Clown College

It use to be that every person who dreamed of becoming a clown also dreamed of attending the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College (originally located in Venice, Florida, then relocated to Baraboo, Wisconsin and finally to Sarasota, Florida).

 

For 30 years Clown College taught the basics -- how to apply your clown makeup, how to take a pie thrown at your big clown nose, and to fall down without hurting yourself.

 

Clown College was the brainchild ofIrvin Feld. In 1968, the clown profession seemed to be dwindling and -- Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus had only a dozen clowns, most of them getting older by the day. Irvin Feld wanted to make sure there were clowns well into the future.

 

So the Clown College directors held auditions at colleges and theatres around the country. Hundreds of would-be clowns showed their stuff. The competition was intense. Only 30 to 50 new clowns were accepted into each year's class with the vast majority being men. The ratio of men to women in a Clown College class was roughly 7 to 1.

 

The Clown College session ranged from 13 weeks to 10 weeks before it was scaled back to an 8 week course at the end. Students would work together or "play off" each other 9 hours a day, six days a week preparing material for the Circus and learning all of the basics of clowning.

 

Tuition was free (though students were responsible for their room and board), and a graduate from the school finished the term with a full "Agent Suit", including a wig and proper clown shoes and a complete make-up kit.

 

The entire session was one long audition for the Circus, as the instructors took note of which students had what they were looking for to fill the positions for the new season's show.

 

But the Clown College became a victim of its own success. In 1998, there were about over 1500 Clown College trained clowns and there was little danger of the profession dying out. So they closed Clown College.

 

But what's an aspiring clown going to do today ?

 

Well some of the graduates of Clown College have taken on the task of teaching clowning to the new generation of clowns.

 

Check out the blue hyperlink of Clown Schools. There we have listed the active Clown Schools that teach the newest generation of clowns.