I had a good friend who was a clown. I drove a car small enough to call a clown car so I drove for a lot of gigs after we met. He would “clown up” and go to public events(concerts, festivals, karaoke, any excuse really) and be silly and most importantly have fun. He networked and had a few yearly gigs. Some paid but he was in it for the clowning and the cash was just a bonus. Don’t quit your day job and all.

As a person he was great company. Friends with everyone and woke up every day looking to have a good time. One yearly gig we did was a three hours away neighborhood wide garage sale. It was one of the few that paid. After a day of making balloon animals he stood in a chalk circle and I handed kids water balloons and kept the tip jar mostly empty. We made well over $100 each those days.

His backstory is a little more fucked up than the average clown I would guess. His primary networking was AA meetings and back in the 80s he was an alcoholic crackhead living in Detroit sleeping in dumpsters. The dude knew how to hustle. He told me the story of how his daughter had to come up with some cash and the chalk circle and water balloons show(?) outside bars solved her money issues overnight.

He had no formal training so don’t get hung up on some expensive day camp. If you have it in you you can be a clown. Getting a degree from a clown college is just a vanity project. A real clown, at least to me, hung out with Joe C watching wrestling and smoking weed while Kid Rock and the rest of the gang partied after shows. Be larger than life and you can be whatever you want to be.