Clowning

I can’t stop thinking about a conversation I had backstage this past Monday night while we were in places for Dears in Headlights, one of Dacha Theatre’s current summer shows, featuring clowning and other physical theatre. I was talking with another actor about how people never feel like they are in a place to experience pure joy, and other people never know if they have permission to bust through that and give it to them.

I remember a few years ago, I was at a community event, a parade in the Chinatown/International District. A clown, or a person in a clown onesie and a colorful wig maybe, gave a balloon to a little child, maybe three or four years old. The kid’s face lit up. You know the look. When you see a kid looking like that, it’s like you want to die in that moment – in a good way, because it’s so perfect, and life can never get any better than that. The poet Rumi would say the world is too full. 

During the pre-show, while the audience is waiting for the show to start, I come out as my clown character and clean people’s windshields.  I sometimes put a big patch of window cleaner on there and then wipe it off until I can see them and they can see me. And they have that same look on their face – filtered through eyes that have seen X number of decades of what this BS world has to offer, to be sure, but they are lit up, just the same. Peek-a-boo! 

It’s so inspiring to me that people can get to that place of joy, if only for that moment, and I can help them get there – and see it happening in that moment. This is what I love about what I am doing. 

Photo by Brett Love