WEBVTT - How Clowns Work 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:04.440 Welcome to you Stuff you should know from House Stuff 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:13.320 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Joe. Joe. 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.120 There's Chuckles, this is Stuff you should know the podcast. 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:20.000 And there's Jerry. She has a regular name. Hey. That 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.520 was pretty good. Thanks. They could have also this could 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.560 also be like how late night talk show hosts work too. Yeah, 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:29.040 Krusty the Clown was on my mind during a lot 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:33.200 of this. I thought that was your step Meyers. Non guy, 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.519 did you say that? It was just completely ludicrous joke. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.519 I haven't watched this show yet. I haven't earn I 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:43.720 like the guy though, good guy. I don't watch anything 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.960 but Conan. Yeah, I don't even watch Conan really. Yeah, 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.320 I do want Hodgeman's on. I record it, you know, 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:51.199 and then watch it the next day. Yeah. I don't 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.360 stay at whatever times Canna say, geez, I guess you 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.200 don't go to Early Bird for dinner anymore either. You 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.960 have to watch Conan. Hey early. Speaking of Conan, big 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.440 shout out to Brian Kylie, Rob Kutner and Dan Cronin 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:10.280 and Seth Meyers. No, they are writers for Conan and 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.080 they treated me to a lunch that was very nice 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:18.840 at Warner Brothers. Thanks for inviting me, guys, and uh, Conan. 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:20.880 If you think we get neat fan gifts, you ought 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.360 to see the stuff Conan gets. Oh, man, like what 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.399 well there was? Well? I met the masterbaiting bear guy 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.000 who I won't reveal his name, but he's the guy 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.080 that's done it all these years. And someone sent him 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:37.960 like a four ft tall tree trunk hand carved bear 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.440 them bear. Really. Yeah, it was beautiful. I got pictures 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.440 all this. And then Conan has a life size Lego 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.280 Conan that someone sent him that's pretty, and a life 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.120 size a hundred thousand dollars worth of Legos probably is, 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.640 and then a life size ConA made of pencils that 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.040 was really neat looking. Yeah. Wow, So they just had 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.880 the stuff. I was like, man, I mean, I like 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.800 our little photoshop stuff, but you know, Cooper needs to 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.080 step it up. Nice life sized lego Josh and check. 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.960 It would be kind of cool. Anyway, I just want 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:10.799 to say thanks to those guys. Are awesome. Yes, and 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:15.000 they're supporters of us, Thanks guys, yeah, supporters of you 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:19.320 at least, and they're clowns. That was a great segaway, dude, 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.600 great is that why you thank them in this episode, sure, 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:30.200 because they're clowns. That that was good. You've scared of clowns. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.079 I'm not scared of clowns, not at all. I mean 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.320 the scary clowns that are supposed to be scary and 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.919 horror movies are creepy, of course, But like, I don't 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.720 have any kind of a phobia. What's it called the 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:49.160 official phobia colura phobia? Right? Which also includes um It's unofficial, 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.720 by the way. UM. It also includes things like costumed 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.079 characters like Mickey Mouse and UM, stuff like that. It's 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.600 not just clowns, right, right, So it's the d s M, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.680 which is the infallible Bible of psychology and psychiatry. UM 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.680 has an entry for fear of clowns, lumped together with 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.880 other childhood fear of costume characters. That one I can 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:15.040 I can identify what I think I ran away from, 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.120 like snow White or something at Disney World when I 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:19.959 was a kid, And there's just always been something about 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.519 somebody being dressed up in costume that I've found unnerving. 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:25.400 I'm gonna scare a lot of kids. I'm not overtly 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.280 afraid of clown sure, but just costume people, and I 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.920 get that, like I get like, you know, what are 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.520 you hiding kind of thing, which I think is informs 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:37.960 the basis of cool or a phobia. Yeah, and a 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:39.840 lot of the show, it turns out it is going 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:41.400 to be about that, because it's one of the most 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.800 interesting parts of clowning. But um, one guy later on 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:46.800 in this article put it, it makes sense. It's like 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.560 some clowns are just not great at it, and you know, well, 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:55.320 like yeah, like lungeon a kid or something. And he says, 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.400 they seem like they're on the attack. And he said 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.560 a big part of teaching clowning is to teach personal 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.960 space and like how to not come at a kid 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.240 because they think you look weird. Well change and if 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.400 you come at him like too fast, then it's it 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.640 might scare them. And especially these days, to like, clowns 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:18.160 today are still following a tradition from the early to 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.560 mid twentieth century. Kids today aren't really hip with the 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.479 mid twentieth century. They're not into like mid century modern 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.279 like art or design or anything like that, and so 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:31.400 clowns are about as creepy to them as like an 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.320 old wooden toy. It's just awful little. It's an uncanny 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.200 expet it And as a result, there's this two thousand 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:42.159 and eight UM study to the UK that the BBC 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.600 reported on that found that most of the children in 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.760 this study, I think there was like two fifty population 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:54.400 sample um feared and or disliked clowns. Most of the 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.600 kids in the study. That's a lot of sad clowns, yeah, 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.679 and a lot of scared kids. So think the point 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.000 is to just keep clowns and kids away from one another. 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.680 All right, are you ready to go back in time? Yes, 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:18.560 happen the old way back machine. It's London and it's 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:22.280 eighteen o three, and there's a man named Joseph Grimaldi 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:26.799 and he, for all intents and purposes, has just invented 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:31.440 the modern what we now think no as the clown. Yeah, 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.160 very purposefully too, got the white makeup. They still call 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.160 clowns Joey's because that was his character name. That's a 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.440 nickname for clowns. Oh. He was he huge, like not 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.760 only did he invent clowns, and like today still they 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:49.279 they you know, tip their clown hat at Grimaldi for 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:54.120 inventing the clown. He um in his day, he was huge. 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.000 There was a legend that supposedly an eighth of the 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:00.240 population of London had seen him on stage. A lot 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:05.000 of people and still today on London's East End there 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.480 um is a church that has an annual mass in 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.760 his honor and everyone comes in full clown makeup and 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:17.479 costume the church for Grimaldi, he was a big deal. 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.400 He was very, very famous for the time. He was 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.800 a very well known person. And he had a contemporary 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.320 too at about the same time in France named de Brow, 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.920 and both of them oddly were um. They had really 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:36.720 kind of sad backstories. Yeah, which we'll get to that 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.160 that's sort of lends itself, no mean to get ahead 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.080 of ourselves. That lends itself to the dark underbelly of 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:46.839 clowning and why it might have this reputation. But what 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:51.240 clowning really sprung from was uh, from the beginning of 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:57.919 time almost there were gestures essentially um and all types 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.120 of all over the world than all cultures. Yeah, it 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.680 seems to be universal. Um. There were at least as 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:10.200 far back as the like bc um in Egypt, in 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:16.080 China there are already jesters, uh, pranksters, clowns, tricksters, something 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.760 of that ilk mischief makers. Yeah, and and in totally 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.440 disparate societies that never met one another, like um in 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:27.960 Native America. Different Native American societies had some version of 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.240 the clown or the jester. Yeah. During a natural Navajo 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:35.120 ritual chance, they would clowns would come into disrupt performances, 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.320 bump into the dancers, Pueblo clowns. They would have a 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.880 sacred offering and they would come bouncing in and and 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.480 kind of mock what was going on and maybe like 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.120 do alude sex act in the middle of this very 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.800 serious ceremony to the gods. Yeah, or the spirits. That's 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.520 a that's a big deal. That's a an an unusual 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.880 role for someone to play. Sometimes they were considered shamans, 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.440 like they were imbued with some sort of power as well. Yeah, 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.080 they were. They were held in high esteem. The same 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:09.680 thing went on in Japan with the taikomochi. Yeah, right, 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.560 it means drum bearer. Drum bearer. They were in the 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.320 red light districts and apparently, uh in the late sixteen hundreds. 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:20.040 Their deal was when the when the party starts to wane, 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:22.679 they were to bounce in and like get the party 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.560 started again. Hey. Yeah, And they were actually the original Geisha. 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.760 They were men and they were later replaced by women. 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.960 But the Taychomochi were the original versions of the Geisha, 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.080 and the Taychomochi in the Red Light District actually ended 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.720 up there because this period of peace settled over Japan 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.439 because prior to that they were court jesters and also 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.679 like military advisors. So once they weren't needed for that, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.440 they ended up in the Red Light District, like, let's 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:54.319 get this party. Party. So in India, the the official 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.599 jesters there were a member of the Brahmin, which was 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.320 the highest social class. Right, Yeah, that's where it's the 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.760 class that I who's a member of? Oh? Really did 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:04.760 he say that? But that's what his mom said. When 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.559 he thinks she thinks that who's married to Marge? She goes, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.400 surely your children are aware of your bram inheritance embarkoes 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:17.680 so long as there's no follow up questions. Absolutely, fully, man, 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.120 that's a good one. Your knowledge is way deeper than mine. 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.000 For the Simpsons too much. I think I stopped watching 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.720 before you did too, But you still watch, right? Yeah? 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.600 I fell off again, yeah, on again, off again. Um. 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.640 All right, So we're in India and the brah mean 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.360 they One of the things you'll notice over and over 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:43.040 here with jesters is what they really are are satirists. 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.280 And their job is too and they were the only 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.320 ones that could do this really was to poke fun 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.520 at the leaders. They would they would never bounce in 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:53.280 and talk about how great the king is. They would 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:55.560 bounce in and talk about how fat the king is 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.000 and make jokes about like how many meals have you 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.880 had today? Well, yeah, and so there's their Their role 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:05.920 was to say, um, poke holes into the king's stupid ideas. 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:07.600 Whereas the rest of the court would be like, oh, 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.520 great idea, Um, you should paint the Great Wall of China, 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:14.680 whereas the jester would be like, yeah, that's a great idea. 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.719 Where you going to get all that paint from your dummy? Well, 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:20.360 speaking of China, I think they had some of the 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.199 best names, and they have a great tradition of clowning, 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:29.160 and they had legends named twisty Pole. Uh Baldi chun 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.080 you that's the name of the podcast. That's a good one. 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.800 And this one I don't get moving bucket. I don't 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.880 get that one either. It probably makes sense in Chinese. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.360 Another one I came across was newly polished mirror. Really 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.880 with the name of a clown. That's no baldly chun, 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:48.920 you though. Interesting. Uh. And then in Poland, um, there 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.960 was a legendary jester named Stanzik and I looked up 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.600 this guy. He was He was a legend beyond clowning. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.559 He was like the political satirist of his day. Uh. 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:04.160 He worked for three different kings and was very intelligent, 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:09.280 political philosopher and satirist. That uh, it's still like revered 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:14.040 in Poland, as you know, a necessary thing. Yeah. Supposedly 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.440 one of his most famous stories was the king of 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:21.280 Poland that he was working for had a bear imported 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.679 from I think Russia or something, maybe Prussia, and um 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.440 let it loose so he could hunt it. And the 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:30.760 bear came back the king and the court and the 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.400 queen and like almost killed everybody. And um, the king 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.640 later criticized stan Chick for running off, and stan Chick said, well, 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.440 I was smarter than letting a cage bear loose something 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.520 along those lines, And the King was like, oh touche, 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:51.160 and everyone laughed, and then the bear eight the king. Uh. 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.679 In ancient room chuckers they used to call the court 0:11:54.760 --> 0:12:00.679 jester's stupidest stupidest Huh, yeah, that makes sense. Uh. Grimaldi 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.360 himself came out of the rich tradition in Italy, um 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:08.840 called the Comedia del arte tradition. And uh, this is 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.160 in the fourteenth century, and it was some people say 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.440 these were like the first professional actors in the world 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.040 were coming out of Italy at the time in this program. Right. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:20.920 So at the time, you were basically if you were 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.520 a clown or a jester or something, you were probably 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.800 a member of a court. If you're a member of 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.640 a Native American tribe or um in most parts of Africa, 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.239 and you were a jester, you belong to the community 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.560 rather than the specific leader. UM. But in Europe and 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:43.440 China and Egypt and all over wherever there was royalty, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.560 there was usually a jester of some sort, right, Yeah. 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:50.679 But one of the ways that jester spread, especially saying 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:54.439 in Europe, was from um a jester being forced to 0:12:54.520 --> 0:13:00.360 hit the road first, stepping over the line, getting kicked doubt. 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.520 And that's one way that it kind of spread. Clowning 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.160 originally spread to the masses was you may run across 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.600 the court jesters down on his luck traveling along the 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.280 road because he's kicked out a court all this great 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:14.880 material exactly, but he's still a jester. He's gonna make 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.959 you laugh, you know. Yeah, that makes sense, so that 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.240 it's interesting. I think the king's tolerated to a certain degree, 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:23.400 but if they're having a bad day, they're just like, 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:25.960 all right, you're out here exactly. Yeah. And there's there's 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.640 um at least some debate over whether how how much 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.480 of the idea that a jester was the only one 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.760 who could speak his mind towards the king. Um. Not 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.080 that the idea was that more people in the court 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.080 could speak their mind, but that the jester couldn't even 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.520 speak their mind. In some cases, there were some documented 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:50.320 versions like um, the one in Persia Kareem Charay who 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:56.680 um told the king the Shahnaz Sardin apparently said there 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.760 a short of shortage of food, and uh Kareem said, yes, 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.360 I see that, your majesty is eating only five times 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.240 a day, and then he made this little boatie spin, 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:08.960 but he got the point across that, Yeah, it's a 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.840 shortage of food and you're not helping anything. Your cloister 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.360 it up here in your ivory tower, and um, you 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.000 need to open up your eyes, your majesty, I'd like 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.800 to see some of Baldi chunyus material. I would love 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.080 to see that too. I bet he killed Oh bet 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.360 he did as well, Chuck. So we'll get to what 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:48.240 clowning is specifically right after this. Alright, clowning, my friend, 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.720 is a lot of things, but what it is in 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:57.680 all cases is exaggeration. Um. Movements are exaggerated, your appearances exaggerated. 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.920 That's why they wear big goofy suits and big goofy 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.880 use the makeup to makeup. Of course, a lot of 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.840 people look at a clown and say you're disguising something. 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:08.600 The point of clown makeup is quite the opposite. It's 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:12.720 meant to exaggerate the emotions that are already there. Yeah, 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.880 like the big, huge smile or frown, the big frown. Yeah. Um. 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.960 And I read one pro clowns um description of what 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.400 clowning means, and he said, clowns aren't actors. We're not 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.600 supposed to pretend. What clowns do is exaggerate the the 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.480 emotions that we already have inside. So if you're a 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.400 really good clown, you're going to play up. You know 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.880 that the anger at being rebuffed when you're trying to 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.040 get a laugh from somebody, or you're gonna play up 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.000 your stage fright at performing in front of some people. 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.120 Like when you see a clown like acting a certain way, 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.560 you're you're supposed to understand that what they're they're actually 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.840 feeling that, right, then it's just being it's it's being 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:56.720 broadcast on a clown scale. Yeah, And part of that 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.840 is for comedic effect, and part of it is uh 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:04.440 quite literally because in a circus, uh, you have a 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:06.440 lot of people and you may may be sitting very 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.360 far away from you. So these big movements and the 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:14.600 slapstick um which actually I never knew this slapstick was 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:18.840 an actual physical tool. Never heard of that. Yeah, it was. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.240 It's like looks like a paddle with another paddle hinge 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.760 to it. And back in the old days of the 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.920 Comedia dell Art in Italy, they would um strike someone 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:32.160 with this paddle and then of course the other paddle 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.200 on the hinge would smack really hard on the on 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.720 the wood and so they could hit someone not too hard, 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:38.720 but make it sound huge, sound like they had been 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:40.800 hit really hard. And that's where slapstick comes from. That's 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.840 the word slaps and um, we keep mentioning Comedia dell Art. Um, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.400 that's where Grimaldi came out of. And this was the 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:51.120 original place where the clown really first made it on 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:55.320 the stage. Because remember when Comedia dell Art was establishing itself, 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.720 for the most part, clowns were relegated to court gester 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:05.160 ship right, yeah, than mimes later yea, so exactly. Um, 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.280 So Comedia dell Art was this, um, this player production, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.680 and in the middle of it, or in different points, um, 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.880 there'd be like a break or an intermission or something 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:16.760 like that, and that would come like the jugglers and 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.080 the baton twirlers. And there were also little skits and 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.760 sketches and plays themselves that were intended for comic relief. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:26.439 And one of those is called the harlequin Aide, and 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.480 Harlequin you recognize Harlequin as one of the jokers, the jesters, 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.159 that kind of thing. Um, there's actually a character in 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.840 the Harlequin Aide that was a clown, and Grimaldi originally 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.399 played that character. And that character was, um kind of 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.680 a bumpkin, a rustic rube. And as a matter of fact, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.800 the word clown supposedly comes from a sixteenth century German 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.960 word for like a country bumpkin um. So that was 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.800 the original character. Well, Grimaldi came along in about eighteen 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.600 hundred and started playing this in the pantomime, which was 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.960 that break in the media dell Art for comic relief exactly. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.040 And then the Harlequinade was a a little mini play 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.800 that was a panomime in the Comedia dell Art, right, 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:12.560 and then the clown was a character in the Harlequinade, 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.040 and Grimaldi played it, but he said, you know what, 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.199 I'm not feeling this country bumpkin thing. I think this 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:24.439 guy's actually highly sophisticated, very smart, hilarious and body and 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.199 he started to play the character like that, and all 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:29.600 of a sudden, the clown went from a minor supporting 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.959 character to the reason the people were coming to the 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.320 Comedia dell Art productions the panomime, so they were stealing 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.960 the thunder of the legit actors exactly. And from that 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:44.520 moment the clown went from specifically a rustic country boob 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.120 to the clown that we start to understand today with 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:52.560 face pain and like colored hair and everything. Did you 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:54.800 just laugh as I said, boom, No, I just rustic 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.800 country boob sounded like the name of like my memoir 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:02.960 or something. It just struck me as a nice title. 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.240 I just want a small, small royalty when you publish those, Okay, 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:12.000 except I would be Rustic City boob. Yeah, you know, 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.240 sort of play on that whole thing. Yeah, that big 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.600 it's even better n Sharknado and now the title for 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.600 your memoirs, you're on fire. Um, So clowning. One thing 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.560 that you'll also notice the clowns do a lot and 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.120 this is not every clown, but a lot of clowning involves, 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:34.000 um play violence like slapstick. Yeah, like they're hitting. It's 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:35.879 like the three students, they're hitting each other a lot. 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:40.440 They're knocking each other down. Um. A big clown thing 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.720 to do is to like disrupt the the legit act. 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.920 Like we're clowns and we're gonna do, uh this neat 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.600 thing where we all hold this ladder and climate and 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.639 then another clown will come in and bust the ladder 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:56.119 down and everyone will fall and it's all part of 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:58.320 the act. But a lot of the Navajo clowns, yeah, 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.760 same thing, basically to disrupt the act. That's that's happening 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.639 through violence, or they may just be jerks and like 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.240 smell my flour ops you get a squirt in the face. 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.560 So if you're paying attention to a group of clowns 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.800 in their routine, you'll actually notice that, Um, there's usually 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.360 a very clear line of command. Yeah, there's a hierarchy 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:22.639 for sure, there actually is, and it depends on you 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.879 can tell who's in charge before the show even starts 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:30.520 based on their makeup. Actually it's it's um delineated by that. 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:33.840 So first you've got the white face clown, which Grimaldi 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:35.960 was one, so is Boza, the clown who will talk 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.679 about later. Um, but the white face clown is the 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.440 one who's in charge. And going back to the three stooges, 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:45.440 they actually um get across the hierarchy of clowns pretty clearly. 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:50.040 So the white face clown is mostly he's still a clown, um, 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.560 but he's Boston the other ones around. He's a signing job. Yeah, 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.240 and he might be the the most um hostile out 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:01.159 of all of them. And then after that, and again, 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.680 the white face clown has completely white paint all over 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:08.480 his face and head and neck. Her fringe counterpart, you're 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.360 talking about, the clown that he created was a white 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:15.440 flace clown. Um, the perrot p I e r r 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.280 O t po sounds good and that's a kind of 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.640 clown as well. But the pierrot is a white face clown, right, 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:23.840 So the white face clown is in charge of he 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:25.600 or she is at the top of the heat of 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.320 the After that you have the August clown. The August 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:34.760 clown is the one that um Usually they have that sloppy, 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:41.960 oversized um outfit, huge like suspenders hanging on hanging even 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:46.160 bigger pants up. Um. The makeup is probably like flesh toned, yeah, 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:48.919 but like the eyes will like be super arched and 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.960 like the smile will be really big and red. Probably 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.000 a big red nose, although I think the the white 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:58.399 face clown can have that too. But if you have 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:00.880 a white face and an August clown next to each other, 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:03.840 the August clown's red ball nose is probably going to 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.480 be a little bit bigger. And the August clown is 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:09.879 um definitely the one who takes orders from the white 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:16.800 faced clown, but um also a little more um hilarious maybe, 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:21.560 so like the August clown would be um maybe Larry 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.760 Larry probably curly though, because you get he's kind of 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.760 a boob. You know, Yeah, he's not a rustic country boom, 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:32.360 but he's just you know, kind of fun and lovable 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:37.000 and and he's still taking orders. What about simp sm 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:41.720 completely breaks this whole analogy apart. So with the Augusta clown, 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:46.760 it was um invented by a man named lu Jacobs, 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:50.680 and there was there was a team Albert Freatellini and 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:54.200 Lu Jacobs a clown team, and Fredlini was also part 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.160 of the Fredellini Brothers and he was the one who 0:22:57.359 --> 0:22:59.440 invented the red nose. Oh yeah, which I thought it 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:02.120 was pretty interest Yeah it is. Yeah. But then then 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:03.919 we have the tramp or the hobo, right, that's the 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:05.920 next guy. Yeah, that one was invented by a dude 0:23:05.960 --> 0:23:09.840 named Emmett Kelly, and he actually invented the sad Hobo clown, 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:13.119 which you can immediately bring to mind. I would imagine 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:17.760 just you're hearing sad Hobo clown, the downcasts, frown face, 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:22.439 the stubble like five o'clock shadow. Yeah, the tattered tweed 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:27.280 jacket patches, and the bendle bendel bag on the stick. 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:30.679 So Emmett Kelly comes up with the sad Hobo clown, 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:34.960 and that's become a fixture of clowning, and that tramp 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.520 hobo or bag lady clown is the one that's the 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:43.000 lowest rung on the ladder, the highest on the totem pole. 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:46.000 It kind of occurred to me when I was reading 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:49.640 this that they're sort of I mean, are they making 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:52.159 fun of the homeless? You know, in a way. I 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:54.840 think that's probably a sticky thing that clowns don't like 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:57.560