clowning traditions and to establish commonalities and themes across these various incarnations of clowns. It also demonstrates that clowns throughout history and across cultures have generally been a force for good in society. However, it also recognises that there is a considerable number of people with a distrust or dislike of clowns, in some cases extending to phobia. Part 2 of the book focuses specifically on education and pedagogy, extending the clown principles and practices established in the first part, through case studies of the clowning philosophies of a number of clowns and clown-teachers and interpreting these in terms of the educational theories and evidence-based practices with which they resonate. In Part 1, Chap. 2 provides an overview of a historical and cultural perspective of clowning. There is not a straight line connecting the Fool of antiquity with the modern clown of the circus and stage. The flow of history is complex with many bifurcations and tributaries. He is found in the buffoon or parasite of Ancient Greece, the holy fool, the jester of royal courts and prestigious households, in the marketplace, fairgrounds and on the stage as mountebank or entertainer, on the silver screen as Chaplin or Tati through to the modern greats such as Slava Polunin, David Larible and Oleg Popov. This chapter attempts to capture the variety of clowns and their societal roles, starting with their earliest records in Ancient Egypt, through ancient Greece and Rome into the post-classical era in England and then across the world, with stories and histories in Asia, North America and Africa. From these stories, themes of benevolence, marginalisation and liminality emerge. Chapter 3 looks at contemporary clowns, practicing that benevolence in spaces of liminality in contemporary settings. It looks at clowns’ attempts to improve the world around them, through acts of subversion, inversion, play and challenge. This chapter visits clowns in a variety of settings, in areas of conflict and crisis, in political activity, in healthcare and in

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spirituality and reflects upon how these actions represent a long tradition of clowning in times of need. This chapter sets the stage for the introduction of clowning principles to the educational arena by establishing that there is still a space and an appetite for clowning in many aspects of contemporary public life. Before embarking on the challenge of the second half of this book, making the case for the introduction of clowning practices in the classroom, Chap. 4 presents a pause in the largely positive review of clowning thus far. It recognises that clowns and clowning are far from universally loved and that there may be resistance encountered in introducing clowning as a pedagogical approach. This chapter reviews the bad clowns and scary clowns of fiction and reality, including those termed clowns not through choice, such as class clowns and seemingly incompetent politicians. Notwithstanding the difficulty in differentiating true clowns from their imitators, the argument is made that these types of clowns are not clowns in the true sense, failing as they do, to meet the criteria and standard set by clowns in the earlier chapters. Part 2 marks a transition in the narrative of the book. Having spent the previous chapters establishing the credentials of clowns and endorsing their viability in the public arena, Part 2 of this book looks to a number of contemporary clowning philosophies and their relevance to current educational theories and practices. This phase is introduced by a historical vignette of clowns and clowning at some of the most respected educational institutions in Europe. In Part 2, Chap. 5 introduces Jacques Lecoq, one of the most influential theatre and clown-teachers in recent years. It reviews his five ‘dramatic territories’ as described in his seminal work, The Moving Body and deconstructs them in terms of the pedagogical messages they contain for contemporary teachers. The ‘territories’ of Tragedy and Melodrama are treated rather lightly as they contain little of the clown. The unpicking of the messages they contain for educators would require a far deeper analysis of those theatrical traditions than can be provided here. Nevertheless, Lecoq’s perspective provides some pointers for teachers in terms of teaching as a performance. More detailed analysis is reserved for Lecoq’s clown-­ like territories of Commedia dell’arte, Bouffon and of course Clown. Key message from rich description of his teaching in these three territories are compared to current, contemporary educational practices. Chapter 6 looks further at clowning practices and philosophies, this time from a selection of clowns interviewed for David Bridel and Ezra

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Lebank’s book Clowns In Conversation. This represents the thoughts of a range of clowns, some of the tradition of Lecoq, some from a long line of traditional clowning, often within circus families, others from their own practices, formed performing on the street. Despite the variety of experiences which shaped these clowns, their philosophies and principles of clowning often converge. It is from these ideas that educational principles are elicited, some of these overlap with Lecoq. However, this is seen as confirmation and triangulation rather than repetition. Key themes are drawn together and presented by their pedagogical arguments rather than their clowning source. Chapter 7 is the last chapter reviewing clown principles. This chapter discusses the messages contained in P. Nalle Laanela and Stacey Sack’s book, The Clown Manifesto and insights gained from training and discussion with the theatre director, actor, clown and clown trainer, Andrea Jiménez. Whilst Laanela’s view is shaped to some degree by Lecoq, having trained at his Ecole International de Theatre in Paris and Jiménez also trained in the same tradition, under Lecoq’s student and colleague, Phillipe Gaulier, their views have been adapted and honed through experiences around the world in a variety of contexts. The chapter reflects Laanela and Jiménez’s experiences as pedagogues and as clowns and their tools and methods as they apply to those who wish to build connections and play. As such their views and clown wisdom are rich sources of material to be illuminated by pedagogical principles and adapted for use as everyday practice in the educational environment. Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 synthesise the practices and philosophies of clown across time and cultures, drawing out pedagogical principles and offering fresh approaches and perspectives to common challenges faced in the educational environment. However, Chap. 8 looks particularly at a unique position for the clown in the educational environment. The theme of liminality which recurs through many of the clowning experiences detailed in the book is valourised in this chapter. The clown’s occupation of and familiarity with liminal spaces ‘betwixt and between’ are brought to the fore and comparisons are drawn with anthropological, sociological and pedagogical journeys which encounter transitional and liminal phases, where one leaves behind their pre-liminal state and experiences a stage of uncertainty and loss, before alighting on the secure platform of the post-­ liminal state. Theories describing such transitions are described starting with van Gennep’s Rites of Passage (1960) and including Meyer and Land’s work on Threshold Concepts (2003). The potential for the clown

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to contribute to their social environment, by accompanying those experiencing the dislocation of liminality is explored in the educational context. Chapter 9 concludes by bringing together the themes and ideas proposed throughout the book. It highlights the fact that this is the first outing of the idea of clowning principles in contemporary education, bar some early writing developing the ideas (McCusker, 2021) and recognises that there is still much to be developed in this field. In so doing, it points at areas that require further development and identifies themes which are still to be explored, to exploit the potential of clowns in education.

References Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1977). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 10(2), 130–132. Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed (Myra Bergman Ramos, Trans.). Penguin. Mager, R. F. (1968). Developing attitude toward learning. Fearon Publishers. McCusker, S. (2021). Alias the Jester–What can clowns tell us about teaching? In Early careers in education: Perspectives for students and NQTs. Emerald Publishing Limited. Meyer, J., & Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: Linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines (pp. 412–424). University of Edinburgh. Mezirow, J. 1991. Transformative dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Turner, V. (1982). From ritual to theatre: The human seriousness of play. Performing Arts Journal Publications. van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage: Arnold van Gennep (Monika B. Vizedom, Trans.). University of Chicago Press.

PART I

Clowns in Historical and Contemporary Contexts

CHAPTER 2

International Clowns and Clown Societies— The Role of the Clown Across Time and Space

Introduction In this chapter we begin by tracing the many aspects of the fool in the English tradition. From the ‘natural fool’ of the medieval church, through the social fool at festival and fairs, to the circus clown with which many of us are familiar. We then set off around the globe, with a brief look at some of the historical antecedents of clowning from antiquity, then sampling clowns from the English theatre as well as from Africa, Asia and North America, giving a rounded view of cultures and societies in which clowns and clowning play a formalised role. The purpose of this section is not to explore in depth the history and legacy of clowns across cultures, but to demonstrate that although clowns across time and cultures are not uniform, they share a commonality which unifies them in a range of contexts and environments. It will provide an overview of clowns in a broad range of cultural contexts, highlighting those things which remain constant and those that vary. This section attempts to sample clowning traditions from around the globe, to exemplify the traditions across cultures. The civilisations of China, India, the Middle East, Persia and nearby regions also had a long tradition of jesters and clowning. In fact, rather than the brief flourish of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, non-Western traditions show a more enduring relationship with the clown, stretching over millennia.

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To appreciate that clowns and clowning methods can contribute to educational practices, it is important to recognise that clowns have consistently contributed to the wellbeing of society, across cultures and across time. This chapter discusses the role of clowns in society and tries to overturn the popular view of clowns as trivial actors, serving merely to amuse and entertain. It demonstrates, through the use of examples across time and place, that clowns have always played an important role in society beyond that of comic relief. Contrary to the common perception of clowns as disruptive radicals seeking to challenge norms and overturn the establishment, the cases described here demonstrate that clowns predominantly play a safeguarding role in society, ensuring balance and continuity in their communities. Clown activities across history are presented, in royal courts, in drama and mythology and in everyday society. Amongst these stories, we see the clown occupying spaces ‘betwixt and between’, neither fully in the play nor in the audience, neither amongst the courtly elite nor amongst the hoi-polloi, neither in society nor completely outside of it. This liminal space occupied by the clown allows them to move smoothly between worlds, on the one hand unconstrained by the rules of either, but on the other, lacking in the security associated with belonging. However, it is their occupation of this space which gives the clown licence to operate beyond the bounds of society. It is their familiarity with this in-between space, lacking in assurances or predictability, which equips them to come to the fore in the times of uncertainty and chaos. Their role is not to rescue those obliged to endure that same wilderness, but to accompany them on their journey. The clown has learned to thrive and survive in this liminal space, becoming adaptable and responsive to unpredictability, to be able to absorb, adapt and exploit whatever emerges from the unknown.

Ancient and Historical Clowns Ancient Egypt The earliest record of clowns or jesters appear to date back to Ancient Egypt over 4000 years ago, where a ‘Danga’ is recorded as a fool (Palmer, 1994, p. 25) at the court of the Pharoh Dadkeri-Assi (Welsford, 1961) hailing from the region known as Puanit, a region associated with various countries just below Equatorial Africa. Little else is recorded of said ‘Danga’, though he was regarded to be mystical or even supernatural. As

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a result, his activities, dances and diversions were treated not only with tolerance but also with privilege. He made enough impact that when 80 years later, the Pharaoh Nefakare (Pepi II) received notification from a trader of the discovery of another Danga, he issued strict instructions for the carriage of this precious cargo to his court. Such Danga appear to have entertained the Egyptian court and noble houses of the time, by wearing leopard skins, dancing and imitating their gods (Hugill, 1980; Welsford, 1961). Already in these early records we see the privilege accorded to clown characters in royal courts and high society as well as their talismanic associations as these clowns were considered as an exotic wonder, from faraway lands and a charm against bad luck. Ancient Greece Clowns appear again, much later, on Grecian vases of the eighth century BCE and more prominently in the farcical plays of Phylakes in the fifth century. In this context, they are coarse-humoured, improvisational grotesques, appearing in plays of mythical themes. Clad in tights, artificial padding and often with an artificial phallus strapped to their loins, they would act the role of a buffoon. As with the Egyptians thousands of years earlier, Greek nobles also maintained fools in their homes for purposes of entertainment. Known as parasites, some of these were able to achieve permanent positions within noble households whilst many others touted their trade in the marketplace looking to be invited to celebrations or banquets where they were in great demand. Here they were to be found fulfilling their role which recurs through history, challenging figures of the establishment, mocking heroes of mythology or politicians and leaders of the day. In return for their efforts, they might be paid handsomely or merely be invited to eat with the guests. The etymology of the name tells us something about their origins. Parasite, from the Greek, ‘Para’ meaning alongside and Sitos— wheat/food. Hence the Parasite was to be found alongside food, eating at the table of another. Ancient Rome The buffoon clown of Greek drama had his counterpart in Roman Theatre. The improvisational farcical entertainer appeared in stage performances as a rustic buffoon in the role of traditional characters. This ridiculous

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juxtaposition proved popular, with stock characters developing into established roles improvised within particular themes in the Fabula Atellena, mime plays written particularly for the actors. Here we can see the establishment of particular clown characters, Maccus, the bumbling rustic clown, Bucco, the witty, satirical fool, Pappus, the senile lecherous old man, Dossennus, the cunning, wise and frightening, fool and others, although not all survived in a recorded form. As with the Egyptians and Greeks, Roman Clowns or Buffoons (possibly from buffare one who would ‘blow/puff out their cheeks’) also found their place in noble households either as permanent or itinerant entertainers. So prized were jesters and clowns in such times, that they were often brought back as trophies from conquered lands. Throughout Roman history, various emperors indulged and supported jesters and clowns, despite their tendency to criticise or satirise statesmen and the affairs of state. In the post-classical period of history clowns are prevalent across various sections of society. In the following section we shall see how their roles developed over this period. The English Fool The fortunes of the fool in Medieval and Renaissance England were very much intertwined with the mores of their times. In liberal, progressive times the fool flourished but in times of conservatism, they disappeared into the margins and obscurity. Whilst there is no linear development of the fool or clown traditions through history, there are certain historical influences which shaped their development from the medieval through to the contemporary era. In the early medieval church, the fool or ‘witless man’ was seen as an innocent, incapable of sin. His inability to reason or recognise right from wrong meant he was not responsible for his actions. As such, this fool was considered blessed, the freedom from sin meant admission to heaven, when the time came. This privilege was greatly coveted, and those who failed to see the nuances of church’s reasoning, focused only on the instrumental and released themselves upon the world performing acts of ‘foolishness’ in the belief that this would absolve them of sin and ensure them a place amongst the chosen. The church, of course could neither condone nor tolerate such subversion of their teachings and by the early thirteenth century promulgated the idea that such pretenders or ‘artificial fools’ were in fact not so innocent and rather than having a free pass to heaven, had a direct ticket to hell (Billington, 2015, p. viii). There emerged a distinction

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between the innocent and the artificial fool. However, the church was neither able to exercise any control over the peasantry or the joy they expressed in foolishness. The celebration of the Feast of Fool’s developed in the twelfth century CE, originating in Southern France, but spreading more widely in England and Germany, taking place between Christmas and Epiphany. An embodiment of Luke 13:30 “And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last”. In this inversion which Mikhail Bakhtin (1984) termed the carnivalesque, senior members of the church changed places with those of a more lowly position, thus allowing each to satirise and parody the other, highlighting that which each found objectionable. Choir boys or priests were crowned as bishops, noisy processions led through the streets and in the cathedral, mock sermons would be delivered, combining serious scriptural readings along with lewd or vulgar interjections. Almost since its inception, this feast drew criticism from sections within the church who struggled with its subversive traditions. Bishop Grosseteste, the reforming Bishop of Lincoln, eventually forbade the Feast of Fools in the thirteenth century, although the effect of this is unclear as an ecumenical Council of the Catholic church forbade it again in the fifteenth century, and various provincial councils continued to do the same in following years and some traces are recorded in France as late as the eighteenth century. Little is known of the fool from this early period and few records were kept of the holy fool, although brief appearances in history demonstrate that up to the Renaissance, there was a place for the fool in society, albeit within a section of it which did not allow a rich written record to be kept. That which could not be controlled was omitted from the official histories. The reconsideration of religious beliefs, which accompanied the Renaissance, brought along with it a flourishing of the fool, as the hold of religious mores on society was loosened. Their resurgence in royal courts and on the theatrical stage, as had been their place in antiquity, led fools to become the stars of their day, some with names which are still recognised currently. However, this was a rather short-lived resurgence as the mid-seventeenth century saw again the religious disapproval of the frivolity of foolishness, along with the Long Parliament’s closure of the theatres, hence placing fools once again in the margins of society, to be found simply at festivals, fetes and fairgrounds. During this period, the fool became so well established amongst the general public, that when the theatre returned during the Restoration in 1660, there was little space for him within drama, thus the fool or clown

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found their homes as entertainers amongst the people rather than as scripted characters and were largely absented from dramatic performance (Billington, 2015). This positioning in the margins of society as well as the lack of governance in the littoral of the legal and regulated provided fertile ground for the development of the clown and their roles in society. It allowed the mainstream and the margins to blend, presenting opportunities for satirical parodies of theatrical productions or for fools to be elevated to the theatrical stage and for political pamphleteers, satirists and snake-oil salesmen to speak through the mouths of these entertainers. As social behaviour became increasingly rigid and formal in the eighteenth century, even the comics and satirists aimed for respectability, trying to legitimise their behaviour and place in society. Again, the playful fool fell from respectable records and only appeared occasionally, nevertheless, enough to demonstrate that during this period, local entertainment remained much the same over 100 years. Professional fools became increasingly respectable, as stage entertainers or guests in great houses, sometimes both, expected to perform or entertain. Hence, the idea of the celebrity fool rose again, with its stars and with this an increasing professionalism of the art. By this time, the theatrical characters of Clown and Harlequin had returned to the stage and enjoyed great success, often in the English Harlequinade, a derivative of the Italian tradition of Commedia dell’arte. This was driven to some degree by the general degradation of conventional theatrical performances but also to a great extent by the rise of stars of the genre, including the theatre director and actor John Rich who heavily influenced the Harlequin character and later, Joseph Grimaldi who shaped the character of Clown. The modern version of the Clown is strongly defined by the tradition of Grimaldi, followed by his son. However, when the elevation of Clown occurred at the end of the eighteenth century, it was through the artistic decisions for theatrical directions of the Sadlers Wells Theatre in London, where the role of Grimaldi Jnr. as Clown was elevated through costume design, into the extravagant character with which we are now familiar. This transformed the Harlequinade from theatre dominated by Harlequin to one dominated by Clown, along with the transition from tricks and gymnastics to satire and comedy. By the end of the eighteenth century the fool had developed in various directions some as professional comedians and entertainers, others as continuations of the folk traditions, associated with rural festivals and yet others as an evolution of the bumpkin clown, on whom many modern performing clowns are modelled.

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Historical Overview From the above, it is clear that the character of the clown is an ancient one. In various guises, the clown has appeared in cultures throughout history, often occupying the same spaces in society. From Ancient Egypt through to nineteenth-century England, we see the clown, usually of humble origins elevated to the highest table or courts in society and from that position using their protected status to mock, ridicule and challenge the pillars of society, usually revered or feared by their audiences. This tradition still exists and lives on within the comics and satirists of current day, as well as practicing clowns in their various settings. The position of the clown in these contexts, either in noble and royal households, on the stage or as public entertainment is one of marginality. At the courts and tables of nobility, in their theatrical roles or as public fools, the clown occupies the margins or interstitial spaces, evading simple categorisation, existing between two worlds. At court neither being of the court nor being outside of it, in the theatre neither being of the play nor of the audience and in public neither being of society nor being fully outside of it. It is perhaps the occupation of this space, neither inside nor outside, on the threshold, which has given clowns the licence to challenge and ridicule the establishment, with minimal fear of censure. This occupation of the ‘spaces in-between’ can be seen across time and cultures in the following section

Clowns Across Cultures This positioning of clowns, ‘betwixt and between’ protected by their mantle and licenced to criticise and mock can be found in cultures across the world. However, as we look in greater detail at the role which clowns play from this unique position, we see that along with the right to mock and ridicule, clowns have the responsibility to protect the societies in which they exist and the masters who they serve, often from each other. This section will look clowns and fools in the English context through their development with Shakespeare, it will then move around the world to South Asia, where we see the same clown types emerge half a world away. From there, we move to North America and then Africa, to look at clown societies and the activities of clown groups within wider cultures in these societies. Across all these cultures spread across the world, we seek to identify commonalities in the roles and status of clowns in various diverse contexts.

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Shakespearean Fools The fool in England in the Renaissance developed in conjunction with developments in literature and the ascendance of high-profile clowns and actors, with jesters such as Richard Tarlton, playing a part in popularising Elizabethan theatre. On the stage, as in real-life the fool would often play the role of mediating between the harsh reality of life and the sensibilities of their audience. Just as a court fool might be the one who would soften the blows of criticism for the king, so too the stage fool would improvise and joke with the audience but also convey the bad news when necessary. The work of Shakespeare and his theatrical company played no small part in these developments, with comic actors such as Will Kemp and Robert Armin. Performers such as these shaped the role of clowns in the theatre and greatly influenced the roles which were written for them. In Shakespeare’s work and that of his contemporaries, we can see the placement as well as the development of the English clowning tradition. Shakespeare’s fools reflected to some degree their counterparts in royal courts or grand households and whilst there was no prominent jester in the court of Elizabeth I, her predecessors and contemporaries, including her father, all had their own jesters (Ishikawa, 2011). Henry VIII famously had Will Somers, Mary I (Bloody Mary) had Jane Foole, James VI/James I had Archibald Armstrong and in fact Will Somers remained at court until his death early in the reign of Elizabeth I. Where we see fools appear in literature around the time of Shakespeare’s plays, for example in Robert Greene’s James IV and more famously in Ben Jonson’s Volpone, they play peripheral roles, as occasional entertainment perhaps designed to suit the less sophisticated spectator. Their characters are grotesques, Nano the ‘dwarf’, Androgyno the ’hermaphrodite’ and Castrone, the ‘eunuch’, representing the flaws in Volpone’s own character and that of others in the play. At the time, the great jester roles had yet to be written, these were developed alongside the rise of some of the great stage actors and clowns of the time. The stage personas and public persona of stars such as Richard Tarlton, the famed clown, actor and court jester of the Elizabethan era would have been very closely related (Otto, 2001). Such characters would have influenced Shakespeare’s fool creations. Through Shakespeare and the roles he writes for the celebrated clowns of his time, Will Kemp and Robert Armin, we see the interplay between the written, theatrical and societal (popular) development of the clown or fool (Ishikawa, 2011).

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Shakespeare’s fool characters were closely connected to the actors who played them and developed the roles. Thus, the strengths of the player, came to shape the characters and indeed the plays. Will Kemp, one of the most famous comic actors of his time, inheritor of the mantle of Richard Tarlton, was one of the players in Shakespeare’s early plays. Kemp was known for his jigs, buffoonery and improvisation, embodying a more physical and rustic comedy as seen in his famous roles as an incompetent and bumbling Dogberry in Much Ado about Nothing and the wittier but nevertheless incompetent Costard in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Kemp was particularly well suited to these roles as they indulged his form of comedy as a buffoon and entertainer, giving more rein to his improvisations. Notably, it is suggested that the reasons for his leaving Shakespeare and The Chamberlain’s Men was that he was removed from the company because whilst he was suited to the clowning roles, he was unable to refrain from going beyond the script and extemporising (Billington, 2015, p. 43). At this time, Shakespearean fools provided more comic relief, being more stooge-like, providing entertainment for the ‘groundlings’ or relieving the tension in the darker moments of the plays. The comics of this period were characterised as rustic bumpkins, more ‘clowns’ of the time rather than the sophisticated ‘fool’ which emerges later. Kemp was replaced in the company by Robert Armin, another of the greatest comic actors and clowns of the time and an apprentice of Richard Tarlton. This change, with Armin’s replacement of Kemp as Shakespeare’s clown or comic lead, allowed a development of the complexity of the fool character (Wiles, 2005). The collaboration between Shakespeare and Armin, with the writing of the former combined with the latter’s expertise and understanding of the clown and fool within society, heralded a shift in the comic roles of Shakespeare (Henze, 2013). It honed the development and legitimisation of the fool, notably Touchstone of As You Like It, Feste of Twelfth Night and culminating in the Fool of King Lear In Touchstone of As You Like It, we see that throughout the play he moves from commentator on the periphery to being at the centre and out again. In playing the role of commentator, he discusses the other characters in the play, providing a guide for the audience, mediating between the audience and the performance Thus, maintaining a position both within and without of the play, performing the service of keeping the audience connected to the play. In this we see the fool occupying a position between two worlds, both in the play and in the audience. As we shall see, this is a common place for the clown.

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In Feste within Twelfth Night, we see a well-established household fool, licenced to speak truthfully to and about those around him, in common with clowns and jesters throughout history As with Touchstone, he is identified as a wise fool, as he says “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit”, and as with Touchstone his role within the play is as a participant as well as an observer, again reprising the role of fool or clown between worlds. He is portrayed as having a great understanding of the intrigues and plots within the story. His comments on characters and relationships often demonstrate a great insight, if not some ‘inside information’ to which others are not privy. This he shares with the audience, again keeping them engaged and not discomfited by the intrigues and complexity on stage. Here we see the clown not only crossing the boundary between the play and the audience as before, but also fulfilling a duty of care towards them, acting to ensure their wellbeing, a theme we see recurring in clowns across time and cultures In King Lear we see the fool much more in the role of courtly jester protecting the king and moderating his behaviour, pointing out his faults and holding him accountable. In this, the fool tries to protect Lear from his own excesses and poor decisions. He fails of course and Lear gives his kingdom away to his daughters. Where both Cordelia and Kent are exiled for confronting Lear or questioning his actions, the fool is allowed to remain, sharing his fate, even accompanying him as he is cast into the storm. We see here, the symbiotic relationship between king and jester as occurs in many contexts. The fool protects Lear in more ways than one, acting as the conscience of the king, reflecting the role of the fool in the medieval court questioning and holding him to account as no one else can. In this development of the fool, we see the theatrical device which allows the playwright to communicate directly with the audience, either to provide clarification or to impart some moral message. This stage jester inhabited a space, neither of the stage nor of the audience, often able to move between them, but never to have a place in either camp. This, combined with the status of ‘licensed fool’ mirroring the courtly or household fools of the time, gave the fool or playwright the opportunity to speak ‘truth to power’ or to satirise societal norms and mores. Whilst various forms of fool and clown developed during this period, this form of wise fool reached its zenith during the time of Armin and Shakespeare, but came to pass as both brought their careers to a close, arguably because the art lacked the talent to maintain such a form of fool. Instead, what endured were the rustic, satirical, rough clowning forms such as that of Jack

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Pudding, although the tradition of satire and mockery continued to exist in other literary and theatrical forms. Traditionally, in English literature and across cultures, despite their presentation as subversive and disruptive, the clown and jester have played a role of moderation. The relationship between monarch and jester has always been a special one. Each holds a unique position within court, each beyond censure. The king because of his elevated position and the jester because of his sanction to speak openly to the king. In this relationship, the jester serves to ground the monarch, providing a connection to the nobility and to the common man. The jester’s unique position between the power of the king and his subjects imposes upon them a great responsibility. On the one hand to protect the monarch and to forestall his excess that might incur the dissatisfaction or revolt of the public and the nobility and on the other to protect the public and nobility from these excess without greatly offending the monarch by directly questioning his actions. In these plays by Shakespeare, we see themes common to clowns and jesters everywhere. We see the occupation of ‘in-between’ spaces, never fully belonging to one group or the other, in this case neither audience nor player. We also see their role as being one to challenge authority, but as an act of benevolence to safeguard the welfare of society as a whole. In the following section we shall see that this balancing act is one performed by jesters, clowns and satirists throughout the world. South Asia In South Asia, stories and legend surround the characters of Birbal, and Tenali Rama of the sixteenth century and Gopal of the eighteenth century. In these, the role of court jester was less strictly defined as a fool or entertainer than in the Western tradition and these jesters tended to be held in higher regard. The partnership and dependency between king and jester, familiar to those with a Western perspective is also found in these relationships. However, contrary to the Western tradition, these jesters held esteemed places in the courts of their kings or emperors, often as advisers, ministers or leaders, as well as poets, musicians, wits and humourists. Birbal, Tenali Rama and Gopal, in their time and domain, each held a special position with their rulers, belonging to an elite group of scholars within the court, identified as ‘pillars’ or ‘jewels’ and as such made them highly influential.

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Whilst this esteemed position granted the South Asian jesters a certain licence to question or check the king or emperor, it appears it was without the impunity which we see in the Western court. Whilst these jesters were famed for their wit and intelligence, utilised to outwit both the ruler and his enemies, many of the stories told relate how these jesters relied upon their wit to escape execution, either through amusing or embarrassing the ruler or causing him to reflect on his actions. It seems that as with many court jesters they were tolerated and indulged, in so far as their services outweighed the discomfort which their masters experienced. More so than their Western counterparts, these humorous stories often highlight the jester’s inventiveness and quick wit, finding solutions for the fanciful questions and requests of their royal masters. Whilst never directly disrespectful, their humour served to point out the flaws of the logic or argument of their interlocutors. Within folkloric literature, the stories of Tenali Rama, Birbal and Gopal resemble other similar tales in the Western tradition in which the jester makes fun of the follies or pride of the king or emperor and offers a salutary challenge to his behaviour. However, in these stories, the South Asian jester holding a higher status than his Western counterpart is often depicted as a confidant as well as an advisor to the ruler. As a result of this influence, he is subject to the intrigues of his court rivals and often the stories relate how using only his intelligence and cunning, he is able to outwit and defeat these rivals and even expose and neutralise the threats to the ruler and himself. These characters are so deeply embedded in folklore and popular culture that they continue to appear in movies, TV programmes and comics in India in current times. There are many tales of Tenali Rama, recounted in various forms across time including in animations for children. In the following section, a few brief summaries are presented to make the argument for Tenali Rama, through a jester’s wit, acting for moderation and tempering of excess. In the story of the Golden Mangoes, the Emperor Krishnadevaraya, who ruled the kingdom of Vijayanagara, is fooled into giving golden mangoes to all of the Brahmins in his kingdom to assuage his guilt for having neglected his duty to his mother as she lay dying. Tenali Rama, himself a high-caste Brahmin, seeing this for the deceit it is, contrives to punish the Brahmin by convincing them that they must first be branded with red-hot irons, in order to receive their gifts. The Brahmin submit to this, until the emperor finds out, following which Tenali Rama proposes an equally plausible story that he was required to brand the

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Brahmin in this way, to pacify his own mother’s ghost. In this tale we can see Tenali Rama, on the one hand, trying to curb the excess of a powerful group and protect the emperor from their greed, at the same time satirising the nonsensical ritualistic practices of the emperor. Yet, he was not always depicted as a champion of the common people. In another story, the emperor was so impressed by the work of his barber, from a socially disadvantaged caste, that he sought to raise him to the highest caste of Brahmins. The scandal and social turmoil which this cast amongst the Brahmin was great. To appease them Krishnadevaraya exempted them from six months of taxation. However, to ensure that they complied and accepted the barber amongst them, he pledged to visit them to verify that the barber sat at their tables. Still distressed the Brahmins came to Tenali Rama to seek a solution, which he duly accepted. He contrived to take a black dog and continually bathe it until it drew the attention of the emperor. When questioned about his efforts, he declared that he was endeavouring to turn the black dog white. The emperor pointed out the folly of his action, at which point Tenali Rama drew the comparison between attempting to turn a black dog white with that of turning a barber into a Brahmin. The emperor reflected upon this and diverted from his path, instead deciding to reward the barber by some other means. Once again, we can see Tenali Rama acting through wit and cunning to maintain the social order which was so deeply embedded in the society of Southern India at that time. Even whilst the emperor attempted to act in a radical manner to subvert this order, it was Tenali Rama thorough his own subversion, who acted to maintain the status quo, thereby protecting the interests of the Brahmin and maintaining order for the emperor One final story of Tenali Rama, which drive homes the point, relates to the falsifying of his own death. Tenali Rama had told the emperor about his fear for the wealth and wellbeing of his wife and his children following his death. The emperor reassured him that he had nothing to fear as he promised to take care of Rama’s family should he die. After some time, Tenali Rama spread a rumour that he was ill and dying. He hid his wealth, published the news of his death then hid in his family treasure chest. On hearing of his demise, the emperor immediately ordered his servants to seize Tenali Rama’s treasure and bring it to the palace. When the chest was opened in front of the Emperor, Tenali Rama emerged “I thought you were dead!” cried the emperor. “Dead?”, Tenali Rama responded, “with you as my family’s guardian, how can I afford to die?” Here we see Tenali

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Rama curbing the excesses of the emperor, exposing the hollowness of his promises. The public embarrassment served to remind the emperor that he is a public figure and that his actions needed to be justifiable to his people. This relationship between emperor and clown is seen in many different cultures, the monarch and the jester, presented as two sides of the same coin, a symbiotic dance in which each is balanced by the other. Within the South Indian culture discussed here, Tenali Rama stands to represent high-status jester figures and the important role that they play, to maintain social order, to keep the powerful in check, but also to keep the less privileged in their place and so prevent any revolutions or upheavals caused either by social dissatisfaction or by excesses of the ruling classes. Once more, the clown acts to preserve social order and maintain cohesion. It must be noted that this embodiment of the court jester was not the only form of clown in Indian culture. In the Sanskrit dramas of Indian classical theatre there is the character or the clown in the character of Vidushaka, usually good-hearted and noble and a close friend of the hero. However, he is also a blundering fool, comical in his speech and gestures, but endearing so as to hold a place in the heart of the audience. The structure is similar to pairings in Western literature such as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Whilst the hero epitomises the ideals of humanity, so does his companion reflect the reality. He is hungry and tired and whinges and complains, often in frustration with the grand, often romantic gestures of the hero. This sets up the dialectic often found in these dramas, the ideal with the reality, the spiritual with the corporeal, the grand and the base. Yet as we see in other arenas, each is dependent on, if not defined by the other—two sides of the same coin or two aspects of the same character. Clown Societies Humour has long been used as a tool for social cohesion and survival (Johansen, 2005). The examples above describe relationships of individual clown or fool characters and the role that these personalities played within society and with regard to authority. In other cultures, clowns occupy a more formalised role, often consisting of a group of clowns or ‘clown society’ existing within the wider culture. These are found in cultures across the world. However, their roles in these diverse environments are found to have a commonality of purpose with each other as well as with

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the jester and fool characters of royal courts and high society. Throughout, the purpose of the clown has been to protect the society in which they are embedded, whilst court jesters performed this role as individuals, through personal relationships and interactions, other clown societies performed the same roles as a collective, operating at the margins of mainstream society, often making great sacrifices to fulfil that role groups. Members of such groups would set the standards for society, by demonstrating through parody, either the flaws of conventional ways of living or the results of accepting new conventions or encroachments upon society. In either case the role of the clown society was to provide a guide for societal behaviour through demonstrating what might occur otherwise. Native American Clowns Native American people, sometimes knows as First Nations, represent a diverse range of cultures and accordingly host a variety of different clown types. Whilst there is diversity across groups, representing the cultures in which they emerged, there is yet the commonality found amongst clowns of all cultures. Native American clowns create laughter, they mock and parody, they challenge power and they set standards for and safeguard the traditions and norms of society. The following section introduces a sample of few of the clown characters and societies within those cultures. Coyote The Trickster In many of these myths and traditions, the trickster is a powerful being. Always male, often a creator or co-creator of the world and its customs. The duality of his nature also means that his behaviour often exemplifies that which is ‘wrong’ and in so doing defines a moral code of that which is right (Kerven, 2018). The trickster archetype is one which recurs across cultural traditions, appearing in mythologies, oral histories, literature and even popular culture. Within western European culture (Land, 2019) they can be seen in the form of Satan in the temptation of Christ in the desert, Circe attempting to prevent Odysseus from returning home or Zeus taking the form of a bull to seduce Europa. As with clowns and jesters, tricksters have the reputation for inversion, disruption, transgression and the crossing of boundaries. In mythology they play tricks on man and gods alike. Famous examples across the globe include the Monkey King in the sixteenth-century Chinese story Journey to the West (as Monkey—Cheng’en, 1979),

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Sinbad in Arab storytelling, San Martin Txiki in the Basque tradition and Loki amongst the Norse. Amongst the Native American peoples, trickster mythologies abound. Here we find Azeban of the Abenakin, The Mannegishi of the Cree peoples, Kokopelli of the Hopi, Iktomi of the Lakota and Dakota, Nanabush (also Nanabozho) of the Ojibwe and other oral traditions and the Coyote of many groups. Coyote is a revered trickster figure amongst many Native American peoples, he is portrayed as intelligent but also crafty, sometimes benevolent but also sometimes malign (Clarke & Yellow Bird, 2021). This ambiguous figure acts to benefit mankind but also to frustrate them. He is credited with stealing fire from the sun as a gift to mankind (Kerven, 2018) but is also associated with the creation or embodiment of evil. In some versions he is seen as the creator of humans, although only because he has destroyed the efforts of all the other animals to do the same, so that only his version, imbued with his qualities of wit and cunning, survives. The elevated status and attributions of cunning and wit may be due the coyote’s resilience and ability to survive the geological and meteorological shifts which brought about the demise of many of his possibly large and more powerful counterparts. Having been hunted as a feared predator, through the colonisation of North America and adapting to its new surroundings, surviving in and confusing the lines between, the wild and domesticated (Clarke & Yellow Bird, 2021) the theme of permeable boundaries between human and animal characteristics abound in the myths of Native American peoples. The protagonists are often identified as animals, yet behave as humans, in some cases shapeshifting between the two (Kerven, 2018), as shapeshifting is a common trait of the trickster. It is noteworthy, that in this cultural context, far removed from those we have considered previously, we still see the clown character in the trickster, as one who moves between worlds and acting for the benefit of their society. The coyote trickster, as many clowns before him has survived in the spaces in-between, moving with ease between the two worlds without becoming fixed in either and causing both discomfort and veneration in those he encounters. Koyemshi of the Pueblo Amongst the indigenous people of North America, the Koyemshi sacred clown forms part of the rituals and religion of the Pueblo people indigenous to what is now the Southwestern USA. The role of these clowns was to entertain and to heal. Their participation in religious ceremonies was to

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distract people from thoughts which might preoccupy them and so allow a ‘clean heart’ to participate in the ceremony. These clowns were accorded special privileges, echoing the jesters and clowns of other cultures. They had special licence accorded to them by the gods since “time of the beginning” which allowed them free access and licence to consider nothing sacred (Freese, 1991). This licence gave them certain power and privilege in society to act with impunity. No one was safe or exempt from their humour and satire. This included members of their own communities and visitors from outside, including colonisers and tourists in a later age. These clowns belonged to secret societies or orders, into which they were inducted; this secrecy, combined with heavy body paint rather than masks, afforded them the secrecy and protection which was necessary to allow them to provide a meaningful commentary on their society without fear of censure. One of the approaches of these clowns was to parody the ‘other’ as a way of protecting their own societal identity. Freese (1991) argues that this form of ‘cultural resistance’ played an important role in countering the pressures from religious and cultural colonisation. Clowning in this case was employed as a means of ‘boundary maintenance’ and protecting core cultural values and practices and defending against the incursion of external influences, seen as harmful to their community. Heyoka of the Plains Amongst the indigenous people of the North American plains there existed the Heyoka, a kind of sacred clown. Only those who had experienced visions of the ‘thunder beings’ were able to become Heyoka (Neihardt, 1972). This gave the individual great power but also great responsibility, for if he were to neglect his duties, his people would be struck down by the thunder beings (Nelson, 1998). These Heyoka clowns were the physical manifestation of the traditional stories and myths which served to reinforce group identity and behaviour (John, 2018). Through parody and ridicule, they played a social and educational role, creating the spaces for reflection on that which was acceptable and that which was not, within society. Whilst Young Bear and Theisz (1994) make the case that the Heyoka no longer exists, John (2018) argues that the tradition continues in a variety of other, sometimes more modern media. These Heyoka existed in various forms, some as ritual clowns, some as ‘contraries’ and others as ‘crazy warriors’ (Plant, 2010). Ritual clowns took part in religious ceremonies, feasts and celebrations playing familiar

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roles of improvisation and foolishness to make people laugh. However, contraries and ‘crazy warriors’ lived extraordinary lives consistently doing the opposite or the reverse of others in their society, walking backwards, dressing back to front and saying yes to mean no, in the extreme, ‘crazy warriors’ took this approach into battle adopting contrary or foolish principles in their actions charging into battle as others retreated or riding backwards upon their horses, towards the enemy. Despite their elevated status within ritual and ceremony, only the most able were held in high esteem. Many dressed in old clothing and lived in ragged accommodation, in accord with their contrary status. They were often ridiculed and isolated within their communities, living an existence far removed from the favourites of court we see in other societies. The contrary served to mirror and parody the behaviours of the community, prompting them to examine their own fears and weaknesses. Through laughter, they served to defuse despair, the experience of living in such difficult situations allowed these contraries to provide emotional and moral support, based on experience and sympathy. Although, contraries were also known to create fear and discomfort in situations of complacency (Freese, 1991) foreshadowing the clowning exhortation to ‘comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable’. These clowns of the plains played important roles in providing a social commentary and shaping moral codes of their communities. Free from societal taboos they were able to question accepted norms and wisdom through humour, ridicule and satire and create a dialectic between that which is socially acceptable and that which is not, a role which can be found in clowns across many other cultures. There are many commonalities between the Heyoka, other Native American clowns and the various African clowns presented in the following section. African Clowns S anankuya of West Africa Amongst the Mande, Dogon, Fube and others in West Africa, there exists the institution of the ‘joking relationship’ known as Sanankuya (comic kinship) (Zavyalova & Kutsenkov, 2020). This form of social and often public interaction sanctions acts of humour, satire and insults, perhaps recognisable as ‘banter’ to Western society. However, McNaughton (2008) attributes much greater import to the institution of Sanankuya,

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associating it with high levels of intelligence, humour and social value. Close emotional bonds are developed in the acts of insulting and defaming each other. These relationships create a ‘safe space’ of social structure outside of normal interactions, disarming aggression and offence and can be associated with a conflict resolution of peace building process (Elias & Dauda, 2019). McNaughton (2008) cites the Mande view of Sanankuya “It kills muscles”. These relationships can be established at individual level or refer to long-standing relationships between clans of the Mande, where members of clans which have an established ‘joking relationship’ can expect a reciprocal interaction, either of joking or of support. These relationships extended beyond the ethnic groups, the Fula or Fulbe people also maintain joking relationships, amongst themselves and with certain clans of the Mande (Diallo, 2006). Diallo suggests that the establishment of a joking relationship between two such groups was in fact rooted in conflict and that the joking relationship emerged as a result of the ritual agreement of a pact between the two antagonists. These relationships are underpinned by ties of kinship or alliance, binding people together through a reciprocal social relationship which establishes, not just the joking relationship but also a series of ties and cooperation. It is suggested that the institution of Sanankuya was established as a civic duty in the constitution of the Mali Empire in the thirteenth century and is perpetuated even today in the politics of modern West Africa (Hagberg, 2006) and the ‘Yo Mama’ style jokes of African-American culture today. Koreduga of the Bamana Amongst the Bamana people of the Mande in West Africa there is a tradition of society where to achieve full rounded manhood and spiritual completeness, it is necessary to pass through six rituals, the highest of which is Kore. In this, initiates are reborn into the Kore society through a series of acts relating to fire and masculinity (Colleyn & Farrell, 2001). The Kore initiation ceremony is announced by the arrival of mask-wearing Koreduga ‘buffoons’ entering the village to disrupt with unruly behaviour, imitating the behaviour of animals and satirising the ‘undesired’ behaviour of the initiate ‘boys’ who would soon become men. As ‘wise fools’, the Koreduga play with the meaning and significance of everyday practices, mocking, ridiculing and partaking in satirically excessive behaviours to challenge societal ideas and conventions (Brink, 1978). These Koreduga also perform more widely at public events such as theatre or celebrations, with the mask representing the freedom of those

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who have achieved spiritual completeness (Zahan, 1974) and so as with jesters across many societies, they are accorded freedom from social conventions and licence to act as they desire, imitating hunters, warriors or other respected people within their community, without fear of repercussion and the butt of their jokes are expected to tolerate this mockery (Colleyn & Farrell, 2001). Through this, the Koreduga maintain the benevolent role of clowns seen across many cultures, protecting society from its own excesses, and as the Koyemshi and Heyoka, creating the boundaries of what was considered acceptable behaviour, through the embodiment or parody of that which was not, providing an example of what might result if societal norms and traditions were neglected. However, it must be recognised that within the important ritual role they played, the Koreduga were also required to disrupt, to ‘fool’ and to make people laugh (Billmeier, 2004). As with all the clowns and jesters described here, despite all their responsibilities and social positions, they still, first and foremost had to bring joy and mirth, to be funny.

Summary Throughout the varied manifestations of clowns across cultures and history discussed in this chapter, some recurrent themes emerge. Firstly, we can see that, contrary to their (self-)portrayal as societal disruptors and dissenters, clowns in fact have always been agents of order and conformity. In the range of contexts exemplified here we see clowns acting to disrupt and perturb the establishment, when in fact their actions serve the purpose of maintaining harmony and to protect and safeguard society from itself, in whatever context they find themselves. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome, we saw the fool elevated to the court of nobles, endearing themselves to those in power by satirising and mocking those warriors, statesmen and politicians in the ascendant, holding them to account and reminding them that their actions did not go unobserved, either by those in power or by the citizen. In the English tradition, King Lear’s fool acts as guide and protector, warning him against the folly of giving his kingdom to his daughters and when this advice is neglected and greed and avarice serve to cast out the king, his fool stays beside him to accompany and defend him, literally weathering the storm alongside his master. In the tales of Tenali Rama, we see many of the traits of the clown. In the tale of the mangoes, he acts to safeguard the integrity

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of the emperor after he has been duped by the Brahmins who seek to take advantage of him, in this he also challenges the Brahmins who have overstepped and seek to gain riches through deceit. However, his position is not one to only challenge the powerful or those who seek to advance themselves. In the tale of the barber, he acts in the interests of the Brahmins and not the underclass barber, this time supporting the case of the Brahmin by persuading the emperor not to elevate him to high status as such an action would cause great disruption to societal norms. In the final story we see that even the emperor is not exempt from Tenali Rama’s censure, where he himself is exposed in his actions of dishonesty, greed and neglect. Whether it is the self-indulgence of kings, exuberance of adolescence or incursion of external influences, through their actions as disruptive subversives, clowns have consistently defended against such excesses. Thorough inversion and parody of cultural norms and the demonstration of that which is outside of these, the clown serves to define, reinforce and reconcile societal values The privilege afforded to clowns and their licence to criticise and mock is often due their position outside of formal societal bounds. Whether it is the privileged commoner in the jester of royal courts, the marginalised clown societies of the Heyoka, the anonymised identities of the Koreduga or the theatrical and circus clowns who engage with the audience where no other cast members do, clowns exist in the spaces in-between, neither fully in nor fully out, on the threshold and able to move between domains without ever belonging to any of them. This threshold, or liminal space becomes their home and it is their familiarity, if not comfort, in this uncertain space which allows them to accompany those who find themselves in that same space, be it through ritual transition, loss and dispossession or shifts in belief, knowledge and understanding. However, the role of the clown is not always so serious, the clown must also bring joy and laughter. It is not always their role to challenge and question their audience. In times of crisis and hardship, we do not look for a clown to disrupt and disturb, sometimes their role is just to bring a smile and raise spirits for a moment. In Chap. 3, we will look at the roles which clowns play in modern societies, maintaining the traditions of clowns throughout history and across cultures as subversives, as custodians, as carers and as entertainers, these modern clowns continue in their efforts to contribute to society in their unique way.

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References Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and His World. Translated by Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Billington, S. (2015). A social history of the fool. Faber & Faber. Billmeier, U. (2004). Mamady Keïta: A life for the djembe: traditional rhythms of the Malinke. Arun. Brink, J.  T. (1978). Communicating ideology in Bamana rural theater performance. Research in African Literatures, 9(3), 382–394. Cheng’en, W. (1979). Monkey. Unwin Paperbacks. Clarke, K., & Yellow Bird, M. (2021). Decolonizing Pathways Towards Integrative Healing in Social Work (p. 208). Taylor & Francis. Colleyn, J.  P., & Farrell, L.  A. (2001). Bamana: The art of existence in Mali. African arts, 34(4), 16. Diallo, Y. (2006). Joking relationships in Western Burkina Faso. Zeitschrift Für Ethnologie, 131(2), 183–196. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25843051 Elias, N. L., & Dauda, I. A. (2019). Tarok, Wolof, Mandika joking relationships, humour and peace building in Africa. Journal of Good Governance and Sustainable Development in Africa, 5(1), 86–95. Freese, A. R. (1991). Send in the clowns: An ethnohistorical analysis of the sacred clowns’ role in cultural boundary maintenance among the Pueblo Indians (Doctoral dissertation, The University of New Mexico). Hagberg, S. (2006). The politics of joking relationships in Burkina Faso. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 131(2), 197–214. Henze, C.  A. (2013). “Wise Enough to Play the Fool”: Robert Armin and Shakespeare’s sung songs of scripted improvisation. Comparative Drama, 47(4), 419–449. Hugill, B. (1980). Bring on the clowns. David & Charles. Ishikawa, N. (2011). The English clown: Print in performance and performance in print (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham). Johansen, B.  E. (2005). Catharsis vis a vis oppression. Contemporary Native American political humor. Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education, 5(2), 1–9. John, S. (2018). Clown for change-cartoonist marty two bulls as a modern Heyoka. Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences, 4(2), 1–20. Kerven, R. (2018). Native American myths collected 1636–1919. Talking Stone. Land, R. (2019). The Labyrinth within: Threshold concepts, archetype and myth. In Threshold concepts on the edge (pp. 3–18). Brill Sense. McNaughton, P. R. (2008). A bird dance near Saturday City: Sidi Ballo and the art of West African masquerade. Indiana University Press. Neihardt, J. G. (1972). Black elk speaks. Simon & Schuster.

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Nelson, E. H. (1998). “The Heyoka of the Sioux” in fools and jesters in literature, art, and history: A bio-bibliographical sourcebook (1st ed., pp.  246–248). Greenwood Press. Otto, B.  K. (2001). Fools are everywhere: The court jester around the world. University of Chicago Press. Palmer, J. (1994). Taking humour seriously. Routledge. Plant, J. (2010). The plains Indian clowns, their contraries and related phenomena. Austria. Welsford, E. (1961). The fool: His social and literary history (Vol. 262). Doubleday. Wiles, D. (2005). Shakespeare’s clown: Actor and text in the Elizabethan Playhouse. Cambridge University Press. Young Bear, S., & Theisz, R. D. (1994). Standing in the light: A Lakota way of seeing. University of Nebraska Press. Zahan, D. (1974). The Bambara. E. J. Brill. Zavyalova, O., & Kutsenkov, P. A. (2020). The laughing culture of the peoples of Mali and Guinea (Senankuya). Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost, 4, 150–160.

CHAPTER 3

The Clown in Society

Introduction In Chap. 2 we saw the role that clowns have played across cultures. Despite appearances, this has largely been one of benevolence and safeguarding. Whilst their actions and activities appear otherwise, these clowns have a calming influence, on individuals, on groups and on societies. In modern cultures, amongst their many other activities, clowns still perform that role of comforting and calming. For example, in the modern circus, in times of confusion, the call goes out to ‘send on the clowns’, and they step in to distract, entertain and provide continuity for the audience. In this chapter we will focus on the role clowns play in looking after the welfare of others. Whilst the reader’s perspective of the contribution which those roles have made may vary according to their political and philosophical stance, the position taken here is that these clowns have been motivated by good intentions and act for the benefit of society. We will look at instances of clowning in contexts from health and medicine to conflict and crisis, where clown practices have engaged with societal imperatives to improve the wellbeing of their societies at local, national and global levels. These stories of clowns show the challenging circumstances in which many have chosen to work, to perform their art and to contribute in the domains of the physical and mental, the ethical and political and the spiritual and psychological.

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Medical Clowns The cover of issue 930 of French Magazine Le Petit Journal dated 13 September 1908 shows an illustration of clowns performing in a ward of an unnamed children’s hospital in London. The article reminds readers of an earlier issue in which a story was related of a sick and anaemic child who refuses all treatment and asks only to see the clown Boum Boum, who he admired during an earlier visit to the circus. Boum Boum himself agrees to see the child and through the clown’s antics and humour, the child regains his joy for life and slowly recovers. The clowns of the cover of the magazine are reproducing this story as they set about a tour of sick children in hospitals who are unable to see them in the circus, to bring them joy and laughter and peut-être aussi la guérison (maybe also healing). The clown as healer is an ancient idea. We can read in the Bible in Proverbs Ch17 v22 telling us “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones”. The message of this verse is that cheerfulness of the spirit has an influence on the health and wellbeing of the body. This belief in the relationship between the psychological and physical appears again in the medieval era, where it is suggested that medieval jesters were employed to balance the ‘humours’ required to maintain good health (Spitzer, 2006). Additionally, one of the oldest hospitals in London, St Bartholomew’s, was founded in 1123 by Rahere, one of Henry I’s jesters. In the present day the practice of clowning in medical care is in good health. When Clowning and Medicine are mentioned in the same breath, it is only moments before Hunter Doherty ‘Patch’ Adams is mentioned. Adams might be considered to be the father of medical clowning. Starting in the 1970s, wearing a red nose whilst practicing, he believed that humour and laughter played an important part in building a relationship of trust between staff and patients. His philosophy summarised by his Gesundheit Institute (https://www.patchadams.org/) is that “One cannot separate the health of the individual from the health of the family, the community, the society, and the world”. Adams (1998) suggests that his use of aromatherapy pouches (when in clown character) is a form of ‘medicine of inefficiency’ which contrasts with the common focus on efficiency often involving the use of technicist approaches such as regulatory inspections, surveys and statistical indicators to measure, albeit important dimensions, such as patient safety, wait times and clinical effectiveness. These approaches sacrifice other important aspects, such as patient engagement, joy and laughter and other more difficult to measure metrics. Recent work which

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looks at joy in the healthcare profession is addressed in terms of the more prosaic aspects of patient wellbeing (Joy, 2016; Harolds, 2020). The work and philosophies of Patch Adams and his institute echo the efforts of the Heyoka or ‘contrary clown’ of the Lakota and Dakota presented in Chap. 2, acting against conventions to achieve desired results. Adams talks of the importance of the patient-doctor relationship and how many ‘afflictions’ are better treated with compassion and creativity than with technology and pharmacology. This approach to wellbeing and laughter within healthcare has become widespread with ‘Clown Doctors’ operating around the world (Finlay et al., 2014). The Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit started in New York in 1986 and operated for 30 years, though its clown care activities have now been taken over by local organisations. The Theodora Foundation, a charity founded in Switzerland, with strands in UK, Hong Kong, Italy and other locations, employs ‘Giggle Doctors’ to visit children in hospitals, hospices and specialist care centres. These are performers who have been particularly trained to improve the experience of children in healthcare environments, reducing stress and anxiety through play and laughter. In Australia the Humour Foundation Clown Doctor Programme aims to “enhance wellbeing, lift spirits and improve health through insightful connection, creative play and joyful humour” through a belief in the therapeutic benefit of humour (https://www.humourfoundation.org.au/) and works with children and their families, as well as older people. In France, Le Rire Medecin (https:// www.leriremedecin.org/), through clowning and laughter, accompany children, parents and carers through their hospital experience. These hospital clown activities have been shown to extend beyond mere entertainment and distraction for those enduring extended hospital stays. The clinical aspect of this form of clowning and its potential to have positive outcomes has drawn the attention of the research community, interested in measuring the effect of clinical clowning on patient health and wellbeing. Reviews summarising the research on the effectiveness of hospital clowns have shown that they could improve the symptoms of some medical conditions, as well as improving the psychological wellbeing of those with chronic conditions (Lopes-Júnior et  al., 2020). Across a range of medical procedures with a clown in attendance, children reported less anxiety and improved psychological adjustment. In addition, patients with chronic conditions showed reductions in stress, pain fatigue and distress. These results appear to be greater than just the effect of having a non-clinical adult nearby, as the positive results were achieved with

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children regardless of whether or not their parents were present. Further reviews of research (Finlay et  al., 2014) across a wide range of clinical contexts including anaesthesia, invasive procedures and rehabilitation again showed that there were signs of improved response in situations where medical clown interventions were involved. Much of the academic and clinical research in this area reports decreased stress and anxiety levels amongst children and parents, sometimes helping children to cope with their illness or develop the emotional literacy to deal with it (Oppenheim et  al., 1997). Parents, children, paediatricians and healthcare workers all reported a positive impact of clowns on children and their families, sometimes even despite their own reservations or fears of clowns. Whilst most of the research and evidence for the benefits of clowns in medical contexts has been with children and adolescents, there is an increasing case being made for the value of humour and laughter within adults’ medical contexts too. There is evidence that in hospital clowning with adults, coping mechanisms and support networks are improved, stress hormones are seen to decrease and antibodies are seen to increase (Nuttman-Shwartz et al., 2010). It is suggested that hospital clowns create a sense of opposition to the alienation and isolation which many patients feel, created by the officialdom and formality of the hospital. In a Bakhtinian sense (Bakhtin, 1984) little acts of rebellion and subversion against these authorities can lift spirits and improve mood, elevating the patients from the gloom of their situation (Raviv, 2014). However, not all studies have been so positive and results for clown interventions are mixed, with some research (Efrat-Triester et al., 2021) showing that clown interventions can have a negative effect on adult patients’ affective temperament (depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable and anxious) in a range of hospital settings. Paul Bouissac (2015), one of the pioneers of semiotics and circus studies, questions the evidence base of research in this area. He makes a strong point that it is not reasonable to try to carry out clinical trials with these kinds of clowning interventions as one might with other clinical interventions or therapies. He makes the point that little is understood about the physiology of laughter, and that approaches which seek to use laughter to address diseases are somewhat misplaced in that it is not clear what effect the laughter might have on the body and side-­ effects are not well understood. It might be the case that in some situations, laughter may even be harmful to the patient. There is a certain danger in the application of any clinical procedure, if its mechanisms are

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not fully understood. Showing that something has a visible or measurable positive effect without understanding any negative side-effects is not an ideal situation in medical terms. Nevertheless, there is much evidence of a correlational effect of the benefits of medical clowning, even if mechanisms are not clearly understood. In addition to the examples above, it has been shown to reduce the perception of pain and distress in burns clinics, reduce the psychological symptoms of patients in cancer wards and most intriguingly even improve the pregnancy rates during the in vitro fertilisation process (Krieger et  al., 2021; Casellas-Grau et  al., 2021; Friedler et al., 2011). There is clearly a case to be made for the contribution that clowns can make to the health and wellbeing of adults, children, their parents and healthcare staff, although as this field is still developing, there is something to be said for the case made by Dionigi and Canestrari (2016) for some clarity and consensus on the role of medical clowns, such that medical practitioners and clowns attain a greater understanding of what one might reasonably expect from the other and so foster a more harmonious and fruitful relationship. This raises a dilemma in that whilst both groups have the same worthy aspiration—the wellbeing of the patient—the clown has a penchant for disruption and chaos, conditions which understandably are not always welcome in clinical settings. This might seem a surmountable issue, in asking clowns to moderate their behaviour to accommodate their contextual setting. However, many clowns feel they are defined by their disregard for boundaries and constraint and must be allowed to act in the moment. Some claim that the moment a clown becomes predictable, follows a routine or becomes constrained, the clown is dead. This represents a position more often adopted by clowns for whom the performance comes before anything else. Medical clowns vary greatly in their origin; some come as performers who train to clown specifically in medical settings, others begin as clinical practitioners who discover and develop their clown identities within their practice, yet others merely integrate clowning techniques into their professional practice, perhaps just trying to introduce some humour or levity into their everyday activities. Studies have shown that a compromise position is possible, a balance between the clown’s imperative to improvise and be spontaneous and the hospital need for calm and predictability. In a study of hospital clowns (Graham, 2015), it was suggested that the clown character played an important part of the emotional connection which clowns built with patients. Clowns find some ‘emotional shielding’ through their costumes

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or clown identities, allowing them to engage with emotionally complex situations. Whilst there is no simple formula for clowning practice, medical clowns were able to rely on their own judgements and clowning experience to decide what form of humour was appropriate and when and how best to provide support and relief to patients and their families. Graham (ibid.) maintains the clowning principle, suggesting that “In patient settings, when used judiciously, there may be no place where humour is off limits”. It is useful to remember that is the characteristics of the clown which are beneficial in hospital settings and that trying to moderate that by external pressures would defeat their very purpose. Wheeler (2008) reminds us that “Mistakes are more likely to occur when there is poor communication and lack of understanding between doctor and patient”. He goes on to make the point that clowning, and improvisation as he learned it from the clown teacher Vivian Gladwell, encourages empathy and listening as well as a measured approach to problem-solving. He also highlights that the clown needs to be sensitive to the demands and expectations of the audience, but must also be aware of their own vulnerability and fallibility. Yet within all this the clown has the right to break conventions and subvert, crucially, only after these conventions have been established. Through this, Wheeler claims that a better understanding is achieved with the patient. It encourages a humility and empathy with the patient through a shared experience allowing a shared decision to be reached. These forms of communication are precisely those which clowns have developed in their practice. Empathy, listening and problem-solving are central to clown performance. These attributes of the clown can have a positive impact on the individual, but also more widely on society, as shown by the involvement of some clowns in campaigns of social action as presented in the next section.

Clowns for Social Action Patch Adams’s Gesundheit! Institute and medical clowns in their various contexts see their work as a mission of social action. Whilst they see their role as being one working with institutions to bring about change in patient care with a social dimension, other more politically motivated social activist clowns like the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) answer their calling in a different way. The short-lived Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army was born in the UK in the early

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2000s (Ramsden, 2015) and formed part of the direct-action movement of the time, driven by frustrations at the ineffectiveness of petitionary political processes and feeling that the best way to achieve political, social or environmental change was to take matters into their own hands and confront those institutions of power themselves. CIRCA came to prominence taking part in protests against issues such as the invasion of Iraq, the 2003 visit of George W. Bush to the UK and reached their zenith at the 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles in Scotland. The movement rapidly expanded to many other countries, including Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Denmark, Germany and the USA. However, by 2008, the clown rising was over. At their peak, CIRCA would appear at anti-capitalist, anti-­establishment protests, dressed in army camouflage, fluorescent fake-fur, wigs, colanders, false noses and all manner of accessories, creating an atmosphere of humour and disruption. Through attempts to assist police in marshalling protestors or even by joining the army, CIRCA would mock and parody authority, holding it up to ridicule (Klepto, 2004). More than just an informal group of japesters, CIRCA were an organised form of political resistance, combining the ancient tradition of clowning with modern forms of peaceful protest (Ramsden, 2015). As rebel clowns, CIRCA restated the actions of clowning as a force for disruption, danger and disobedience, but still held true to the ancient clown virtue of acting as moral guardians for society. Echoing clowns of other times and cultures, CIRCA embodied such contradictions as wisdom and folly, innocence and menace, subversion and safeguarding, chaos and order, warrior and pacifist. The clown costume and make-up served to anonymise and disguise activists, just like the Koyemshi we encountered in the previous chapter. Furthermore, by literally masking their expressions and therefore their intent and by appearing in non-conventional settings for clowns, they added to the unpredictability and the discomfort they generated, further disconcerting authority. All this, yet at the same time creating a sense of the comic and the ridiculous, challenging ideas of protest and protestors. The actions of CIRCA through the practice of rebel clowning brought play and playfulness into confrontation with institutions, authorities and their agents, disarming the representatives of order and conformity. Police officers, soldiers, security details, all had their right to power and obedience questioned through the trivialisation of their authority and a refusal to accept their dominance, in fact having it mocked and ridiculed. One of

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the key principles of CIRCA was to “Use absurdity to undermine the aura of authority” (“Beautiful Trouble”, n.d.). Such was the effect and the perceived threat which this created, that CIRCA were infiltrated by undercover police officers. These officers ended up being trained as clowns, with one officer captured on photographic record, appearing in clown costume and make-up, brandishing a feather duster (Yorkshire Evening Post, 2020) only adding to the absurdity of the situation and speaking to the infectious nature of clowning. The refusal of CIRCA clowns to accept the dominance of police and other forms of authority, combined with their non-violent carnival approach to protest, for instance leaving lipstick kisses on the transparent plastic shields of riot police, inverted the normal hierarchies and disrupted the usual police responses to protests actions (Ramsden, 2015). Falling outside of the normal modes and patters of resistance, these CIRCA clowns had succeeded in creating new spaces, allowing them to go beyond the range of other protestors and transgress in ways which others could not. Like many clowns before them, across many cultures, CIRCA had occupied a space ‘betwixt and between’ slipping into a gap between the confrontational protestor and the stoical authority and in so doing following the clown tradition of acting for the social good. As Ramsden (2015) claimed, CIRCA shook up the binary between the protestor and authority. Through disruption, parody and ridicule, CIRCA strove to curb what they saw as the excesses of those in power at G8 and many subsequent protests, within this the duality of the clown. Significantly, many CIRCA members had undergone clown training, therefore becoming clowns rather than just dressing up as clowns, although their demise is attributed to the lack of trained clowns amongst their number. Jay Jordan, one of the founders of CIRCA, questions the quality of clowning; some were rebels in clown suits, fewer were clowns in rebellion. Many felt that the true spirit of clowning was lost in their actions. The rebel clowns had their moment, though appositely, they were characterised by duality and ambiguity. For some they created joy and laughter and for others fear. Some saw them as cheap populism and others as a revolutionary vehicle—the combined discipline and chaos, love and rage. And as Jay Jordan describes them “a huge success and a massive failure! A s­ tupid act of genius” (“Surge”, n.d.). CIRCA were typical of many of the clowns we have seen throughout this book, motivated by the wish to see a better society, they disrupted and inverted the hierarchies of society and challenged the power structure in

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an attempt, to highlight what they saw as the lapses of society in creating a sustainable environment. In doing so they put themselves at risk, of arrest and surveillance, of ostracism, ridicule and of harm (“The Guardian”, 2009). Yet, despite these challenges to their comfort and security, these clowns have made sacrifices to ensure a more harmonious and secure society. Clowns throughout history have been placing themselves in situations of danger and discomfort, be it in the royal courts or amongst the people. This commitment is perhaps best illustrated by examples of clowns’ responses to situations of humanitarian crisis and emergency examined in the next section.

Clowns in Crisis Situations For many, it appears incongruous for clowns to appear at events of a serious political or social nature. For some, clowns are associated with frivolity and escapism. However, as shown above, it is clear that many clowns feel that it is in the nature of the clown to practice their art exactly where it is least expected and perhaps where it is most needed. The following examples show clowns in humanitarian roles, in refugee camps, in crisis zones and in areas of conflict, deprivation and disaster. For nearly 30 years Clowns Without Borders/Payasos sin Fronters (“Clowns Without Borders”, n.d.) have been performing for children in need of laughter, joy and play in a number of locations, such as East Jerusalem, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Colombia and Sarajevo. Originating in 1993 and born of a project funded by children of Barcelona to send the famed clown Tortell Poltrona (Jaume Mateu Bullich) to refugee camps in Croatia, Clowns Without Borders (CWB) have grown into an international organisation federated in 15 countries across the world. The approach is premised on meeting the psychosocial needs of the communities in which they engage, based on the understanding that the physical and mental wellbeing of children (and adults) is embedded within their physical and social environment. CWB (UK) explicitly cites excerpts of article 31 of the United Nations Right of the Child to 1 “rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.” 2 “participate fully in cultural and artistic life.”

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This underlies the principle, that for those in hardship and adverse circumstance, to retain some of what it means to be a child is a right rather than a luxury and that this can be delivered through the exercise of Humanitarian Clowning. Through analysis of interviews with CWB representatives and artists and self-published blogs, van Nunen (2019) in one of the few pieces of academic work on Humanitarian Clowns, reports that many such clowns saw their role as one based on their connection with their audience and that this connection had the potential for healing of the mind and the spirit, rebuilding hope and trust. There was within CWB the sense that clowning had the potential to heal more than the individual, and that clowning had the power to heal divisions between people and within communities. The results indicate that the humanitarian clown is a complex being and that these clowns perceive their position in the humanitarian world as defined by the unique human connection they establish with the people for whom they perform. They can have the effect of bringing about joy, happiness, self-reflection, physiological and psychosocial relief, hope, trust and community and can be perceived as an undervalued method of promoting psychosocial wellbeing in settings of humanitarian crisis. Whilst CWB are the largest and perhaps best-known Humanitarian Clowning organisation, they are not the only one. The Gesundheit Institute of Patch Adams, as well as practicing Health Clowning as described above, through their holistic vision of health and wellbeing are also involved in Humanitarian Clowning projects, through their GO!CLOWNS Global Outreach operation. GO!CLOWNS build clinics to provide humanitarian support and healthcare, create alliances and engage communities to develop clowning inspired therapeutic provision in troubled communities world-wide. Sabine Choucair, who has worked closely with CWB, also leads Clown Me In. (clownmein.com), performing in the streets of Lebanon, in refugee camps, in disadvantaged communities, using a form of Clown based ‘artivism’ to “initiate a healthy, democratic debate away from political tension and alienation”. This approach uses clown work to enable dialogue and engagement with audiences which might not be as accessible otherwise. Through this, Clown Me In promotes values of humanitarianism and environmental sustainability with messages of freedom and social justice. Tim Webster (Timbadim the Clown) trained as a clown with Patch Adams, starting a Humanitarian Clowns charity in Australia after

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accompanying Adams on a caring clown trip to Costa Rica (www.humanitarianclowns.com). Now with a chapter in India too, Humanitarian Clowns is a charitable organisation which works across a number of areas, supporting communities in need and developing arts and creativity programmes, with the theme of compassion underlying their activities. Compassionate clowning, as described by Humanitarian Clowns, looks to bring joy and love to those in less fortunate or disadvantaged circumstances, through clowning activities. More recently, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, clowns were seen at the border between Ukraine and Moldova (“People”, 2022) welcoming refuges across the border as they made their way across from their war-torn homes. These clowns from the Israeli Dream Doctors project were also present at the field hospitals in Kathmandu following the 2015 earthquake in Nepal (Ilan et  al., 2018), in the USA, following Hurricane Irma in 2017 and at various areas of disaster and crisis across the world, including Haiti and Ethiopia. They form a part of a tradition of compassionate clowns in the medical domain, as seen above, bringing both clinical and emotional relief where it is needed. As with clowning in hospitals, there is some reticence and critique of the concept and practice of Humanitarian Clowning. Paul Bouissac (2015) is more measured about it, suggesting that many such programmes are based upon a superficial understanding of clowning. The same criticisms levelled by Jay Jordan at the quality of clowning in CIRCA may apply to many humanitarian clowns. Although Dream Doctors and Clown Me In start with performers and train them to participate in humanitarian projects, there is a shortage of professional clowns participating in such endeavours, and this cannot be made up for by an abundance of enthusiastic volunteers. Nevertheless, there is at least evidence that some clowning, in situations of hardship and deprivation, can bring joy and laughter where it is much needed. Humanitarianism is not without its complexity, it is subject to critiques of, for example, the reproduction of power hierarchies and colonial structures (e.g. Pallister-Wilkins, 2021). However, that debate is not for the pages of this book. In the current context, the role of the humanitarian clown as seen in the examples is to build connections with their audiences and through their performances with audiences enduring suffering and hardship, to recapture moments of what it means to be human. Organisations such as Clowns Without Borders consider the individual, within their environment and through clowning activities build

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communion which attempts to lift them, if only momentarily from their hardship. Video footage of, for example, the Dream Doctors in Moldova, Clowns without Borders in Rohingya refugees camps in Bangladesh or The Flying Seagull project (www.theflyingseagullproject.com) in Greece show children (and adults) in the most difficult of circumstances, transcend their environment and laugh wholeheartedly at the antics of these clowns. Such moments remind us of article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child “every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities”. This human right is often overlooked when we see hardship and suffering, where other concerns of food and shelter are a priority. However, the community of Humanitarian clowns ensure that this right is met and so bring joy and laughter to areas where it is sorely missing. Clowns across history and culture have seen that their responsibility extends beyond entertainment of an audience or catering to their immediate need. In the following section we will see how clowning contributes to the spiritual needs of people historically and in the present day.

Sacred Clowns/Religious Clowns In Chap. 2, we came across the Koyemshi of the Pueblo indigenous American people, ritual clowns who acted as healers, entertainers and social commentators. These clowns also accompanied religious ceremonies, as much a part of them as they were outside of them, to disrupt. It is not only in this culture in which we encounter religious fools and clowns, the Holy Fool is a familiar figure in a number of religious contexts. Buber (1992) takes a wide view of religious clowns, referring to the Rabbi Meshullam Zusya, to observe that the ‘Fool of God’ character arises across many religions, amongst the Buddhists, the Sufi and the Christian church. Buber (ibid.) describes this fool as one who due to his “undamaged direct relationship with God has quitted the rules and regulations of the social order, though he continues to participate in the life of his fellow men”. This too describes the fool of the Western Christian tradition, such as the ‘witless man’ introduced in the previous chapter. Fool traditions go back across Christianity in both the Western and Eastern churches. In the Eastern, Orthodox church, early Byzantine fools emerge from Egypt, Palestine and Syria, a reaction to the “discipline and disconnection” of the early church (Thomas, 2009). Rather than the ‘monastic’ isolation of the early ascetics. This particular form of Holy

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Fool, salos, in the Byzantine tradition, took their asceticism into the public sphere, feigning insanity ‘for the sake of Christ’. This Holy Fool in violating the accepted norms and practices, might have wandered naked, behaved disruptively or uttered prophecies and riddles (Bergholm, 2007). This act of foolishness was part of an effort to provide spiritual guidance and highlight hypocrisy within the church whilst concealing the true sanctity of the fool. This fool was thus also isolated though he was amongst people, his isolation was in detachment from his fellow man in the performance of his holy duty. This echoes the role of the Heyoka and contraries of the Lakota and Dakota people and other tribal clowns or clown societies, amongst whom, the dedication to the purpose of the clown, for the greater good of society, resulted in the isolation and alienation of the clown in the performance of their obligation. The sacrifice of holy fools came as a result of living according to their calling, forsaking social acceptance and deliberately living in contraventions of norms, as a way of establishing the boundary between what was acceptable and what was not. Although the role of the fool was rather more prominent in the early and medieval church than it is today, there has been a resurgence of the fool in the modern Christian church. In the face of increasing secularity and atheism, many modern churches, position the role of the modern Christian as one who must be foolish, as their historical antecedents, in living a life in contrast to accepted norms, to embrace and practice their faith. These churches cite, amongst others, St Paul, St Simeon Salos, St Andrew the Fool, St Basil the Blessed and St Francis of Assisi as inspiration for the modern Christian to give up the ways of the world in their service of Christ. Foremost amongst clown priests in modern times has been Roly Bain (1954–2016) founder of Holy Fools, a group of church ministers who brought clowning to the act of worship. Bain started as a conventional parish priest but then chose a different method of delivering his message. As a freelance priest, Bain would arrive at venues, perhaps on a unicycle, with a cry of “Let us play!”. Bain played the role of the clumsy Auguste clown allowing him to parody and mirror personalities and characters in media and society. In Peacock’s (2009) analysis, Bain presents the clown as a ‘resurrection figure’, and parallels are drawn between the acts of a clown and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The clown is presented, facing tribulations and apparent failure, only to emerge triumphant and successful in his role of entertaining the audience, often through overcoming his greatest challenges at his lowest point. This is compared to Christ who is seen to have triumphed and risen to glory through

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overcoming death. As often happens within the art of clowning, the clown experiences transformation through ordeal. The make-up of the clown begins with the white face which signifies the cleaning away or death of the personality or the individual and the new make-up and colour added signifies the rebirth in the identity of clown. This death and rebirth echo the life of Christ and the sacraments of the church. Bain claims the rituals of the early church, such as traditions of the Holy Fool and the Feast of Fools, as the basis for his ministry.

Summary Across these instances of clowning in the public sphere, we see there are many cases of clowns acting with a social responsibility. In some cases, such as the medical clowns this is explicit. Patch Adams and his followers identified a human aspect of healthcare which was missing from the provision they saw around them. Their activities were directed at building a connection with their audiences to allow them to attend to the whole individual, meeting their human, emotional needs as well as their clinical and medical needs. Humanitarian clowns were making the same kinds of connections, often breaking through language and cultural barriers to create what the anthropologist, Victor Turner (1982) might call communitas, in a much-needed ‘liminal’ space outside of the usual norms, structures and hierarchies, to allow play and escape from everyday adversity. The radical clowns of CIRCA took a different approach, choosing instead to peaceably challenge and question authority, much as the fools and jesters of an earlier time, albeit with less free licence than their predecessors, being subject as they were, to surveillance and arrest. CIRCA subverted the usual dichotomy between protestor and authority through acts of communion, interlaced with absurdity. In common, with these radical clowns, the religious clowns of history and of Roly Bain’s Holy Fools use more indirect means of clowning for the public good. Whilst Hospital and Humanitarian clowns set out as clowns to lighten the burden of their audience, the religious and radical clowns use clowning as a part of their mission rather than the explicit purpose of their mission. In these contexts, clowning is not primarily as a form of entertainment, but the means by which messages are communicated. Communication lies at the heart of the practices of all the clowns described in this chapter. Clowning is introduced to unconventional contexts, deliberately to provoke new forms of engagement and interaction.

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In these modern clowns we see resonance with the role of clowns in the cultures and societies explored in the previous chapter. In staying true to the clown principles and traditions identified therein, modern clowns echo the role of clowns from more ancient societies and the spirit of the clown lives on. However, alongside the benevolence and public spiritedness of clowns, there also lies a dark side. Any attempts to introduce clowning practices to mainstream activities must first overcome pockets of resistance to clowns and clowning. In Chap. 4 we will look at sources of the distrust and fear of clowns and how these might be addressed.

References Adams, P. (1998). When healing is more than simply clowning around. Jama, 279(5), 401–401. Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and his world (Hélène Iswolsky, Trans.). Indiana University Press. Beautiful Trouble. (n.d.). clandestine-insurgent-rebel-clown-army. Retrieved January 2, 2023, from http://www.beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/#/tool/ clandestine-­insurgent-­rebel-­clown-­army Bergholm, A. (2007). Folly for Christ’s sake in early Irish literature: The case of Suibhne Geilt reconsidered. Studia Celtica Fennica, 4, 7–14. Bouissac, P. (2015). The semiotics of clowns and clowning: Rituals of transgression and the theory of laughter. Bloomsbury Publishing. Buber, M. (1992). On intersubjectivity and cultural creativity. University of Chicago Press. Casellas-Grau, A., Ochoa, C., Lleras De Frutos, M., Flix-Valle, A., Rosales, A., & Gil, F. (2021). Perceived changes in psychological and physical symptoms after hospital clown performances in a cancer setting. Arts & Health, 13(2), 189–203. Clowns Without Borders. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2022, from clowns.org Dionigi, A., & Canestrari, C. (2016). Clowning in health care settings: The point of view of adults. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 12(3), 473. Efrat-Triester, D., Altman, D., Friedmann, E., Margalit, D. L. A., & Teodorescu, K. (2021). Exploring the usefulness of medical clowns in elevating satisfaction and reducing aggressive tendencies in pediatric and adult hospital wards. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 1–14. Finlay, F., Baverstock, A., & Lenton, S. (2014). Therapeutic clowning in paediatric practice. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 19(4), 596–605. Friedler, S., Glasser, S., Azani, L., Freedman, L. S., Raziel, A., Strassburger, D., Ron-El, R., & Lerner-Geva, L. (2011). The effect of medical clowning on pregnancy rates after in  vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. Fertility and Sterility, 95(6), 2127–2130.

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Graham, S. (2015). Lessons from the red nose: What nurses can learn from therapeutic clowns (Doctoral dissertation, Trinity Western University). Harolds, J.  A. (2020). Quality and safety in healthcare, part LV: Leadership to prevent burnout and increase joy. Clinical Nuclear Medicine, 45(2), 123–124. Ilan, U., Davidov, A., Mendlovic, J., & Weiser, G. (2018). Disaster zones—Should we be clowning around? European Journal of Pediatrics, 177(2), 247–249. Joy, W. (2016). Restoring joy in work for the healthcare workforce. Healthcare Executive, 31(5), 70. Klepto, K. (2004). Making war with love: The clandestine insurgent rebel clown army. City, 8(3), 403–411. Krieger, Y., Pachevsky, M., Shoham, Y., Biederko, R., Novack, L., & Sarid, O., 2021. Relieving pain and distress symptoms in outpatient burn clinic: The contribution of a medical clown. Burns, 48(3), 654–661. Lopes-Júnior, L. C., Bomfim, E., Olson, K., Neves, E. T., Silveira, D. S. C., Nunes, M. D. R., Nascimento, L. C., Pereira-da-Silva, G., & Lima, R. A. G. (2020). Effectiveness of hospital clowns for symptom management in paediatrics: Systematic review of randomised and non-randomised controlled trials. BMJ, 371, m4290. Nuttman-Shwartz, O., Scheyer, R., & Tzioni, H. (2010). Medical clowning: Even adults deserve a dream. Social Work in Health Care, 49(6), 581–598. Oppenheim, D., Simonds, C., & Hartmann, O. (1997). Clowning on children’s wards. The Lancet, 350(9094), 1838–1840. Pallister-Wilkins, P. (2021). Saving the souls of white folk: Humanitarianism as white supremacy. Security Dialogue, 52(1_suppl), 98–106. Peacock, L. (2009). Serious play: Modern clown performance. Intellect Books. People. (2022). https://people.com/politics/clowns-­ukraine-­border-­making-­ refugee-­children-­smile-­laughter Ramsden, H. (2015). Clowns, buffoons and the killing laugh. The European Journal of Humour Research, 3(2/3), 145–163. Raviv, A. (2014). The clown’s carnival in the hospital: A semiotic analysis of the medical clown’s performance. Social Semiotics, 24(5), 599–607. Spitzer, P. (2006). Essay: Hospital clowns—modern-day court jesters at work. The Lancet, 368, S34–S35. Surge. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2023, from http://www.surge.scot/ rebel-­clown-­army-­recruitment/ The Guardian. (2009). https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/27/ police-­spotter-­card-­john-­jordan Thomas, A. (2009). The holy fools: A theological enquiry (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nottingham). Turner, V. (1982). From ritual to theatre: The human seriousness of play. Performing Arts Journal Publications.

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van Nunen, E. (2019). Clowning in zones of crisis: Treating laughter as a serious matter: An exploratory study on humanitarian clowns in the humanitarian field. (Doctoral Dissertation, Uppsala University). Wheeler, D. (2008). More than clowning around. BMJ, 336(7656), gp198–gp198. Yorkshire Evening Post. (2020). Retrieved January 2, 2023, from www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/crime/leeds-­o fficer-­d ressed-­c lown-­d uring­five-­year-­undercover-­police-­operation-­clown-­army-­3032173

CHAPTER 4

Negative Portrayals of the Clown

Introduction In Chap. 3 we saw that clowns are still relevant and have a role to play in the modern era. However, it must be recognised that clowns are not universally perceived as benign, charming entertainers. The fear of clowns is a real phenomenon, which will need to be overcome if clowning principles are to be more widely applied in practices outside of the circus and entertainment arena. The purpose of this chapter is to recognise some of the barriers which are often erected whenever it is suggested that clowning principles are applied in professional environments. For some, clowning is not taken seriously and in fairness, this is a self-created issue, which clowns would not particularly want to eliminate. However, for others, resistance is in the form of a general, undefined distrust and dislike of clowns. This chapter will explore some of the origins of the ‘scary clowns’ and look at examples of negative portrayals of clowns and try to understand how this phenomenon is perpetuated and how it might be addressed.

The Scary Clown Any discussion of clowns will very quickly raise the topic of Coulrophobia, simply conceived of as the ‘fear of clowns’ but more accurately the experiences of distress, fear or revulsion when exposed to clowns or their image.

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A clinical study (Planting et al., 2022) investigating some of the clinical features of this phenomenon, describes extreme responses of disgust, fear, mistrust and even emesis as reported in social media groups. McAndrew and Koehnke (2016) found clowns to be the ‘creepiest’ of all professions! The dark side of the clown is presented as common and destabilises the idea of the happy and playful clown. Thus, it is with awareness of the negative associations of clowns, that the challenge of introducing clowns to the educational environment is approached, in the hope that the image of the clown can be rehabilitated in the public perception, at least so far as to allow their spirit in the classroom. It is difficult to unpick the origin of the idea of scary clowns. There is some suggestion it is a result of some negative experience as a child (Mackley, 2016), either from the mischievous or confrontational behaviour of a clown, compounded by the incongruity of the clown make up with the ‘normal’ body type or the painted on smile underpinned by a non-smiling face. It may be as Mackley (2016) notes that the mask of a clown can hide its true emotion or even intent. Although, some maintain that rather than hiding, the clown mask in fact reveals true identity, it might just be that it is this which is the frightening part. Other suggestions include media representations, either in fact or in fiction as described below, although these are not so simple. These ‘evil clowns’ of fiction did not appear from nowhere. The choice of clowns as the vehicle for horror or fear is not neutral, it appears to have been embedded in some early cultural memory of clowns as source of discomfort. Even, Stephen King, the best-selling horror writer, admits that his choice of clown as the embodiment of monster came from a previously held negative perception or distrust of clowns and thus the cycle of fear of clowns is perpetuated. As seen in previous chapters, in many incarnations across cultures and time, the clown or fool is a supernatural entity sometimes associated with the spiritual, the divine or the occult (Welsford, 1961). Whether as the religious fools of Western or Orthodox tradition, or as shamans of North American culture, these clowns have a special place in society which allows them to behave in unpredictable and transgressive ways, often parodying or exemplifying specifically undesirable or unacceptable behaviour. There is an old German proverb which claims “Where there is dancing and capering there is the Devil” (Otto, 2001). This connection with the spirits, mysticism and the paranormal may lie at the heart of the trope of the clown as scary, perpetuated and exaggerated by popular culture and media.

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It is perhaps unsurprising that the general public does not immediately recognise that the constant across clowns, in all their forms we have encountered, is that they have been acting for the public good. It might be argued that the fear of clowns is not something over which clowns have any control. In the majority, the archetypal ‘scary clowns’ cited by members of the public when referring to their distaste for clowns, for example Pennywise from Stephen King’s novel and subsequent film adaptations, the serial killer, John Wayne Gacy and, even to some degree, some of the clowns encountered as street entertainers and buskers, are not clowns in the sense in which we have come to know them within these pages. They do not fit the definition inferred from the reviews of clowns across a wide range of contexts. The clowns which incite fear, do so because they have not, or do not follow the model of serving the public good, calling to account the powerful and their agents, acting for moderation and stability or entertaining. The characters described below all fail to meet these criteria, more often than not, resulting in their endeavours being those in which they are more accurately conceived of as acting as clowns rather than being clowns, as such their actions are conflated with those of true clowns and the myth of the scary clown grows. This failure to understand the purpose of the clown and learn how to be, has also been as suggested a reason behind the decline of CIRCA and accords with Bouissac’s (2015) reservations about medical and humanitarian clowns in the previous chapter. In short, if a clown is scaring you, then they are doing it wrong.

Fear of Clowns We have seen in a number of contexts, that there is nothing inherently scary about clowns themselves, we have seen, particularly in situations of threat and uncertainty, children find comfort and security in clowns and their behaviour. For many, the fear and distrust of clowns emerge from their unpredictability and potential to harm (Radford, 2016), but when those children are assured that the clown means no harm, they find them to be a source of joy and escape. If we establish that a true clown should not do harm, we arrive at a self-selecting, albeit useless discriminator between clowns and their scary counterparts. Useless because one can never be sure if the figure dressed as a clown before us is truly a clown or an impersonator. In part, it is those very characteristics of clowns which define them and that they use to their advantage, which creates the fear and aversion in the

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public consciousness. For many, the fear of clowns is rooted in the knowledge that they are, by their very nature, unpredictable. The implicit understanding that they exist ‘betwixt and between’ makes them difficult to characterise with any degree of certainty. Whilst the clown is playing and at play, they pose no threat. However, anxiety arises from the idea that they might decide to stop playing. It is the ambiguity and uncertainty which clowns can generate within this which can lead to feelings of discomfort. McAndrew and Koehnke (2016) suggest that it is the ambiguity of threat which people might find most unsettling. Hence one might be unsurprised that whilst the character of Pennywise in Stephen King’s IT may have fuelled discomfort and distrust with regard to clowns, there was no similar response to that other iconic film Jaws with regard to Great White sharks. With Great White sharks, there is fear, which might not be justified, but there is little ambiguity “Get out of the water!”. Yet this ambiguity is a fundamental aspect of clowning. For many as soon as they become in any way predictable, the clown is dead. Radford (2016) cites Carroll (1999) who attributes the fear of clowns to this defiance of simple categorisation. It is that liminality and in-betweenness, which we have encountered in the clowns of previous chapters which is in fact the very thing which for many is the source of discomfort and distrust. Yet, as we have seen, it is often the source of the power and the natural habitat of the clown. The one redeeming feature of this ambiguity, for those who know clowns, is that they are meant to be there for the benefit of society and will not do harm. However, this saving grace is confounded by the fact that it is not always clear if one is dealing with a ‘true clown’, one who is benevolent, with a social conscience, or one of their more sinister imitators. The make-up of the clown covers up their true expression and being unable to read the expressions or emotions of the person in front of you can be quite disconcerting and uncomfortable. The clowns of CIRCA knew this and used it to their advantage in their protests. There is the well-­ known story of a man suffering from depression who seeks the advice of his doctor. The doctor is unconcerned, knowing as he does of a cure which has served all his previous patients well. “Worry not”, he says, “I have recently come across something which is guaranteed to alleviate your condition. You must go to Covent Garden and see the great Grimaldi. This happy performance will have you laughing such that your melancholia will be lifted and your spirits will return to equilibrium.” “Ah”, says the patient sadly, “but I am Grimaldi”.

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This story reinforces the image of the sad or depressed clown beneath the greasepaint. The clown wears a mask and that mask bears no resemblance to what may be behind it. Beneath the very thin veneer of happiness and frivolity might lie a very different personality. This juxtaposition of the private life and the public face of the clown contributes further to people’s discomfort. Radford (2016) quotes Tony Timpone, editor of Fangoria magazine, “I think what makes a clown scary to some people is that this happy-go lucky face could be hiding something, you don’t really know what is underneath the phony face”. It is often this incongruity which can be perceived as frightening. However, it is also at the heart of most humour. When things are not as they first appear, that’s funny. Juxtaposition of images or ideas, that’s funny. That is why when hospital clowns appear in hospitals and areas of humanitarian crisis, as we saw in the previous chapter, they have been successful and popular. The incongruity of clowns appearing in such environments challenges expectations and beliefs, in a non-threatening way and from this, humour arises (Warren & McGraw, 2016). Context plays an important role in this. In the main, the clown in the circus ring or at the birthday party is in a harmless, entertaining character. However, as we see later, a clown on the street, after dark or in a sewer becomes quite a different proposition. Hence the clown who plays and acts unconventionally may in fact just be clowning, but as we shall see with characters in the next section, they might be just acting out something more sinister under the guise of something playful. Mr Punch One of the earliest archetypes of the ‘Bad Clown’ is Mr Punch of the British Punch and Judy puppet shows. The diarist Samuel Pepys records seeing such a show in May 1662 in London’s Covent Garden. His origins are rooted in the Commedia dell’arte of the Italian Renaissance, from which many of the clowns with which we are now familiar emerged. As described earlier, the Commedia dell’arte was an improvisational theatrical art form in which characters were assigned roles. However, the actors were very much responsible for the improvisational development of the role and dialogue throughout the performance, connected through the use of a series of set pieces, such as falling over, outburst of laughter or anger or expressions of fear and despair (Hugill, 1980). Mr Punch originated

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within the role of Pulcinella, a base, slow moving ‘bumpkin’ with a funny voice, apparently lacking the talents and alacrity of other members of the troupe, such as Brighella or even Harlequin, who was himself somewhat doltish. Pulcinella was often coarse, cruel and tyrannical, with little regard for his fellows in the Commedia dell’arte. By the time he arrived in England as Punch, such was his popularity he was imitated by many actors, eventually transitioning to marionette and eventually hand puppet. In this form, he was able to indulge his excesses of anger and violence. He murders his wife, throws his baby from a window and uses a large bat to attack policemen, a crocodile and even Death itself! This badly behaved violent and murderous clown enjoyed great popularity in England, becoming a staple of fairs, market places and the seaside. In the modern age one would expect that the same concern which accompanied Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, video nasties and even the internet would have censured Mr Punch and sent him the way of many other cultural icons which have been found to be unacceptable in society, either from conservative viewpoints which would look to protect children from such violence or from a liberal perspective which might see the perpetuation of misogynistic violence as unacceptable in today’s society. However, although there have been few concerted efforts of moral panic to ban Mr Punch, with varying degrees of success, he has survived, in fact to emerge as one of the 12 English icons identified by the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2006. His ability to survive is due to his presentation, in the first place calling on his heritage as member of the Commedia dell’arte and clown and so as many clowns and fools before and since, he has been granted special privilege to behave outrageously without sanction. Moreover, Mr Punch also presents himself as the everyman, his reactions are only those expressions of our own base feelings. His victories over policemen, a harrying spouse, bawling children and even Death himself allow us vicarious satisfaction over those mundane authorities and constraints which hamper our everyday lives. He allows us to acknowledge that these base emotions and actions are very wrong and for that he is our scapegoat. Once again, the clown demonstrates what is acceptable in society by behaving in ways which are not. However, his appeal as the common man is an attempt to embody those emotions that we fear to express, to kick out against authority in ways we wish we could and to say and do what we lack the power and position to do. Mr Punch’s positioning of himself as such foreshadows the appeal of populist politicians of the late 2010s, who as we shall see, also

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came to be seen as clowns. Mr Punch provides us with a current and historical reminder that certain clowns have always had a dark side. Their potential to be violent, unpredictable, sadistic and without remorse is in their make up (and their make-up?) and we may be right to fear and distrust them. Mr Punch holds a special place amongst ‘bad clowns’ in that whilst his actions within his own world are truly bad and without redemption, his role for the audience echoes Vidushaka of the Sanskrit dramas mentioned earlier, where he provides an outlet for the more base and human emotions of his audience. In this, the clown within the performance is not a clown as he is not serving a greater good. However, in the role he plays for his audience, he is a clown, providing a catharsis which his audience need and so, Mr Punch is in some way redeemed. As we shall see in the rest of this chapter, not all bad clowns have embodied his qualities. Scary Clowns in Fiction The ‘scary clown’ in literature dates back to a time before contemporary fiction. It includes Edgar Allan Poe, a writer known for the macabre and his story of Hop Frog, where the jester clown exacts his revenge upon the king and his ministers in a very public manner, all whilst appearing to perform for the entertainment of the king and his guests. In this story, echoing early stories of the Danga at the Ancient Egyptian court, a person, crippled and with dwarfism is taken from his homeland to become the jester at the court of a king who, along with his ministers, enjoyed practical jokes. These physical attributes already endeared him to the court as a great source of amusement. Also at the court, there was another from Hop Frog’s homeland, Trippetta, a dancer with dwarfism, with whom Hop Frog became close. On one particular occasion the King had summoned both to his side, to suggest humorous costumes for him and his ministers for a masquerade that night. Although the king was aware that Hop Frog did not enjoy wine, for his own amusement and that of his court, the king bade him to drink ‘to the health of his absent friends’. This happened to be on the occasion Hop Frog’s birthday, intensifying his despair and homesickness. When he hesitated to come up with outfits for the king and his ministers to wear, fearing the king’s wrath, Trippetta intervened to spare her friend. This so enraged the king that he struck her and cast a goblet of wine at her face. For this offence, Hop Frog contrived his act of revenge and escape. He convinced the king and his ministers to

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dress up as Orang-Utans, dressing them in shirts covered with tar and chaining them together to create the atmosphere of danger amongst his guests. When the guests arrived, they were in awe at the spectacle of what they took to be wild beasts and further amazed, when at Hop Frog’s command, they were raised by their chains and suspended from the ceiling. Hop Frog, took advantage of the wonder and amazement at this spectacle to inspect the ‘beasts’ with a flaming torch, and with measured deliberation set them on fire. Amid the screams and confusion, Hop Frog leapt from the suspended chains and escaped through a skylight to meet Trippetta and they disappeared together, presumably making their way back to their homeland. Whilst there may be criticism of the actions of the king and his court, including abduction and enslavement, the actions of Hop Frog are nevertheless brutal. In Poe’s story, the jester is not a benign entertaining character and whilst his actions might be understood, it is difficult to make the case that he meets the criteria of clown under discussion in this book. In this story, we see the embodiment of the fear, widely held, about what might happen when the clown stops playing, but still hides his intent behind his mask. For many, of a certain age and location, the archetypal ‘scary clown’ is embodied by Pennywise, the clown in Stephen King’s IT (King, 1986). Although many may have feared clowns before this, King’s Pennywise is often the first horror clown which they encounter, whether through the novel released in 1986, the mini-series of 1990 or the two-part movie in 2017 and 2019. In this story, an ancient alien form terrorises the American town of Derry, Maine murdering inhabitants and particularly children in cycles separated by 27 years of hibernation. The being is a shapeshifter, like the tricksters of older cultures which inhabited the land, and whilst it takes many forms within the story, the most pervasive and memorable is that of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. This is the form the monster takes when first encountered by the reader. Disguised as a clown, the monster entices a 6-year-old, Georgie, towards a drain only to tear off his arm and kill him, thus setting the tone for the book that no one is safe. At this point the clown is not presented as an object of fear; in fact the creature appears as a clown so as to attract Georgie. Only later does Pennywise appear as a terrifying creature. In this King manages to capture the duality of the perception of the clown, both as a friendly, happy character who can bring joy and cheer and as a character who engenders doubt, uncertainty and fear. This dual nature of the clown character is pervasive and is echoed in the narratives of those who talk of a fear of clowns. However, this also

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highlights the misconception which lies at the heart of many people’s fear and distrust of clowns, for this alien monster is definitely not a clown, certainly not acting for the good of society and is perhaps the most extreme case of an individual ‘acting’ as a clown. The nature of the creature known as IT is that it takes the shape of the deepest fears of those who see it. King chose the clown as he felt that this was what scared children more than anything else. In doing so, he created a character who continues to feed that same fear existing within the cultural consciousness. More recently, in 2019, in Todd Phillips’s The Joker, Joaquin Phoenix portrays a clown-like character, Arthur Fleck. Fleck is an occasional professional ‘party’ clown and stand-up comic, hampered by delusions and a neurological condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably at inappropriate times. Fleck is beset by societal problems in a dystopian metropolis, who following a public humiliation, spirals downward into a murderous, grotesque clown character motivated by anger and hate, such is the origin of Batman’s arch-enemy ‘The Joker’. In this character presentation, we see the distortion of clown principles. In more favourable circumstances, Flecks affliction of inappropriate laughter, also one of the distinguishing traits of The Joker, could be seen as a challenge to societal norms and mores. Laughter in adversity and in inappropriate circumstances lifts the clown above the seriousness or danger of the moment, transcending the reality of their environment, in that for clowns, there is no concept of ‘inappropriate’. However, in the corporeal reality of the movie setting, this is not welcome or accommodated and the clown characteristics lead to tragic outcomes, if not for Fleck himself, then at least for those who he encounters. Again, resonant of Poe’s Hop Frog, the ‘bad’ clown emerges where circumstances have pushed him beyond his limits and he leaves behind the clown persona, maintaining only the appearance of a clown when executing malign intent. Therein lie some of the roots of coulrophobia, the blurring of boundaries between a well-intentioned benevolent and playful clown and the malevolent misanthropic simulacrum, especially where literature has demonstrated that it is common for one to become the other whilst hidden behind their metaphorical and literal masks. Killer Clowns In what might be the most blatant form of opportunism and clown imitation in recent years, 2016 saw a spate of ‘evil clowns’ or ‘killer clowns’. These were people dressing in clown costumes who for their own

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amusement, exploited the fears discussed above, associated with incongruity and unpredictability, merely to scare or disconcert members of the public. There were various press reports around the world about people ‘dressed up as clowns’ appearing in incongruous locations, often with no worse intention than to disturb and discomfort people. These happenings appear to have begun rather innocently in Northampton, UK in 2013, with a benign character known as the Northampton clown who attracted a social media following and would happily pose for photographs. Whilst this character posed no threat and drew no police attention, he was nevertheless subject to abuse and threats even after his unmasking (Radford, 2016). The popularity and high social media presence of this character led to the more social media savvy exploits of the Staten Island clown, in New York, USA. Less benign, this clown was reported to be rather more frightening than their Northampton predecessor and was eventually revealed to be the creation of a company which produced horror films. This trend then seemed to catch the public imagination internationally, with either Northampton or Staten Island clown imitators beginning to appear more widely in the USA, Canada, UK, France, Australia and New Zealand as well as many other countries. These clowns tended to be more sinister, with the express intention of scaring the public, on occasion wielding baseball bats or machetes. This caught the imagination of the press and the public, leading to many copycat clown appearances, often with unfortunate consequences, for the clowns as well as their intended victims. Not all people were afraid of clowns! Real-Life Evil Clown There have been some true ‘evil clowns’. Radford (2016) catalogues a number of these for those wishing to delve deeper. Perhaps most famous of these was John Wayne Gacy an occasional ‘party clown’, who in the 1970s tortured and murdered at least 33 people, interring their bodies in the crawl space beneath his house in the suburbs of Chicago, USA. Whilst he was not a professional clown, Gacy performed at charitable and children’s events as Pogo or Patches the clown. In discussing his role as clown, Gacy cites the freedom the clown outfit gave him (Radford, 2016), freedom to misbehave in public and be rewarded with laughter rather than censure and more chillingly, to “get away with murder and no one gets mad” (Barker, 1997 in Radford, 2016). Gacy was arrested in 1978,

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eventually convicted of 33 murders, sentenced to death in 1980 and executed in 1994. Whilst clowning was a minor part of his life and he had never actually attacked anyone whilst in costume, this image of Killer Clown plays well to the public and the press seeking to sensationalise the grotesque.

Clown Misrepresentation In the previous sections, ‘clown’ has largely been the identity adopted by the characters we have discussed. In this section we will look at the way in which the term ‘clown’ is often applied to others as a form of criticism or disapproval. This usage of the term does a disservice to clowns who, as we have seen in previous chapters, have a long history of contributing to their environment and have generally been beneficial to society. Nevertheless, the term clown has become pejorative, often used to denote incompetence or a lack of seriousness. This is a misrepresentation of the art of clowning. As we have seen, clowning is a serious endeavour, requiring commitment, endurance and skill. So, to use the term to denote undesirable behaviour or characteristics is to do clowns a great disservice and undermines the efforts that they have made for the betterment of the societies in which they exist. Too easily is the term applied to people who misbehave, either in the school context or in the political arena. In this section we look to critique the negative connotations of the term ‘clown’ as it is used in public discourse. The current usage of the term dismisses the efforts of clowns and furthermore trivialises and excuses the poor behaviour of those at whom it is levelled. Class Clown—Not Such a Bad Clown Although little attention has been given to the pedagogic potential of the clown, there is a well-established notion of class clowns, captured by Chevreau (1994) as “an under-achieving student who, in his efforts to get attention, is a disruptive force in the classroom. As such his behaviour, though enormously funny, is a threat to the conformity and stability that good classroom discipline demands” (p. ii). Whilst teaching practices and conceptions of ‘conformity and stability’ might vary according to context or culture, there is a clear positioning of the class clown outside of the norm, Chevreau goes on to draw a comparison between the teachers, the clown and the class with the king, the jester and the court, making a case for the

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importance of the class clown. However, this perspective is an unusual one, much of the literature in either academic research or textbooks, frame the class clown as undesirable who must be ‘dealt with’. A typology of a class clowns has been developed (Ruch et  al., 2014), which claims four dimensions of clown: (i) identified as class clown, (ii) comic talent, (iii) disruptive rule breaker and (iv) subversive joker. Analysis of the character traits of these clowns showed them to be low in the psychological construct of ‘temperance’, associated with self-regulation and moderation and furthermore, class clown behaviours were generally found in “students indulging in a life of pleasure, but low life of engagement”. Whilst these clowns were associated with peer-acceptance and popularity, they were also associated with aggressive-disruptive behaviours. Additionally, the ‘disruptive rule-breaker’ type was further associated with low intellectual strength, although the traits “identified as the class clown” and “comic talent” were associated with leadership skills. As a final condemnation of the clown Ruch et al. (2014) suggest that different types of class clowns should be kept apart. Class clown behaviour is broadly presented as something to be prevented, though some scope is identified for identifying and activating its positive aspects. Later publications from the same group (Platt et  al., 2016) frame the class clown as a problematic phenomenon for which one might find ‘solutions’. This view of class clowns is quite widespread, with suggestions that boys particularly are ‘stigmatised’ by class teachers Barnett (2018), their playfulness being interpreted as ‘rebellious’ and ‘intrusive’, leading to the label of class clown. Throughout the literature, even in the contexts where authors present approaches to embracing and accommodating the attributes of a class clown, the clown is always presented as a challenge in the classroom. One that needs to be overcome by the teacher, either by preventing or censuring that behaviour or by developing techniques which accommodate it. Chevreau (1994) may be the exception in presenting aspects of class clowning in a context in which it is embraced and valued, arguing that the class clown, much like clowns, fools and jesters in any environment and their ambiguous nature, being both and neither within the class and/or outside of it, allows them to behave as all clowns, contributing to their environment as critic, sage and humourist. This persona of the outsider, poised to disrupt has been used by politicians in recent years to garner the populist vote. However, as we see in the next section, it is never this characteristic which is identified them as clown-like in the media.

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Political Portrayals Media portrayals of politicians who have fallen out of favour often turn to using the metaphor of clowns. Such derision and ridicule are unfair and unrepresentative of the work which clowns have been doing for society, all societies, across the world, throughout history. This section explores the way the term is used disparagingly in the political arena and looks to dissociate clowns and their efforts from the ineptitude and egoism of the politicians to whom it is applied. The media discourse of the political state of the UK in late 2022 can be characterised by the banner headline of the opposition, Labour party advertisement declaring “SEND OFF THE CLOWNS” circulating on social media. It featured images of then Prime Liz Truss and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, made up as clowns. This is far from the first time in which political leaders have been compared to clowns as shortcut to calling them incompetent and ineffective. One is reminded of the Groucho Marx line that “the problem with political jokes is that they keep getting elected”. In their first presidential debate in 2020, presidential candidate Joe Biden, twice refers to incumbent Donald Trump as a clown, “Well, it’s hard to get any word in with this clown” “Folks, do you have any idea what this clown’s doing?”. In 2013, German opposition candidate, Peer Steinbrueck caused offence when he referred to Italian politicians, Silvio Berlusconi and Beppe Grillo as ‘clowns’. Particularly odd, as Grillo himself was in fact a comic before turning to politics. Perhaps most famously portrayed as clown in recent times has been the former prime minister of the UK, Boris Johnson. Both Donald Trump and Boris Johnson presented themselves as ‘men of the people’, appealing to the masses as alternatives to the established body of politicians. They presented themselves as outsiders who would upset the established order, which many voters had grown tired off. In fact they were all very much part of the establishment, part of a political and financial class far removed from the general populace. Although they did not present themselves as clown figures in this context, their critics were quick to turn to that imagery when calling out their incompetence or mismanagement. Interestingly, the same was applied to UK populist politician and one time leader of the UK Independence party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, who also presented himself as maverick outsider looking to upset the social order. Johnson, having been an established media figure, before entering politics, firstly as Mayor of London, had

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already attracted the image as buffoon amongst the satirical press. This was never an image that he worked particularly hard to dispel, in fact part of his media image, some believe carefully constructed, was very much that of an enthusiastic buffoon. This conception of Johnson as buffoon, clown or jester, unpredictable and disregarding of institutions, structures and convention, served him well allowing him to appear alternative and anti-establishment whilst in fact pursuing his own agenda of one-nation politics and national conservatism. The interesting aspect of Trump, Johnson and Farage was that although none of them chose to present themselves as clowns, they presented themselves as ‘everyman’ rather than career politicians and promised to bring their own version of disruption to the political process, which they presented as bureaucratic and heavy with establishment. Johnson, Trump and Farage, implicitly, positioned themselves as clowns at the political court, either as jesters holding the court accountable or as Mr Punch acting out the impulses of the common man. It is then ironic, that these characteristics were not the ones which were picked up as clown-like by the media. In their decline, all three have been characterised as clowns in a pejorative sense, portraying them as incompetent and bumbling, rather than as other ‘bad clowns’, using the licence of clown to preside over a serious of arguably outrageous political actions and decisions, whilst maintaining an air of mild confusion. Whilst Bakhtin (1984) describes a the carnivalesque as a situation where “diverse voices are heard and interact … enabling genuine dialogue”, this has been somewhat corrupted into situations where there has been a distrust of expertise, as seen in the Brexit debates and more recently in the discourse around COVID-19 and the anti-vaccination movement, along with a rise in the popularity of conspiracy theories (Jolley & Douglas, 2014). As with many of the ‘bad clowns’ described above, these political clowns are not in fact true clowns. Coming as they do from positions of power, they do not speak ‘truth to power’; they are not acting for stability and conformity nor arguably for the good of the wider population. These political ‘clowns’ have assumed some of the attributes of clowns but fail to fulfil the role of a clown. They are in fact acting as clowns rather than being clowns. To associate clowns with political incompetence, machination and disregard for societal wellbeing is to fundamentally misunderstand the role that clowns have played within the political and social landscape throughout history. The call to “Send Off the Clowns” is in fact unwitting and

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poorly timed. For in times of social uncertainty, and the unconstrained dominance of the politically privileged, as existed in the monarchies of the past, what is needed more than ever is the political and social influence of clowns.

Summary In this chapter we have seen that whilst there may be some deep anthropological reason for the fear of clowns, the modern examples of clowns which are cited as malignant are often, not clowns at all. Whether they are the evil clowns of fact and fiction or the ‘incompetent’ clowns of the political arena, these characters cannot truly be called clowns in the current sense of the word. With the possible exception of Mr Punch, whose bad behaviour is steeped in English tradition, and before that, the tradition of the Italian Commedia dell’arte, the ‘bad clowns’ described in this chapter have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Poe’s Hop Frog, himself a victim in the story, turns to act out of revenge and anger. King’s Pennywise, perhaps the darkest of these clowns as IT takes the form of our greatest fears and so this dreadful clown is of our own making, feeding on our fear. Such is the cultural distrust of clowns, that they have become an easy cultural image to exploit, exemplified by the killer clowns of  2016. This creates challenges for clowns trying to present a friendly and benevolent image. Most famously, Ronald McDonald of the burger franchise, already under fire by doctors and health professionals for targeting children to advertise fast food, began to make fewer public appearances, eventually retiring at just 53 as similar ‘killer’ clowns ran a campaign of fear. The contrast between the actions of the clowns cited in this section and those of previous chapters is stark. Across a range of contexts, they provide examples of what a clown is not! In real-life rather than fiction, clowns outside of their ‘natural habitat’ of the entertainment arena still face challenges. In this context clown is rarely a positive term. Politically, and as we shall see in the next half of this book, educationally, clowning has much to contribute to society. Politicians have tried to shrug off the title of clown, whilst at the same time presenting some of the most positive aspects of the clown as their popular appeal. It is ironic that in times of political turmoil, politicians are dismissed as clowns when in fact more clown attributes are precisely what we need within the structures of power. Not those of bumbling incompetence as represented by the media, but those who challenge the hubris of invulnerability, moral and intellectual rectitude. When there is a

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loss of trust in their leaders and the public is dissatisfied with democracy, rather than sending off the clowns as the media demands, it may be the time when they are most called for. Whether through intent or neglect the ‘bad clowns’ described in this chapter have failed to demonstrate their true clown nature. However as implied within the section on the class clown, there is potential for their positive influence. We have seen how clowns, despite a few exceptions noted here, have historically and currently been a force for good in the world. This has been across a wide range of applications, from policing of societal norms to medical care, to social justice. There has been rather less clowning seen in educational contexts. In the following sections, there will be a review of the ideas and philosophies of a number of clowns. These clown philosophies will be introduced to the educational arena through comparisons with sound pedagogical principles and used to illuminate established theoretical concepts to demonstrate how clowning practices can be applied in the modern educational environment.

References Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and his world (Hélène Iswolsky, Trans.). Indiana University Press. Barker, C. (1997). Clive Barker’s AZ of Horror. BBC. Barnett, L. A. (2018). The education of playful boys: Class clowns in the classroom. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 232. Bouissac, P. (2015). The semiotics of clowns and clowning: Rituals of transgression and the theory of laughter. Bloomsbury Publishing. Carroll, N. (1999). Horror and humor. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 57(2), 145–160. Chevreau, D. (1994). Class clown and court jester: A case study approach to the tradition of the fool (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia). Hugill, B. (1980). Bring on the clowns. David & Charles. Jolley, D., & Douglas, K. M. (2014). The social consequences of conspiracism: Exposure to conspiracy theories decreases intentions to engage in politics and to reduce one’s carbon footprint. British Journal of Psychology, 105(1), 35–56. King, S. (1986). IT. Viking. Mackley, J.  S. (2016, December). The fears of a clown. In The Dark Fantastic: Sixth Annual Joint Fantasy Symposium. McAndrew, F.  T., & Koehnke, S.  S. (2016). On the nature of creepiness. New ideas in Psychology, 43, 10–15.

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Otto, B.  K. (2001). Fools are everywhere: The court jester around the world. University of Chicago Press. Planting, T., Koopowitz, S. M., & Stein, D. J. (2022). Coulrophobia: An investigation of clinical features. South African Journal of Psychiatry, 28(1), 1–4. Platt, T., Wagner, L., & Ruch, W. (2016). The association between class clown dimensions, school experiences and accomplishment. Learning and Individual Differences, 51, 327–332. Radford, B. (2016). Bad clowns. UNM Press. Ruch, W., Platt, T., & Hofmann, J. (2014). The character strengths of class clowns. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1075. Warren, C., & McGraw, A. P. (2016). Differentiating what is humorous from what is not. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(3), 407. Welsford, E. (1961). The fool: His social and literary history (Vol. 262). Doubleday.

PART II

Clowns and Education: Introducing the Clown-Teacher

Introduction Many of the aspects of clowning we have seen in the previous chapters are highly relevant for teachers. Many of the aims and intentions of clowns, in terms of their relationship with their audience, are relevant to teachers in their practice. In the principles and philosophies of the clowns we have seen, we can identify pedagogically useful techniques which could be replicated in the classroom. If we wish to see those skills clearly demonstrated, we should look to these experts and if we wish to foster them ourselves, as educators, we should consider the value of undergoing clown training as a means of developing our own professional practice. There is value in reclaiming the term ‘clown’ in educational contexts where it has gained negative connotations with the idea of the class clown as a disruptive, troublesome presence. Instead, as argued in this book, teachers and learners could be embracing the term and nurturing the clown spirit in themselves and in the classroom, creating an environment which encourages challenge, subversion and the questioning of norms and accepted wisdom, allowing learners to develop the skills which allow them to be creative, reflective, independent and critical learners.

Academic Jesters The argument made within these pages is that clowning is to be taken seriously and case is built of the introduction of clowning principles to the field of education and pedagogy. There is evidence that the jester has made

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an appearance in the educational arena in the past (Sacks, 2020). In medieval universities such as Oxford and Cambridge assessments were by public, oral examination, in Latin (Stray, 2001). Candidates for bachelor’s degrees were required to defend themselves in debate against an official opponent amongst a community of Master of Arts (MA) holders. This examination was an ‘act’ or disputation in which the candidate debated in public with their opponent. There is some evidence that this very public defence was made even more disconcerting by the presence of a disputant, emerging at Cambridge University in England, where he was known as the Tripos or Mr Tripos, who in the style of the medieval jester, would often choose to debate and challenge through ridicule and wordplay. However, the tradition of satire and ridicule of the aspirant academic was not restricted to Mr Tripos at Cambridge. This ancient and subversive role of the ‘clown’ disputant seems to appear at prestigious and august institutions in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The Prevaricator, also at Cambridge, would mock or ridicule leading university figures or current events (Chainey, 1995); the Tripos of Trinity College, Dublin and the Terrae Filius at Oxford held similar positions (Rembret, 1988) The tradition appeared to enjoy popularity throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, notably by proscription in Heidelberg in the early sixteenth century (Rembret, 1988). This ‘bachelor of the stool’ played a central and formal role in the examinations at Cambridge (Stubbings, 1995). These examinations were very open and could continue over many hours. Not only did the candidate have to defend themselves against their formal examiner, but also against any other students or graduates present who chose to take part. The fact that these examinations were entirely oral means that there are few records which survive beyond the outcomes of the examinations. This tradition became so popular that by the seventeenth century this ‘approved’ disruptor had become a part of the institution, sanctioned within the statutes of the universities (Haugen, 2004). Mr Tripos left the argumentation to others amongst the academic community and himself became equivalent to Court Fool (Mayhew, 1966). Not so much an examiner any longer, but more likely as a ‘comic turn’, adding some lightness to the proceedings, as a travesty of the formal examination. As the disputations became more procedural and perhaps instrumental and fewer candidates would truly dispute challenging topics, choosing instead to ‘dispute’ less contentious issues, these disputations become

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more like a recitation of well-practiced ideas and presented less opportunity for the intellectual sparring which had underpinned the earlier disputations. In this context the role of Terrae Filius or Mr Tripos became one of a challenging and controversial academic jester, filling this void with satirical disputations. Even the pretence of disputation was soon abandoned as the jester would often forgo any attempt at addressing the topic of dispute, beyond a cursory mention which allowed him to launch into his lampooning of the officials and senior members of the university. Eventually this role evolved into a satirical speech given at commencement written on the back of the formal list of candidates. It seems that even by giving these characters licence to disrupt, challenge and deflate pomposity the authorities were often unable to control these satirists by bringing them ‘inside the camp’. Not all academic jesters were immune to the rule of authority, records may be somewhat selective as those who stayed within the bounds would be rather less noteworthy than those who were given to excess and these academic jesters often fell foul of the university authorities. Some were expelled, deprived of their degrees or suspended from college privileges (Feingold, 2005). It is clear that such disruption became more than institutions could bear. In 1626 Cambridge decreed that such “buffooneries and scurrilous jests” were no longer permitted at public disputations, though “charming, pleasant and learned witticisms” were still welcome. As early as 1518, a decree of the University of Heidelberg in an attempt to temper the behaviour of such disruptors, prohibited the practice of humorous or witty interjections at academic disputations. This apparently came as a response to ‘shameful’ behaviour of previous years. At Oxford in the seventeenth century, Prevaricators were required to submit their speeches to the vice-­ chancellor for approval before delivery and any deviation from this submission might result in expulsion. Eventually, at Cambridge at least, Mr Tripos was suppressed in the eighteenth century (Chainey, 1995) and reduced to recitations of satirical Latin verse, with the tradition dying out around the turn of the nineteenth century (Stubbings, 1995; Mitton, 2005). Whilst it appears that these institutions would tolerate subversion, it was clear that this would only be if that ‘subversion’ conformed to their rules. Unsurprisingly, there were many who felt that their allegiance was to the spirit of subversion rather than to the institution and there are many records of outrage, disgrace and expulsion across institutions. Although, to be fair, few records of calm, sedate and mildly amusing interjections would have been kept (Rembret, 1988). The institutions’ abdication of

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power was ‘carnivalesque’ (Bakhtin, 1984) and when their limit of tolerance was reached, it was time for them to regain their ‘crown’. Haugen (2004) suggests that the role of the jester (Terrae Filius at Oxford), rather than serving to invert or subvert the institutions of the university, in fact, helped to create the university’s identity, through the mocking and criticism of members of the institution for their excesses, real or imagined. By lampooning those for their transgressions, they created the identity of the normalised university, for which these behaviours were beyond the limit. Here again the role of the clown is seen as one acting to moderate the behaviour of society, as with the Heyoka in Chap. 2 and the Holy Fools in Chap. 3, through enacting or highlighting all that was unacceptable within those institutions. As such the academic jester served an important purpose for the university, in creating an identity through the presentation of its negative, to be presented to the many lay people or outsiders who attended the ‘acts’ or ‘examinations’, thereby, presenting a normal or acceptable identity of the institution. Commonly, such deep offence was caused at these performances by the jester, that after the event, he would be required to apologise to the members of the university or face expulsion. Often this apology was forthcoming, and the jester was rehabilitated. For after all it was not the office of jester which had caused offence, instead it was the individual acting in that role who had overstepped a mark and so the office was tolerated by the institution and continued to be sanctioned by the university. Until there came a time when either the subversion was intolerable or, as Haugen (2004) suggests, the separation between the imagined and the real could not continue to be presented and the office disappeared. What had begun as an approved satirical comic interlude or antidote to the formal academic disputation by which candidates were judged, became increasingly daring in the later seventeenth century. The acerbic, satirical nature of the speeches of Tripos or Terre Filius began to clash with the authority of the universities which licenced them. However, the universities being the very authority which approved these roles found themselves in an increasingly difficult position of approving the role of academic jester yet suffering at the point of their wit. The task of silencing or suppressing them proved to be challenging, yet not impossible. At Cambridge at least, Tripos went from the comic disputant, charged with challenging the academic, to the delivery of a satirical speech eventually, to the piece of paper on which examination results were written. At Oxford, Terre Filius also met a sad end. Having played a central role as a

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participant in the examinations, he moved to be a satirist who mocked the institution and its members, and when he pushed his luck too far, was brought to an abrupt end. Just as the festivals of the carnivalesque, which licensed the inversion of the religious hierarchy, for a limited period before order was re-imposed, the warrant of the academic jester was limited by the institutional hierarchy which would only tolerate so much mockery. Since that period there has been little sign of the jester or clown in the educational arena. There have been occasional sightings, for example Clegg et al. (2021) offer jestering techniques as a method of questioning norms in management learning. There is a view that there is scope for clowning methods in the classroom. This usually calls upon the gross characteristics of the clown rather than the subtleties, nuances and philosophies. Methods using humour and creativity can make lessons more engaging and enjoyable (Pozsonyi & Soulstein, 2019) or to allow more creative approaches, employing for example, physicality, or a carnivalesque shifting of power (Tam, 2018). However, there has been less consideration or recognition of the deeper motivations and philosophies of the clown, with their wide range of skills and attributes and their applicability in the contemporary classroom. The pedagogy of the clown is considered in the second part of this book. It begins with Chap. 5, looking at Jacques Lecoq, one of the strongest influences on contemporary clowning, then Chap. 6 reviews the ideas and philosophies of a number of the leading clowns of the current era. This is followed by Chap. 7, looking at more practical ideas of clowning, with the ‘Manifesto’ of P. Nalle Laanela and the workshop practices of Andrea Jiménez, both well-accomplished clowns and pedagogues. Finally, Chap. 8 will look at the liminal spaces described in many of the examples of clowns reviewed so far and compare them to the liminal spaces and thresholds associated with the process of learning. In so doing, the ideas and actions of clowns will be viewed through the lens of an educator, unpicking the pedagogical value of introducing clowning practices to mainstream education.

References Bakhtin, M.  M. (1984). Rabelais and his world (H.  Iswolsky, Trans.). Indiana University Press. Chainey, G. (1995). A literary history of Cambridge. CUP Archive.

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Clegg, S., Cunha, M. P. E., Rego, A., & Berti, M. (2021). Speaking truth to power: The academic as jester stimulating management learning. Management Learning. Feingold, M. ed. (2005). History of universities: Volume XX/2 (Vol. 20). Oxford University Press. Haugen, K. (2004). Imagined universities: Public insult and the Terrae Filius in early modern Oxford. In Institutional culture in early modern society (pp. 317–343). Brill. Mayhew, G. (1966, January 1). Swift and the tripos tradition. Philological Quarterly (Periodicals Archive Online), 45(1), 85. Mitton, S. (2005). Conflict in the cosmos: Fred Hoyle’s life in science. Conflict in the cosmos: Fred Hoyle’s life in science. Pozsonyi, K., & Soulstein, S. (2019). Classroom clowning: Teaching (with) humor in the media classroom. JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 58(3), 148–154. Rembret, J. A. (1988). Swift and the dialectical tradition. St Martin’s Press. Sacks, S. (2020).  This untethered buffoon or the trickster in everything (Doctoral dissertation, Stockholms konstnärliga högskola). Stray, C. (2001). The shift from oral to written examination: Cambridge and Oxford 1700–1900. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 8(1), 33–50. Stubbings, F. ed. (1995). Bedders, bulldogs and bedells: A Cambridge glossary. Cambridge University Press. Tam, P. C. (2018). Teacher as fool: a study of the teacher’s power in the carnivalesque practice of drama education.  Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 26(2), 283–300.

CHAPTER 5

Lecoq and the Modern Clown

Introduction Jacques Lecoq has played a large role in the shaping of many clown personalities. This chapter will review some of Lecoq’s ideas with a focus on the pedagogical interpretation, practical application and theoretical alignment of his ‘dramatic territories’ as detailed in his book The Moving Body (Le Corps Poétique) (Lecoq, 2020). All five of Lecoq’s ‘territories’ will be discussed. However, greater analysis is reserved for those most closely related to clowning, those of the Commedia dell’arte, Bouffon and Clown. Lecoq is considered to have led much of the rebirth or reinvention of clowns in the 1960s, at his Ecole internationale de Théâtre in Paris, opened in 1956, suggesting that there was little of the circus clown that was relevant to the modern clown. This new clown was formed through traditions of street performance and independent theatre rather than traditional circuses (Davison, 2013). There was a sense that by the late 1960s clowning as it existed was dying and in need of resuscitation and rebirth. It was felt that the great trauma of the war had left little to laugh about and that there was a passing of the old ways of clowning along with the cultural references which shaped and influenced clowning performances. This was perhaps best captured by Italian filmmaker, Federico Fellini’s docufiction, I Clowns. In this film of three parts, Fellini starts by reminiscing about his childhood and

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his fear of clowns, the shouting, the masks, the drunkenness and bumbling, all resemble characters he could see throughout his district. He shows us the dwarf nun, who lives in turn between the convent and the asylum, we see the drunkard taken home in a barrow by his wife, the fascist war veteran, the fighting railway porters, the pompous station master, who becomes the subject of mockery of his passengers. Fellini questions if the buffoonery of the world, reflected by the clowns of his youth continues to exist in a modern, asepticised world and if the time of clowns is over. The film then moves on to follow a circus run by the Orfei family and sets off on a quest to find the last great clowns of Europe. It asks if they are still funny or if in fact circuses and clowns are outdated and the circus no longer makes any sense in the real world. The final stage is an extended performance centred around the funeral of one of the great clowns. Of course, throughout the film the documentary crew are subtly bumbling, hapless and incompetent. Sam Rohdie in his Fellini Lexicon refers to this as “a memorial to a childhood of clowns and the enchantment of clowns, including the terror of them. The film is their requiem and their return to life. It is thereby a reconciliation” (Rohdie, 2019, p. 33). It is argued (Little, 1986/2003  in Davison, 2013) that as modern clowns emerged, traditional clowns, in constructing themselves in opposition to this incursion tended towards a rigidity in their performance, strongly tied to a view of tradition, which if it existed at all, would be opposed to such rigidity. Davison (2013) expresses this as a split between traditions, where the new tradition led by Lecoq and his school, centres the clown not in the traditions of performance and the past but in the modern idea of self-actualisation and self-discovery, the unearthing of one’s inner clown.

Lecoq Jacques Lecoq is well known for his philosophy and inspirational teaching of physical theatre and movement. He was strongly influenced by Commedia dell’arte and Ancient Greek tragedy and went on to teach many clowns such as Avner ‘The Eccentric’ Eisenberg, René Bazinet and Philippe Gaulier, who each have gone on to influence and teach many others themselves. Through his school at Ecole Internationale de Théâtre in Paris which opened in 1956, Lecoq taught many of the greats of stage,

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screen and ring and inspired many others to carry on his legacy through stage schools, clowning schools and educational programmes around the world. Many of the great living clowns cite Lecoq and his teaching methods as central to their chosen path and their success. Whilst it is accepted that his very practical approach to teaching at his school is difficult to reproduce in written form, The Moving Body describes his perspective on what he considers the five ‘dramatic territories’ and his pedagogy and perspective of these ‘territories’ carry many important considerations for teaching in the more mainstream arena. It is not the aim of this chapter to produce a script or syllabus prescribing modes and methods of teaching. That would rather conflict with Lecoq’s own approach. He noted, on opening his drama school in Milan, that he was faced with a quandary in opening a school within his own theatre company, to ensure that his teaching was not limited only to the style of his company, but also included other styles of theatre. Lecoq did not approve of the unidimensional approach as he felt it tended to limit the scope of styles which could be learned. So here, I don’t ask you to follow the ‘script’ of Lecoq’s vision, but to look at the dramatic traditions as he sees them and to draw some inspiration to consider or reconsider how teaching could be enhanced or enabled by the accommodation or assimilation of some of his ideas on theatre, so that in the ‘performance’ of teaching, one is able to move between the modes of teaching which have their analogies in the Lecoq’s dramatic territories. One should see that whatever our approach to teaching and learning, this is not fixed and may be adapted depending on content and audience. Lecoq’s view of the dramatic territories accords with many of the approaches we use when teaching, hence reflection on his methods and vision may enhance our own teaching practice. What is important here is that however we interpret this vision, that we do not just emulate Lecoq or any of the performers of that tradition. For Lecoq, it is not useful to distinguish between good and bad, but to identify what is accurate and true. This may be an artistic expression, an emotion or some other aesthetic element, for this truth and authenticity is what an audience can sense and what they find interesting. We need to discover for ourselves how we would embody the ideas which  Lecoq propounds. Authenticity is everything.

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Five Dramatic Territories Lecoq discusses what he calls the five ‘dramatic territories’: (1) Melodrama, (2) Commedia dell’arte, (3) Bouffons, (4) Tragedy and (5) Clowns. In the context of this book, the Commedia dell’arte, Bouffons and Clowns will be of particular interest, but it is worth considering and reflecting upon each of these from the point of view of the teacher, thinking about how and when they might be applied and how they align with individual teaching personae. Firstly, we will explore the non-clown territories of Tragedy and Melodrama and highlight themes common to the educational endeavour. The clown-like territories of Commedia dell’arte, Bouffon and Clown are dealt with in greater detail as within the context of this book, they have greater relevance for the teaching community. Tragedy For Lecoq, Tragedy is the greatest dramatic territory. This form is highly scripted and eschews improvisation. However, in his training for tragedy, Lecoq encourages improvisation in forms which produce an understanding of the theatrical place of Chorus and Hero, or crowd and orator, learning to understand the ebb and flow of energy between the performer and public. In the theatrical sense, the chorus is a part of the production, a crowd speaking with one voice. On leaving behind the improvisation, Lecoq encourages his students to use highly scripted monologues, working on the delivery of that speech in ways which produce an emotional resonance between the text, the orator and the chorus. This involves a complex consideration of how an audience (the chorus) react to the orator, it is not just a case of faking a reaction, the chorus response must be attuned to the oration. Thus, the text and its delivery are essential components of tragedy. This form focuses on communication and connection between the components of the stage. The dramatic territory of the tragedy has a strong heritage within Greek ritual and society, serving a purpose of catharsis or ‘emotional cleansing’ for the audience. Whilst there is no doubt scope to further explore the contribution which the study of Greek tragedy might make to teaching practice, such analysis would be better explored through the rich literature on the theatrical tradition. For a more in-depth study, see the texts of Hudson (2018a, 2018b). There are however some indications and thoughts which a teacher might assimilate from Lecoq’s treatment of

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tragedy. In the first place, as we have seen with clowns in all cultures, tragic drama in ancient Greece was a public spectacle which was intended to promote an audience reflection on its own social values, challenging and questioning contemporary mores. There is space for this within a teacher’s pedagogic practice. Furthermore, one might consider the role of the chorus, as occupying a liminal position, serving to some degree as a substitute for the audience, but also as a commentator and guide for the audience. For the authenticity of performance of tragedy, as Lecoq describes it, it is important to consider how the chorus might legitimately and authentically respond to the actions of the hero. In a tightly scripted Tragedy, the performance of the hero needs to be carefully coordinated with the response of the chorus. Herein lies the lesson for the teacher. When teaching in strongly instructionist manner, it is worth viewing one’s lecture as a monologue, but not one as a piece in pure isolation. It is worth seeing the lecture as something crafted in harmony with the response of a chorus. In this case the chorus is no longer a substitute for the audience, but the audience itself. So, whilst it is not possible to script the audience response, it is worth considering, as a tragedian, authentic, emotional or verbal responses to one’s performance and to tightly script a lecture with close attention to the responses one wishes to evoke. Lecoq continues to discuss the composition and arrangement of the chorus, including methods of balancing, size and dynamics. Whilst this carries some messages for the teaching environment, such as complexity, size, variability and autonomy, such nuanced arrangements lie beyond the realm of what teacher may realistically control to be able to benefit from Lecoq’s methods. Lecoq’s other dramatic territories have more to offer the teacher. Melodrama In melodrama, one is speaking from a position of conviction and sincerity. Speaking from the heart in terms of one’s beliefs, values and grand emotions, this of course leaves one open to either convincing fellow adherents or believers or alienating oneself and leaving oneself open to ridicule and mockery. Lecoq believed there were two key aspects to the performance of melodramatic scenes, one was the subtlety of the actor, which is essential to the rhythm of the performance, it is what creates the audience reactions which the actor wants to achieve, keeping them engaged and

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interested. The second is the actors’ belief in their own performances. There is a requirement for performers to believe completely in their performance so that the audience would share in that belief. The performance needed to be genuine, avoiding over-acting or cliché, compelling the audience to believe in it. This leaves no scope for self-doubt or equivocation; actors are required to own that emotion. Melodrama is not the art of overplaying or exaggeration, Lecoq sees it as a method of “discovering and throwing light on very specific aspects of human nature” (Lecoq, 2020, p. 114). Whilst melodrama is not one of the clowning forms discussed here, it is worth consideration in terms of how it is described by Lecoq and what teachers might take from his vision. Viewing this as a teacher, we can identify occasions where we teach subjects about which we are passionate. Carbonneau et  al. (2008) identify a widely held view that ‘passionate teachers have a positive impact’ on their students. Indeed, research shows that passion for their subject drives effective teaching, across a range of subjects (Craft et al., 2014). Through teaching with passion, ‘innovative-­ type’ teachers are able to ignite a passion in their students. Craft, Hall and Costello (ibid.), in discussing teaching at university, identify that creative teaching was not a trait of the teacher as such, but the interaction between teacher and students. Effective communication played a more central role than creative methods of delivery. Thus, the skill of communicating one’s passion to one’s students is an area where teachers can learn from the theatrical traditions. When watching effective performance of melodrama, one becomes convinced of the emotions of the actor and does not question their ‘true’ feelings. Newton (2013) discusses how mood and emotion have an effect on thinking, that students are not ‘emotionless thinkers’. The art of the performer and of the teacher lies in convincing the audience of the authenticity of their emotions, drawing them in to engage with their ideas and beliefs. For Lecoq’s students and for teachers, the two components of melodrama, the rhythm of the performance and belief in one’s own performance are important factors. The rhythm of delivery in the classroom both drives and is driven by the learners’ reactions, in a constant dialogue, this feedback loop maintains the interest and engagement. The belief in one’s own performance provides the authenticity which the audience demands. Learners and audiences are very sensitive to the emotions of the teacher or performer. Whether it is some conceptual, theoretical or

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technical point or some theatrical illusion, the audience will be more likely to believe it and understand it if they think the performer believes it too. This belief in the authenticity of the actor plays an essential role in the performances of Lecoq’s clown-type territories of Commedia dell’arte, Bouffon and Clown that we now examine in greater detail. Commedia dell’arte Where melodrama is seen as human nature, Lecoq refers to the Commedia dell’arte as human comedy. Through the Commedia dell’arte, as Lecoq sees it, the roguish and arch side of human nature is explored. Here lies greed, cunning, trickery and fear, ultimately ending in failure and tragedy. Characters are often caught out by their own cunning, tangled up in their own plots and intrigues. The nature of the Commedia dell’arte is that much of it appears improvised. Using stock characters with fixed and easily recognisable traits and some simple scenarios, the actors make their way through the narrative, each according to their designated character, but with no script or guide, beyond knowing the point from which they start and the outline of the plot that they wish to portray. All else is improvised. Commedia dell’arte is typically a fast-moving theatrical form, moving from sadness to joy in a beat. This opens up the space for play and playfulness, for between each marker and key point in the scenario there is scope for anything to happen. The improvisation is that which happens between the essential points which must be touched upon. As Lecoq sees it, whilst the flow of the scenario is linear, the turbulence that occurs within that flow can be great, at times breaking free of conventional boundaries. The performance of Commedia dell’arte is one of extremes. Behaviours and mannerisms are taken to their extremes, ad absurdum. Some characters will be played down and understate events or issues, whilst others will exaggerate and overstate the same. This conflict and contrast give rise to the humour and absurdity of situations. Of course, within this, the talent of the actor is in the development of the narrative or the delivery of the outcomes, sometimes in unravelling the absurdity, developing from the conventional to the extreme, although Lecoq warns against “unnecessarily exaggerated” performances, to compensate for a lack of skill. For teachers and for actors, no amount of shouting will make up for a lack of talent. The intriguing point which Lecoq raises is that whilst the Commedia dell’arte is associated with improvisation, this was not the nature of the

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performances. Commedia dell’arte performances were passed down through generations of performers in a very structured manner. Performers would have a repertoire of routines and contexts from which they would select in their performances, a toolkit of short routines which could be mixed and matched as needed. Performers did not need to invent something new each time; instead, they had a range of routines that they could deliver as the situation required; thus no two performances need be the same, but each could be honed according to the mood of the performer and the audience. There is much a teacher can adapt from the Commedia dell’arte for their own practice. In the first place, the idea of the performance with nothing more than an outline scenario with some way markers to navigate a route through the narrative brings to mind Dylan Wiliam’s (e.g. 2010) analogy for formative assessment, that of a pilot setting off on a journey, with only the fixed points of the departure and the destination. For Wiliam, formative assessment is in the taking of readings along the way and adjusting accordingly, rather than plotting an optimal route and hoping for the best. For both teacher and Commedia dell’arte performer, all they can be sure of is where they start from and where they want to finish. For the Commedia dell’arte performer, this is their character and the scenario. For the teacher, the starting point is the prior knowledge and learning of the student and the destination is the learning outcome. Neither the actor nor the teacher is expected to improvise from scratch. The teacher and the actor both operate within their range of aptitude, selecting and adapting from a repertoire of teaching strategies, activities or even scripts, as the situation demands. This need not be flawless, but seamless. The teacher needs to constantly assess the mood and learning of the students and make adjustments accordingly. As with the Commedia dell’arte, this may give the impression of improvisation, when in fact the teacher is constantly assessing the knowledge, understanding and engagement of their students and selecting from a range of rehearsed ‘microteaching’ knitted together into the tapestry of a lesson. In this way no two lessons are the same as each is newly created from the raw ingredients each time, and as with the Commedia dell’arte actor or stand-up comic, new material can be interspersed within a well-practiced routine, there is scope for improvisation and innovation within this format with the introduction and testing of new material or modes of delivery within a wider body of successful teaching activities.

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The performance of Commedia dell’arte also contains lessons in terms of the forms of argumentation and performance. Nott and Smith (1995) demonstrate that many teachers resist being shown to be wrong, using a variety of strategies to avoid been seen to be wrong in front of the class, few take advantage of being wrong and use that as a learning experience for their students. What the Commedia dell’arte demonstrates is there is scope for being spectacularly wrong, either by design or by accident. Whilst many teachers fear making a mistake or being shown to be wrong in front the class, McMillan and Moore (2020) remind us sometimes being wrong is beneficial, in fact essential, for students’ learning and motivation. The argumentation of sophistry is built upon the premise of ‘being wrong’. Whilst in modern times, the term ‘Sophist’ has come to have negative connotations, associated with dishonesty, deception and dissimulation; the Sophists of 5 BCE Greece were in fact teachers or educators of philosophy, rhetoric and successful living. One of the principles of Sophists was that a good rhetorician could argue from any perspective. Thus, the ability to argue from a contradictory point of view was seen to be of value. In the educational context, this allows students to develop their knowledge and understanding through argument against a well-defended but ‘incorrect’ or contradictory perspective. This is a particularly useful skill as a foundation of reasoned argumentation and forms the basis of the dialectic of thesis—antithesis—synthesis. The characters of the Commedia dell’arte allow the teacher to practice forms of such argumentation, overcoming the ego-defence mechanisms which resist being seen to be wrong. The Commedia dell’arte teaches how we might argue with greed, cunning, trickery or some other nefarious perspective, echoing the contraries of the Heyoka. Inevitably, as with the characters of the Commedia dell’arte this must end in failure, after extending the arguments to a breaking point, the more desperate, absurd and spectacular, the better. Both as a form of pedagogy and as a lesson in rhetoric, in the right environment, there is scope for the exploration of contentious ideas through the forms of the Commedia dell’arte, allowing both teacher and student to engage with arguments from a range of perspectives. The Commedia dell’arte shows us how this is built up from an entirely reasonable premise to logical extremes, through following the traits of the character. Whilst the Commedia dell’arte characters are doomed to failure, they set about their endeavours in earnest, attempting to convince others of their sincerity. This lies in sharp contrast to the apparently frivolous disregard the Bouffon shows for the ideas and aspirations of those around them.

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Bouffon The approach of the Bouffon is to make fun of everything, to treat all things with mockery and disdain, nothing is felt, nothing is said with conviction, only treated with scorn and disparagement. As Lecoq has it, Bouffons are “people who believe in nothing and make fun of everything” (p. 124). Mockery takes two forms; the first is purely mimicry and parody, either of voice or of mannerisms. This is a gentle more friendly form of Bouffon mockery. The second is one in which a person’s beliefs and convictions are mocked, this is a more severe form. It goes beyond mockery of what a person does, to mockery of what a person is. In Lecoq’s experience this form proved quite problematic when practiced between peers, turning nasty and difficult. To surmount this, Lecoq required the Bouffon to wear costumes, grotesque, exaggerated forms which ‘masked’ the offender. The Bouffons then became freer and more expressive in their mockery and the objects of their mockery were less resistant to the mockery, less tension and antagonism were generated. The form of the mask, as an identity, echoing the characters and masks of the Commedia dell’arte, gave the Bouffon licence to speak truth, say the unsayable and cross boundaries which would not be possible in their own identities. Much in the way of the medieval royal fool, the Bouffon creates the space for reflection and because this character mocks and ridicules everything, this depersonalises the experience for the individual being mocked allowing them to join in the fun and respond in equally robust ways. The Bouffon is not making fun of any one individual, but of society as a whole, of everything. Thus, the mockery is not personal. The person of the Bouffon is one who is enjoying themselves, having fun at the expense of everyone and everything, all those aspects of human life which invite inspection and reflection. Lecoq sees that the Bouffon deals with absurdities in human relationships and hierarchies, subverting and inverting these conventions. As with Bakhtin’s carnivalesque and the Christian fool festivals of the medieval period, the act of the Bouffon places those in positions of power low and elevates those at the lower levels. Lecoq’s study of the Bouffon revealed a large assortment of Bouffons, covering a wide range of types or ‘states’ and in some cases being dependent on culture or heritage of the actor. To address this, he starts with the basic, asking his students to draw their own visions of Bouffon, then to create their own costume. From this they explore their own identities as Bouffon, through improvisation and workshops, the identities are focused on the key characteristics of play,

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subversion and ‘organised madness’. This reduction to first principles is important; it allows the performer to begin with their own conception of the Bouffon and creates the space to develop it in a way which accords with their own character. It resonates other performers’ philosophies in terms of one ‘discovering their inner clown’ and with the vocational perspective of building teacher identity. The Bouffon is the archetype which has the greatest precedence for education, both in terms of the academic endeavour and for civic and social purposes. As noted in an earlier chapter, many of the leading academic institutions in Medieval Europe had a role for a Bouffon in Mr Tripos or similar characters, to counter academic pomposity or to challenge accepted wisdom and common assumptions. We have also seen the court and tribal jesters across cultures and across history and theatre, playing the roles of speaking truth to power and challenging, where others could not, the authority of leaders, kings and on occasion, society as a whole. In this role, counter to first impressions, the Bouffon is often acting in a role calling for moderation and temperance. Through contrary behaviour, the teacher as Bouffon is able to challenge and ridicule all ideas, regardless of provenance, calling on their proponents to defend and develop them. Similar to those following the lessons from of the Commedia dell’arte, arguing from any perspective, the Bouffon teacher takes the stand of ridiculing any position. This approach can be aligned with Malcolm Swan’s (2005) influential advice on effective questioning, allowing higher level, open questions to be asked. Such questions allow reflective thinking, application of learning, synthesis of ideas, explanation and invite a range of responses. However, mockery should not be indiscriminate and without purpose. The Bouffon or jester or any other clown form, acts to regulate communities and ideas, tempering the most extreme or reckless. This is enacted either through satire and ridicule, for example with Mr Tripos, highlighting the shortcomings or flaws in argument, or through mimicry and parody, as with the Koreduga of West Africa, serving to act as an example of what may result if such behaviour is left unconstrained. The teacher adopting the character of Bouffon has the scope to create a classroom environment where both teachers and pupils have the opportunity and licence to become Bouffons. Creating such an environment, through modelling, allows students to be able to adopt the role, challenging authority, hegemony and accepted wisdom without fear of censure. The Bouffon, through their licence to say what is not usually said, encourages the discussion of what is not usually discussed and perhaps the thinking of

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things not usually thought. However, it is important to remember that the role of the Bouffon has rarely been to offer their own opinion, but instead to respond to dominance of authority. It is not for a Bouffon to use their role to suggest their own outrageous or extreme ideas, this is not a vehicle for peddling unsavoury, controversial or socially dubious beliefs. The Bouffon is a response to such ideas, as with each incarnation across cultures, through their actions in parody and satire, they subvert and invert ideas, holding a mirror up to society for reflection, in both the modern senses of the word. The Bouffon invokes both ‘reflection of’ and ‘reflection upon’ and it is through this that the role of the Bouffon teacher is revealed. Taking the role of Bouffon requires the teacher to some degree to play the part of antagonist, this comes more naturally to some than to others. This does not mean that it should be avoided. However, it may be less comfortable than Lecoq’s clown, which only asks that people become their true, authentic selves, which on first impressions seems relatively easy. It is not. Clown The clown is perhaps best characterised by absurdity. In exploring the clown Lecoq saw that when his students acted as clowns, they failed. However, when they dropped the artifice and revealed their true selves, with all their failings and shortcomings and allowed that side of themselves to have freedom of expression, only then did their true clown emerge. This for Lecoq was the discovery of the inner clown. This was a marked change in the conception of clown identities. Lecoq saw the clown as an internal identity to be uncovered rather than an external one to be discovered. For Lecoq, the performer needs to stop playing a character, to stop behaving as they think a clown behaves, drop their defences and allow the weaknesses and failings of the character to emerge. Only when this authentic clown emerges do we achieve something that will connect with the audience and maybe make them laugh. From the first moment the clown meets their audience, they connect as a clown. Lecoq is very clear, one does not play at being a clown, one is a clown. This reinforces the point made in the previous chapter, where many of those characters seen as ‘bad clowns’ were not in fact clowns, merely pretending to be one. One aspect which distinguishes the clown from the other theatrical domains is the extent to which the clown is a part of the audience. The clown’s level of engagement is not of one performing on a stage but one amongst the

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people, playing with them, not for them. We saw this with Shakespeare’s Touchstone and Feste, both of whom communicated directly with the audience and joined them in observing the play. As such the clown must maintain a close contact with the audience, feel the ebb and flow and shape their actions according to the reaction of the audience. Lecoq, in contrast to his teaching of the other dramatic territories asks his clown students to reflect upon themselves, to let their authentic selves emerge and to observe the effect that his person has on the audience. Clown behaviour follows two forms, the burlesque and the absurd. In the burlesque, serious endeavour is parodied or caricatured, through exaggeration or extreme behaviour, the result is that the serious is made to appear ridiculous. The absurd relies upon misunderstanding and misinterpretation, it is a reciprocated construction. For each of the parties involved in the absurdity, their own actions make complete sense, it is the other who is being absurd, because each knows something which the other does not and each sees the world from a different perspective. The challenge lies in trying to encourage the other to see the world in the same way. This idea is central to the transformational power of teaching and learning and we shall revisit it later in this book. For a clown-teacher, burlesque and parody of accepted wisdom and ‘common sense’ can be used to challenge students and allow teachers to uncover or deconstruct perceptions and understandings which shape beliefs and actions amongst their students, and indeed within themselves. The use of exaggeration and extremes are useful tools in analysis and problem-­solving. For example, mathematically, in terms of the consideration of the limits of a function at zero or infinity, or socially in the consideration of policy in terms of the individual or the entire population, or philosophically in the consideration of Kant’s categorical imperative to “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law”. The humour of absurdity is built upon a miscommunication of ideas, that two (or more) people will approach the same situation with very different understanding of what is being presented. Absurdism creates the space for strongly differing views to be explored and compared, in a dialogical style that allows the source of misunderstanding or difference in world view to be identified and explored. It creates the opportunity for teachers and students to explore, as peers, conflicting views which may either be their own or be an assumed position for the purpose of debate. Absurdity allows participants to reflect upon their own positions and view

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their own beliefs and practices anew. Misunderstandings and misconceptions play an important diagnostic role part in teaching. Teachers adopting common misconceptions within exposition, encouraging exposure or discovery by their students, allow particular misconceptions to be unravelled and explored (Swan & Burkhardt, 2012). Central to Lecoq’s view of the clown and central to the role of teacher is connection. Connection between the clown and the audience or the teacher and the student. In educational terms, this connection between performer and audience may be termed as ‘feedback’. There is extensive literature on the efficacy of feedback, the consistent view is that it is one of the most powerful educational strategies (EEF, 2022; Hattie, 2008). In their Clown Manifesto with Nalle Laanela, Stacey Sacks refers to this as “a constant pulsation between clown and audience” (Laanela & Sacks, 2015, p. V). For the teacher, as with Lecoq’s clowns, this is achieved through authenticity and the breaking of the hierarchy between teacher and student. To achieve authenticity as a teacher, one can look to the many clowns who discuss their clown identity as a case of ‘discovering their inner clown’. Lecoq’s Bouffon is required to build their own conception of Bouffon. For clowning his students are expected to drop all artifice and allow their clown to emerge. As each aspiring clown must discover their own clown identity, each teacher must discover their own teacher identity. This requires casting aside attempts to ‘act’ like a teacher, emulating teachers from our own childhood or training. The clown Laanela talks of his own training, with a ‘small Italian clown teacher’ and how this resulted in him, a ‘large white male’, spending years trying to emulate a small ‘Italian, female clown’. Lecoq advocates the stripping away of artifice and the recognition of the self, along with strengths and weaknesses. This approach also allows the teacher to emerge and by embracing and celebrating our shortcomings, being unafraid of appearing foolish, we leave the space for clown and teacher identities to emerge, develop and grow. The clown as a performer, quite unlike most other performers is known for getting in amongst the audience, but as Lecoq shows us, this is because he is a part of the audience. Increasingly as the nature of the classroom environment changes, with the ubiquity of technology and the associated access to information and expertise, traditional ideas of the teacher as a ‘font of knowledge’ or ‘sage on the stage’ are under revision. Critical thinking, problem-solving and information literacy have become valuable commodities in helping young people to navigate the social and professional environment in which they will find themselves. The teacher’s role

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and identity within this needs to adapt to keep up to date with the new learning environment. With ‘fake news’, distrust of expertise and increased awareness of emancipatory politics, pedagogy with related contentious issues and ‘troublesome knowledge’, new sets of skills and knowledge will become valuable in negotiating the social, professional and educational environment in which both teachers and pupils find themselves. The authority of teacher knowledge cannot be supported in all contexts as they find themselves in the position of learning alongside their students. At these times the teacher needs to learn to take their lead from the clown, relinquish their position on the stage and place themselves in the crowd, as one of them. It should not be the artificial and temporary renunciation we see in the carnivalesque, the inversion of religious rituals or the bounded licence offered to the academic jesters of history or even instances where teachers pretend to let pupils lead learning. Such control is taken back at the bidding of the authority figure and all those involved in the artifice understand this. For learners to truly be in control of their own learning, this renunciation of power needs to be complete and authentic.

Summary Lecoq’s dramatic territories represent a small part of Jacques Lecoq’s teachings on theatre and physical movement, which have gone on to influence many fields beyond theatre. This analysis has tried to capture the essence of his teachings across these territories and examine what they mean for the teacher. There is a little in each of the territories to help the teacher in consideration of their teaching performance. Tragedy and Melodrama speak to a more structured form of teaching, perhaps more often used in teaching exposition and lecturing with larger groups, where there is less interaction between teacher and learners. Nevertheless, Lecoq’s view on these forms allow that even in the delivery of such material, there is scope for careful consideration and planning to achieve the desired audience response. Such teaching is not just a case of delivery of content without attention to the affective and emotional response of learners to the delivery as well as the content. The two cannot be separated, each influences the other and the level of engagement and learning that takes place. The ‘clown’ territories, and here ‘clown’ is used in its broadest sense as it is throughout this book, including Lecoq’s Clown as well as his Commedia dell’arte and his Bouffon, offer a great deal for the interactive

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teacher. Across all three, we have seen that one of the key aspects of being a clown-teacher is in creating the space for clown learners. Environments in which they can explore, experiment and improvise, develop problem-­ solving and metacognitive skills which have been shown to produce solid educational gains (Quigley et al., 2018; Higgins et al., 2022). Improvisation plays an important role in creating this teaching environment and allows the flexibility required in assessing and adapting to the progress of the class and in reflecting ‘in action’ too. Importantly, we see that improvisation is far more than ‘making things up’; it requires an immersion and expertise in the discipline, be it clowning or teaching, to allow the rapid recall, adaptation and implementation of ‘set pieces’ which are known to be effective. Much of the improvisation lies in the creation of something new, through the combination of existing material. However, as we have seen, there is also the need to extend this into creation of new material ‘on the spot’ and take chances and risk failure. It is in failing and the reaction to that failing that connections are built between clown and audience and teachers and learners. As challenging as it is, it appears to be an important part of being in open classroom environments, which encourage the positive learner attributes of risk-taking and exploration are to be fostered. Jacques Lecoq has been a central character in the formation of the modern clown. The result of the popularity of Lecoq and his school of thought was a split in the traditions of clowning, not necessarily detectable to the lay person but often expressed in the philosophies and influences on the performances of modern clowns. His teaching on theatre and movement and clowning has directly or indirectly influenced many of the clowns we shall visit in the next chapter. Although, unsurprisingly, as we shall see, there are spaces of convergence between the traditions, with resonances and echoes between the narratives of the clowns of each tradition.

References Carbonneau, N., Vallerand, R. J., Fernet, C., & Guay, F. (2008). The role of passion for teaching in intrapersonal. Craft, A., Hall, E., & Costello, R. (2014). Passion: Engine of creative teaching in an English university? Thinking Skills and Creativity, 13, 91–105. Davison, J. (2013). Clown: Readings in theatre practice. EEF. (2022). Retrieved January 1, 2023, from https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-­evidence/teaching-­learning-­toolkit/feedback)

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Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge. Higgins, S., Martell, T., Waugh, D., Henderson, P., & Sharples, J. (2022). Improving mathematics in key stages 2 and 3: Guidance report. The Sutton Trust-Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning Toolkit. Hudson, M. (2018a). Centaurs, rioting in Thessaly: Memory and the classical world. Punctum. Hudson, M. (2018b). Critical theory and the classical world. Routledge. Laanela, P. N., & Sacks, S. (2015). The clown manifesto. Bloomsbury Publishing. Lecoq, J. (2020). The moving body (Le Corps Poétique): Teaching creative theatre. Methuen Drama. Little, W. K. (1986). Pitu’s doubt: Entree clown self-fashioning in the circus tradition. The Drama Review: TDR, 30(4), 51–64. McMillan, J. H., & Moore, S. (2020). Better being wrong (sometimes): classroom assessment that enhances student learning and motivation. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 93(2), 85–92. Newton, D. P. (2013). Moods, emotions and creative thinking: A framework for teaching. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, 34–44. Nott, M., & Smith, R. (1995). ‘Talking your way out of it’, ‘rigging’ and ‘conjuring’: What science teachers do when practicals go wrong. International Journal of Science Education, 17(3), 399–410. Quigley, A., Muijs, D., & Stringer, E. (2018). Metacognition and self-regulated learning: Guidance report. The Sutton Trust-Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning Toolkit. Rohdie, S. (2019). Fellini lexicon. Bloomsbury Publishing. Swan, M. (2005). Standards unit-improving learning in mathematics: Challenges and strategies. Nottingham University. Swan, M., & Burkhardt, H. (2012). A designer speaks. Educational Designer, 2(5). Retrieved January 1, 2023, from http://www.educationaldesigner.org/ ed/volume2/issue5/article19/ Wiliam, D. (2010). The role of formative assessment in effective learning environments. In The nature of learning: Using research to inspire practice (pp. 135–155).

CHAPTER 6

Improvisation, Risk and Failure, Connection through Reflection: Perspectives Through Narratives of Modern Masters

Introduction This chapter draws together the thoughts and ideas of some of the clowns featured in LeBank and Bridel’s book, Clowns—In Conversation with Modern Masters (LeBank & Bridel, 2015), in which leading clowns of the current time are interviewed about their origins, inspirations, techniques and philosophies. The Masters featured in this chapter are Aziz Gual, Micha Usov, Avner Eisenberg, Slava Polunin, Nola Rae, Larry and Lorenzo Pisoni, Rene Bazinet and Barry Lubin, though many others have informed the wider thinking of this chapter. Prominent amongst the narratives of these clowns are themes of the ‘arts’ of Improvisation, Risk and Failure and Connection through Reflection, echoing some of those highlighted in the previous chapter, about Lecoq’s territories. This is perhaps unsurprising as many of these clowns were trained either by Lecoq or by one of his followers. These arts are not discrete and unconnected; each feeds the other and is dependent on the other. Often it is through failure that clowns build a connection with their audience and failure is often a result of improvisation and acting in the moment and allows the audience to see themselves reflected in the endeavour and its failure. This chapter places those themes within their educational contexts, building support for their application in contemporary classrooms in terms of current

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educational research, then explores the thoughts of these Modern Masters to gain insights and new perspectives on what they offer to the teaching profession in these areas.

Improvisation Modern classrooms are complex environments, driven by learning goals, curriculum targets and outcome measures. However, teachers are required to find a balance between the structures and guidelines of professional practice, standardisation and accountability and the constructivist, open approaches which accommodate creativity and spontaneity (Sawyer, 2011). In such environments, it might appear that there is little scope or place for extemporisation or improvisation. Beghetto and Kaufman (2011) highlight a paradox in teaching, particularly amongst novice teachers, that whilst many teachers wish to foster creativity and creative thinking in their students, they harbour fears about the chaos and disruption which will impact upon the classroom and the curriculum if they introduce such creativity and freedom into their own practices. Beghetto and Kaufman (ibid.) call upon the principles of ‘disciplined improvisation’ to create the spaces for improvisational activities within the structures and constraints of the contemporary classroom and identify the source of the paradox as the gap between the ‘curriculum as planned’ and the ‘curriculum as lived’. There is an argument to be made that improvisation is in fact an important professional skill for teachers, which should be developed within initial teacher education and professional development (Eisner, 2006; Aadland et al., 2017) and there is evidence that such improvisational skills amongst teachers, within wider pedagogical structures can lead to improved outcomes amongst learners. Robert Yinger (1986) opens his paper on interactive teaching by stating that “Good teachers think on their feet”. He sees this ‘truth’ as widely accepted, claiming that few educators or researchers would deny it. Admittedly, this research from the 1980s was largely theoretical and general in its scope and may reflect a more liberal period of education with fewer constraints of curriculum, policy, legislation and targets. However, it was further developed by Borko and Livingston (1989) looking more specifically at mathematics educators and identifying differences in thoughts and actions between ‘novice’ and ‘expert’ teachers. In this they adopted two structures for analysis, one of these viewed teaching as a ’complex cognitive skill, including Pedagogical Reasoning and Pedagogical

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Content Knowledge (Shulman, 1987) and Schema, that is networks which connect and summarise information (Anderson, 1984). The second analytical structure suggested by Borko and Livingston (1989) as a parallel for analysis suggests teaching is viewed as improvisational performance. They observe that improvisational actors approach a scene with some broad outlines of context and guidelines for their role and call upon a wide repertoire of skills and routines to fill out that performance, all the while responding to audience feedback. This description of teaching activities echoes clowning performances such as the Commedia dell’arte, described in Chap. 3 and those of many clowning masters for whom the art of improvisation plays a central role in their performance, for example Aziz Gual ‘living in the moment’, allowing their spontaneous self to emerge when the opportunity arises. Some clowns follow a much more structured approach such as Micha Usov or Avner Eisenberg, who take a very ascetic approach to clowning, focusing strongly on performance, for example for Usov in achievement of the state of ‘clownhood’, and for Eisenberg in placing trust in the audience “I’ve got enough problems out there without people laughing at me!”. These clowns place the response of the audience outside of their locus of control and recognise that the audience response is unpredictable and dependent upon a number of random factors. Nevertheless, they recognise that they are in a position to influence those factors within their performance, through for example, action, timing or character development and it is in the improvisation and adaptation within these constraints that the potential for risk and failure and triumph and excellence emerge. In the current context, in both teaching and clowning, a working definition of improvisation as the ability to “pull out something there and then” (Aadland et al., 2017) will be adopted, with scope for nuance and refinement at a later stage. Improvisation is not characterised by ‘making it up as you go along’. It is more closely aligned with the ‘adaptive expertise’ described by Hatano and Inagaki (1984), developed by Siklander and Impiö (2019) and conceptualised as the understanding of skills and their application in unfamiliar or novel situations. The work of Borko and Livingston (1989) provides a starting point for looking at the similarities between improvisational performances such as those of the Commedia dell’arte or of clowns, with a pedagogical perspective of teaching as a complex cognitive skill, encompassing a range of pedagogical tools. Borko and Livingstone’s findings were that, on the whole, expert teachers have more elaborate, more complex, more connected and

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more accessible schema than novices, such that they have a greater resource of experience, principles and strategies to call upon as and when required. Similarly, the Clown Masters who Bridel and LeBank spoke to, described their ‘apprenticeships’ of clowning, spent immersed in a rich diversity of clowning traditions and practices from which they learned their craft. This afforded them their adaptive expertise. Their improvisation comes from a repertoire of knowledge, skills and techniques, born of deep understanding and experience or ‘domain knowledge’ recombined in a rich variety of ways to create something novel in the moment, within the structure of a planned performance. This experience accords with Yinger’s (1986) view of interactive teaching activities, which begin only with an outline activity, and filling in the details as the class develops according to the knowledge, understanding and learning of the students as they progress. However, both clowns and teachers extend their improvisation beyond a formulaic or ‘safe’ toolkit. The nature of developing new material, routines and techniques requires some free improvisation. As Aadland et al. (2017) remind us, improvisation is crucial to the formation of new ideas and experiences. In this sense improvisation is the immediate and spontaneous response to whatever situation arises, aligned with the goals of either teacher or clown. These moments, Schön (2001) describes as Reflection in Action, in which the spontaneous initiation of an action produces an unexpected outcome and each action influences the design of the next, thus creating “an error to be corrected, an anomaly to be made sense of, an opportunity to be exploited”. Schön compares this pedagogical framing of reflection in action to ‘good jazz musicians’ who improvise, displaying a ‘feel’ for the music, feeling where the music is going and adjusting accordingly. This accords with Black and Wiliam’s (2009) view of formative assessment as being “concerned with the creation of, and capitalisation upon, ‘moments of contingency’”, which include real-time adjustments made during teaching, informed by evidence collected about students’ achievement. This form of evidence collection in its broad sense would include responding to the informal, implicit response of the learners or, in the case of the performer, the audience. Wiliam (2008) compares this process to a pilot guiding an aeroplane to its destination, all the while making adjustments for flight conditions. This form of familiarity and expertise is presented by Schön (2001) as reflection, not only in the sense of thinking about actions, but also in the sense of turning thoughts back within the process in action.

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In both the macro of their development as a clown and the micro of actions in their performance, the apparent spontaneous, unfettered character of the clown is in fact shaped by experience and expertise (Anthony et al., 2015; Männikkö & Husu, 2019) and operates within the constraints of their character, the role they play within the scenario they have created and the traditions of clowning. Teachers and clowns develop a repertoire of tools, patterns and routines which they are able to call upon in those spaces which occur between the “curriculum as planned” and “curriculum as lived” (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2011). The performers of the Commedia dell’arte call upon tried and tested ‘mini-scenes’ which have proven successful in the past, or as Borko and Livingston (1989) suggest “Such a performer draws upon an extensive repertoire of routines or patterns of action while playing out a scene, incorporating them into a performance that is continually responsive to the audience and to new situations or events”. These moments of improvisational spontaneity, for both teacher and clown, are where they extend beyond the familiar into the space of the unknown and in so doing place themselves at a risk of failure. However, Gert Biesta (2015) makes the case that the weakness of education is precisely that risk is being taken out of it, that structures of accountability and policy, such as inspectorates, the press and the public, create a drive to make education predictable and risk-free. Biesta argues that education should always involve risk. It is an interaction between human beings and by being overly prescriptive and attempting to remove risk, there is the possibility that education is removed altogether. For teachers, risk has become something to be avoided or minimised. Education is increasingly constructed as a mechanistic operation with clear goals and outcomes (Nørgård et  al., 2017). Deviation from pedagogies which support and reinforce this creates risk of failure to meet specified outcomes. However, there is recognition that they also create the opportunity for wider educational experiences (Whitton, 2018). For clowns, failure is an important part of their performance; from this, inspiration and genius can emerge and through this, their connection to the audience is built.

Risk and Failure Educators will often tell their students that there are no stupid questions. However, little is done within the learning environment to encourage or reflect this attitude. In the current educational culture, such emphasis is placed upon success and achievement that being wrong can be seen as a

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source of embarrassment, especially in a public arena. In fact, the follow up to there being ‘no stupid questions’ is often that there are only ‘stupid answers’. Such attitudes, either implicit or explicit, have a tendency to restrict the creative or exploratory efforts of certain students. Dweck (2006) tells us that some students, particularly those of a ‘fixed-mindset’ struggle with being wrong or making mistakes. However, those of a growth mindset tend to face those same challenges by thinking about how they might overcome them and how they might use those opportunities to stretch or develop themselves. Fortunately, Dweck tells us that it is possible to change one’s mindset. Nalle Laanela tells us “The essence of clown is not ‘stupidity’” (Laanela & Sacks, 2015, p. 19) he also nuances this by saying “It’s not about acting stupid, it’s about daring to be perceived as stupid” (Laanela & Sacks, 2015, p. 15). In this context, he presents stupidity in the form of naivety, an innocence and openness to understanding the world around you. As a young child’s misunderstanding is not due to stupidity but naivety, which may make us laugh but also on occasion may be insightful. Both these viewpoints, from quite different perspectives, reveal that taking a risk and being wrong can produce its own rewards. It is widely understood that it is acceptable to be wrong, with aphorisms about learning from mistakes or being able to admit to being wrong. The accepted wisdom is that making mistakes or being wrong is a formative process, one from which one has opportunities to build character, learn something new or learn humility, but also that it plays an important role in the learning process, both in the development of effective mental models (Jones & Endsley, 2000), as well as an understanding of what doesn’t work (Oser & Spychiger, 2005). In schools, there is the common mantra of not being afraid to make mistakes and that the effort is the important thing. For example, “It is better to try and fail than to not try at all”. Macmillan and Moore (2020), in their review of research in domains of neurology, mindsets and self-regulation, make the case that being wrong is an essential part of enhancing student learning and motivation and plays an important role in the development of a number of positive learning dispositions. However, whilst there is much research about the benefits of learner error, including the case for diagnostics (Swan & Burkhardt, 2012; Boaler, 2015), there is less about teachers making mistakes. It appears that whilst educators try to encourage risk-taking and exploration amongst their students, they tend to be less keen on doing the

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same themselves, in some cases finding this a challenge to their ego or self-­ esteem (Santagata, 2005). More than this, it appears that despite explicit statements which encourage ‘mistake-friendly’ environments, in the UK at least, the implicit message is still that they should be avoided (Ingram et al., 2014) and as Lake (2017) claims, one of the more accurate ways to gauge how a teacher views errors is not what they say about errors, or even how they treat erroneous responses, but rather how they respond to being shown that they themselves have made an error. Hatfield et  al. (1994) argue that students will mimic the emotional responses of their teachers or their “publicly expressed affective pathway”. Hence the atmosphere and environment with regard to mistakes and errors is one which is strongly influenced by the teacher. Tainio and Laine (2015) refer to ‘emotional contagion’ as the means by which emotions are shared within interactions. The teacher’s response to errors contributes significantly to the ‘error climate’ (Steuer et al., 2013) of the learning environment. Emotional contagion is in fact one of the clown training routines practiced by the clown teacher, Andrea Jiménez, where the first in a line of workshop participants starts with an emotional impulse such as laughter, which is passed along the line slowly building to a crescendo. It is essential to this process that the emotions are passed genuinely and nobody fakes laughter, participants respond only to the emotional state of the person beside them. This routine can be very effective, often resulting in hilarity and uncontrollable laughter. These insights about being open to errors and dealing with them gracefully may appear to be deep wisdom for teachers. However, for many clowns they are merely statements of the obvious. Avner ‘The Eccentric’ Eisenberg, in describing his clowning technique (Lebank & Bridel, 2015) demonstrates that he is very aware of ‘emotional contagion’. He describes how performers will often communicate different emotions from the ones they intend and that audiences are sensitive to these emotions, often reflecting the emotions that they perceive. For instance, he observes that audiences closely follow the breathing of the performer, and through this, the performer is able to control the creation and release of tension within the audience. He also speaks of bringing the audience along, at an emotional level, through techniques of, for example finding things interesting and having that interest shared. This echoes the inner and outer circles of Slava Polunin’s clowning technique (Lebank & Bridel, 2015), where he

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suggests the creation of a situation, which he terms the ‘innermost circle’, where the performer’s attention is so deeply within himself, that the audience becomes drawn in, intrigued to share in that which is so engaging. This same emotional connection and awareness of the emotional state of the audience and the influence which the performer can have on that state is one which is employed by many of the great clowns in engaging their audiences. However, in the educational context, as Newton (2013) points out, the effect of the learner’s mood and emotions on their cognition and learning is important, yet often ignored or worse yet, seen as an impediment in the learning process. Such disregard of the mood and emotion of the audience must seem alien to the clown, when at even a basic level, it is easily applied in the classroom. Avner Eisenberg offers words of wisdom for teachers, particularly those afraid of failure or appearing stupid. He talks of the separation of the individual from the act and the importance of failure. He claims that clowns are ‘all about failure’ and reinforces the idea that failure is not something to be afraid of, it is very much a part of the process of clowning. For the clown, making mistakes is an integral part of their performance. It is the clown’s readiness to make mistakes and in fact their reliance on mistakes, whether scripted or genuine, which allows them to shape their performance. For example, Nola Rae talks about adapting when things don’t work well (Lebank & Bridel, 2015). “If it doesn’t work, get on with it”, he advises. This facility for adaptation allows Rae to attempt new routines and material, with a strategy in place for coping with failure. This is reinforced in Laanela’s 9th and 10th Clowning commandments, (9) Dare to Fail and (10) Dare to Really succeed. Aziz Gual and Micha Usov both talk of embracing risk and failure (Lebank & Bridel, 2015). Gual takes a somewhat spiritual approach and sees failure as a process through which one emerges fortified, similarly Usov sees failure as an opportunity to go beyond normal practices, to discover what can be achieved in this unexplored space and go ‘above ourselves’. For both, as with Nola Rae, failure provides the opportunity for new gags and new material. For Usov, it also provides an opportunity for reflection. Reflection upon the meaning of his act and how it is understood by the audience. As any good teacher should, Usov recognises that the message which he believes he is sending out is not always that which is received. Usov shows the way for teachers by investing and engaging with failure rather than avoiding or attempting to hide it, thus allowing failure to be transcended, creating something positive or even ‘extraordinary’ from its ashes.

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Connection Through Reflection Despite what some may surmise, most clowns are not masochists, going out of their way to fail merely to create and endure the wilderness which lies beyond the realm of what can be controlled. Many clowns see failure as the means by which they connect with their audiences. Aziz Gual tells us that it is through the clown’s fallibility and flaws that the audience recognises the normality of the clown, that the clown is in fact one of them rather than someone apart, echoing the idea raised earlier, that the clown is unique amongst performers, being with rather than for the audience. Connection is perhaps one of the most important characteristics of a clowning performance, Nalle Laanela’s 2nd commandment of clowning is plain “Connect with your audience” (Laanela & Sacks, 2015); he follows this up with the exhortation that the two things a clown must do are connect and play. In fact, his manifesto in book form is aimed at “anyone who wants to develop a sense of connection and playfulness with their audience”. Aziz Gual and Nola Rae hold with this connection with their audiences by referring to the idea of the clown or mime or comedian holding up a mirror to the audience, so that they see themselves (“their ridiculous selves”) reflected in the clown. As Gual sees it, the clown is not actor or performer, but instead is an everyman, representing all of us in some way, reflecting our imperfections and who we are, in the hope of creating a ‘universal us’. Clowns remind us that everyone is imperfect, and failure happens, but this is often necessary and can be endured and overcome. This is something which politicians, as we saw earlier, recognised and exploited as an effective way of connecting with the people they wanted to reach; yet it is something, we as teachers perhaps tend to forget or neglect as we endeavour to protect our egos. It is recognised that the greatest teachers don’t teach subjects, they teach students. This does not mean that good pedagogy and engaging activities are not critical. However, teaching is more than just techniques and transmitting knowledge from one person to another. Learners are more likely to experience satisfaction and engagement if they believe their teachers care (Pattison et  al., 2011). This is more pertinent in current times where the teacher is less often required to be the only source of knowledge and information and might be more productively viewed as curator or facilitator, in such a way that the interaction between teacher and students plays an important role in teaching and learning (Fraga & Harmon, 2014). Song et al. (2022) tell us about the importance of the

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rapport between teacher and learner, particularly with regard to learners’ willingness to communicate within language learning, but they also detail a number of studies in which the relationship between the teacher and student enables the creation of a trusting environment in which the student is willing and able to engage with learning activities (Zhang, 2021). Environments in which teachers are perceived to be attentive to the needs, interests and feelings of the student are conducive to learning (Comadena et al., 2007). Student-teacher rapport, which Lammers and Byrd (2019) describe as “an emotional connection between teachers and their learners based on understanding, caring, and mutual respect” (p. 128) is reminiscent of the bond which clowns try to build with their audience. In fact, Bieg et al. (2019) suggest that the use of humour can play a role in developing a positive relationship between teacher and student and Santana (2019) makes the point that by demonstrating an appreciation of the endeavours of their students, teachers are able to forge productive relationships with them, often leading to positive learning outcomes. This echoes the philosophy of the Pisonis, Larry and Lorenzo (LeBank & Bridel, 2015), who spoke of the recognition of endeavour as the ‘ribbon’ which linked the performer and audience. Their construction of the props they used in their performance represented the challenges of real-life and allowed their audience to relate to them, through their efforts to overcome such obstacles, often unsuccessfully. The Pisonis reflection of the challenges of the audience allowed the building of a rapport, much as that described by Santana (2019), in the mutual recognition of the efforts of each other. The Pisonis, as teachers might, create environments in which human experiences are shared and collective solutions are sought. This sense of shared endeavour resonates with many clowns and their view of the importance of empathy in their performance. It is found in Aziz Gual’s emphasis on the importance of understanding people and their vulnerabilities and perhaps ironically for a clown, what makes them cry. It can be seen where Rene Bazinet cites the Russian film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky, in saying “The more personal I become, the more universal I get” (LeBank & Bridel, 2015), making the point that the more one reveals about themselves and their shortcomings, the more the audience can recognise themselves in them and relate to them. For clowns such as Bazinet, the heart of this lies in maintaining a childlike wonder or innocence, a clown is someone who has kept the inner child within them and with that, their ability to play, freely and unencumbered. This allows the audience to recognise

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what they all once were and to even briefly lift the burdens and constraints which restrict adults from true play (McCusker, 2020; Mainemelis & Ronson, 2006). Barry Lubin places connection with the audience as a central aspect of his performance (LeBank & Bridel, 2015), more so than his act. He talks of the energy passing between the performer and the audience, feeding off each other. Lubin sees this connection as an essential aspect of performance; it allows the performer to pay close attention to what the audience wants and to try to give it to them. In educational terms this relates closely to what teachers may recognise as a formative assessment in the form of feedback (McCusker, 2021; Black & Wiliam, 2006) Black and Wiliam (ibid.) point out that in their model of formative assessment, the crucial interaction is the one between the teacher and the learner. A fundamental aspect of teaching, for any teacher entering a class or starting a new subject, is to assess what their students already know; this the most important part of any lesson (Ausubel, 1968), subsequent actions and content in the classroom can be developed from this. The teacher would then be reasonably expected to adapt their instructional activities and content, to move their students along from their current positions towards their learning goals. Of course, the learning journey is never as simple as that; the student’s response to or the outcome of any teaching activity is often unpredictable and often unique to each individual. Not all students travel the same path on that learning journey. The teacher therefore needs to constantly monitor and assess the knowledge and understanding of their students and adapt their practice accordingly. Perrenoud (1998) made the point that communication can only be termed feedback if it results in a change in the thought processes of the students. This recognises that feedback is a two-way, cyclical process, requiring that the teacher also changes their thought process, actions and activities as a result of the communication they receive from their students. Feedback in this sense can be the informal, unplanned ‘on-the fly’ described by Shavelson (2006), usually associated with an unexpected ‘teachable moment’ (Shavelson ibid.), but it also applies to the unplanned ‘learnable moment’ experienced by the teacher. These are moments where informal feedback from learners, be it a gesture, a look or a sound, tells the teacher that they need to adapt their practice to meet the needs of their audience. This, combined with an extensive repertoire and capacity for improvisation, allows a responsive performance or teaching experience, which Laanela describes as a dialogue, with a constant awareness of how the

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audience is affected. Clowns and performers such as Lubin, Laanela and the Pisonis have developed this to a level of constant awareness and responsiveness to their audience, achieving what Laanela and Sacks (2015) describe as ‘constant’ pulsation between performer and audience.

Summary Within the stories told by the ‘Modern Masters’ of clowning in LeBank and Bridel’s insightful and informative book, a number of themes emerge. Ideas of improvisation, failure, connection and reflection are the most common amongst the stories of these clowns; these have been developed here in terms of their relevance for the teaching community. These ideas are supported by empirical research evidence. However, there is no consensus about how these ideas are to be implemented or approached. In this chapter we have seen the arguments advocating improvisation, not improvisation in the sense of ‘making it up as you go along’ but rather in the sense of calling on a repertoire of routines and practices founded in experience and expertise. However, there is also some scope for ‘making it up’ to extend and develop the repertoire and augment that toolbox of practices available to the professional. Improvisation opens oneself to failure and for many teachers, though they advocate and even encourage failure in their learners, it is something they fear and avoid for themselves, but failure should be embraced. Clowns and educational research show us that failing in public is not something to be avoided, it can be survived. Embracing failure and accepting that it will happen allows the learners to recognise the humanity of the teachers. The teacher’s fallibility allows learners to recognise themselves reflected in the teacher. The challenges and obstacles faced by teachers are the same as those faced by learners and this shared challenge encourages a shared solution. In showing the commonality between teachers and learners and recognising the efforts and endeavours of each other, a greater connection is built between the two. It allows the teacher to become more attuned to the mood and emotional disposition of the learner, making them more likely to engage with teaching and learning activities, take risks, fail, improvise and discover new approaches, new ideas and new ways of thinking. The teacher’s attitude towards their own failures speaks more loudly than any mantra of ‘no wrong answers’ or ‘no silly questions’. This attitude is contagious and will be adopted by learners more readily than platitudes. Building this

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connection with learners allows a greater sensitivity to their needs, allowing them to be more open and allowing the teacher to be more adaptive in their approach to teaching. Many of the ideas or strategies are challenging for teachers to adopt or implement, requiring teachers to reconsider their role in the classroom and their position in the hierarchy. However, by looking to some of the most successful modern clowns, we see that those concepts which are difficult for some teachers to apply are often fundamental for clowns. There is the potential and opportunity for teachers to learn from clowns, by modifying and integrating a new approach to improvisation and failure. The next chapter looks at ideas of how teachers might learn to ‘be more clown’. This is through insights from two clown pedagogues Nalle Laanela and Andrea Jiménez who have influenced some of the thinking behind this book. Their views on clowning warrant further exploration in relation to education and form the basis of the next chapter.

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Newton, D. P. (2013). Moods, emotions and creative thinking: A framework for teaching. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, 34–44. Nørgård, R. T., Toft-Nielsen, C., & Whitton, N. (2017). Playful learning in higher education: Developing a signature pedagogy. International Journal of Play, 6(3), 272–282. Oser, F., & Spychiger, M. (2005). Lernen ist schmerzhaft: Zur Theorie des negativen Wissens und zur Praxis der Fehlerkultur. Beltz. Pattison, P., Hale, J. R., & Gowens, P. (2011). Mind and soul: Connecting with students. Journal of Legal Studies Education, 28, 39. Perrenoud, P. (1998). From formative evaluation to a controlled regulation of learning processes. Towards a wider conceptual field. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 85–102. Santagata, R. (2005). Practices and beliefs in mistake-handling activities: A video study of Italian and US mathematics lessons. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(5), 491–508. Santana, J. C. (2019). Establishing teacher-student rapport in an English-medium instruction class. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning, 12(2). Sawyer, R.  K. (2011). What makes good teachers great? The artful balance of structure and improvisation. Structure and Improvisation in Creative Teaching, 1–24. Schön, D. (2001). Chapter 13: The crisis of professional knowledge and the pursuit of an epistemology of practice. Counterpoints, 166, 183–207. Shavelson, R. J. (2006). On the integration of formative assessment in teaching and learning: Implications for new pathways in teacher education. In Competence Oriented Teacher Training (pp. 61–78). Brill. Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–23. Siklander, P., & Impiö, N. (2019). Common features of expertise in working life: Implications for higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 43(9), 1239–1254. Song, L., Luo, R., & Zhan, Q. (2022). Toward the role of teacher caring and teacher-student rapport in predicting English as a foreign language learners’ willingness to communicate in second language. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 874522–874522. Steuer, G., Rosentritt-Brunn, G., & Dresel, M. (2013). Dealing with errors in mathematics classrooms: Structure and relevance of perceived error climate. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 38(3), 196–210. Swan, M., & Burkhardt, H. (2012). A designer speaks. Educational Designer, 2(5). Retrieved January 1, 2022, from http://www.educationaldesigner.org/ ed/volume2/issue5/article19/

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CHAPTER 7

Clowning and Creative Teaching: How to Be a Clown-Teacher

Introduction In previous chapters we have looked at the resonances and overlaps between clowning and teaching. Ideas and philosophies which are applicable across both professions are explored in terms of their academic provenance and their professional practice. However, whilst these analyses tell us much about what teachers can gain from a better understanding of clowns and their practices, there is little which helps teachers to ‘be more clown’. In this chapter, the teachings of two of the clowns most influential in the writing of this book, P. Nalle Laanela and Andrea Jiménez, are unpacked in the context of other clowns and clown-teachers and in terms of their relevance to those in teaching professions. Laanela and Sack’s Clown Manifesto (Laanela & Sacks, 2015) presents clowning as the act of connection and playfulness and it is in this that the greatest resonance with education is found, in that teaching and learning should also be seen as an act of connection and playfulness. Andrea Jiménez is a theatre director, actor, clown and pedagogue, who has trained with some of the most acclaimed clowns, including Philippe Gaulier, and has taught clown workshops around the world. Through participation in her workshops and subsequent discussions and shared projects, her views on clowns, clowning and the development of the clown spirit amongst educators have been informative, entertaining and enlightening.

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Nalle Laanela: Connecting, Naivety and Play Nalle Laanela is an accomplished clown and clown-teacher. His view of clowning and performance inspired the first study of clowning techniques as applied to educational practice (McCusker, 2021). In his Clown Manifesto (Laanela & Sacks, 2015), Nalle Laanela shares his wisdom gained from long and varied experience of clowning across the world. The principles and advice he presents are aimed at “anyone who wants to develop a sense of playfulness and connection with their audience”. It is worth noting that many of the ideas which Laanela puts forward echo those already discussed in the contexts of Bridel’s and LeBanks’s Masters in Chap. 6. For example, his tenet that “It’s not about acting stupid, it’s about daring to be perceived as stupid” is well aligned with the earlier discussion about taking risks and allowing oneself to make mistakes. The argument presented in this book is not that teachers should deliberately make mistakes or attempt to look foolish, but advocates that mistakes and failure are not to be avoided, particularly in the context of creating a supportive and nurturing learning environment. His counsel to “Make the audience feel seen” resonates with the principles of relatability and reflection discussed earlier and his advice “If you can build a bag of tricks into your costume, you always know you have them with you” speaks of the idea of prepared improvisation, as described by other clowns. In his Manifesto Laanela provides a rather more extended account of his principles and philosophy of clowning than those offered by the ‘Masters’ of LeBank and Bridel. This offers a greater insight than that afforded by the Masters in their short narratives and no doubt many of the ideas offered by Laanela are shared by other clowns. However, Laanela gives us an opportunity to inspect a range of other clowning principles that extend beyond the ribbon of improvisation, risk and failure, reflection and connection offered by the analyses of the previous chapter. Central to Laanela’s clowning philosophy is the affirmation that the clown must Connect and Play. Play and playfulness are an important aspect of the clown-teacher. There are many contexts in which teachers try to integrate play into the learning environment. However, many of these are a form of formal play or even ‘serious play’ that is teacher-led and often lacking in the unstructured and spontaneous freedom and fun of true playfulness as one finds in child-led play (McCusker, 2020).

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Connecting Laanela’s view of the process of building a connection and playing with the audience is that it is an act of rebellion, as he believes most approaches do not allow that. Laanela’s view of clowning as an act of rebellion stands alongside the Pisonis’s view of clowning as a disruptive process and David Konyot’s view that, “as a clown, you are the one who’s allowed to comment. You are the one who is allowed to criticize. You are the little boy who tells the emperor he has no clothes on” (LeBank & Bridel, 2015, p. 111). The Pisonis tell us that for them clowning is a revolutionary act; it speaks truth to power. Thus, to truly clown, one must disrupt. The act of connecting and playing with an audience on stage or an audience of learners challenges the hierarchy between performer and audience allowing new forms of dialogue and communication. These views of clowning as a rebellious act, speak of ways of breaking the barriers between performer and audience. The novel aspect of this rebellion is that it is instigated by those in positions of power and control. This idea of revolution, dissent and inversion of the hierarchy as promoted by Laanela and others calls to mind Mikhail Bakhtin and his notion of the carnivalesque. There has been an interest in the application of Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnivalesque (Bakhtin, 1984) in the educational context and its potential to warrant forbidden commentary or dialogue (Schutzman, 2002; Tam, 2018; White, 2014). This notion of carnivalesque, calling as it does upon the ceremony of the medieval carnival fool, involves the crowning and decrowning of the fool as king or queen and the elevation of the low clergy to positions of clerical power, to conduct mock services and religious ceremonies thus bringing about the reversal of hierarchies. However, where Bakhtin’s carnivalesque as practiced in the medieval carnival or in the classroom diverges from the inversion and subversion of the clown, is that the process of crowning of the fool is at some stage followed by their decrowning. Thus, whether in the classroom or in the medieval ceremony, the transfer of power is illusory, it is merely loaned to the fool or the student. Where the carnivalesque has been practiced in the pedagogical context, the authoritative power does not disappear (Murakami, 2021). Instead, it is merely hidden, waiting for the time of ‘decrowning’ where the pretence of the transfer of control is called to an end and the hierarchy is re-established. Huizinga (2014) spoke of the “magic circle of play” in which different rules apply and actions not usually sanctioned in real-life are allowed. However, in most

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educational contexts, despite best intentions this ‘magic circle’ does not exist, the power and control remain with the teacher and at best are lent to the students. Education is less of a shared experience and tends towards the ‘banking model’ of education as suggested by Paolo Freire (1993) in which teachers are compared to bank clerks, depositing knowledge for students to store and file rather than an act of communication with engaged learners. What Laanela and others such as Aziz Gual in his clown as ‘everyman’ advocate in their descriptions of connection and reflection is the dissolution of the hierarchy. They seek the condition of Bakhtin’s carnival in which “the carnival does not know footlights, in the sense that it does not acknowledge any distinction between actors and spectators” (p.  7). However, they do not seek to regain their power, but rather establish a permanent position of equality, reminiscent of the Shakespearean clown, a part of the audience and a part of the cast. It echoes the circus clowns whose performance is with the audience rather than for the audience and accords with the Freire’s teacher-learner (1985) and the pedagogical view of the teacher as a co-learner and co-constructor rather than an abstracted depositor of knowledge. Naivety Laanela’s approach to stupidity and failure and making mistakes is grounded in the view that stupidity is not a negative trait. As a clown, Laanela tries to recreate a child-like wonder. He attempts to recreate a child-like naivety, a form of stupidity, though not in its pejorative and judgemental sense. His aim is to be unafraid of appearing naïve and to embrace that child-like wonder and awe, unconstrained by the cynicism of maturity. For clown or teacher, this is no easy task. The challenge of attaining naivety, a process of unlearning and unknowing, is great but important for a teacher if they are to attempt to understand the learner’s perspective of learning something new. It is a notoriously difficult position to adopt. Paolo Freire (1985) in his discussion on the virtue of tolerance talks of the need for teachers to accept the naivety of the student and how it is necessary start at the point where they are, to allow them to “make the important leap … with you”. Freire makes the point that this does not mean becoming naïve or staying at the student’s level, but instead assuming that same naivety and thus understanding it. In taking a position of naivety, the teacher is granted licence to subvert, invert and challenge established ideas and accepted wisdoms. Through this, they can create environments in

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which teachers and pupils become accustomed to questioning their own beliefs and opinions, testing them through other existing knowledge structures. Building Connection For Laanela, the audience is paramount. This contrasts with other performance doxa, Stanislavski, for example, which advocate focus on the performer. Laanela’s approach is to focus on the relationship and dialogue between audience and performer and take the audience on an emotional journey using emotional tools such as hyper-emotion, conceptual tools, such as order and chaos and practical performance tools, such as juggling, unicycling or acrobatics. It is through this relationship that he builds connection with his audience. This is not a recommendation that teachers learn to ride a unicycle. However, the same range of tools are available to teachers to develop techniques to allow them to build a connection with their students. Laanela provides some guidelines for play in performance: (1) find the game, (2) clarify the game and let the audience understand, (3) develop the game and (4) stick to the game or let it change. He maintains that there are many factors which affect the ability and opportunity to be funny and creative, but critically, it helps to be in a social environment which nurtures this. This accords with Rhodes’s (1961) view of the four Ps of creativity which included person, products, processes and the environment, which he termed ecological press, that is, the relationship between the person and their environment. Whilst in that context Rhodes was referring to the macro view, the same applies in the micro view of an audience or a class. Ideas are formed as a result of interaction with sensations and stimuli from both internal and external sources, Laanela’s view of performance informs this approach to the formulation of creative environments. Laanela and Avner Eisenberg, amongst others, recognise that performance begins as soon as the performer encounters the audience, every aspect of behaviour from that moment onwards will affect the audience’s engagement and so everything from the first appearance must be carefully considered. The same is true for teachers and teaching. Laanela advocates a simple technique of starting at an energy level lower than that of the audience, and then slowly increasing the level until they have been caught up and then taking them through to the climax. Other approaches for building connection may be more familiar to the teacher and apply across

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a number of professional contexts, eye contact, listening, pauses to check and reconnect. Laanela’s guidance on building connection was not written particularly with teachers in mind. However, his claim is that anyone who is connecting with their audience and playing is clowning. His description of the ideas, techniques and attitudes which underpin this are widely applicable for teaching practice. The adoption of some of the principles outlined here and in greater detail in his Manifesto will create the opportunity for teachers to build connections with their class, perhaps as strong as those we see between clowns and their audiences. In the next section, we will see what Laanela says about play and what this offers to the dynamics of the classroom. Playing The child-like naivety which Laanela assumes in building a connection with his audience also gives him licence to exercise his other tenet, that of play. For young children, play is easy; they are able to play freely, in a state of exploration and emotional openness, unbound by the ego and social norms of adulthood (Mainemelis & Ronson, 2006, McCusker, 2020). For adults, play is more challenging, not least due to the responsibilities one adopts and the development of complex ego defence mechanisms. Laanela questions why society has created a culture which encourages adults to stop playing. He teaches that to reach the child-like naïve state, one must endeavour to ‘find their zero’. This focus is aligned with many clown trainers who would advocate the dropping away of all barriers and pretence. It is what Laanela describes as “who you are when there is no action” and reinforced by his appeal “Don’t be funny, be real”. This method through which clowns access their playful selves is also available to teachers. However, it is challenging and requires that the teacher drops the mask they wear when in the classroom. There is well-established research of the affordances of creative learning approaches and learning environments, some of this focuses on creative teaching approaches and some on teaching for creativity (Cremin & Chappell, 2021). More recently there has been an increased interest in play, usually in Higher Education (James & Nerantzi, 2019; Forbes, 2021; Nørgård et al., 2017) or early childhood education (Brooker et al., 2014). Many of the earlier approaches to playing in education were often computer-­ based, using gamification methods or relying upon

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technological novelty to increase engagement and motivation (Connolly et al., 2012; Boyle et al., 2016). The nature of these games was that often they were poor proxies for gaming as well as poor vehicles for learning. Basically, these were not much fun! In response to this and to the increased regulation of learning activities, forms of playful learning through the creation of immersive playful environments, which create a sense of challenge, fantasy and curiosity (Malone, 1980; Jones, 1998), have emerged. Such playful approaches try to capture the unstructured and fun nature of play and connect to the ‘flow-state’ described by Csikszentmihalyi (1990), in which participants are effortlessly engaged through the balance of challenge and skill. These include tools, techniques and tactics such as games and toys, role-play, and performance, humour and competition (Whitton, 2018). These pedagogical views of the importance of play and methods of achieving playfulness may seem arcane to clowns, for whom play is a state of being, based on the interaction between the performer and the audience. Laanela’s method focuses on the relationship between the audience and the performer. There is no simple formula which governs this relationship, even for the most accomplished and experienced performers, it can be and should be as Sacks describes it “a tightrope of spaghetti”. To achieve a clown state the performer needs to be in a position of precarity, in that wilderness with all security left behind. This is simultaneously the position the creative teacher must become familiar with and as we will explore in the next chapter, a state of liminality that learners must learn to endure on their learning journeys.

Andrea Jiménez: Becoming a Clown In running her workshops on clowning, Andrea Jiménez begins by explaining her perspective on the clown. The strong message which emerges is that clowning is not something one achieves by ‘putting on’ but rather by ‘taking off’. Her view, aligned with the tradition of Jacques Lecoq, is that we are all clowns and we are all stupid. However, in everyday life we seek to cover and camouflage these characteristics, so that no one else will notice them. This echoes the Impostor Phenomenon, which is described in many walks of life and experienced at least once by the majority of people (Gravois, 2007). For Jiménez, the art of clowning lies in stripping away the layers of defence or self-perceived fraudulence (Kolligian & Sternberg, 1991) to reveal the child like ‘innocent’ state that

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lays beneath them all, the clown as their stupid self, with nothing to hide behind. Andrea Jiménez’s perspective is that the red nose of the clown is different from every other mask, in that it is the one mask that revealed rather than disguised. Just as Laanela advises that the clown must ‘be real’ Jiménez asks only that the clown allows themselves to be exposed, hiding nothing. For Jiménez, to become a clown, one must become child-like; they must remain adults, but like adults when no one is watching, at home singing in the shower, shouting in the car, just being adults as their comfortable selves. Clowning is embracing and celebrating imperfection, all the things we think are wrong, body posture, weight, lack of ability, all the things we hide, which we should instead embrace. Jiménez sees this as a process of building empathy with the audience and empathy is an important factor in education. Whilst definitions of empathy are somewhat contested in the research literature, in this context teacher empathy is identified as a form in which the teacher understands the personal and social situations of their learners and is able to feel concern and care about their positive and negative emotions in such a way that improves student learning (Meyers et al., 2019). Remedios and Allan (2006) add nuance to this view by suggesting that inter-subjectivity, more than empathy, allows a greater connection. Inter-­ subjectivity is defined as a reciprocal relationship in which there is a mutual understanding of intention. They cite Baron Cohen (1997) and the philosopher Nagel (1969) in suggesting that emotional experiences such as those which clowns and teachers seek to achieve are best found in relationships where there is a recursion of this inter-subjectivity (e.g. “I know that you know that I know … how this feels”). This is the ‘ribbon’ of connection described by the Pisonis and by Santana (2019) in Chap. 6. It is this recognition and appreciation of the efforts of the other which builds connection. The process of building empathy with the audience is based in identifying imperfection, as with the clowns in the previous chapter, connection is built through a recognition of shared challenges and imperfections and a shared endeavour. When the audience recognise how difficult things are for the performer, they then have greater affection for them. Jiménez believes that the relaxation and openness that comes with this identification is the gateway to creativity and daring to share ideas and thoughts. This openness allows the clown to take chances, to risk making mistakes. For Jiménez taking risks can only result in a win. If you are successful, you have the win of success. If you are unsuccessful, you have the

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privilege of unexpected failure, an opportunity to be vulnerable and loved by those who recognise their failure in you. In either case you gain the love of the audience. The discomfort and doubt that result from mistakes are the natural habitat of the clown and Jiménez suggests it is possible to train oneself to be able to stay in that space. Just as skills or muscles can be trained, Jiménez tells us that openness and tolerance of embarrassment and awkwardness can also be trained, with each exercise taking one step further into that disconcerting and challenging area. Jiménez, in common with other clowns we have explored, speaks of the act of clowning as an act of revolution. She sees that seeking pleasure and playfulness in otherwise mundane settings is revolutionary. Her view is that we must demand joy in our lives, finding joy in ourselves and in connecting with each other. Clowning for Jiménez is more to do with a way of life or a state of being, rather than the playing of a character. In fact, for her it is the cessation of the playing of a character and allowing one’s true self to emerge in which the clown is born. This means the cessation of hiding fear, weakness and mistakes. What Andrea Jiménez tells us is that, for clowns and for teachers alike, connection is achieved through the revelation of our authentic selves, which means the recognition and moreover, the celebration of our fallibility and our imperfections. Through this, teachers and learners are able to achieve empathy, an important aspect of educational practice (Rogers, 1969; Meyers et al., 2019) to build towards education as co-constructed endeavour of shared problem solving.

Summary Laanela and Jiménez both provide guidance for teachers wishing to embrace the ‘clown spirit’. They, along with many others, suggest that there is clown within all of us and the act of clowning is in allowing that to be revealed. For aspiring clown-teachers, these may be words of comfort, for just as in their professional practice they found their teacher identity, they need only try to uncover their clown identity. Jiménez tells us that to become a clown, one need not change anything about oneself. This is a reminder that it is our habits, our tics and our patterns of behaviour which give us our character. These traits and idiosyncrasies should be valued rather than deprecated. These characteristics can be strengths and one should teach to their strengths rather imitating or ‘acting’ as other teachers or clowns. “Be real” Laanela says, learners will recognise authenticity and value it.

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The challenge set by Laanela and Jiménez and other clowns who we have seen is in allowing defences to drop enough to allow the clown to emerge. Both Jiménez and Laanela speak of achieving a child-like state of naivety and openness. Children do not screen or shield their emotions, living in a state of emotional honesty, which as adults, we learn to constrain and hide. This requires a relinquishment of the power and control with which many teachers have become comfortable. It means allowing oneself to become vulnerable and open to mistakes. This echoes the messages of previous chapters advocating exposure to failure and thorough this, building empathy and connection with the audience. Whether it is success or failure, we are encouraged to inhabit either outcome equally, being in command in either situation. Jiménez sees both as producing a positive outcome. The relinquishing of power is a challenge for teachers and opens up a realm of uncertainty and doubt. The teacher and the clown are asked to occupy a space in which outcomes are unpredictable. This cannot be achieved by simple techniques, but as Jiménez tells us, it can be trained in small steps building the ‘muscles’ to learn to be at home with unpredictability and discomfort. This position of unpredictability and discomfort is one that becomes familiar to clowns. It represents a space dominated by doubt and insecurity and is often associated with transitions and transformations in learning. In anthropology, in the social sciences and in education these resemble the liminal space ‘betwixt and between’ as identified in many clowning contexts within this book. Having explored the pedagogical resonances between clowning principles and teaching principle in previous chapters and having developed some guidelines and ideas for teachers looking to be ‘be more clown’ in this chapter, the next chapter will look at the unique contribution that clowns can make to learners as they progress through learning journeys and encounter stages of disorientation and doubt.

References Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and his world (Hélène Iswolsky, Trans.). Indiana University Press. Baron-Cohen, S. (1997). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. MIT Press. Boyle, E. A., Hainey, T., Connolly, T. M., Gray, G., Earp, J., Ott, M., Lim, T., Ninaus, M., Ribeiro, C., & Pereira, J. (2016). An update to the systematic literature review of empirical evidence of the impacts and outcomes of computer games and serious games. Computers & Education, 94, 178–192.

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Brooker, L., Edwards, S., & Blaise, M. (2014). SAGE handbook of play and learning in early childhood, pp. 1–448. Connolly, T. M., Boyle, E. A., MacArthur, E., Hainey, T., & Boyle, J. M. (2012). A systematic literature review of empirical evidence on computer games and serious games. Computers & Education, 59(2), 661–686. Cremin, T., & Chappell, K. (2021). Creative pedagogies: A systematic review. Research Papers in Education, 36(3), 299–331. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row. Forbes, L. K. (2021). The process of play in learning in higher education: A phenomenological study. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 15(1), 57–73. Freire, P. (1985). Reading the world and reading the word: An interview with Paulo Freire. Language Arts, 62(1), 15–21. Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed (Myra Bergman Ramos, Trans.). Penguin. Gravois, J. (2007). You’re not fooling anyone. Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(11). Huizinga, J. (2014). Homo ludens: A study of the play-element in culture. Routledge. James, A., & Nerantzi, C. (Eds.). (2019). The power of play in higher education: Creativity in tertiary learning. Palgrave Macmillan. Jones, M. G. (1998). Creating electronic learning environments: Games, flow, and the user interface. Proceedings of Selected Research and Development Presentations at the National Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). Kolligian, J., Jr., & Sternberg, R. J. (1991). Perceived fraudulence in young adults: Is there an ‘imposter syndrome’? Journal of Personality Assessment, 56(2), 308–326. Laanela, P. N., & Sacks, S. (2015). The clown manifesto. Bloomsbury Publishing. LeBank, E., & Bridel, D. (2015). Clowns: In conversation with modern masters. Routledge. Mainemelis, C., & Ronson, S. (2006). Ideas are born in fields of play: Towards a theory of play and creativity in organizational settings. Research in Organizational Behavior, 27, 81–131. Malone. (1980). What makes things fun to learn? A study of intrinsically motivating computer games. Xerox. McCusker, S. (2020). Everybody’s monkey is important: LEGO® Serious Play® as a methodology for enabling equality of voice within diverse groups. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 43(2), 146–142. McCusker, S. (2021). Alias the Jester–What can clowns tell us about teaching? In Early careers in education: Perspectives for students and NQTs. Emerald Publishing Limited.

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Meyers, S., Rowell, K., Wells, M., & Smith, B. C. (2019). Teacher empathy: A model of empathy for teaching for student success. College Teaching, 67(3), 160–168. Murakami, K. (2021). The Carnivalesque pedagogy: Jaan as a pedagogist. In Culture as process (pp. 193–199). Springer. Nagel, T. (1969). Sexual perversion. The Journal of Philosophy, 66(1), 5–17. Nørgård, R. T., Toft-Nielsen, C., & Whitton, N. (2017). Playful learning in higher education: developing a signature pedagogy. International Journal of Play, 6(3), 272–282. Remedios, R., & Allan, J. (2006). New community schools and the measurement of transformation. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 10(6), 615–625. Rhodes, M. (1961). An analysis of creativity. The Phi delta kappan, 42(7), 305–310. Rogers, C.  R. (1969). Freedom to learn: A view of what education might become. Merrill. Santana, J. C. (2019). Establishing teacher-student rapport in an English-medium instruction class. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning, 12(2). Schutzman, M. (2002). Guru clown, or pedagogy of the carnivalesque. Theatre Topics, 12(1), 63–84. Tam, P. C. (2018). Teacher as fool: A study of the teacher’s power in the carnivalesque practice of drama education. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 26(2), 283–300. White, E. J. (2014). ‘Are You ‘Avin a Laff?’: A pedagogical response to Bakhtinian carnivalesque in early childhood education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 46(8), 898–913. Whitton, N. (2018). Playful learning: Tools, techniques, and tactics. Research in Learning Technology, 26.

CHAPTER 8

Clown Pedagogical Spaces

Introduction Previous chapters have looked at the pedagogical approaches and clowning techniques which are applicable in teaching spaces. These have included ideas about improvisation, fallibility, empathy, connection and reflection. These are traits and techniques which teachers may find useful in their practice and an understanding of clown philosophies and principles may make them more accessible. Throughout the review of clowning practices and roles in the first half of this book, a common theme of liminality recurs. Liminality has been referred to throughout as the space ‘betwixt and between’, ‘in the margins’ or the ‘interstices’. Each of these, in their various contexts, refers to an intervening phase of transition, which is commonly termed ‘liminal space’ or ‘limen’ (meaning threshold in Latin). In anthropological terms, this refers to the passage from one social status to another (van Gennep, 1960; Turner, 1982). In educational terms, it can refer to spaces of doubt and insecurity in which the learners struggle with the transition between old and emergent understanding (Cousin, 2006). For learners this can be a difficult place, leaving them in a state of partial understanding, having left behind secure knowledge but not yet adopting new understanding to replace it (Land et al., 2010). This learner-space, in-between states of knowledge and understanding, has notable parallels

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in the marginal and liminal spaces occupied by clowns, throughout their various cultural and historical contexts. In societal settings, clowns occupied spaces between audience and performer, within and without tribal communities and the royal court. In modern performance, the clown is trained to exist in spaces of the unknown and unpredictable. Hence, alongside the previously seen clown attitudes, behaviours and skills which the clown-teacher can bring to the learning environment, clowns can also bring their experience of liminal spaces and their knowledge that such spaces are essential, endurable and emancipatory. This chapter starts by describing the anthropological origins of the educational ideas of transformative learning, troublesome knowledge and Threshold Concepts. Within these anthropological histories the role for clowns and clowning can be seen, either explicitly or implicitly in the spaces for play, subversion and inversion. This chapter will then explore how those anthropological ideas are conceptualised within the educational domain and identify spaces into which the persona of the modern clown-­ teacher fits aptly.

Rites of Passage and Thresholds The anthropologist or ‘folklorist’ Arnold van Gennep in his seminal study of 1909c—Les Rites de Passage, observed the ceremonies and rituals of various societies. Specifically, his interest was in those rituals which marked transitions within society, those in which participants went through a transition from one status to another. In this he coined the now common phrase ‘rites of passage’. These rites are constituted of separation, transition and incorporation (in original French; Séparation, Marge, Aggrégation). van Gennep extended this metaphor of ‘passage’ to look at territorial passage, giving examples of rites, in the transition between territories, the leaving behind of one ‘world’ and the entry to another. Through this, van Gennep recognised that such rituals of passage happen at boundaries of all scales, from national or territorial, to sections of a town, or even a home. In this he pointed out that in each of these cases, the region of transition shrinks until it is “a simple stone, a beam or a threshold” and many rituals are associated with the crossing of these thresholds, be it the sprinkling of blood, perfume or holy water, the placing of artefacts and objects or even the carrying of a bride. The threshold of a doorway is presented as the boundary between the foreign and the domestic and the profane and the sacred. The importance of the doorway is reinforced by reminding us of

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its place in traditions of religious ordination, marriage and death. Through this extension of the metaphor of passage at these small scales, van Gennep identifies the phases of separation, transition and incorporation as pre-­ liminal, liminal (threshold) and post-liminal. Thus, he introduces the concept of thresholds and liminality, which lays the foundations of the ideas of anthropologist, Victor Turner and educationalists Mezirow and Meyer and Land. The metaphor of the liminal has long since been applied outside of its anthropological origins. It is seen in situations of political unrest, cultural change, social transformation and teaching and learning, situations in which we have also seen the presence of clowns. Liminality Turner (1982) describes the process of a ritual rite of passage as one in which the participant or ‘novice’ leaves behind their pre-ritual status and through the ritual, takes on a new post-ritual status. He identifies a transitional state, within the ritual, in which the participant has shed their pre-­ ritual state but not yet taken on their post-ritual state. For example, in traditional Masai adulthood initiation ceremonies, as described by van Gennep (1960), this would include months spent away from their communities ‘wandering’ before returning to complete the rituals to emerge as adults. More mundanely, it also applies to the state of student-hood, in the space after examinations and before results or qualification, where the participant is no longer a student nor have they completed their educational journey. Turner follows van Gennep (1960) in calling this a ‘liminal’ state. It is conceived as an in-between state of suspension in which the certainties and security of the pre-liminal state have been left behind, but the post-liminal state has not yet been achieved, nor is there any certainty that it will be achieved. Turner (1982) notes then when there is an organisational or individual shift of relationships and interdependence of ideas, from one level to another, there is an interval, ‘limen’ or ‘margin’ (echoing Van Gennep’s marge) during which the past is left behind or suspended, but the future has not yet arrived. This, he claims as an “instant of pure potentiality”. One in which many options and outcomes, positive and negative, become possible. This is the same space we have seen in earlier chapters, occupied by clowns and jesters across history and cultures. It is the role in-between the players and the audience occupied by the theatrical clown or fool; it is the secret society of the Koreduga, the

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isolation and alienation of the Heyoka and the marginal space occupied by clowns, fools and jesters everywhere. This liminality is a space in which Turner sees potential for play or ‘ludic invention’, supporting this by citing instances of play in initiation and seasonal rituals, such as mock ordeals, holy fools and specifically, clowning. Peacock (2009) reinforces this potentiality as “entirely applicable to clowning in which anything may happen as the performance occurs” (p. 10). Turner (1982) is careful to point out that play, as separate from work is a fairly recent innovation, an artefact of the industrial revolution and in many cultures, play might in fact be seen as an integral part of ‘work’. Playfulness is in fact a central component of the ritual of transition or symbolism, and so in itself, bound by rules or traditions. This conception of a state of liminality, initially developed by van Gennep (1960) and further explored by Turner (1982), is one of ambiguity and disorientation, but also one of unpredictability and potential. In this state there is the loss of the comfortable landmarks and beacons of the familiar, but also the excitement and anticipation of the unexplored and what may come. This has strong echoes of the spaces occupied by clowns historically and of the narratives and philosophies of modern clowns, but also describes the experience of learning new ideas and new concepts, resulting in new understandings of the world.

Mezirow—Transformation Mezirow see the liminality of Turner (1982) and van Gennep (1960) as a transformative state. His theory of transformative learning holds that “the way learners interpret and reinterpret their sense experience is central to making meaning and hence learning” (Mezirow, 1994). Whilst this theory was developed in the context of adult education (Mezirow, 1990), many aspects of it provoke a reconsideration of the dynamics of the school ­classroom (Bivens et al., 2009), to embrace pedagogies which empower learners within dialogical process which move away from ‘empty vessel’ modes of passive acceptance. The theory holds that learners make sense of the world by evaluating their current ideas and understanding in the light of new information, and through a process of critical reflection, are able to shift their worldview to assimilate that new information. By necessity, this requires a questioning of, and changes in, some long and deeply held fundamental beliefs and understanding.

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Mezirow suggests that this involves a multi-stage process of 1. Disorienting dilemma 2. Self-examination 3. Sense of alienation 4. Relating discontent to others 5. Explaining options of new behaviour 6. Building confidence in new ways 7. Planning a course of action 8. Knowledge to implement plans 9. Experimenting with new roles 10. Reintegration (Mezirow, 1978) There are many aspects of this ten phase process which echo the experiences and principles of clowning which we have explored in this book. Starting from the state of disorientation, which represents the first stage of the learning transformation but is also recognisable in the clown’s state of abstraction from the norms and conventions of everyday experience. The second and third phases of Mezirow’s model also embrace those clown attributes of self-examination, described as ‘reflection’ in Chap. 6 and the sense of alienation, which is essential to the performance and experience of many clowns. In common with van Gennep’s Séparation, Marge, Aggrégation, Mezirow’s transformation describes a journey away from security and comfort, through a wilderness and a return, to a new status. For van Gennep and Mezirow, significant transitions, either in societal rites or in learning processes, require a period of wilderness and unpredictability. This ‘liminal’ state by its very nature is one of doubt and insecurity. These liminal states of alienation, doubt, insecurity and unpredictably would be highly recognisable to clowns of all varieties. For many this discomfort is at the heart of their performance, for others the nature of their existence. Occupying the Uncomfortable The clown and clown trainer, Ton Kurstjens, tells us that at times, the clown must float in a vacuum “a massive black hole made of nothing” (Kurstjens, 2011) and by trusting in this emptiness, this space, something will emerge. Thus, by observing clowns and through an understanding of

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their actions, motivations and philosophies, we learn how to entice or push our audience of learners and ourselves into those liminal spaces and become familiar with discomfort. We learn to accept that this liminal space is uncomfortable, unfamiliar and essential, if transformation is to be achieved. This does not mean that the occupation of, or existence within that space is a trivial matter for clowns. In fact, the nature of that space is that it needs to always be troublesome for the clown to maintain that ‘tightrope of spaghetti’ with ‘no guarantees’ to which Stacey Sacks refers (Laanela & Sacks, 2015). Clown and clown trainer, Andrea Jiménez, claims that once the clown knows what they will do next, the clown dies (personal communication, n.d.). Ultimately, clowns exist in that liminal space and have learned to live with and indeed thrive upon the uncertainty and doubt of that space. They recognise that liminal space is associated with transformation and as Mezirow (1978) describes, transformative space is associated with phases of disorientation, self-examination, alienation, new behaviours and experimentation. Mezirow’s phases echo the activities and principles of clowns, who in their practice, as we have seen, seek to disorient, reflect (mirror), encourage reflection (introspection) and promote playfulness and experimentation. Transformation Through Reflection It is clear that social and individual progress requires periods of transition and that these liminal transitions are disturbing and uncomfortable. However, as clown-teachers, in some cases, it is appropriate to push individuals into these spaces to encourage reflection and reconsideration of accepted norms, knowledge and wisdom. Wagoner (2008) talks of this process of transformation in terms of the production of new meaning. He argues that societies tend to make connections between representations and things, and this leads to an inertia within that society. He suggests that social representations can be transposed, either in the first case by the creative use of tools from within a culture to ‘make the familiar unfamiliar’ or by messages from outside of the culture, which serve to ‘make the unfamiliar familiar’. This method of presenting ideas encourages the audience to consider and question their own ideas, customs and assumptions, in the context of new perspectives. The important factor in this process is the re-situation of representations and meanings and Wagoner (ibid.) suggests that through this, creative thinking can be engendered. In the same way that anthropologists and psychologists recognise the importance of

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reflection and the reconsideration of meaning of the representations which surround us, so too does the clown. Ton Kurstjens (2011) addresses this, quoting an unidentified source “Most adults have learned to think logically, to act effectively and to adjust to all rules and customs. Often you are stuck in this way of life. However, as a clown this is the opposite of what you are supposed to do, you ought to stop using mainstream logic and develop another kind of logic: clown’s logic. All for the sake of turning the unusual into something special and what’s special into something usual” (p. 126). Transformative pedagogies support the idea that learners should question and reflect upon their existing knowledge, often overturning or disposing of preconceptions and misconceptions, to create the freedom to develop new insights, understandings and ways of seeing the world. Reflection is commonly and unsurprisingly cited as a central component of good teaching practice. For example, Donald Schön’s (1987) ideas of ‘Reflection in practice’ and ‘Reflection on Practice’ are regularly promoted within teacher training programmes. Many make the case that reflection is crucial for effective learning to take place (Carroll, 2011, Kuhlthau et al., 2012; Eden, 2014). However, it is worth remembering that, in English at least, there are two meanings of the word reflection. The first of these is reflection in the sense of mirroring. As one would see themselves reflected in a looking glass, this is the reflection discussed in previous chapters through which clowns and teachers can build connection and empathy with their audiences. The second is reflection in the sense of introspection, where one might reflect upon actions or experiences. This is the self-­ examination which Mezirow (1978) refers to in his ten phases. Whist these two senses are quite different, they do of course share the same etymological Latin root: (Re)-Flectere meaning to bend (back). To reflect in the sense of mirroring means to bend light back. In the sense of introspection, it means to bend one’s thoughts back upon oneself. Thus, these two meanings can be characterised as reflection OF, meaning mirroring, or reflection ON, meaning introspection. As we have seen, this is very much the practice of the clown, in their performance, by which everyday practices are exaggerated or parodied to highlight their nonsensicality, or outlandish behaviour is performed as though it were the most normal thing. The mirroring which clowns perform and many see as central to their performance and even role or identity as a clown has the potential to prompt the introspection which is considered central to teaching and learning, for both teachers and learners. The purpose of this is to give people the opportunity to reflect on their own behaviour and

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attitudes within new contexts, to think anew about their own norms and accepted wisdom. This too is the role of the clown, to sow doubt where there is certainty, prompting a question of accepted norms. This is echoed in more practical terms by Nalle Laanela (Laanela & Sacks, 2015) whose 3rd commandment of clowning is that one should “Comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. One of Laanela’s intentions of this action is to create a balance in society, either by ‘creating heart-warming laughter’ or by creating unsettling, thought-provoking, challenging situations introducing doubt. Dancing with Doubt Schuck and Buchanan (2012) recognise that there is often resistance to doubt and a drive for certainty. They argue against this movement, making the case for ‘doubtspace’. In the context of teacher education, where the dominance of teaching standards implies that there is an authority that knows a ‘right’ way to teach and any equivocation or uncertainty about this which tries to propose the complexity of the discipline is to be avoided. Schuck and Buchanan (ibid.) appeal to Schön (1995) and Dewey’s (1930) views of inquiry as “thought intertwined with action—which proceeds from doubt to resolution of doubt, to the generation of new doubt, [inquiry] begins with situations that are problematic—that are confusing, uncertain, or conflicted, and block the free flow of action” and Freire and Macedo (1987) “we become ‘less certain of “certainties”’, we sharpen our capacity for ‘critical pedagogy’” to make the case that doubt is in fact an essential part of learning and a necessary stage in questioning and overturning existing knowledge. Their view is aligned with that of Richard Feynman who is quoted as saying “I can live with doubt and uncertainty. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.” Schuck and Buchanan (2012) frame doubt as an “unknown intruder” or “the child who not only declares the emperor naked, but then dares to stare” echoing the clown, David Konyot, who positions the clown, as “the little boy who tells the emperor he’s got no clothes on” (LeBank & Bridel, 2015, p.  111). They make the point that new learning involves risk, in which old certainties are open to question and criticism and must often be overthrown. This is reminiscent of van Gennep’s descriptions of rites of passage, where initiates or novices are required to endure time in a wilderness away from norms and certainties before they can progress in society.

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In referring to management and business undergraduates learning about leadership Hawkins and Edwards (2015) suggest that the state of doubt, confusion, uncertainty and ambiguity are not just a part of ‘learning about’, but also central to ‘doing’ leadership. They talk of the ‘monsters of doubt’ which are encountered within a liminal stage of a student’s transformative learning experiences, that must be ‘grappled with’ and whilst recognising that doubt is central to their endeavour, it is framed as something which must be challenged and overcome rather than engaged with and embraced. The framing of doubt as monsters, calls to mind Lakoff and Johnson’s (2008) warning of the powerful nature of metaphor. In this they make the case that conceptual metaphor such as “argument is war” (p. 4) leads to conflictual forms of argument. Instead, they ask us to imagine arguments as dance and so seek to engage in argument in a balanced and harmonious manner that accommodates and adapts to the other person’s actions in a way to produce an aesthetically pleasing form. The same might be said of ‘grappling’ with the ‘monsters of doubt’. If we accept these monsters will exist, we can do as clowns do and seek to dance with them instead. Troublesome Knowledge Schuck and Buchanan’s (2012) view of the need to dethrone established ideas and knowledge and the associated doubt and turmoil can be seen as a reframing of the concept of troublesome knowledge proposed by Perkins (1999). Perkins (ibid.) proposed that in order to apply constructivist ideas of teaching and learning wisely, it was necessary to accept that certain forms of knowledge could prove troublesome. In this, he described forms of knowledge that can prove to be troublesome for learners, either in creating barriers for the acquisition of new knowledge or in and of itself in terms of its relevance and application. These were identified as; inert knowledge, that is knowledge that we hold but never use in a productive way; ritual knowledge, that is the knowledge which we use routinely, without thought; conceptually difficult knowledge, that which requires a reconsideration or reformulation of understanding and foreign knowledge, that which requires a shift in the context and field of understanding. Meyer and Land (2003) added to this list with “tacit knowledge”, that is knowledge which is personal and implicit (Polanyi, 1958) creating idiosyncratic understanding and can often conflict with the acquisition of new knowledge. Each of these types of knowledge could prove troublesome in different ways.

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Threshold Concepts and Liminality In the context of the current discussion, troublesome knowledge plays a large part in the ‘stuckness’ which learners experience during their educational journey. Meyer and Land (2003) developed the domain of troublesome knowledge proposed by Perkins (1999) and adapted the anthropological concept of liminality to the domain of teaching and learning, specifically in the area of Higher Education. Originally applied in university teaching, but now used more widely, Threshold Concepts are a form of ‘core concept’ fundamental to the understanding of a field. However, Threshold Concepts are seen as a specific category of these, in that they require a reinterpretation of the field, in which understanding is shifted, opening up new ways of seeing the world, hence the adoption of the metaphor of the threshold, borrowed from Van Gennep’s (1960) Rites of Passage. Liminality lies at the heart of their notion of Threshold Concepts. In common with the liminal spaces in rituals (Turner, 1982), Thresholds Concepts are characterised by transformation. Learners or novitiates start from a pre-ritual state and emerge in a post-ritual state. However, in that transformational stage, they have left behind their pre-ritual state and but not yet assumed their post-ritual state. Meyer and Land (2005) describe being in this transitional stage as ‘letting go’ (of previously held views and perspectives). Meyer and Land claim this transitional stage as a state of ‘liminality’. It is seen as one in which learners reformulate their ontology and subjectivity and as Meyer and Land explain, it is troublesome and unsettling. Threshold Concepts are built upon the understanding that there are certain concepts which are transformational in their nature (Land et al., 2010). They propose the metaphor of a portal for the learning and understanding of these concepts, in that once one passes through this portal, a new world opens up so that, that which could not be perceived previously becomes apparent and that which was previously inaccessible becomes within reach. This is characterised by a transformation in thinking or understanding, a transformation of world view or frame of meaning and an overcoming of troublesome knowledge. According to Land, Meyer and Baillie (ibid.), these concepts are those which are essential for a learner to understand, if they are to progress. They characterise these portals or learning transitions as ‘transformative’, ‘integrative’, (often) ‘irreversible’ and frequently, as with Perkins (1999), ‘troublesome’. These create

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problems for the integration of new knowledge as existing knowledge is in silos and isolated, thus being troublesome in terms of its coherence with new knowledge. It is troublesome also because it requires the learner to shed their accustomed way of seeing the world and to take up a new one. This is often accompanied by resistance as it asks the learner to give up their comfortable way of seeing things and take on a new way of thinking. The shift in thinking required to dislodge the troublesome knowledge such as routine, tacit or inert knowledge involves a transitional or transformational period in which the established knowledge needs to be discharged. As Wagoner (2008) and Kurstjens (2011) suggest above, an impasse in learning often requires a radical change in perspective. Within this transition it is quite common that in the overlap or space between the states of knowing and understanding, the learner has given up their old way of understanding but is yet unable to adopt the new way of understanding. This can be disconcerting and disorienting, as with the early stages of Mezirow’s transitions, leaving the learner in a state of suspension between the two worlds. Hence Meyer and Land (2003) draw upon Turner (1982) and van Gennep’s (1960) anthropological studies and their concept of liminality. Land et al. (2010) do not suggest that this transformation is unidirectional or instant, they recognise that leaners will oscillate within the liminal space, moving forwards and backwards within it, shifting their perceptions and understanding. However, they state that once transition is achieved, it is an irreversible, permanent state. Once someone has the access to ‘see the world anew’, it is very difficult for them to place themselves back in the pre-liminal state. Suggested examples are complex numbers in mathematics, which are conceptually difficult to conceive of. However, once the idea is assimilated or ‘integrated’ as Meyer and Land (2003) would have it, they open up a realm of mathematics which would otherwise be inaccessible, one in which complex numbers are ‘everyday’ rather than an abstract difficulty. This knowledge is troublesome as it requires the learner to fully understand and integrate/internalise the idea of square roots of negative numbers, which conflicts with previous knowledge, furthermore that these numbers are imaginary and further yet, that complex numbers are those which consist of a real part and an imaginary part. However, once this idea is accepted and understood, it is a fundamental building block of much of advanced mathematics. Meyer and Land (ibid.) also suggest post-structuralism as a Threshold Concept. An area in which deconstruction or signification decouple words

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from any meaning grounded in reality and instead take their meaning from their relationship to each other. This challenges positivist views of ‘reality’ with the idea that reality is constructed by its participants rather than ‘out there’. This idea is subversive and patently ridiculous to those whose education is grounded in the sciences and believe in an objective reality, albeit with some unknowns. However, there is evidence that at least some of these ‘hard-nosed scientists’ that have made the leap are able to navigate the complex and ever-changing world of post-structuralism. The ontological shift required for such a revision of perception of reality is huge and not one that is easily reversed. It calls into question previous knowledge and understanding and of course is troublesome as it requires the learner to leave behind their security of the nature of the world and to take on one which is disconnected from that which they know. It is therefore unsurprising that those who shift between the two world views find this troublesome and no doubt oscillate within that space, in turn embracing the post-structuralist view and then feeling duped by the same ideas, which suddenly appear absurd in the face of the hard reality that they see around them. But in that space between realising that the reality as they understood it might not be all they thought it was and integrating or internalising the new post-structuralist explanation, the learner is truly lost. In their summary of the literature of Threshold Concepts, Land et al. (2010), describe the centrality of the notion of troublesomeness in liminal spaces of learning. These are described as those spaces in which there is a transformation in the learner’s “ontology or subjectivity”. Threshold Concepts and Liminality with Clowns Meyer and Land (2005) propose that shifts in perspective are often associated with an extension of the use of language. In the current context, the term ‘language’ is used in a very wide sense, perhaps more aligned with Meyer and Land’s (2005) proposition that this ‘elaboration of discourse’ leads to new thinking and expression or reflection upon those thoughts. Meyer and Land (2003) describe this form of troublesome knowledge as “knowledge that is ‘alien’, or counter-intuitive or even intellectually absurd at face value”. This is much aligned with the idea of the playfulness of clowns, where their transgressions, subversions and inversions provoke exploration, risk taking and challenges to hegemony. In their playfulness, clowns say and do things which are not usually said and done, leading to thoughts and ideas which are not usually had, it echoes Lakoff and

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Johnson’s (2008) and Donald Schön’s (1979) view of metaphor, in which initially metaphors help us to think about things which we don’t understand, in terms of things which we do understand. But also, through Schön’s (1979) “generative metaphors” they allow us to extend our thinking by shaping the way we think about things and the things we can imagine (McCusker, 2020). The liminal spaces which abound in the Threshold Concepts of educational disciplines present challenges for teachers and learners alike. For many, they amount to barriers that are unsurmountable and learners reach a limit in their disciplinary understanding where they are unable to cross the divide between conceptual perspectives. For example, never understanding complex numbers or post-structuralism. For others, these liminal spaces present a hiatus in which they oscillate between understandings, before alighting beyond the threshold with a new world view. This view of liminality coupled with the anthropological view recognises that not all those who venture into the ‘wilderness’ of the liminal space on their learning journey will emerge on the other side; each educational journey will encounter many such spaces, not all will be traversed. Although, the clown-teacher will not be able to guide the learner through all of these spaces, a better understanding of specific Threshold Concepts will allow improved pedagogies. Nevertheless, the clown-­ teacher, equipped with experience of and familiarity with doubt and uncertainty, will be able to accompany the learner within the liminal space encountered in Threshold Concepts, wherever it takes them. The clown characteristics, identified in the previous chapters, including subversion, openness, failure and connection will assist the leaner in developing the facility to look at the world in different ways, to shift perspectives, to persevere and to improvise and thus better equip them to endure the conceptual divides presented within Threshold Concepts. The clown-teacher may not be able to resolve the situation for the learner, but as with the Fool and King Lear discussed in Chap. 1, he can accompany them in the wilderness.

Summary There are many anthropological and educational theories which are predicated on the existence of liminal spaces. Liminal spaces are associated with transformation, in leaving behind a way of being and of seeing the world and taking on a new identity or understanding. This chapter begins with

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the origins of the ideas of liminal space as presented by van Gennep in 1909, initially associated with transitions within society. It follows this through the development by Victor Turner and the conceptual similarities identified in the educational domain through Jack Mezirow (1978, 1990, 1991, 1994), Meyer and Land (2003, 2005) and Land et al. (2010). The common concept across all these models is the existence of the liminal states, those states between stable understandings and views of the world. Across all these formulations, these liminal spaces are inhabited by uncertainty and unpredictability. These in-between spaces resemble the marginal spaces occupied by clowns throughout their varied histories and incarnations. These spaces are uncomfortable for many people, but they are necessarily so. The challenge for clowns, teachers and learners is to learn how to exist within those spaces and to become familiar with being uncomfortable. Up until now, the metaphorical representations of these liminal spaces have been uninviting and intimidating. However, by presenting the close alignment between the skills and attributes of clowns, along with their ability to find joy in every context, the scope to bring clown-teachers into those liminal spaces allows them to be seen in a new perspective. The clown has a number of attributes that can be brought to bear in encounters with Threshold Concepts. Through the tools of mockery and ridicule, the clown has a history of challenging and ‘dethroning’ institutions of power, of accepted wisdom and perhaps also of (troublesome) knowledge. With uncomfortable conversations and interactions taking us out of our safety zones, clowns challenge our ideas and complacency. Provoking us to think in different ways and discuss ideas and issues which we might not usually discuss. By saying things we don’t normally say, we can then talk about things we don’t normally talk about and think things we don’t normally think. Meyer and Land (2003) see liminal spaces as a troublesome stage in which the security of previous understanding or place in the world has been shed, but the new understanding or status is not yet confirmed as such it is not surprising that learners find such a phase daunting. Yet often teachers who have traversed that liminal phase and acquired the post-­ liminal knowledge and status often struggle to recognise the disorientation which learners are experiencing. It is challenging for teachers to re-enter that liminal state to allow them to guide learners through it. Once they see the world through new eyes, it is challenging to revert to seeing

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the world as it was. The skill of the clown is in assuming child-like naivety; this may allow them to cross back across the conceptual divides to share that journey with their learners afresh. This liminal space in the overlap of ideas or world views is the space inhabited by clowns everywhere. They don’t belong to the conventional norms of society nor do they share the thoughts and views of society. Instead, they occupy a space in which they constantly disturb, disrupt and perturb those conventions and accepted wisdoms. As we have seen in the review of their philosophies and their roles across cultures, they are familiar with the discomfort of that space and have learned to live with it. In fact, they seek it and have learned to thrive in it. Ritually, this is the space of transition, the ambiguous or ungrounded space between what was and what is becoming. In rites of passage, when participants leave behind their pre-ritual status but have not yet take on their post-ritual status. It is a place of disorientation and discomfort. From clowns, we can learn how to venture into that space, to be unafraid and accept that discomfort is a part of the process and to accompany those who are experiencing the loss and disorientation of liminality. It is not the role of the clown-teacher to try to temper that stage of the process for the novice, the clown through long experience of the doubt and discomfort of the liminal state can only accompany them through the process and reassure them that it is a necessary and acceptable state in which to exist. However, as Laanela acknowledges in his call to “Comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”, it is important to possess the correct tools to accompany people through this transitional space and to recognise who needs heart-warming and who needs challenge and when. Fortunately, this disturbed, uncomfortable space is where clowns live and whether in the pedagogical or the pastoral the clown-teacher will be well placed to accompany their student through that period of loss, disorientation and transformation.

References Bivens, F., Moriarty, K., & Taylor, P. (2009). Transformative education and its potential for changing the lives of children in disempowering contexts. IDS Bulletin, 40(1), 97–108. Carroll, M. (2011). Supervision: A journey of lifelong learning. In R.  Shohet (Ed.), Supervision as transformation: A passion for learning (pp.  14–28). Jessica Kingsley.

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Cousin, G. (2006). An introduction to threshold concepts. Planet, 17(1), 4–5. Dewey, J. (1930). The quest for certainty: A study of the relation of knowledge and action. The Journal of Philosophy, 27(1), 14–25. Eden, S. (2014). Out of the comfort zone: Enhancing work-based learning about employability through student reflection on work placements. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 38(2), 266–276. Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Routledge. Hawkins, B., & Edwards, G. (2015). Managing the monsters of doubt: Liminality, threshold concepts and leadership learning. Management Learning, 46(1), 24–43. Kuhlthau, C.  C., Maniotes, L.  K., & Caspari, A.  K. (2012). Guided inquiry design®: A framework for inquiry in your school. ABC-CLIO. Kurstjens, T. (2011). The clown, from heart to heart. Paragon Publishing. Laanela, P. N., & Sacks, S. (2015). The clown manifesto. Bloomsbury Publishing. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2008). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago press. Land, R., Meyer, J. H. F., & Baillie, C. (2010). ‘Editors’ preface: Threshold concepts and transformational learning. In Threshold concepts and transformational learning (Educational futures: Rethinking theory and practice, 42) (pp. ix– xlii). Sense; Brill. LeBank, E., & Bridel, D. (2015). Clowns: In conversation with modern masters. Routledge. McCusker, S. (2020). Everybody’s monkey is important: LEGO® Serious Play® as a methodology for enabling equality of voice within diverse groups. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 43(2), 146–142. Meyer, J., & Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: Linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines (pp. 412–424). University of Edinburgh. Meyer, J. H., & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49(3), 373–388. Mezirow, J. (1978). Perspective transformation. Adult Education, 28(2), 100–110. Mezirow, J. (1990). Fostering critical reflection in adulthood (pp. 1–20). Jossey-­ Bass Publishers. Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass. Mezirow, J. (1994). Understanding transformation theory. Adult Education Quarterly, 44(4), 222–232. Peacock, L. (2009). Serious play: Modern clown performance. Intellect Books. Perkins, D. (1999). The many faces of constructivism. Educational Leadership, 57(3), 6–11. Polanyi, M. (1958). Personal knowledge. Towards a post-critical philosophy. Routledge & Kegan Paul.

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Schön, D. A. (1979). Generative metaphor: A perspective on problem-setting in social policy. Metaphor and Thought, 2, 137–163. Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. Jossey-Bass. Schön, D.  A. (1995). Knowing-in-action: The new scholarship requires a new epistemology. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 27(6), 27–34. Schuck, S., & Buchanan, J. (2012). Dead certainty?: The case for doubt in teacher education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(8), 1–11. Turner, V. (1982). From ritual to theatre: The human seriousness of play. Performing Arts Journal Publications. Van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage: Arnold van Gennep (Monika B. Vizedom, Trans.). University of Chicago Press. Wagoner, B. (2008). Commentary: Making the familiar unfamiliar. Culture & Psychology, 14(4), 467–474.

CHAPTER 9

Conclusion

Introduction This book has been about clowning and how it can contribute to education. It has been written from the perspective of a teacher and educationalist. The aspiration is that other teachers and educationalists, on reading this book, will have a better understanding of clowns and clowning and therefore be more able to see the world through the eyes of a clown.

Practical Lessons Throughout time and across the world the clown has always contributed to society. In royal courts they both supported the ruler and held them accountable, through jest and mockery. In tribal societies, they safeguarded the standards and conventions of that society by demonstrating how life would be, if those standards were not maintained. For instance, in initiation ceremonies, by parodying the behaviour of the adolescents soon to be entering adulthood or with the Koyemshi of the pueblos, by mocking the custom of the colonising ‘other’ as a way of preserving their own traditions and practices. In the contemporary era, clowns are to be found in contexts outside of the circus ring or theatrical stage, contributing to the societies in which they live. They are seen in hospitals, with clown-doctors like ‘Patch’ Adams, providing both psychosocial and

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clinical care. They are seen in social actions, with groups like the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) at the G8 summit, disrupting thorough efforts to help the police or join the army. More recently, there were clowns at the border of Ukraine and Moldova, providing relief to those refugees making their way across. As Angela de Castro states (LeBank & Bridel, 2015), there are many types of clowns, in many different contexts, but they all exist in the same state of clownhood, to be able to play, to create or to just be. Within this state, they have always tried to make a positive contribution. Of course, clowns are not without their detractors, people talk of coulrophobia or ‘evil’ clowns. This book has questioned that terminology by suggesting, perhaps in a circular manner, that those clowns who set out only to evoke fear or do harm through the mantle of the clown, rather than make a contribution to society are not in fact clowns. Instead, they are people dressing up as clowns and this is not the same thing. Politicians and public figures who demonstrate incompetence or fail spectacularly are not clowns either; they do not do this with compassion for their audience, to build empathy or to serve them well.

Improvisation, Failure, Empathy and Connection We have looked at the philosophies, motivations and principles of some of the most accomplished clowns and clown teachers and we see some common themes which are applicable in teaching and learning. Across the teachings of Jacques Lecoq, the practices of the ‘Modern Masters’ and the principles of P. Nalle Laanela and Andrea Jiménez, we see the strong, recurrent themes of improvisation, failure, empathy and connection. In a teaching environment that, in some countries is becoming increasingly prescriptive, the case for improvisation is strongly made. This is not improvisation in the sense of ‘making it up as you go’; this is improvisation in the sense of calling on a repertoire of experience and expertise, to create something anew from existing tools and resources, which have been tried, tested and adapted for a range of situations, and yes, to sometimes ‘make it up as you go’, but ‘making it up’ based on expertise. The case for improvisation is not the rejection of training, quite the opposite. All the most accomplished clowns describe a wealth of training, in various contexts and environments, with various mentors, teachers and role models, through which they developed their own clown identity, the same should be true for the teacher if they wish to improvise with expertise. Improvisation is

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not a substitute for preparation. One of the risks of improvisation is, of course, that it might end in failure, but the clown knows that failure is acceptable, more than that, the clown knows that failure is essential. Failure is a result of taking risks and extending to the edge of one’s limits, performing at one’s very best. If learners are to understand that failure is acceptable and in fact essential and that ‘there are no stupid questions’, then they will need to see it being demonstrated rather than being spoken. The teacher’s response to failure has the greatest influence on the learner’s understanding of what it means to fail. If the teacher can learn to fail with grace, humility and resilience, so too can the learner. When the learner sees the teacher fail, as the audience sees the clown fail, they see themselves reflected therein and in that reflection, empathy is built, in recognising themselves in the struggles of others. Through this empathy, the clown and the teacher build a connection with their audiences and that connection is at the heart of teaching and performance. As Andrea Jiménez discussed, improvisation is a win-win, if you improvise and are successful you have the win of the success, if you improvise and fail, you have the win of the connection with the audience. There is no loss.

The Clown-Teacher Challenge The challenge for teachers is in ‘letting go’. Letting of their control and authority and letting go of their place in the hierarchy, within a structure which is increasingly unsustainable in the face of innovations in technology and information flow. Letting go of the façade they project to protect their ego and maintain some air of omniscience and infallibility. However, to do this it is necessary for teachers to enter that same liminal space of transformation into which we try to entice learners. We are asking them to give up the security of their current practices, which may be suboptimal, for the possibility of developing new forms of teaching and communication with their learners, with no guarantees of success. This presents a risk, as we ask the teacher to give up their position on the stage and to do as the circus clown, or as Freire’s (1993) teacher-learner and be amongst the audience of learners. However, there is the potential for the reward associated with that risk. In dropping the façade and being authentic, the teacher creates the opportunity of overcoming the impostor syndrome faced by many new teachers, as well as those more experienced, as their teacher identity is allowed to be more aligned with individual views of self. In

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demonstrating fallibility, teachers allow learners to see themselves reflected in the teacher and to recognise the joint endeavour and mutuality of the teacher-learner relationship. This authenticity and fallibility are recognised by audiences and learners alike and plays an important role in creating the empathy and connection between teacher and learner which facilitates the effective communication that lies at the heart of teaching and learning. Andrea Jiménez demands that clowns stand as their true ‘stupid’ selves, the same is asked of the teacher. They are being asked to enter that liminal space and rely upon their experience and expertise to allow them to navigate it, at times improvising, appearing foolish and failing. In return, no promises are made, the teacher must enter that space of doubt and insecurity which clowns inhabit and which we encourage leaners to enter. In environments of high accountability and managerialism, this is indeed risky and caution is advised. However, the rewards may justify the risk.

In Liminal Space It is this performance within spaces of doubt, insecurity and liminality, which epitomises the nature of the clown. In all environments we see the clown beyond the boundaries, in positions of vulnerability and marginality; in the clowns of Shakespeare moving between audience and performance, in the protests of CIRCA, protesting with, but not alongside the other protesters, in the Heyoka and contraries, living in such contrast to tribal norms, that they were confined to the edges of society, neither fully a part of the tribe nor apart from it. In all contexts, clowns have existed in the liminal spaces between states. Their imperative to cross boundaries has left them permanently in a state, unbounded but also unanchored. It is the clown’s familiarity with this state of isolation and disorientation which makes them a fitting companion for learners traversing the wilderness associated with learning. Just as van Gennep (1960) described tribal novitiates being separated from the security of their environment and being subjected to isolation and trial before being reintegrated into society, the learner must leave behind the security of their naïve knowledge before achieving a more sophisticated understanding. In so doing, they endure a wilderness where they have shed the certainty of their existing knowledge, with no guarantees that deeper insight will be gained. This space is isolating and disorienting, experienced by learners across many disciplines. For many, mathematics provides an abundance of examples where, on that

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journey through the learning space, on a number of occasions they shed their misconceptions and enter the liminal space, to emerge with a higher level of understanding. But also, for many, a conceptual limit is reached in which they find they are unable to completely traverse the divide, as such they realise that what they know is inadequate or incomplete, yet they are unable to proceed beyond the ‘wilderness’ space to gain a higher understanding and so that particular journey comes to an end. The experience of that liminal space is often a necessary stage of learning which must be endured. It is not the place of the teacher to remove that ordeal from the learner. However, the clown-teacher, experienced and familiar with that space of discomfort and disorientation, is at least able to accompany them through it.

Maintaining the Integrity of the Clown Throughout this book, I have tried to maintain the integrity of the clown, for whom I have the greatest respect. I have tried to place them at the forefront of my writing and to avoid misrepresentation or convenient ascription of traits or principles purely to make a point. The focus has always been on clowns and what we can learn from them, rather than for their methods to be co-opted into educational contexts or for their actions to be overtheorised, through the lens of popular political or social theory. I have tried to leave the clown unscathed by my observations and interpretations.

Hope for the Future The case made within these pages is not that teachers should enter the classroom as clowns, neither is it for clowning practices to be adapted for teaching nor for the development of clowning skills for teachers. Instead, what is advocated is that teachers gain a better understanding of what it means to be a clown; through understanding their principles and philosophies, through watching them in practice and even through undergoing clown training. The intention is that teachers, in having experienced ‘clownhood’, will be more able to embody the ‘clown spirit’ when teaching and be able to improvise and fail and empathise and connect and play and endure the uncomfortable spaces which accompany the learning process.

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This book has contributed to a wider understanding of what the clown has to offer to society in a rich range of contexts. Hopefully, it is just the start of the conversation about the place of clowning within education and others will see its relevance and join in.

References Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed (Myra Bergman Ramos, Trans.). Penguin. LeBank, E., & Bridel, D. (2015). Clowns: In conversation with modern masters. Routledge. Van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage: Arnold van Gennep. Transl. by Monika B. Vizedom. University of Chicago Press.

Index

A Africa, 6, 13, 14, 19, 30–31, 89 Asia, 6, 13, 19, 23–27 B Bamana, 31–32 Birbal, 23, 24 Bouffon, 7, 79, 82, 85, 87–90, 92, 93 Buffoon, 15, 78 C Clown Manifesto, 8, 92, 113, 114 Clowns, v, 4–8, 14–32, 38–50, 55–69, 73, 79, 82, 85, 90–93, 97, 100, 105, 108, 113, 114, 119–121, 130, 136–137, 144–147 killer, 63–65 scary, 55–57, 61–63

Clown-teacher, 113–122 Commedia dell ‘arte, 7, 18, 59, 60, 69, 79, 80, 82, 85–89, 93, 99, 101 Communication, 50 Connection, 92, 97, 105–108, 117–118, 144–145 Coulrophobia, 55 Coyote, 27–28 D Doubt, 132–133 E Education, 2, 73, 78, 101, 116, 118, 134 Egypt, Ancient, 6, 14–15, 19, 48 Empathy, 42, 144–145 Europe, 7, 80, 89

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F Fail, 104 Failure, 97, 101–104, 144–145 Feedback, 107 Fool, 5, 6, 13, 16–18, 21, 22, 48, 49, 74, 137 Freire, Paolo, 2, 116, 132, 145 G Gopal, 23, 24 Greece, ancient, 6, 15, 32, 48, 83, 87 H Heyoka, 29–30, 32, 33, 39, 49, 76, 87, 128, 146 Hop Frog, 61, 63, 69 Humour, 26, 39 I Improvisation, 94, 97–101, 108, 144–145 J Jester, 5, 23 Jiménez, Andrea, viii, 8, 77, 103, 109, 113, 119–122, 130, 144, 146 K Koreduga, 31–33, 89, 127 Koyemshi, 28–29, 32, 43, 48, 143 L Laanela, Nalle, 8, 77, 92, 102, 104, 105, 107, 113–122, 130, 132, 139, 144 Larible, David, 6

Liminal, 137, 146–147 Liminality, 125, 127–128, 134–137 Liminal space, 146–147 M Mande, 30, 31 Medieval, 13, 16, 89 Melodrama, 7, 82–85, 93 Mockery, 88 Mr Punch, 59–61, 68, 69 N North America, 6, 13, 19, 28, 29, 56 P Parasite, 15 Pedagogical, 98 Pedagogy, 3, 78 Pennywise, 57, 58, 62, 69 Play, 114–119 Polunin, Slava, 6, 97, 103 Popov, Oleg, 6 R Ritual, 29 Rome, ancient, 6, 15–16, 32 S Sacred, 48–50 Scary clown, 55–57, 61–63 Shakespeare, William, 5, 19–23, 91, 146 Shakespearean, 20–23, 116 T Teacher-clown, 73, 145–146

 INDEX 

Teaching, 2, 4, 78 Tenali Rama, 23–26, 32 Threshold Concepts, vii, 8, 134–138 Tragedy, 7, 82–83, 93 Trickster, 27–28, 78

V Van Gennep, Arnold, 2, 8, 125–129, 132, 134, 135, 138, 146 Vidushaka, 26, 61

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