A Legacy we are all living

In the World Clown Association, we have education, networking and competitions for awards.
You can earn a gold medal for performance, a silver for ballooning, a bronze for face painting… any combination of these types of medals for any combination of competition, whether for skills, performance or make up and costume. You can earn the title of All-Around Clown, Clown of the Year, author awards, Lifetime Achievement. Annually, one of our clowns in the World Clown Association wins in each and every of these categories through competition, nomination by peers and committee consideration. If you don’t win this year, there is always next year. You leave with a plaque or a medal and you leave the audience with memories of your work.

The World Clown Association awards it’s highest honor without competition, without committees, without nomination. It is earned through a lifelong dedication to the ancient and honorable art of clowning. Leaving an indisputable trail of achievement, innovation and knowledge to benefit others in our profession. The Legacy of Laughter award.

A legacy… of laughter

As clowns, it is a goal pursued with the actions we take each time we stand in front of an audience. To leave the people we touch with a memory filled with smiles, laughs and sometimes wonder. We share our feelings, our joy and the spark of magic we all hold, with the people who need a chance to escape into foolishness. We share with other fools as well. Nothing is more exciting than to be in the grand company of fools. A member of a society which is bonded in laughter.
To rise to ride the crest of the wave, to lead and still be a member of the company is to spread the fun within the community of clowning. To create a niche in which you can hold your love of the art, share your love of the art, and live the love of the art is to achieve a true legacy of laughter.

The Historian of the World Clown Association has done just that and so the Association itself is proud to award its highest honor, The Legacy of Laughter Award to Mr. Ron “Chico” Severini.

Have you met Ron? He is an affable, quiet and clever fellow. He has as an inquisitive mind as he has an open heart. Talk with him and you will learn he was a New Jersey kid who grew up a grocer’s son, a circus fan and a member of the throng at Woodstock. Yes- THE Woodstock. And yes, that’s him who is in Life magazine in pictures of that famous concert. He will be happy to share with you any and many of his experiences, in friendly conversation. Casually he will mention attending Clown College, performing with, and mentoring under Master Clown Otto Griebling, directing performances at Disney, writing several books on the art of clowning, and being the third ever Dean of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s Clown College (remember that to Clowns, the number three is a magical number) and then the Dean of Ringling Brothers And Barnum & Bailey Clown College Japan. It’s the life he lived. To him, he always just did what was asked of him the best that he could and got the job done. Lucky he was extremely good at what he did.

He has left a legacy which helped shape the world of clowns and ushered the art, as well as the business, into the future. As a member of one of the first classes of Ringling Brothers College of Clowns, he was brought into a world which was an established home for many clowns trained the old way- by hard labor and self-training. As the Ringling P.R. always said, the average age of the alley clowns was 63 the year the Clown College was formed. “We knew they could still fall down; we just weren’t sure they could get back up again.” As chronicled in Bill Ballantine’s book “Clown Alley” -Bill was the second Dean of Clown College- the new “College Clowns” were looked on as a bit of an intrusion. The road to the ring for them was rough. After learning the ropes in the circus’ school, they had the great fortune of having to hold their own in the face of adversity in a team which was just learning to work together.

Ron found a friend and mentor in Master Clown Otto Griebling and with him, he found a path to all the things that lay ahead. He performed with the circus’ Blue unit and eventually was elevated to the position of Boss Clown, he represented the Ringling Brothers circus as their Goodwill Ambassador, he directed the Circus Fantasy at Disneyland and he was asked by Circus Impresario Mr. Irvin Feld to be the Dean of the Clown College.

Unknown to Ron, yet more than likely Mr. Feld had figured out, his appointment led to a revolution in the world of clowning. Clown College through the 80s transformed the way we clown and with the leadership of Ron Severini, the art became known to a multitude of mirth makers. He took the hard-earned training received at the hands of the older Clowns and the mentorship he received to form a curriculum to pass down to the new generation of clowns.

Recording the many stories and hours of dedication, the connection of the legends of the circus to the still undiscovered superstars is not the purpose of this article. Seek out Ron, talk with him, attend his seminars and he will regale you with the amazing path to keeping the spirit and life of Clown College alive. This article is to illustrate how he created his legacy. How he recognized that in the early 1970s, clowning was still enjoying the low comedy and broad humor of the sketches of burlesque, patter and subject matter of Vaudeville and cabaret antics of the 50s, but with new contributions from the new “College Clowns”. In other words, it was one of the last vestiges of a dying art and it was up to Ron, along with the remaining Masters of clowning on the show and other handpicked staff members to train the new class in the traditional practices and find the path to the future of the art.

The timing was amazing, and Ron Severini was the right Clown for the job. As he was orchestrating the education of up to 75 clowns per class, the emergence of Clown education outside the circus was developing. Coincidentally, he was also training those who would bring these new concepts out to the world, along with the Masters he had trained with, through Clown Camp, Circus Smirkus, Advance Studies and the seminars and conferences which were just starting to crop up throughout our industry. The ideas of using the rule of threes, the “beginning-middle and blow off” of gags and skits, using the new technologies available and updating subject matter to current events were brought from the Clown College to the emerging world of trained Clowns. They shared make up technique, stage presence, circus skills and the heart of the art. What Ron learned, he rolled into teaching others. They did the same.

The revolution doesn’t end. With the new millennium we face new challenges and opportunities in clowning. The people who yearn for the rubber nose and big shoes never stop seeking out ways to satisfy the fire in their souls to clown. Whether adults looking for their avenue for completion or junior Joeys with a need to understand how they can adapt in a world of videogame intensity and still make the world laugh. The Clowns who trained Ron and the clowns trained through Ron led us to the world of clowning we enjoy today. It evolved with his guidance and still revolves to this day.
Ron Severini’s legacy is our training. His legacy is the laughter of generations.
He has earned our highest honor by being himself and the best he can be.