69 Fun Facts About Clown

Thanks to Joseph Grimaldi, the pantomime Clown role became known by what nickname?

Joseph Grimaldi so dominated the Clown role at Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden in the early 1800s that British pantomime clowns took his first name and became known as Joeys.

Which pantomime catchphrase did Joseph Grimaldi originate?

Grimaldi's entrance cry 'Here we are again!' became the traditional greeting of the pantomime Clown; his best-known song was 'Hot Codlins', about a seller of roasted apples.

Clowns in full costume attend Joseph Grimaldi's annual memorial at Holy Trinity Church in which London borough?

Holy Trinity Church in Dalston, known as the Clowns' Church, sits in the borough of Hackney; the service is held on the first Sunday of February, and Grimaldi's grave lies in neighbouring Islington.

Which famous novelist did Richard Bentley hire to edit and improve Joseph Grimaldi's memoirs?

Charles Dickens, then writing as Boz, reworked Thomas Egerton Wilks's clumsy draft for publisher Richard Bentley, and the Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi appeared in 1838 with illustrations by George Cruikshank.

The earliest known clowns have been traced to the Fifth Dynasty of which civilization, around 2400 BC?

Egypt: records from the Fifth Dynasty, around 2400 BC, describe a dwarf entertainer at the pharaoh's court, the earliest figure usually counted as a clown; Greek theatre later had its own rustic buffoons.

When the English word 'clown' was first recorded around 1560, what did it mean?

Shakespeare used it in exactly this sense, naming rustic fool characters simply 'Clown' in Othello and The Winter's Tale.

Philip Astley added a clown to his 1768 London amphitheatre shows to fill time between what kind of acts?

Astley's ring is considered the birthplace of the modern circus, and the clown was there from the start as filler between trick riders.

Tom Belling's clumsy Auguste clown, developed around 1870, was the foil for which stock character?

The whiteface is the elegant, authoritative partner: in the classic double act the whiteface gives the orders and the clumsy Auguste, which Belling created at Circus Renz in Berlin, botches every task.

In Auguste clown makeup, what is the term for the thickly outlined area around the mouth?

Clown makeup guides call the white-highlighted, thickly outlined mouth area the muzzle; the Auguste's base is pink, red or tan rather than white, with exaggerated red-and-black features on top.

Otto Griebling and Emmett Kelly are classic examples of which circus clown type?

Both were tramp clowns, a branch of the character clown family, which also covers eccentric butchers, bakers, policemen and housewives; Kelly and Griebling worked together at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

Emmett Kelly's sad-faced hobo clown, modelled on Depression-era drifters, was named what?

Weary Willie, with his stubbled frown and tattered coat, was Kelly's creation from 1933; his signature bit was trying to sweep up the circus spotlight with a broom, and in 1957 the Brooklyn Dodgers hired him as a mascot.

Which Ringling clown became, in 1966, the first living person to have his portrait on a US postage stamp?

Lou Jacobs's grinning face appeared on the 1966 five-cent American Circus stamp; he performed with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey for more than 60 years and is often credited with popularizing the red rubber-ball nose.

Clown Charlie Rivel, famed for his cry 'Akrobat schööön!', was born in which country?

Charlie Rivel, born Josep Andreu in Cubelles, Catalonia, in 1896, took his Chaplin-inspired act and his drawn-out 'Akrobat schööön!' catchphrase across Europe and became Spain's most celebrated clown.

In which year did Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College close?

Clown College ran from 1968 to 1997: Irvin Feld founded it in Venice, Florida, home of the circus's winter quarters, and it moved to Baraboo, Wisconsin, the Ringling brothers' hometown, in 1993.

Which magician turned down Ringling's contract offer after graduating from Clown College in 1973?

Penn Jillette graduated from Clown College in 1973 but declined Ringling's contract; his refusal prompted a rule that graduates must accept a contract if one was offered. He later partnered with Teller in Las Vegas.

Which clown, Sesame Street's Mr. Noodle, was in 1984 the first performance artist awarded a MacArthur Fellowship?

Bill Irwin, a Clown College graduate, received a MacArthur 'genius' grant in 1984 and later won the 2005 Tony for Best Actor as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The performer behind Sesame Street's Mr. Noodle helped found which San Francisco circus troupe?

The Pickle Family Circus, started by Larry Pisoni and Peggy Snider with Bill Irwin among its original clowns, is credited with helping spark the renaissance of American circus in the 1970s.

Britain's Clowns International records members' face-paint designs on what unusual object?

The register exists so that no two clowns end up wearing the same face, and the originals were real hen's eggs before ceramic ones took over.

What was Stan Bult, founder of Clowns International's face register, by profession?

Stan Bult was a chemist who painted clown faces on hen's eggs as a hobby from 1946, founding the register for the International Circus Clowns Club; only a couple of dozen of his originals survive.

Which US president proclaimed August 1 to 7, 1971 as National Clown Week?

Richard Nixon issued the proclamation in 1971 after Congress passed a 1970 joint resolution requesting it; clown groups went on to mark the first week of August as International Clown Week.

The World Clown Association held its first convention in 1983 in which US city?

The group's first convention outside the United States came in 1991 in Bognor Regis, England.

What term is used for an intense fear of clowns?

Coulrophobia, coined in the late 20th century from the Greek kōlobathristēs, a stilt-walker, is the popular term for fear of clowns; it has never been listed as a formal diagnosis in the DSM.

A survey of 987 adults in 64 countries found what share had some fear of clowns?

About 54% (53.5%) of the 987 respondents reported some fear of clowns, and 5% said they were extremely afraid; an earlier University of Sheffield study of hospital decor found children universally disliked clown images.

A photo of Conrad Veidt in which 1928 silent film inspired the Joker's grin?

Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson drew on a photo of Conrad Veidt's fixed grin as Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs; the Joker debuted in Batman #1 in 1940.

Joaquin Phoenix's 2019 film Joker won which top prize at the Venice Film Festival?

Joker took the Golden Lion, Venice's top award, in 2019; it went on to win Oscars for Phoenix and for Hildur Guðnadóttir's score and became the first R-rated film to gross a billion dollars.

In Stephen King's It, Pennywise the Dancing Clown preys on the children of which fictional Maine town?

Derry, King's fictional stand-in for Bangor, Maine, is It's hunting ground; the 1986 novel runs on two timelines because the creature sleeps for roughly 27 years between feeding cycles.

Who played Pennywise in the 1990 television adaptation of It?

Tim Curry played Pennywise in the 1990 ABC miniseries; Bill Skarsgård took over the role for the 2017 film and its 2019 sequel.

John Wayne Gacy became the 'Killer Clown' after it emerged he performed under what clown name?

Gacy performed at parties and charity events as Pogo the Clown; his 1978 arrest, and conviction for 33 murders, helped curdle the friendly party clown into a horror staple in the following decade.

Which US retailer pulled clown masks from its stores and website during the 2016 creepy-clown scare?

Target removed clown masks from shelves and its website in October 2016 as sightings spread from the US to Canada, Australia and the UK; McDonald's also gave Ronald McDonald a lower profile.

Which actor played Twisty the Clown in American Horror Story: Freak Show?

John Carroll Lynch played Twisty, the masked killer clown of Freak Show, which is set in 1952 Jupiter, Florida; he later returned as Twisty in the Cult season.

Bozo the Clown was created in 1946 by Alan W. Livingston for what purpose?

Bozo debuted on Capitol Records' 1946 read-along children's album Bozo at the Circus, voiced by Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Disney's Goofy; Larry Harmon later bought the rights and franchised local Bozo shows.

How long did the waiting list for studio tickets to WGN-TV's Bozo's Circus eventually reach?

Demand for Bozo's Circus tickets at WGN grew so great that the waiting list stretched to about ten years, with parents requesting seats before their children were born; WGN's superstation reach from 1978 spread the show nationally.

Which actor purchased the rights to the Bozo the Clown character in 2021?

David Arquette, a lifelong fan, bought the rights to Bozo the Clown in 2021, taking over the character Larry Harmon had franchised since 1956, and went on to appear as Bozo himself.

Which future Today weatherman played Bozo on Washington's WRC-TV and then the first Ronald McDonald in 1963?

Willard Scott played Bozo on WRC-TV before donning a paper-cup nose as the first Ronald McDonald in 1963 ads for Washington-area franchises, billed as 'Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown'.

Which circus performer was hired in 1966 to create Ronald McDonald's now-familiar costume and makeup?

Michael Polakovs, performing as Coco the Clown in America, was hired in 1966 to redesign Ronald McDonald's costume and makeup; he was the son of Nicolai Poliakoff, the original Coco of Britain's Bertram Mills Circus.

In Japan, McDonald's clown mascot is known by what name?

In Japan he is Donald McDonald (Donarudo Makudonarudo), a name chosen because 'Ronald' is awkward to pronounce in Japanese; Chinese speakers call him Uncle McDonald.

Which cause did Britain's Coco the Clown campaign for, earning an OBE in 1963?

Coco (Nicolai Poliakoff) toured schools teaching road safety for children, work that earned him an OBE in 1963; he kept working ringside at the circus into the mid-1960s in full costume.

Dan Castellaneta based Krusty the Clown's voice on which Chicago performer, who played Bozo?

Castellaneta modelled Krusty's gravelly voice on Bob Bell, who played Bozo on Chicago's WGN-TV from 1960 to 1984; Krusty's look was drawn separately by Matt Groening.

Which comedian won a Primetime Emmy for voicing Krusty the Clown's father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky?

Jackie Mason won the 1992 Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for 'Like Father, Like Clown', the episode that reunited Krusty with his estranged father, Rabbi Krustofsky.

Which performer, the first to play Clarabell on Howdy Doody, later became Captain Kangaroo?

Bob Keeshan played the mute Clarabell from 1947 before launching Captain Kangaroo on CBS in 1955; Clarabell answered yes or no by honking a horn and doused Buffalo Bob with seltzer.

What did the silent Clarabell the Clown finally say in the 1960 Howdy Doody finale?

On September 24, 1960, after a drum roll stopped, Lew Anderson's Clarabell whispered 'Goodbye, kids', the character's first and last words on the show, with a tear visible as the picture faded.

What formal term began replacing 'rodeo clown' for the performers who protect fallen riders?

Professional rodeo adopted 'bullfighter' for the athletes who distract the bull and protect thrown riders, acknowledging the danger of the job, while the purely comic role was split off as separate entertainment.

Which now-standard arena safety item did rodeo clown Jasbo Fulkerson introduce in the 1930s?

Fulkerson, a rodeo clown of the 1930s, is credited with the reinforced wooden barrel that clowns duck into, an idea that took hold after ill-tempered Brahma bulls entered bull riding in the 1920s.

In the traditional pantomime love triangle, Columbine leaves the sad clown Pierrot for whom?

Harlequin, the nimble masked trickster, wins Columbine, leaving the unmasked, white-faced Pierrot heartbroken in his loose white blouse, a theme that became a favourite of poets and painters.

The commedia dell'arte servant Arlecchino is traditionally associated with which Italian city?

Arlecchino is a zanni from Bergamo in Lombardy, and his rustic dialect was part of the joke; Tristano Martinelli, the first actor known to use the name, played him in France in the 1580s.

Jean-Gaspard Deburau, called the most famous Pierrot ever, performed from 1816 at which Paris theatre?

Deburau made the tiny Théâtre des Funambules on the Boulevard du Temple famous with his silent, melancholy Pierrot, later immortalised by Jean-Louis Barrault in the 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis.

Which composer's 1912 song-cycle Pierrot lunaire is regarded as a pinnacle of high modernism?

The work sets 21 poems by Albert Giraud about a moonstruck clown, delivered in the half-sung Sprechstimme style.

Who conducted the 1892 Milan premiere of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci?

A 25-year-old Arturo Toscanini conducted the premiere at Milan's Teatro Dal Verme on 21 May 1892; the opera is usually paired with Cavalleria rusticana as the 'Cav/Pag' double bill.

Circus clown Dan Rice, said to be a main model for Uncle Sam, ran for which office in 1868?

Rice was once a household name earning more than most politicians, but he died nearly broke in 1900.

'Jump on the bandwagon' is traced to Dan Rice inviting which candidate onto his circus wagon?

Rice invited Zachary Taylor to campaign from his circus bandwagon in 1848, giving English 'jump on the bandwagon'; he also turned 'one-horse show', originally a jibe at his tiny circus, into a trademark.

The heyoka, a contrarian 'sacred clown' who acts backwards, belongs to which Native American people?

The heyoka belongs to the Lakota Sioux: only someone who has dreamed of the thunder beings, the Wakinyan, may take on the role, and the holy man Black Elk described himself as one.

Grock, once the most highly paid entertainer in Europe, was a clown from which country?

Born Charles Adrien Wettach in 1880, he retired in 1954 to a 50-room villa in Imperia, Italy that now bears his name.

Which Soviet circus star, famous for his checked cap, was known internationally as 'The Sunshine Clown'?

Oleg Popov, the Sunshine Clown, toured the world with the Soviet state circus in his outsize checked cap, settled in Germany after 1991 and died in 2016 on tour in Rostov-on-Don.

Clown Charlie Cairoli performed every summer season for forty years at which British venue?

Cairoli headlined the Blackpool Tower Circus every season from 1939 to 1979, a 40-year run claimed as a world record for one venue; he was a familiar face on British television too.

Slava Polunin's wordless Slava's Snowshow premiered in October 1993 in which city?

It went on to win the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and has run on and off Broadway several times.

In 'Chuckles Bites the Dust', Chuckles the Clown dies dressed as Peter Peanut after meeting what animal?

Dressed as Peter Peanut at a parade, Chuckles was shelled by a rogue elephant; Mary scolds her colleagues for joking, then dissolves into giggles at the funeral, and TV Guide named it the greatest episode ever in 1997.

Which star plays Buttons, the clown who never removes his makeup, in The Greatest Show on Earth?

James Stewart played Buttons, who hides his face because he is a doctor wanted for his wife's mercy killing; DeMille shot the 1952 film with the real Ringling troupe in Sarasota.

Which TV comedian's hobo clown, Freddie the Freeloader, debuted on his show in 1952?

Red Skelton introduced the hobo Freddie the Freeloader on his NBC show in 1952; off camera he was a prolific painter of clowns whose lithographs he said earned him $2.5 million a year.

Which actor played the real-life clown-doctor Hunter 'Patch' Adams in the 1998 biopic?

Robin Williams played Adams in the 1998 film, which the real doctor disliked; Adams founded the Gesundheit! Institute and has led clown-costumed volunteer trips to hospitals and orphanages worldwide.

'Send In the Clowns' was written by Stephen Sondheim for which 1973 musical?

Sondheim wrote 'Send In the Clowns' for Glynis Johns as Desirée in A Little Night Music, which opened on Broadway in February 1973; the song has been recorded more than 900 times.

Whose recording of 'Send In the Clowns' was named Song of the Year at the 1976 Grammy Awards?

Judy Collins's 1975 recording made the song a standard and carried it to the Song of the Year Grammy in 1976; her single charted twice on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 19 in 1977.

Will Sommers was court jester to which English king?

Will Sommers entered Henry VIII's service around 1525 and stayed at court for the rest of the king's reign; he appears beside Henry in the Family of Henry VIII painting and in the king's psalter.

In Roman theatre the term for a clown was fossor, a word that literally means what?

Fossor is Latin for 'digger', from fodere, to dig; applied to a theatre clown it implied a lout or clodhopper, the same rustic sense the English word 'clown' first carried.

In circus slang, what is the comedic ending of a clown gag, bit or routine called?

The blow-off is the payoff that ends a gag; full clown entrées run five to ten minutes and 'side dishes' one to three, while brief fill-ins during rigging changes are called clown stops or reprises.

Stephen King imagined Pennywise as a sewer-dwelling troll from which children's tale?

King pictured a troll under a bridge, as in Three Billy Goats Gruff, after walking across a wooden bridge in Boulder, Colorado; he later called It his 'final exam on horror'.

Which English actor was first cast as Pennywise for the 2017 film before Bill Skarsgård?

Will Poulter was Cary Fukunaga's Pennywise; when Fukunaga left the project in 2015 and filming slipped, Poulter dropped out over scheduling and Andy Muschietti cast Bill Skarsgård instead.

Ronald McDonald's first national TV appearance came in 1965 during which event?

Ronald McDonald made his national debut in the 1965 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, two years after Willard Scott's local Washington ads; a 2014 makeover swapped his jumpsuit for yellow cargo pants and a rugby shirt.

Ronald McDonald 'won' a Golden Raspberry for Worst New Star for a cameo in which 1988 film?

Mac and Me, a 1988 E.T. knock-off stuffed with product placement, includes a McDonald's birthday scene where Squire Fridell appears credited as 'Ronald McDonald as himself'.

Krusty the Clown was partly inspired by which gentle TV clown Groening watched as a boy in Portland?

Rusty Nails, a gentle Christian clown on Portland TV in the 1960s, was one model for Krusty; Groening found the name unsettling, and an abandoned early idea would have revealed Krusty as Homer's secret identity.