- I find, personally-
(mumbles)
(quirky music)
Hi, I'm Johnny.
- Hi everyone!
I'm Billy!
- Hi, I'm Alyssa.
- And I'm Nitisha.
- And we're gonna be answering your questions.
- "Is there a clown college?"
Well, I went.
And, I graduated.
Have you been?
- I have, and I have a degree, as well.
- Phillipe - There's a bunch in Europe,
- Gaulier? - Yeah.
- Who, Sacha Baron Cohen came out of him.
- It's very, like. - It's fancy.
- Clown College, it's like fancy, and it's very theatrical.
If you go to clown college, you're something.
- "Is it hard to make people laugh?"
Boy, is it ever!
- I don't wanna toot my own horn,
(horn toots)
but I find it easy to make people think I'm delightful.
- I love just acting like an idiot and I feel like
whenever I am myself, my true, authentic self,
I am the most funny.
So that's just what I deliver as my clown.
- I find, personally-
(mumbles) (crickets chirp)
In my opinion, it's not that easy to make people laugh.
- Are you done?
- Clowns embrace just being a dumdum stupid
and the silliness. - And falling,
Falling is funny.
- Yeah, it's real funny.
- And when I see someone fall,
you bet your bottom dollar bill that I am laughing.
If I fall, I want people to laugh.
- My parents, when they first found out
that I wanted to be a clown, were devastated.
- My mom, like, was a clown.
Which sounds like a fake story!
But, so, yeah she was like "Yes."
She like takes it seriously and she's like,
"I need to teach you everything I know about balloons."
My mom is a balloon expert.
- I got written up at an office job
for being too loud and distracting
and like not keeping my inside feelings inside
and I'd just blurt stuff out.
- Yeah.
- So I think we saw it coming.
- I think my father's first reaction was
"Why, Lord? Oh, why?"
- You get a couple of reactions.
You either get the (groans), you know,
or you get the (makes a noise of disbelief)
(both make noises of disbelief)
Double take!
- The weirdest thing is,
sometimes when you're working as a clown,
you have to drive into work,
you have to arrive fully made-up and in costume.
So you're driving across Hollywood, and you look like this.
And someone looks at you in the other car, and, you know,
they're like freaked out.
Or other times they're like
"Ooh, yay! Happy! Woohoo!"
So, it's, they hate you or they love ya.
That's Hollywood.
- For me, I've got a lead foot, so it's always a hate me
and a big ol' middle finger being thrown up there.
- And for middle fingers, for children watching that,
that means he's number one!
(horn toots)
- [Both] Kids get excited.
- Or scared!
- Yes.
There are some clowns that are sad.
But some of us are delightful.
- I mean I can't speak for you.
I am sad.
- Antidepressants are good if ya need them.
It's good. - But like I think.
- I have a good therapist.
I did, she retired.
- Well, if we're going back to Commedia dell'arte
three or four hundred years ago,
they were here to basically be the jokers
to make the king laugh
so that no one's heads would be cut off.
- "Why do clowns exist?"
Why?
- That's accusatory.
- Well I think that,
is it accusatory or is that like the history?
- "Why do clowns exist", they shouldn't exist!
- Yeah, yeah!
- I'm just kidding I'm really defensive.
- But I think clowns exist, originally, for children.
Until Stephen King made it horrible for all of us.
(horn plays sadly)
- And I think, sometimes, weren't they like,
"If you don't make me laugh, you'll die!"
"I'm the king!" - Yes!
- Like that's some pressure.
- But that's how I felt growing up.
I was like "If I don't make people laugh, I'm gonna die."
- We're going there!
- I think that clowns are
God's gift to Earth,
(crowd cheering)
so, ya'll are welcome, just saying. Period.
- "Why do clowns creep us out?"
- That's rude.
- I don't live in a sewer, do you live in a sewer?
- No. - No.
- The red nose used to symbolize drunkenness,
that's where the red nose comes from.
So I think maybe its the symbol of somebody who's like
kind of, like, "I don't know what to expect from them."
- Off their rocker.
- Yeah, so maybe it's that?
- Definitely, Pennywise has given us clowns a bad name.
- Ooh, I'm a horrible clown, I'm killing you!
(fake screaming)
I'm killing you!
And that you're scared of.
- "Do clowns trademark their faces?"
- I don't know.
- Yes.
I have.
- They should.
Ronald McDonald probably did.
- I have not personally (screams)
ya'll are gonna be stealing my face now!
- That's cool, I have a sixth toe.
(record scratches) - Really?
- (laughs) Yeah. - Are you serious?
- I should trademark that.
- "Do clowns make good money?"
Yeah!
- That's what a photocopier is for!
- People don't realize how expensive it is to be a clown.
Like the makeup costs a lot of money,
the shoes cost, like a good pair of clown shoes
cost up to 1,000 dollars.
- "Can clowns have facial hair?"
Yeah! Why not?
However, in classic clown makeup, they do shave,
and then they paint the beard on. So.
- For the hobo beard look.
- Do what you want.
- Clowns.
- "Can clowns have beards?"
- [Both] Yes.
- And they can draw them on, too, if they want to.
- I just shaved my goatee to do this.
- "Are clowns and jesters the same?"
Yeah!
- Nah.
- Clown is a broad,
- I'd say no. - Okay.
- But, yeah.
- "Are clowns and jesters the same?"
- Jester, to me, is more just like, the fool.
Tarot cards.
- Ooh!
- Tarot. I'll read your tarot.
- Are you available for hire?
- Available? It's gonna be terrible.
- (laughs) Available for hire!
- I feel like they're in the same wheelhouse.
They've got the same common goals,
which is to make the audience laugh, but it's also
the job of the jester and the clown
to lower themselves to raise the audience up.
So, yes.
- A court jester is there to make rich people laugh,
a clown is to make the children of the world laugh.
- Aww.
- I think, if anything, its not necessarily
like being a clown that would turn people off,
but it's like if I don't know how to turn off my clown.
- Its not something that I lead into
when I'm starting to date.
However, it is a pretty unique, amazing quality about me
and who doesn't want to date the funny guy, right?
- Funny is money, and funny is also dateable,
and if you don't think so, swipe left.
- So, I think just a final kind of wrap-up:
As you can see, us clowns, we're just like everybody else.
- I hope if people take away one thing,
it's that the vast majority of clowns are not scary,
and, assuming that all of us are alike,
is assuming that other people
that you don't know anything about are all alike.
- Clowns are real people!
I agree, clowns are real people.
And I feel like we're just real people
trying to make the world a little less sad.
And that's a good thing.
And we wanna help make you a little less sad.
- We're doing this because it is out passion,
it is what drives us to wear this red nose,
and look ridiculous, it is all for your enjoyment.
(horn toots)