Clown Origins

“The key feature uniting all clowns, therefore, is their ability, skill or stupidity, to break the rules”

Do all fools come from clowns? Are all forms of fooling clownish? Do you laugh at the man in the dress? I’ve always been fascinated with humour, and decided to begin my exploration of the art of Drag with the humble clown. A lot of the subversive, absurd and grotesque ‘queering of reality’ qualities that I observe in contemporary drag I believe are rooted in the culture of clowning, and so to better understand that, I chose to read sections of Clown: Readings in Theatre Practice by Jon Davidson for this week’s post.

In the chapter “Clown History”, I am immediately struck by how easily the word ‘clown’ could be interchanged with Drag/Trickster figure. For the purposes of my present research, I will be focusing specifically on Drag Queens for simplicities sake, but I acknowledge the varied types of drag performance and will be exploring the subgenres of Drag more in depth in following weeks. In the previous chapter (What Do Clowns Do?), Davidson quotes author John Wright from his book Why is That So Funny?, that

“Asking ‘How do clowns walk?’ or ‘What do clowns wear?’ are inane questions. But to ask ‘How do clowns make us laugh?’ and, more importantly, ‘What physical impulses inspire that comedy’ will take you to a place where you can find a personal ownership of ‘clown’ as a level of play.

(Wright 2006: 180)

This is the exact approach I mean to tackle this study of contemporary Drag with; simply asking what kinds of things a queen may wear, or looking at why drag scenes emerge across cultures are too inane – I instead wish to focus on what it is about Drag that is so rebellious and subversive, and what makes rebelling against proper society in this way so enticing. Davidson says that there is an easily accessible internet history of ‘Clowning’ that I argue is very similar to the popular history of Drag – beginning in ancient Egypt, moving to Greece and Rome, through the middle ages, through Italy, Europe after the Renaissance, and then focusing on England, the early 19^th-20^th centaury ‘Golden Age’ of performance, degeneration post WWII, and then it’s ‘ascension’ into being recognized as an Art Form. This is an abridged history I’ve smashed together based on Davidson’s account of clown history, to make a similar point – studying the ‘important’ moments of Drag will allow me to create a cohesive narrative of then to now. But, what I (as well as Davidson) am much more interested in is observing these ‘important’ moments in time and asking ‘What in this social setting created the need for drag expression? Who were the people performing? How was the performance met?”.

Clowns, Davidson states, are shaped by the moment in history that they exist in, and by exploring what it is they did in those historical moments that gave them relevance, how it affected others and how it was received, we can begin to understand the impulses behind the performances themselves. It is the same for my study; I am interested primarily in what drove the drag figures to performance, and what drives us now in 2018 to still feel that specific niche need to express ourselves through costume, illusion and Drag. The imitate links I am looking to connect are the impulses between clowns and drag figures to express suffering, sadness and hopelessness in a bright, bombastic and joyful way for audience amusement. I am deeply interested in the commodification of what could be called ‘gay suffering’ and how we as gay people are able to use what it is about us that is innately subversive still in 2018 for the amusement of straight and cisgender people. So this question Davidson points me to of ‘Why do clowns clown?’ becomes ‘Why do queens queen?’, which is a very exciting departure point for me. Next week I will be looking to Pierrot clowns, ‘Pantomime Dames’, and the specific links and divergences between clown and drag.

This is an evolving study and my eyes are bigger than my stomach when it comes to readings and research, so feel free to reach out to me to point my studies in any way you see fit, reader. Drag comes from the people, and the people are who I want to study for. So drop me a line! I can’t wait to continue this journey with you. :o)

 

Sam