Repetitive clowning around.

Seriously, all successful entertainment stories are based on keeping at it until success is found. Doesn’t work for everyone, but there isn’t a guaranteed path and it sounds like you are doing the steps you can already. You could volunteer for hospitals, although you might get rejected without some kind of way to verify you are legit.

I had a good friend who was a clown. I drove a car small enough to call a clown car so I drove for a lot of gigs after we met. He would “clown up” and go to public events(concerts, festivals, karaoke, any excuse really) and be silly and most importantly have fun. He networked and had a few yearly gigs. Some paid but he was in it for the clowning and the cash was just a bonus. Don’t quit your day job and all.

As a person he was great company. Friends with everyone and woke up every day looking to have a good time. One yearly gig we did was a three hours away neighborhood wide garage sale. It was one of the few that paid. After a day of making balloon animals he stood in a chalk circle and I handed kids water balloons and kept the tip jar mostly empty. We made well over $100 each those days.

His backstory is a little more fucked up than the average clown I would guess. His primary networking was AA meetings and back in the 80s he was an alcoholic crackhead living in Detroit sleeping in dumpsters. The dude knew how to hustle. He told me the story of how his daughter had to come up with some cash and the chalk circle and water balloons show(?) outside bars solved her money issues overnight.

He had no formal training so don’t get hung up on some expensive day camp. If you have it in you you can be a clown. Getting a degree from a clown college is just a vanity project. A real clown, at least to me, hung out with Joe C watching wrestling and smoking weed while Kid Rock and the rest of the gang partied after shows. Be larger than life and you can be whatever you want to be.

If you’re wanting to do stuff like festivals, you’d probably want to find a clown school.

But doing it as a volunteer, all you really need is a suit, a face, and skills. Juggling, balloon making, card tricks, etc. Then you reach out to facilities and work out the arrangements for a performance. Hospitals can be a tad restrictive about who gets to do shows for pediatric wards, so you’ll likely want to try nursing homes first and build up a local rep.

You can also try to hook up with local sideshow type troupes. Clowns aren’t always welcome, but you can usually pick up some skills if you’re honest about it. The fire performers won’t teach you, but jugglers and magicians will usually share some basics as long as you aren’t trying to shaft them with it.

I once knew a guy who attended a proper clown school in Berlin. So… Like that I guess?

Treat it like a business even if its just for the kids. Make a plan where you outline your services, availability and perhaps an applicable work/education history. Then just start asking around, maybe start by asking other clowns in your area about where you can find a gig or where you can find a place for you to get better

Let me get this straight. You ask a question about how to become a clown, but want to avoid jokes and being laughed at?

…you SURE you want to be a clown?

You just first need to become a !world@lemmy.world moderator, the rest is easy.

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