Swell Roundtable
@roundtable · 1:21
Swell Roundtable: The Life Of A Clown
Hello. Welcome to another swell roundtable. Its its its its its its its its its its its its its its its its its its its its international clown week. Lets dig Week to honor this incredible week of joy. We have invited some clowns who are professional clowns, and they are going to share with us the world that they traverse. How did they decide to become clowns? What's it like to be a clown now, what is it like to be a clown when you're feeling down?
Roger Fojas
@ringmasterroger · 2:06
And that particular group was a performance art kind of troupe that used bits of circus in them. And we had been invited by an upcoming band to go on tour with them in a vaudeville circus kind of group. But we didn't really know a lot of VODville. And so we created this little vaudeville show within the group. And I was the ringmasterroger clown character. And then we did clown related things in the show
Antonio G-R
@AntonioG-R · 3:35
And my mother turned around to them and said, oh, no, but he does that for a living. He is a clown for a living. And at that moment was when I realized that, like, oh, s***. My mother thinks of me as a clown, and she's proud of it. I guess I am one. And I kind of just realized that, yeah, I am a clown. I swell into it. I did not choose it
helene udy
@heleneudy · 5:00
These are things I had to learn because my indoctrination as a child was so very serious. It was all of the Shakespeare dramas and none of the comedies. And so the growth into clowning into being ridiculous has been a journey for me. I've always been guided by looking for a space to spread joy and spread love that has always been in my heart. And it turns out the clown was the best vehicle
Swell Roundtable
@roundtable · 2:24
What an absolute honor to hear all of your origin stories. I have to say there's a theme of self discovery and all of your stories and also sort of the navigation of other people's expectations of what you are going to become. And Nick to your final question asking us, what do we think a clown is? And I think that's a great question
Roger Fojas
@ringmasterroger · 2:30
And possibly people in the audience or people who I interact with could find the humanity in me and to laugh at that humanity find themselves potentially in me, and we can laugh together, or we can cry together. And that is a form of climbing that I enjoy anyway
helene udy
@heleneudy · 2:24
So I accepted the beauty of the job. I think when I started doing this cabaret show and it's just been that's what crowning is to me. It's this show. It's a gathering of fools. It's a laughter in the room. It's all of those things that Roger often contributes to in my shows. And Nick has on occasion. And, yeah, I hope that's a good answer
Ross Steeves
@rosssteeves · 3:12
Hello. This is Ross Steeves. Thank you for inviting me onto this roundtable discussion. The life of a clown, the life of utterance there and anguish mixed with absolute and delicious glory. I realized I was a clown when I was in school, probably around five or six, maybe more like six or seven. I remember being surrounded by a bunch of kids and they were all just laughing at everything I did. I could do no wrong. And I would love that. I loved that feeling
A clown needs to do something similar in terms of self care for them for when they have the lows after the highs and just their own centering. In terms of being back to a neutral place and not having those swings take you out. Quite so, Gilday, I think a lot of clowns and performers identify with the fact that we literally have to get ourselves into certain States for performance, and we have to find out how to recenter ourselves from those places
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Tuba Heatherton
@Tuba · 2:04
I just wanted to just touch base that, you know, my origin story and look forward to going some more back and forth with some really good clowns. Take care now
Swell Roundtable
@roundtable · 1:13
Next question is about inspiration. Please let us know what's inspiring you right now. That's helping you dig deeper into your profession. How do you call from the world? You're living in things that give you material, give you purpose ideas. How do you do that? Each and every day. And yeah, I have other questions, but I'm going to stop right there. So what inspires you right now? Looking forward to that. Thanks. Bye
Roger Fojas
@ringmasterroger · 4:26
So when I discovered something like Zoom, when I found Zoom, I decided to start creating Zoom workshops. I started creating a workshop called Finding Character Explorations in Clown, and that's a way to be able to interact with people who want to play in clowning and find ways to find inspiration again, to find ways to laugh again, because a lot of people in this day and age are stressed out or they're angry or they're sad or they're lonely because they can't do things
Ross Steeves
@rosssteeves · 2:08
This is Ross. I'm hoping I'm doing this in the proper order. I'm trying to respond to the stories of telling people you're a clown. What it's been like, nothing spectacular or crazy. But it is interesting the moment where you tell somebody you're meeting your clown, whether it's a neighbor or just whoever. Maybe sometimes I'm excited to tell them
Antonio G-R
@AntonioG-R · 3:32
Hello. This is Antonio, and I'm answering a little late the question of what do people reactions are when I tell them that I am a clown. And funny enough is in the entertainment world, there's a lot of people talking about being a clown. And this move around with a lot of comedians and clowns people that are just funny as naturally
Antonio G-R
@AntonioG-R · 4:47
And so yeah, I guess other people's craziness inspires me, other people, other clowns, other performers or other people, just what interest they have in something that would be cool is what inspires me at the moment. And it definitely falls into the performing and clowning, which is entertaining someone making someone smile, making someone get out of their cloud into, oh, wow. There's a world out there full of wonder
Swell Roundtable
@roundtable · 2:25
So as incredible clowns as professionals in this specific vertical, how have you found opportunities to pivot your skillset to adapt really interesting to me? And, Antonio, you just gave me this idea. So obviously, what you're doing now is really an inspiration. I'd love to hear from a few to others. And you guys are also wonderful. I just want to have you come to my backyard and we can all have a party, maybe one day
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:13
Okay, now this is my regular count. It's Deborah wanting to open up this conversation to everyone, please give us your ideas, your comments, your reactions, and looking forward to this conversation continuing forever
Ross Steeves
@rosssteeves · 1:25
People who come from a pure place of non judgmental. I can be so judgmental into paralysis sometimes. But anytime I see a reflection of nonjudgmental, just pure expression that's inspires me not very specific, but that's what I have for now
Ross Steeves
@rosssteeves · 1:08
And little children are clowns at heart. So that's cool. That's definitely something I in real life just having kids if you have kids and you probably know what I'm talking about. So yeah. Children. Yeah
Aryiel Hartman
@AryielHartman · 5:00
And I remember I was a clown, and that was like, one of the first times that I dug in so deep. I think I was chasing one of you guys around like, some love Lauren girl. And I was really tapping into my deepest insecurity and exposing that and then heightening it for show for fun. But it was like a very real part of me. And that was one of the very first times something inside of me clicked of, like, oh, like clowning
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:52
Can you each talk about where the clowns belong right now in the world? I know we're living in a time when we're not getting together, but let's just take a pause on that and say, imagine people getting together, even in their backyards at this point or in situations in the regular economy where do clowns belong? Where should they show up?
Roger Fojas
@ringmasterroger · 5:00
And there could be a moment where you can take the time to have a meeting, where there's some sort of clown situation that happens and it lightens up the camaraderie in the community or aspect where there could be an outdoor type of event or setting, where there's just could be a visual where someone could have a sign and it just says, smile or hear for you that could also make a change of the impact of the world or the way people see in this
Roger Fojas
@ringmasterroger · 2:42
I realized in my last swell I mentioned just a generalization of clowns, and I didn't put my personal take. So I decided to do that. Now. From working with clowns and being a clown myself, I realized that most clowns that I know of aren't just solely clown in their profession. Being a clown, you kind of do it for your soul, or at least the ones that I know of
Swell Roundtable
@roundtable · 1:44
I really think we honored this International Clown Week in the best way possible by truly spending time with each other. Antonio, Helen Mac, Nick, Ariel. I think there's a few others that I'm missing. I apologize so much, but it was quite a celebration. You all showed up. And here's my wish. Two fold. One is that we continue this thread. It goes on forever
Derrick Gilday
@DerrickGilday · 4:38
And I then kind of thought about it for a day and talked to my buddy, and I was like, what do you mean by that? I kind of, like, hurt my feelings. Like, do you think I'm not intelligent or what do you mean by that? He said, Derek, you're just really good at that. You're really good at making people laugh and kind of taking risks
Derrick Gilday
@DerrickGilday · 2:50
One of the funniest or storyworthy experience of me telling someone I was a clown was a rodeo in Wyoming. I was at the rodeo because it was cool. I was like, oh, man, I can go to rodeo. I wasn't a rodeo clown, but I've dreamt of doing that, man. It's so dangerous and so awesome. And I founded Rodeo Clown School, which they actually called Bullfighting in Colorado. Haven't gone yet
Derrick Gilday
@DerrickGilday · 3:29
Creative skills as a clown and how they transfer to today's current world. I would say that they are the building block, the head cornerstone of allowing yourself to be malleable and buoyant with whatever experience comes your way. I think there's a multitude of archetypes you can sort of use or take inspiration from in your daily life. And clown seems to be one of the most resilient and playful ones for me oftentimes