The Clown and the Circus as noxious cliche.

 



I don’t really understand why protestors are using clowns and circuses as symbols of the Trump administration.

Not that I am a fan of said administration.  Far from it.

But as a retired professional circus clown who spent 40 years in gaudy makeup and floppy shoes I don’t get the symbolism. 

I never have.

To me clowns and circuses have always meant serious commitment to bring astounding talent – both animal and human, serious and comic – to audiences for a reasonable cost. To make wonders and marvels accessible to even the smallest and most remote tank town.

I loved my job as a circus clown, and am proud of my slapstick heritage. It took me many years, under the tutelage of veteran buffoons who learned their trade from the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy, to learn how to present a gag and time it for maximum effect. It was an honorable profession. Run by, for the most part, honorable and professional men and women.

I won’t go into the details; that whole chapter of garish and hilarious entertainment is now virtually extinct anyways.

But, again, wouldn’t it be better to compare the current administration to something else – like the book ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ or the play ‘Waiting for Godot?’

I think comparing Trump and his cronies to clowns and circuses is just plain lazy thinking – an easy, inaccurate, cliche. Let’s expunge it.

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