Clowns & Helden
A clown is a performer who uses physical comedy, acting, mime, and other forms of comic performance, often while wearing distinctive makeup or costuming and playing with or reversing everyday social norms. The art of performing as a clown is known as clowning or buffoonery, and the term may also be used more broadly for related comic figures such as the jester, buffoon, fool, or harlequin.
Clown traditions vary widely across cultures and historical periods. The best-known forms in the English-speaking world are circus clowns, especially the whiteface and Auguste types, but clown-like figures have also appeared in theatre, ritual, folklore, and court entertainment, including the court jesters of medieval Europe and the ritual clowns of various Indigenous American cultures. The modern Western circus clown developed out of earlier comic roles in commedia dell'arte, harlequinade, and pantomime, and later expanded into film, television, children's entertainment, and contemporary performance.
Clowns have long occupied a complicated place in culture, combining humor, exaggeration, disorder, and social reversal. Their performances may provoke laughter, discomfort, or even fear, and clowning has been interpreted not only as entertainment but also as a social, psychological, and sometimes ritual form of expression.
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