{Photograph} by Sarah Shtern.
“Nicely, God give them knowledge which have it; and people which might be fools, allow them to use their skills.”
—Feste the Clown, Twelfth Evening, William Shakespeare
Strolling as much as the Elysian Theater, a small membership off the 5 on the foot of Elysian Heights in Los Angeles, I assumed I used to be hallucinating after I noticed a dozen goats below the brilliant white gentle of the marquee, and for each goat a clown. Everybody was fawning over the short-haired creatures. Some had two little bald spots on their heads as a substitute of horns, which, I later realized, is the place the recent irons get utilized for disbudding.
The Elysian was internet hosting Clownchella, an occasion occurring the week earlier than Coachella. Possibly it goes with out saying: these occasions bear nearly no relation to one another. Coachella is a sprawling music and artwork pageant of spoon-fed nostalgia, snakeskin pants, and sensorially shattering spectacle held on the grounds of a polo membership, dropped at you by sponsors like American Specific, Coca-Cola, BMW, et cetera, and which prices (not less than) $510 plus lodging. Clownchella was a one-night clown pageant with 5 acts that value sixteen bucks.
At Clownchella, I anticipated circus-variety clowns, purple noses and massive footwear. I had figured that the historical past of clowning had reached its terminus; from historic Greek mimes to commedia dell’arte, Charlie Chaplin to Bozo to Krusty (my private favourite). The clowns most related to our occasions appear to be the old school scary ones, the Jokers and the Pennywises. However I’d heard that Los Angeles has a various and burgeoning clown scene that’s innovating the shape. Impartial academics are creating their very own clown pedagogy, nurturing a brand new era of performers and borrowing from European clowns, who, apparently, are method forward of the curve. This summer time, Hannah Levin, the host of Clownchella, and another LA clowns are touring to Étampes, France, to review with the French clown and pedagogue Philippe Gaulier, who for the previous fifty years has taught clowning utilizing strategies like masks play, Greek tragedy, and the examine of Chekhov, all with the aim of discovering the clown inside. The clowns right here take silliness very critically. Standing exterior the Elysian, I watched because the goats jumped round and set free cute little bleats.
A girl with magenta-colored hair, Scout, who runs Celebration Goats LA, informed me they have been rescues, largely Oberhaslis, a breed of dairy goat developed in Switzerland, apart from the one Nigerian dwarf goat in attendance. Scout and her crew convey the goats to youngsters’s events and senior houses, do goat hikes, and are planning to begin offering brush clearance providers for wildfire prevention. “Goats and other people have had a relationship for over ten thousand years,” she mentioned. “They have been the second animal domesticated after canine. And it doesn’t matter what tradition your ancestors are from or the place you come from—” In the midst of her sentence I glanced up and noticed a tallish man with a bald crown and brief white hair on the edges. He wore a customized letterman jacket with the phrases clown boss on the again in massive purple fuzzy letters. I’d heard about Clown Boss, a.okay.a. Chad Damiani. I’d heard that this was a clown you didn’t need to cross. Certainly, regardless of the tightly packed crowd, a fringe of non-public house was allotted to him, as for a capo at a marriage, or funeral.
All of the animals filed into the theater’s lobby. Close to the entrance desk, I launched myself to Sethward, who is understood for absurdist performances in home made animal costumes and several other appearances on America’s Bought Expertise. He had a large mustache and a considerably odd method of talking. I noticed the performers cramming by the door resulting in the inexperienced room and determined to sneak in. I’d anticipated to see folks placing on massive purple wigs and blowing balloon animals and straightening their dunce caps, however as a substitute it was largely filled with goats. All of the performers have been wearing regular garments. What sort of clown present was this gonna be? I cradled a child goat in my arms, gave it a kiss, and went again to the theater’s lobby.
{Photograph} by Sarah Shtern.
I noticed Clown Boss standing close to the concession stand and walked over. He had a neat white beard and considerably muscular construct, and watched me as I approached. I used to be struck by his eyes, practically jet black, a mixture of unhappiness and kindness swimming in them. I scanned his torso for a squirting flower or spinning bow tie. He was nice and pleasant. I requested him what a clown is. “A clown presents some type of sport, or technique of play, that the viewers can take part in,” he mentioned. “And usually, it’s actually dumb. As a result of that simply provides to the pleasure.”
Damiani was once a pro-wrestling announcer, then a profitable six-figure-earning screenwriter. After his accomplice died from pancreatic most cancers, he requested himself what he was doing along with his life. Damiani began to clown about 13 years in the past and has turn out to be a type of clown guru, internet hosting quite a few intensives and workshops each week. He has a podcast about clown. (The clowns I spoke with used the phrase clown on this method, as an summary noun, a state of being, quite than a standard noun or verb.)
Contained in the theater, I sat within the second row. Within the advertising for Clownchella the group was inspired to decorate like they have been going to Coachella. One girl donned a low-cut silvery costume and sparkly head jewellery, one other was wearing all leopard print, and there have been two high-glam punks, however these might have simply been their Thursday matches. The hosts have been Hannah Levin, a clown and licensed social care employee who curated Clownchella, and Deshawn Ball, a former Marine who, with Jamonte Williams, runs a bunch known as Clowns of Shade, whose routines have included Oompa Loompas demanding reparations and French cooks carrying jockstraps. Levin and Ball have been dressed like farmers in overalls. As they did their opening bit—dispersing “golden tickets” for goat yoga—bubbles magically appeared and floated by the group. Then the goats have been introduced out to Beyoncé’s “Texas Maintain ’Em” and there was a lot dancing and hooting.
The closest factor to circus clowns got here in the course of the opening act. The Egg Heads wore big papier-mâché eggshells on their heads, purple ruff collars, purple circles painted on their cheeks, and purple painted noses. The 2 of them fell over one another and dedicated minor humiliations. Yellow yolk dripped down their chins as they gave dejected downward smiles. The following act was a distinction: Greatest Actress, a three-clown troupe who have been dressed like regular. These scaramouches posed as pageant concierges and took the group’s drink orders. Pretending to listen to “breast milk,” one of many clowns took out her left breast and began pumping.
This jogged my memory of one thing else that Damiani mentioned: “We don’t have permission to be dumb in our lives. We’re informed that if we’re dumb we’ll lose our jobs, or that we’re unhealthy dad and mom, or unhealthy companions. Right here, we are able to let go and do one thing silly.” The clown John Bradford appeared on the high of the slope main down into the theater. He had lengthy blond hair coated by a purple cranium cap, a houndstooth cardigan, and really tight khakis. He wore two skis, and with agonizing effort he slid down the incline, nothing to lubricate his descent, ski poles impotently tapping the ground. After being assisted onto the stage he grunted as he cross-countried the 2 yards to the stage’s heart. His again to the viewers, silent, he turned his face round coyly, displaying off his perky ass. This went on for some variety of minutes. After which it saved going, the laughs progressively diminishing because the gag went on till the awkward lack of laughter induced laughter anew.
The psychology of clowning is difficult. Or is it completely easy? Rachel Troy, who works as a therapist, was initially doing extra Groundlings-type sketch characters. She acquired into clowning about two years in the past, after taking the Fool Workshop, a category began by John Gilkey in 2012 that had additionally impressed Damiani to pursue it extra critically. “Clown appears to be about paradoxes,” Troy mentioned, “and about flipping issues on their head fully. Making you assume in another way. In a variety of the work that I see [in Los Angeles], there may be an depth.”
For her set at Clownchella, Troy held a comically oversize wire hanger round her head, the prop a stand-in for her character. Wire Hanger spoke in a childlike quiver, described her withered self-confidence and shriveled drive. “I by no means let myself dream,” she mentioned, pathetically. Wire Hanger couldn’t maintain something up, couldn’t bear the burden of even the slightest robe. “Simply got here out of the closet,” she mentioned to pained chuckles. This bouffon efficiency was cringey, pitiful, and mocking of energy. “I couldn’t get straight sufficient,” Wire Hanger mentioned. “Rachel flagged down a cop and, effectively, he acquired the job accomplished. I’ll inform ya, nothing shakes your confidence than figuring out you’re extra ineffective than a cop!” In the long run, Wire Hanger triumphed, reworked into Joan Crawford from Mommie Dearest (who hates wire hangers) and placed on a heavy luxurious fur coat.
{Photograph} by Sarah Shtern.
Lastly the theater dimmed and two blazing beams of sunshine shot into the room from the doorway. Clown Boss appeared in a purple turtleneck, a motley muumuu, and purple sun shades. He was main the troupe FLWLS (Flawless), so trailing behind him have been 4 performers, Deidre Lee, Nalini Sharma, Caroline Cummings, and Emily Shankman. “What you’re going to see tonight,” he mentioned, utilizing two flashlights as spotlights on the performers, “are these 4 clowns taking up the last word problem—they’ll do a greater present… than goats can.” The performers have been dressed like goat-mime hybrids, black pants and white tops, faux horns, a conceptual smudge of white face paint. Damiani coached the performers—a type of Max Bialystock from The Producers—critiquing their actions and generally singing small praises. “Present me braveness!—that’s good Diedre!” The goat-mimes pined for his approval and likewise mischievously disobeyed. At one level he inspired the performers by saying “The press is right here tonight!” (me) and I felt the joys of recognition, or a thinly veiled risk. Damiani informed the sound tech to play Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” however Johann Strauss II’s “The Blue Danube” acquired performed by mistake. The performers crawled and bucked, chewed each other’s hair, recited Hamlet’s “To be, or to not be” speech, and climbed the group like they have been cliffsides.
The present appeared over. However then, with an terrible shriek, a big and terrifying creature tumbled out from a small door below the stage’s staircase. Sethward wore a monstrous goat costume. On welded stilts he stood about eight toes tall. He set free piercing baas and begged the viewers for assist as he rose up on his grotesque armature, spittle on his faux goatee, then fell backward on his ass time and again, abjectly. He stood over two folks within the first row and leaned towards me. Sethward’s efficiency was a punishing slapstick, an amazing feat of self-inflicted violence that rendered brutally clear the sometimes-thin line between humor and horror. (One influential clown and instructor in Los Angeles is Purple Bastard, whose creepy bouffon act contains an all-red costume and white face paint. He likes to get viewers members to reveal their secrets and techniques, and likewise name their moms to apologize.)
{Photograph} by Sarah Shtern.
The evening ended with a last session of goat yoga; there’d been three or perhaps 4 classes all through. The entire viewers acquired on the stage, as did all of the clowns. The “yoga teacher” carnival-barked her orders—Downward canine! Little one’s pose!—because the goats jumped on folks’s backs and ran round, chewed on folks’s hair and pissed on the stage as crew members chased them to sop it up with blue towels. Watching the scene from my seat, I noticed that some viewers members’ faces have been caked in their very own clown paint.
The yoga factor appeared oddly becoming. Clowning will not be remedy, however speaking with all these Los Angeles clowns, there’s a transparent connection to wellness, to self-actualization by supportive, loving neighborhood. Deshawn Bell informed me, “By means of clown, I realized how you can break that mildew that I created for myself, or that society had created for me.”
Earlier than the present, I’d been studying concerning the heyoka, a sacred clown in Sioux society, a idiot determine who begs for meals throughout occasions of a lot, laughs throughout tragedy, turns into an agent of chaos when peace prevails. Positive, laughing helps the ache, however I did discover myself craving slightly extra from Clownchella. Possibly I needed one thing nearer to the sacred clown, or to glimpse a extra radical clown underground, a spot the place the jester’s privilege is invoked to eviscerate those that worth energy over magnificence, cash over fact, property over life.
Or was I simply not letting myself be dumb sufficient?
“Goats could make you snigger, however can they make you cry?” Clown Boss joked throughout FLWL’s set at Clownchella. “Can they make you assume? Can they make you care?”
Rob Goyanes is a author and editor from Miami, Florida. He lives in Los Angeles.
