扮小丑：樂人悅己才是真

Q： Whats it like being a clown？

Clown： Well， for me， being a clown is probably the best job in the world. Ive wanted to do this job since I was very young.

Just to see the childrens faces， thats so rewarding， and it makes all the hard work and effort well worth it.

Heres my old make-up here. I mean， my face has changed a lot since then. I was very lucky I grew up in a seaside town and each year there was a clown festival， so probably age 10， I was drawn to the festival， and， you know， I really sort of caught the bug there.

Practice， practice. Its a series of patterns， erm…and theres you know， millions of tricks that you can learn. Its really important to sort of preserve the art form. You know， its a dying art form. Often people say to me “Whats your best trick as a clown？” and…and I honestly tell them “making a living.”

Well， I think one of the worst things of the job is all the travel. I spend a lot of time behind the wheel， and…and on to the next.

So， rain or shine， theres lots of work to be done before the event， in…in actually building the big top， then the real work starts and its show time.

First thing you need to do when becoming a clown is…is…is find your clown face. Yeah， and its quite tricky because theres millions of clown faces， and you dont want to copy or re-create the same…the same one exactly.

Right. Thats it. Im all ready for show time.

（performing） Hello， everyone！

I do consider myself to be a family entertainer， erm…and I use clowning as a tool to entertain those families.

（performing） Stop！ Ive only just started. Look， theres a blue one next to the green one…

Often parents say to me， “My child is scared of clowns.” Generally thats not the case. They might actually have a little issue. They might have seen the Stephen King film a few too many times.

（performing）Well， the kids were impressed with that， but the adults werent clapping. There we go. Are you ready？On to the umbrella. One！Two！Three！Go！

If you look around the faces of the people， especially the children， youll see nobodys scared of me.

Boy 1： The clown is riding on his unicycle.I find it really funny.

Boy 2： I liked the…when he was riding on his unicycle， and when he was struggling.

（performing） Three， two， one， go！ Hey hey…Girl： And he was doing the hats. Everyones screaming “Yes！” “No！”

Clown： Id been very happy， if either of the boys decided to do Daddys job， and to keep the clowning flag flying in the family.We do need to kind of hold onto our clowns and look after our clowns. You know， if we…if we dont support it like any other art， itll die out， and that would be a real shame.

問：扮小丑感覺怎樣？

小丑：嗯，對我來說，扮小丑應該是世界上最好的工作。我從小就想做這份工作。

只要看看小孩子們的笑臉，就會覺得那是最好的回報，所有的辛苦和努力都是值得的。

這是我以前的裝扮。我是說，從那以后，我的扮相已經換過很多次了。我很幸運，我生長于一個海濱小鎮，那里每年都舉辦小丑節。因此大約十歲時，我被小丑節吸引了，然后，你知道嗎，我當時就被迷住了。

練習，練習。這是一連串的動作，呃……還有多不勝數的戲法可以學。保護這種藝術形式真的很重要。你要知道，這是一種正在消失的藝術形式。人們常問我：“作為一個小丑，你最拿手的戲法是什么？”而……而我會老實地告訴他們“維持生計”。

嗯，我覺得這份工作最糟糕的一方面就是要到處走。很多時間我都在開車，奔去下一個演出場地。

哎，不論何時，在表演之前，我要做很多準備工作，比如要支起一個大帳篷，接著真正的工作開始了——表演。

成為小丑要做的第一件事情就是……是找出一個適合自己的小丑臉相。是啊，這可不容易，因為小丑臉相有無數種，但你不會想重復別人的臉相，或者只把別人用過的稍加修改。

好，就這樣吧，我準備好表演了。

（表演）大家好！

我就是把自己當作是一個娛樂家庭的人，呃……我通過小丑表演給家庭成員帶來歡樂。

（表演）停！我才剛剛開始?？?，藍色的在綠色的旁邊……家長們常常對我說：“我的小孩很害怕小丑?！钡ǔＪ聦嵅⒉皇沁@樣的。他們可能只是有點小問題，他們可能看了太多史蒂芬·金的電影。

（表演）唉，小孩子們都喜歡剛才的表演，但大人就是不鼓掌。來吧。你準備好了嗎？放在傘上吧，一！二！三！走！

如果你看看周圍人的表情，尤其是小孩子，你就知道沒有人怕我。

小男孩1：小丑在騎獨輪車，我覺得很有趣。

小男孩2：我喜歡……看他騎獨輪車，還有當他遇到麻煩的時候。

（表演）三！二！一！走！嘿嘿！小女孩：他在耍帽子的時候，每個人都在大喊：“好！”“不！”

小丑：如果我兩個兒子中有一個決心繼承我的工作，讓小丑表演在這個家延續下去，我會感到很欣慰的。我們真的需要把小丑表演這種藝術堅持下去，并去關心這些小丑演員。你知道嗎，如果我們……如果我們沒有像支持其他藝術那樣支持它，它就會消失，那將會是真正的遺憾。