This is an essay written for the clownzen.com website, as well, hopefully for a future publication.
An interviewer asks me: “What does clown mean to you?”
My spontaneous reply: “Service.”
I’m in the middle of teaching “humor” workshops in Japan, and Yoshiko, who produces my workshops, comments to me, “That is exactly what ShobiDobi [mask maker and hospital clown] said when the same interviewer asked her that question last October.”
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That interchange comes to mind as I look to introduce these pages on ClownZen. Service, bringing humor where it is needed, takes clown to a higher level, just as serving the whole, taking on the bodhisattva role, is in the higher realms of Zendom
When Genki Kahn Roshi looked at the title “Humorist” at the top of my website page, he said “That’s weak. You should call yourself ‘ClownZen Master. ’” (So if a Zen Master is called a roshi, is the ClownZen Master a closhi? Oops, a sidetrack. Back to the inadequacy of the word humorist….)
Humorist arose from a need for a better word to describe myself in the United States, where clown means, at best, birthday-party clown to 94% of the population.
At its worst, mostly in the past twenty years, clown has become a downright scary thing to many. It’s scary for numerous reasons, including Stephen King and a large cohort of fellow terror aficionados; the made-for-an-arena-size-crowd make-up, played at 12 inches from a 3-year-old’s face (no kidding! that’s scary!); and just the general elevation of fear as an emotion governing a general state of mind.
Some very good reasons to lean on the moniker ClownZen.
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What does ClownZen mean? It did not arise out of a marketing-oriented thought process, though the word Zen is immensely popular as a spiritual seal of approval, be it in the name of an upscale bar in Paris or an African hair salon in Brussels (my current favorite: Nyanga Zen by K).
ClownZen comes from my journey in the world of performing and teaching clown. ClownZen came at the tail end of a litany of adjectives and expressions, some ancient, some new, that I consider as I look to put a word where there was none. Not only is there a need to differentiate, to define this non circus clown lineage, but also a desire to reflect the deeper connections that humor and it’s expression has to our deeper selves.
Over the years, I have tried on numerous labels: Physical Comedian, Physical Humorist, Humorist, Modern Clown, European Clown, Contemporary Clown, Clowner, Funnyman, Good Humor Man, Humor Master, ButohClown, Delight Maker, Visual Poet (“a poet who is also an orangutan,” as Wavy Gravy would say). Recently, I have tried on ClownZen Master and UnClownZen Master, but nothing really fits. But let’s not take the label too seriously….how can you be a clown if you take everything so seriously?
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ClownZen:
- Not what you put on, but what comes out of you
- The offering and sharing of mindful (and bodyful) humor
- Connecting to your intuitive impulses
- The great reverence involved in bowing backwards
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Mindful humor. What does that term mean? A quick Google search reveals that the term has hardly been explored. I find only a few references to “mindful humor,” and none that actually explains the concept.
Mindful, a word often associated with Zen, suggests “complete awareness, presence, complete grasp of the Now.” My dictionary widget offers “conscious or aware of something.” The term makes plenty of sense in the clown world, where humor is often played in response to the moment, open to spontaneity. It also suggests the importance of constructive humor, or positive humor, the concept of uplifting humor that doesn’t put anyone down (except, perhaps, the clown). Let’s call it nonaggressive humor, laughing with someone, rather than laughing at someone.
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The clown shares from a palette of all emotions, not just the funny. The funny is the main broad avenue clown travels. However, the clown takes numerous undefined side streets, and the role of the clown is to offer all emotions, with light–to en-lighten, to uplift. A friend of mine stopped me right there when I went into this en-lighten speech. He interrupted to say that he liked the dark humor, the dark side, the forbidden; that’s what made him laugh. The dark side can be offered with light, and vice versa, and I’ll stick to the versa.
Humor, Beauty, Poetry, the Absurd, Nonsense, the Freedom of Spontaneity, Mistakes As Opportunities to Play: All these are realms of the clown.
At the deepest level, then, clown is indeed an art form. As does probably any other art form, it demands, over the long-term, a deep connection, within and without. The deeper the performer digs down inside, the better the clown connects with the outside–the audience. “We say the same thing in Zen,” Sensei Frank de Waale tells me during a workshop I am teaching at his Zen Center in Ghent, Belgium.
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With the term ClownZen, I am pointing to the most human side of clown, the one composed of our most archetypal energies–those that come from and connect to a place of great joy, love, and delight.
