Bitches Don't Know 'Bout My Clowning!

Title courtesy of my lovely modmate, Ian.

Had clowning tonight with the glorious Sophie Wood. It just occurred to me that until now, I haven't really thought about why I like clowning.

It makes me feel good. I like to be silly, I like making people laugh, and I like feeling that there's someone inside me who is sweet, caring, and likable - and that she gets accentuated every time I put on the red nose or the whiteface.

It's psychological, too, perhaps. As I've said before, my character has a lot of my personality traits, amplified. I like to use her as an excuse to show the world my innermost fears, in a way - the timidity, the need to be loved, etc.

I'm also very attracted to the European aesthetic of clowning. I love whiteface, and I love doing interesting things with makeup in general.

I love the circus.

I love performance.

I love comedy.

And I'm so very passionate about clowns and clowning the majority of the time. I mean, I'm studying it, for goodness' sake. I'm going to Italy to study it, in fact. Whenever I'm not being passionate about it actively, I'm usually doing it passively through preparation to study it - taking Italian, filling out endless field study paperwork, etc.

Even my therapy sessions seem like clown work to me these days. The more I find out about myself, the more material I have for my character.

It occurs to me that my sweet little clown character needs a name. I have a couple over which I am debating right now. I need to get a second opinion.

I also need to get to bed here. I just wanted to let the world know that I feel better because I love what I'm doing, and what I'm doing is clowning.

Puppets! Clowns! Baked Goods! Oh my!

Went to see a puppet show in Northampton today, at the Academy of Music. It was the Crabapple Puppet Theatre Company's "The Last Dragon on Earth." It was cute, and the audience was made up of at least 75% of persons under the age of eight. They used hand puppets, rod puppets, and shadow puppets. I had kind of been expecting marionettes, but I'm not disappointed. Hand puppets always remind me of Mr. Rogers and, for some reason, Lady Elaine Fairchild in particular. I think it's because she looks like Mr. Punch, and he's kind of the quintessential hand puppet.

What with all the children and the puppets and the fact that I'm wearing a very colorful sweater, I decided to put on my clown nose after the performance, for the duration of the bus ride back to Hampshire and the walk to my room. Being a clown in public...well, having never really done it before, so I had a hard time figuring out what to do. I decided to just be my clown persona, albeit passively. I bounced a bit more when I walked, I sat cross-legged on the bus seat - little things like that.

Then I came back to my room and James, who is currently at his parents' house in Maryland, informed me that he has a shiny new baking blog! I'm very excited about this development.

The rest of the day sees me finishing an Italian composition, watching a film for Screen Comedy...maybe doing more artwork (I've been doing quite a bit lately) and/or reading about clowns. Off I go, to my excruciatingly productive day. =]