A clown is a comic performer known for their distinctive makeup, costume, ludicrous antics, and buffoonery, all intended to induce laughter. Unlike traditional fools or jesters, clowns typically perform set routines characterized by broad humor, absurd situations, and vigorous physical action. The earliest ancestors of clowns go back to ancient Greece. Clowning became a general feature of medieval minstrels and jugglers' acts. The clown emerged as a professional comic actor in the late Middle Ages. Many characteristics of the modern circus—such as parades, acts of skill, animals, and clowns—had become mainstays of many circuses by the mid-19th century.

What does a clown typically look like?

A clown is a comic performer known for their distinctive makeup, costume, and ludicrous antics, meant to induce laughter. The traditional clown look includes oversized shoes, waistcoats, and hats, often with giant ruffs around their necks. Clowns often have whiteface makeup, a look popularized by the French clown Pierrot, who had a flour-whitened face. Another clown, called the Auguste, had a big nose, baggy clothes, large shoes, and untidy manners. Comic roles in Chinese Jingxi theatre feature white patches around the eyes, with primarily black patterns to identify the clown's specific type.

Where do clowns usually perform?

Clowns commonly perform in circuses, where they have played a definite role since the 19th century. In circuses, they entertain audiences with songs, monologues, jokes, and trick riding. Some clowns have abandoned traditional costumes and makeup to develop more natural characters. Clowns may also be seen in: * Minstrel and juggler acts * Theatrical productions * Vaudeville shows * Nightclubs and restaurants * Street entertainment * Motion pictures * Broadway productions

What kinds of acts or tricks do clowns perform?

Clowns use distinctive makeup, costumes, antics, and buffoonery to trigger laughter. Unlike a fool or jester, clowns perform routines featuring graphic humor, absurd situations, and vigorous physical action. Many modern circus elements, including clowns, became mainstays by the mid-19th century. Clowns' acts include physical tricks, pratfalls, and slapstick. Some clowns perform juggling and slack-wire routines. Clowns sometimes offer political commentary or quote Shakespeare.

How are clowns important to circus shows?

Clowns have become essential to circus shows, offering comic relief through distinctive makeup, costumes, antics, and buffoonery designed to create laughter. As the circus evolved in the 19th century, clowns took on a definite role, entertaining audiences with songs, monologues, and physical comedy. Clowns sometimes shared words of wisdom or quoted Shakespeare . Different types of clowns, like the whiteface clown and the Auguste clown, each bring their unique style to the performance. Modern clowns continue to evolve, sometimes breaking from tradition to develop more natural characters and connect with the audience on a personal level.

How have clowns changed over time or in different cultures?

Clowns have evolved significantly across time and cultures. The earliest clowns go back to ancient Greece as bald-headed buffoons. In the Middle Ages, clowns emerged as professional comic actors, with the commedia dell’arte introducing the Harlequin in the 16th century. The English clown came from the Vice character in medieval plays. In the 19th century, the whiteface clown and Auguste clown became popular. In the 20th century, some clowns abandoned traditional costumes and make-up to develop more natural characters. Sacred clowns are ritual figures in preliterate and ancient cultures that represent a reversal of the normal order. Some clowns have also taken on a darker image in popular culture.

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Images

Joseph Grimaldi as the clown in Harlequin Padmanada; or, The Golden Fish

Four grotesque, colorful clowns with exaggerated features stand under bright lights in a scene from the movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space, 1988.

Grock, also known as Charles Adrien Wettach, smiling broadly in clown makeup and costume in his dressing room at the Medrano Circus.

Quick Facts

Key People:: Emmett Kelly; Red Skelton; Grock; Joseph Grimaldi; Dan Rice

Related Topics:: 10 Famous Clowns: From Comical to Creepy; Why Do Clowns Have Red Noses?; Pickelherring; Auguste; vidushaka

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Top Questions

What is a clown?
A clown is a comic performer known for their distinctive makeup, costume, ludicrous antics, and buffoonery, all intended to induce laughter. Unlike traditional fools or jesters, clowns typically perform set routines characterized by broad humor, absurd situations, and vigorous physical action.

The earliest ancestors of clowns go back to ancient Greece. Clowning became a general feature of medieval minstrels and jugglers' acts. The clown emerged as a professional comic actor in the late Middle Ages.

Many characteristics of the modern circus—such as parades, acts of skill, animals, and clowns—had become mainstays of many circuses by the mid-19th century.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What does a clown typically look like?
A clown is a comic performer known for their distinctive makeup, costume, and ludicrous antics, meant to induce laughter. The traditional clown look includes oversized shoes, waistcoats, and hats, often with giant ruffs around their necks.

Clowns often have whiteface makeup, a look popularized by the French clown Pierrot, who had a flour-whitened face. Another clown, called the Auguste, had a big nose, baggy clothes, large shoes, and untidy manners. Comic roles in Chinese Jingxi theatre feature white patches around the eyes, with primarily black patterns to identify the clown's specific type.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Where do clowns usually perform?
Clowns commonly perform in circuses, where they have played a definite role since the 19th century. In circuses, they entertain audiences with songs, monologues, jokes, and trick riding. Some clowns have abandoned traditional costumes and makeup to develop more natural characters.

Clowns may also be seen in:
* Minstrel and juggler acts
* Theatrical productions
* Vaudeville shows
* Nightclubs and restaurants
* Street entertainment
* Motion pictures
* Broadway productions
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What kinds of acts or tricks do clowns perform?
Clowns use distinctive makeup, costumes, antics, and buffoonery to trigger laughter. Unlike a fool or jester, clowns perform routines featuring graphic humor, absurd situations, and vigorous physical action.

Many modern circus elements, including clowns, became mainstays by the mid-19th century. Clowns' acts include physical tricks, pratfalls, and slapstick. Some clowns perform juggling and slack-wire routines. Clowns sometimes offer political commentary or quote Shakespeare.
5 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How are clowns important to circus shows?
Clowns have become essential to circus shows, offering comic relief through distinctive makeup, costumes, antics, and buffoonery designed to create laughter.

As the circus evolved in the 19th century, clowns took on a definite role, entertaining audiences with songs, monologues, and physical comedy. Clowns sometimes shared words of wisdom or quoted Shakespeare. Different types of clowns, like the whiteface clown and the Auguste clown, each bring their unique style to the performance. Modern clowns continue to evolve, sometimes breaking from tradition to develop more natural characters and connect with the audience on a personal level.
2 Britannica Sources
1. clown
2. circus: Clowns
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How have clowns changed over time or in different cultures?
Clowns have evolved significantly across time and cultures. The earliest clowns go back to ancient Greece as bald-headed buffoons. In the Middle Ages, clowns emerged as professional comic actors, with the commedia dell’arte introducing the Harlequin in the 16th century.

The English clown came from the Vice character in medieval plays. In the 19th century, the whiteface clown and Auguste clown became popular.

In the 20th century, some clowns abandoned traditional costumes and make-up to develop more natural characters. Sacred clowns are ritual figures in preliterate and ancient cultures that represent a reversal of the normal order. Some clowns have also taken on a darker image in popular culture.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Bozo the ClownBozo the Clown from the TV series *The Bozo Show*, 1960.

clown, familiar comic character of pantomime and circus, known by distinctive makeup and costume, ludicrous antics, and buffoonery, whose purpose is to induce hearty laughter. The clown, unlike the traditional fool or court jester, usually performs a set routine characterized by broad, graphic humour, absurd situations, and vigorous physical action.

The earliest ancestors of the clown flourished in ancient Greece—bald-headed, padded buffoons who performed as secondary figures in farces and mime, parodying the actions of more serious characters and sometimes pelting the spectators with nuts. The same clown appeared in the Roman mime, wearing a pointed hat and a motley patchwork robe and serving as the butt for all the tricks and abuse of his fellow actors.

Clowning was a general feature of the acts of medieval minstrels and jugglers, but the clown did not emerge as a professional comic actor until the late Middle Ages, when traveling entertainers sought to imitate the antics of the court jesters and the amateur fool societies, such as the Enfants san Souci, who specialized in comic drama at festival times. The traveling companies of the Italian commedia dell’arte developed one of the most famous and durable clowns of all time, the Arlecchino, or Harlequin, some time in the latter half of the 16th century, spreading his fame throughout Europe. The Harlequin began as a comic valet, or zany, but soon developed into an acrobatic trickster, wearing a black domino mask and carrying a bat or noisy slapstick, with which he frequently belaboured the posteriors of his victims.

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Clowning Around

The English clown was descended from the Vice character of the medieval mystery plays, a buffoon and prankster who could sometimes deceive even the Devil. Among the first professional stage clowns were the famous William Kempe and Robert Armin, both of whom were connected with Shakespeare’s company. Traveling English actors of the 17th century were responsible for the introduction of stage clowns to Germany, among them such popular characters as Pickelherring, who remained a German favourite until the 19th century. Pickelherring and his confederates wore clown costumes that have hardly changed to this day: oversized shoes, waistcoats, and hats, with giant ruffs around their necks.

The traditional whiteface makeup of the clown is said to have been introduced with the character of Pierrot (or Pedrolino), the French clown with a bald head and flour-whitened face who first appeared during the latter part of the 17th century. First created as a butt for Harlequin, Pierrot was gradually softened and sentimentalized. The pantomimist Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard Deburau took on the character in the early 19th century and created the famous lovesick, pathetic clown, whose melancholy has since remained part of the clown tradition.

The earliest of the true circus clowns was Joseph Grimaldi, who first appeared in England in 1805. Grimaldi’s clown, affectionately called “Joey,” specialized in the classic physical tricks, tumbling, pratfalls, and slapstick beatings. In the 1860s a low-comedy buffoon appeared under the name of Auguste, who had a big nose, baggy clothes, large shoes, and untidy manners. He worked with a whiteface clown and always spoiled the latter’s trick by appearing at an inappropriate time to foul things up.

Grock (Adrien Wettach) was a famous whiteface pantomimist. His elaborate melancholy resembled that of Emmett Kelly, the American vagabond clown. Bill Irwin maintained the tradition in performances billed as “new vaudeville,” while Dario Fo, an Italian political playwright, carried the torch in a more dramatic context, through both his plays and his personal appearance.

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The clown figure in motion pictures culminated in the immortal “little tramp” character of Charlie Chaplin, with his ill-fitting clothes, flat-footed walk, and winsome mannerisms.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

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