Why Everyone Should Try Clown Comedy: 7 Ways It Boosts Your Life

Clown comedy isn’t just for making kids giggle or scaring a few adults—it’s a gateway to a more playful, creative, and carefree life. Whether you’re on stage or in the office, clowning helps you embrace the ridiculous, celebrate failure, and find joy in the everyday. Here's how clown comedy can transform your life, even when you're not wearing a red nose.

1. Clowning Makes Your Life More Playful

In clowning everything we do is about finding the fun, what am I and the audience enjoying, and how do I do more of that. It’s about releasing your inner fool, that cheeky little child inside us that just wants to play and share that enjoyment with the world.

When you practise this in class and on stage, you end up embodying more and more of these traits in your non-clown life. You start noticing more patterns and silly games to play in everyday life. And repeating more of the little moments that bring you and your friends joy.

2. Clowning Helps You Take Life Less Seriously

An overly serious life can be hard to enjoy. And it’s all too easy to fall into. Going to clown class on a Tuesday evening after work or a weekend intensive helps you to remember that life can be fun, silly and not so serious.

When we start clowning we often try to do it right, understand the “rules” and tell ourselves off for getting things wrong. But that’s not really in the clown spirit, instead you’ll get used to the freeing nature of a clown class, playfully breaking the rules and indulging in the ridiculousness of what’s happening.

3. Clowning is Physical!

Clown comedy is normally very physical and active (although it doesn’t have to be). It’s a great hobby away from the pub of TV that gets you moving, collaborating, creating and laughing.

It’s essentially a low intensity clown gym… This should be our next project!!! Clownercise? Clown Gym? Cloga? Hmmm, we’ll keep working on it.

4. Celebrate Mistakes

Too often we chastise ourselves for getting things wrong, to a point where it stops us from fully embracing what we’re doing and pushing ourselves. In clown, we have to fail… a lot. But failure is one of our goals! Every clown failure is an opportunity to connect with the audience, to realise what doesn’t work and try something new. Clown whoopsies can be funny and pave the way for greater success later. Sometimes the failure/ mistake becomes the success by accident! But we only got there by trying hard enough to fail in the first place.

The clown spirit is often the eagerness of “this time it will work, this time, this time!”

The longer you clown the less you beat yourself up about making mistakes in many aspects of your life. You still recognise a need to change and improve, but you don’t let it hold you back, and can actually enjoy those moments!

5. Clowning is Mindful

A successful clown is a mindful clown.

Clowning is about listening to the audience and reacting to what they and you enjoy (Audience Sensitivity). To do this we have to be present. Existing right in the moment, doing the next thing, seeing how the audience react, and adjust accordingly. When your head is in past failures or future plans of the set/ bit then you drop the ball on the most important aspect (right here, right now 🎶).

When you embrace clowning you’ll be in the flow zone baby, and it feels wonderful.

6. Clowning Develops Emotional Intelligence… Honestly!

Clowns do silly things, see if the audience enjoy it and then:

1. Do it again/ develop the bit 2. Or try something new/ go back to something that worked if they didn’t like it

That’s pretty much it. But to do that, you have to know what the audience think. Not what you think about your “great” idea. Did they actually laugh? Or was it just a pity titter (I enjoyed writing that way too much)? Your clown teacher (or a recording of your set) should make it very clear to you which is which.

Understanding the audience is understanding people, so the more you clown the better your emotional intelligence 🙌

7. Clowning Improves Your Communication

Clown comedy is often more physical than a lot of other forms of comedy and tends to be less verbal as well (it absolutely doesn’t have to be, but training will get you practising more like this).

As such, we have to convey intent, goals, emotions and more, in less traditional ways than outside of performing. Whether it’s through costumes, exaggerated movements or subtle looks and expressions we start increasing our repertoire of communication tools.

All this improves how you communicate when you're not clowning (WARNING! Although once you clowning, I don't think you ever really stop!?). Whether through better awareness of your movement and how the audience are reacting to that or just miming out your entire 50 min presentation on Sustainable Agriculture in Temperate Environments with Q&A. Clowning is sure to help 😜

Lastly as a bonus, it’s pretty fun too 🙌

See ya at our next class!

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