Having been a clown myself, I lean toward the more positive attitudes about clowns, although I can certainly understand their power to unnerve. They are clearly human, yet their exaggerated faces suggest something else. They are ... extreme ... and they definitely seem to be hiding something. Whether that "something" is demonic or delightful is in the eye of the beholder.
In 1964, the Lutheran Council produced a film called, simply, Parable, for the Protest Pavilion of the World's Fair. The figure of Christ is depicted as a clown, with the world as a circus. It was only 22 minutes long, there's no dialogue, and it is largely unknown or forgotten today, yet the ripples it made continue to this day. (Some say that it inspired the Clown Ministry Movement of the 1970s and 80s.)
Whatever your particular relationship with clowns, the intent is to represent irrepressible joyousness and play. A clown is essentially child-like, someone who looks at the world through innocent eyes. Their actions and reactions are exaggerated, to be sure, yet they are also fleeting. A clown doesn't stay mad for very long, and they almost always return quite quickly to a giggle or a guffaw. Nothing phases a clown; clowns are eternal optimists. Even a sad clown -- like Emmett Kelly's "Weary Willy" -- never gives up, whether trying to crack open a peanut with a sledgehammer, or sweep the spotlight off the stage. Drop a stick of dynamite down the pants of a clown and they might fly up into the air, but they'll invariably come down into a forward roll with a smile on their face. This is one of a clown's lessons -- don't give up, don't lose hope, and keep in touch with joy even during hard times.
Clowns also remind us to appreciate even the smallest and most mundane of things. A clown doesn't need much to fuel their wacky form of whimsy. Avner the Eccentric, a modern clown, needs only a napkin, a class of water, or his hat in order to generate the review his one-man show received from Joel Seigel on ABC-TV, "I laughed for two solid hours. The show only lasted an hour and a half."
And clowns always "think outside the box." While appreciating simple things, clowns are never satisfied to use a thing as it is, asking, "what else can I do with this?" Clowns rarely employ the simplest solution to a problem; efficient productivity is not their goal. So, instead, they are always looking for the most fun way.
Pax tecum,
RevWik
