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6. If you see your video and you theirs. Ask them if it is theirs, can you use it or who
aren’t really paying attention, it did they find it from? Can you use it and change it?
will do you no good. I watch videos 10. Never go over time with an audience, I don’t care
of performers daily. Do you look
stiff? Like you are reading? Is how great you are, do not overkill an assignment.
your body fluid, does it go with the Audiences cannot sit more than an hour, young
topic of your presentation? Can the kids, not more than 30 minutes. Make sure that you
camera capture your expression; understand your audiences’ listening ability.
if the camera can’t see you, the
audience can’t see you. Make worldclown.com 21
sure your hats and costuming do
not cover your facial and bodily
expressions. Suggestion, watch
Lucille Ball, Emmett Kelly, Carol
Burnett, David Hyde Pierce (Niles

on the show Frasier), Tim Conway, Jerry Lewis,
etc. Watch these “old” physical comedians and take
notes. Their expressions and body movements are
EVERYTHING.

7. Costuming should be beautiful, but practical. Don’t
wear 15 pounds of beautiful costuming and then
expect to do physical comedy. Heavy costuming is
normally good for parades only.

8. I have seen clowns disappointed that they didn’t
win competitions. I have seen them practice and
perform but something just wasn’t “good” enough.
A practiced skit is great, but there is more to it. If
you have memorized, used props and projected
your voice but still haven’t quite made the mark,
watch the video. Body fluidity is very important. If
you look stiff, sound stiff, this is projected to your
audience. Make it feel like it’s part of you. I used to
do a skit that would end with me sobbing…careful
about how good you get at this. I had to learn to
control getting too involved in my skit’s sadness.
The same for me in music, if a song touches my
heartstrings too much, I normally can’t sing it…
crying and singing at the same time aren’t really
a good technique, BUT, DO work on that fluidity. I
have watched some of the clowns with the biggest
reputations and walked away thinking, for all the
hype, they weren’t that great. They have great props,
great costumes, worked for some great companies,
but weren’t that entertaining.

9. Writing shows is probably the toughest thing to
do. What will I do for this show, I need a program.
It’s okay to use others’ ideas and expand. I tell my
teaching students daily that you can take someone’s
lesson and make it your own. Know how to do this,
but get permission from a clown whose skit may be