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Joy of the Jest

Clowns on campus and in Boston play for pleasure and goodwill

Professional juggler Jennifer Thompson Oberhauser finds the endless logistical requirements of clowning exhausting. “I would love the privilege of working in the marketing and promo department of my company ... I would love the privilege of being the talent and the performing artist for my company,” Thompson Oberhauser says. “But I don’t have any of those privileges—I get to do them all. The challenge is to make that not overwhelming and to balance that with my personal life.” As with many clowns, Thompson Oberhauser does not have substantial career support from a large institution and must make her reputation and find clients on her own.

Holzman embraces these professional difficulties. “One of things I like about clowning is that I like to take the path less taken,” he says. “I like to do things the hard way, you could say. It’s a constant challenge to make a living this way.”

SMILING THROUGH

Maybe the chief challenge of clowning is the necessity to stay constantly in character. “You have to both be entertaining and businesslike at the same time, and it’s a difficult balancing act,” Holzman says. “You can’t play the fool and be a fool … I have to think of an entertaining way to say, ‘no, I can’t be there two days,’ or else I’m not funny!” When having to balance humor and business, Holzman opines, “It’s a little ironic and a little frustrating at times.” The lines between performance, real-life personality, and livelihood are blurred such that Holzman is regularly tasked with trying to find humor in everyday decisions, including the uncomfortable ones that occur outside of clowning itself.

It may be the lack of professional imperative that allows Zauzmer to see these challenges as wholly rewarding. “There’s always irritating things that happen that you have to deal with as if it’s funny, as if it’s no big deal, and then it’s funny,” Zauzmer says. “That’s your job: to make it become funny. All those little irritating things, you have to smile through them. Honestly it makes it more fun for you, because after a while you forget you’re faking it.” It is as if smiling through issues is another part of Zauzmer’s clowning act, as she makes the irritating aspects of the job another moment of performance.

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Like Zauzmer, Lepiarz enjoys the process of acting in character even when his internal state may diverge from it completely. “I’ve always found it easier to go into performing if I am in a bad mood,” Lepiarz says. “When you’re performing you’re becoming such a different character. The way I’ve always looked at it is that it’s something I use as an anchor, [channeling] that energy into a more goofy or wacky character.”

SYMBIOTIC STUNTS

Ultimately, clowns see this act of performance as the motivating factor behind their work. “The performing itself is the privilege and the chaos,” Thompson Oberhauser says. “By doing it professionally, you have the opportunity to really develop your craft and build your life around being able to deliver the performances.”

Max A. Binder ’09, who grew up performing in the circus with his parents and who could be seen walking on stilts for Adams House during Housing Day, sees moments of crowd interaction as themselves determining the type and enjoyment of performance. “There’s nothing really like feeding off a crowd’s energy and what they like and don’t like. You milk that for all it’s worth.” Clowning, therefore, is dynamic by nature, as every performance will differ due to its audience’s reactions.

“I have a set script that I stick to, but every show is different because audiences are different,” Lepiarz says. “The audience is the best part of the show because the audience is what keeps the show fresh for me so I’m not just an automaton doing the same thing over and over again.”

What may make clowning unique is its reliance on an audience. If spectators are not enjoying themselves, then neither can the performer. The relationship between clown and viewer, then, is symbiotic, and clowning is the product of this collaboration.

—Staff writer Brian A. Feldman can be reached at bfeldman@college.harvard.edu.

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