Article in „Kindered Spirit“ (1993)The Wisdom of the Fool
A Meeting with a New Kind of Clown
“A clown becomes a mirror of truth, a healer, a door to a new awareness of Self.” Lex van Someren’s clowning is far removed from traditional slapstick routines. It explores the essence, the Tao, of clowning. He invites us on a journey to the mystic clown within.
“Lexis, The Mystic Clown”. The title of the show proclaims that this show for adults will be something beyond the normal clown act. Lex van Someren invites his audience to be partners on a journey of play, fantasy, celebration, laughter and tears. He sees clowning as a way to enter a new plane of consciousness. Using an “earth ball” as a prop, he humorously illustrates the vision of entering a new era of global cooperation and unity, where we will restore the balance of our life on Earth.
Kindred Spirit: How did you become involved in clowning?
Lex van Someren: As a boy I was excited by everything that had to do with music, theatre and clowns. I unconsciously felt that good clowns bring out the mysticism of our day-to-day-reality.
I grew up in the Netherlands, where we had a fabulous theatre-clown called Toon Hermans. He became my master-teacher and from the age of 8 I studied every detail of his shows. His beautiful radiance and charisma gave me an image of him being a “priest” for our modern times, giving people new inspiration and showing them a deeper sense of gratitude for life through simple, humorous ways. The lighthearted and sincere way he did this was in complete contrast to most priests in the churches. From an early age I was probably recognising the direction for me to take in this life.
However, as a teenager I was very intensely involved in sports. Later I trained as a PE teacher.
Because of turmoil and crisis in my childhood, especially my parents divorcing when I was 12, I started to build walls around myself in order to survive in a threatening world. I became a fanatical athlete for ten years, locking all the doors to creativity, spontaneity and musical expression.
As time went on this created a gap between my feelings and my head. The interest in performance arts was still there, but as something for others, not for myself. This happened during my adolescence, a time when society appeals to us to fit into its structures.
I’ve since been able to break out of these “walls” and expectations, but not without a lot of struggle and pain.
How did this happen?
At some point in my 20s I became aware of this gap between my feelings and my head, and I no longer wanted it. I also began to understand that I no longer needed these walls to protect myself. It was a time of inner crisis, feeling totally out of touch with myself and the joy of life.
On my search I came in touch with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, later called Osho. I went to him in India when I was 28, and spent a couple of months working hard on myself, participating in the most divergent therapy groups and all the daily dance and singing celebrations. Through the ecstatic experience of the dance and song the connection with who I was as child was restored.
The childhood memories of myself as a dancer, musician, clown and entertainer just reappeared to me. I began to see that little boy as a part of the “real” me and the creative energy flow within me was suddenly revitalised. It was like a new beginning of life, pieces of a puzzle falling into place.
How did this acknowledgment of the child affect your work?
I started to search for my own way to bring together the artist and the mystic in me. I began to give dance workshops with titles like “meditative dance” and “chakra dance”. From 1984 clown performances and workshops became my main focus. The fact that I was able to make a living from it was in itself a great experience for me.
However, in the beginning I was really struggling with the feeling that “I” as a clown and “I” as a mystic were of two different worlds. I almost felt they were opposites. But by going deeper and deeper into my clown work, it started to change my whole perspective on life. It became clear to me that true spirituality and wisdom are not found in the so-called momentous but in the very ordinary, simple things, in innocence, in creativity and play, and above all in sincere humour.
It now feels that over the years a harmonious connection between the two has grown naturally; the mystic and the clown have become one.
What do you do in your shows?
For years I was doing shows for children, but recently I’ve started to do them for adults. I’ve just done performances in St. James Church, Piccadilly, and at Schumacher College, and will come to Dartington College next year.
I use a huge Earth ball as the main theme in the performance. Around it I do acts showing that the Earth is in a bad state, and trying to find ways as a clown to heal it, to make it more happy. That’s the theme of the show. I improvise and ask people to help. I get people on stage, and they tell me afterwards that they’ve felt they want to encourage their own child, to be creative, to be a clown themselves. I make the people part of the show. I try to create an open atmosphere for using fantasy, creativity, spontaneity and at the same time I’m doing my thing! I’m performing, doing acrobatics, singing, playing music. It’s an event rather than a performance.
Many adults nowadays regard clowns with scepticism, as something of the past. They tell me they were disappointed and hurt by clowns, with the old stereotype of fighting with each other and “trying” to be funny. But clowns are also associated with the “childlike”, and in today’s society we don’t allow ourselves much time to be spontaneous, to dance, sing and play. In Russia they have a wonderful expression for the clown: “A fool for Christ”. That’s how I feel about clowning.
What made you perform with adults?
It was always very easy for me to perform with children. With adults it was more difficult with my programme, but for the last few years I’ve felt very drawn to it. It’s a new challenge because you have to use humour in a more subtle way. Children are very spontaneous, unselfconscious, they’re just with you without asking themselves what they’re doing - that’s the wonderful thing. I’m finding ways for it to work with adults, I’m very excited about it, but I need to be very gentle, very patient. Adults have built up so much in their minds - we have been taught not to be spontaneous, not to use our creativity and fantasy.
Are you saying that the clown is a facilitator, like a shaman, to bring out the inner clown so that people become more playful in their own lives?
Yes, that’s a very important aspect, but in the last few years there haven’t been many good clowns around. The way clowning is used in circuses has been so very stereotyped and superficial. But some good clowns and fools are starting to come back now. Slapstick stuff - throwing water at people and all that - isn’t working any more because there’s a new consciousness.
I’m making the link with the changes that are happening in the world, and it’s my own growth too.
It sounds as though you’re actively reviving the centuries old idea of the wise fool.
That’s exactly what it is, the wisdom of the innocent child. The child is the symbol for the wisdom that’s in simplicity.
When you’re training people in clowning, what do you find are their main barriers?
They’re confronted with their self-consciousness, but they come through it in the workshops. Also, through the exercises that we do, people are challenged to be really here and now, not in what just happened or what’s about to. There’s a lot of discipline involved, and people are surprised that it is hard work because we’re not used to just being in the present. There’s a discipline in limiting the focus to one simple little thing.
Is that what you mean by the Tao of clowning?
Yes, that’s part of it. And there are other elements that come out in clowning, such as dualism - the yes and the no, black and white, male and female. Our lives go between those extremes, and clowning mirrors them. Through clowning, people become aware of how they can take control of their life by playing with those dualities. You can learn to create more distance from things, to see that there’s always another side. The clown switches from one to the other extreme, playing with it, creating emotional distance.
The message of the Tao of clowning is: Take off your mask and be a clown … be yourself!
Wisdom is about play, the innocent child within us wanting to dance in the field, eager and full of potential, blossoming in the here and now, full of wonder.
Clowning has nothing to do with trying to be funny. It is about learning to be grounded in our own identity; sincere humour and delight will appear of its own accord, by taking the many different facets, talents, passions and feelings of ourselves into a real creative and playful relationship with the world around us. A clown creates an atmosphere around him (or, certainly, her) which invites us to step out of our limited perception of life and reminds us of the absurdity of life. It is a way of release, because we become aware of the illusions that have prevailed in our life.
So your clowning involves playing with the world of dualities?
Yes. By exaggerating the ways we attach ourselves to certain values in life, or by showing the other side of these values, the clown makes us feel how ridiculous most of our attachments are. The clown plays and juggles with the world of dualities.
Can you give an example of that?
A clown can be sad and joyful at the same time. He can exaggerate these two opposite emotions to their extremes and can switch in a split second from one to the other and back again. It is play and at the same time it is very real.
As a clown one learns the skill of deeply tapping into genuine feelings without being attached to them. We experience that sadness and joy are not necessarily opposite poles - sadness is an energy that can be transformed into joy. Both extremes are far from absolute. They are part of the same truth, two sides of the same coin.
This can lead us to experience that we are not our emotions, that we can use them in any way we want, no longer being their victim.
How might this come out in clowning?
In the workshops I often encourage people to focus on one particular feeling or situation, and then stick to it. Then I ask them to use their imagination to find another element, so that they can start to play with the inner tension it creates.
For example, you’re standing on the ground in a relaxed position. That’s one situation, then you bring in the other element: wanting to go to another place, but both feet are glued to the ground. You can use this freely chosen limitation to create an inner tension: “I want to go there so much, but I’m stuck to the ground. Help!” If you use your fantasy and imagination in subtle ways, a wonderful act - a piece of art - can grow.
And it is amazing to see how many psychological barriers and emotional blockages just dissolve in the spirit of play. This is not a temporary thing but allows profound changes in our consciousness.
In playing clowns we can journey through our physical reality, into the heart and past the mind. To ecstasy, communion with the spirit.
What other things might come out through clowning?
Limitation and failure can be a source of inspiration. For instance, you’re very tired, don’t feel like doing anything. That’s where you begin, exaggerating being very tired and perhaps bored. This usually feels very good, because it’s you in this moment. And because it feels good, you can be creative with it. After a while it will change your whole energy.
Or you might have a broken leg, and be very limited in your movements. You can use it with fantasy as a basis for a wonderful clown’s act.
If we start where we are and fully accept whatever we feel, it will bring us into the flow of our energy in that moment, and that’s where we can be creative. We often see our limitations as the obstacle, instead of the gift of freedom to create. Clowning is a wonderful way to practise this, as a clown is allowed to fail and be imperfect.
There’s nothing more relaxing than being allowed to fail! It helps people to a natural state of just being, and then the laughter and tears are just around the corner.
What about timing, isn’t that an important part of clowning?
A clown often chooses to be occupied with one little thing, using his creative imagination to totally explore the possibilities of, say a chair - thousands of ways to sit in it, slide from it, take it in your arms, etc. If it is done with subtlety it can become a meditation.
This limitation is linked with the art of timing. In my workshops people are encouraged to do certain exercises with as little outer movement and sound as they can, but with as much inner alertness as possible. The less you do, the better, because then when you do certain action, it becomes extremely powerful. For instance, imagine a fly buzzing round your head, sometimes landing on the tip of your nose. I ask people to stand completely still, except for the eyes. All the feelings about the irritating fly have to be expressed through the eyes. If after a while you make a conscious body movement, it will have a powerful effect, especially in front of an audience.
Good timing is impossible to describe, it’s so intuitive, but timing and subtlety make a good clown. Practising this art can lead to inner revelations of other dimensions of time and space.
How about the tears of a clown? Are you also expressing them?
Laughter and tears are two parts of a whole, yin-yang. Both come from the deepest human desire to be true, pure and simple. The sacred clown is the symbol for laughter and tears, he has an intense connection with his own sadness. I think it is of tremendous value that there are clowns who openly show us how one can use these feelings creatively. Real joy is sadness without a mask.
All clowns mirror the games we play in life. The sacred clown takes it a step further; he shows us how to go beyond our mind/ego games, stepping into the world of mystery, delight and wonder.
This sense of wonder seems to be an important part of the Tao of Clowning.
The clown is constantly involved in the wonder of everything - of sitting in a chair, of having five fingers, of a bit of fluff on the ground. The whole universe is represented in that bit of fluff, if we want it to be.
In the act of wonder, everything becomes alive. Like small children, a clown can relate to material things as living beings. His wonder can make him talk to a stone, dance with a tree, fall in love with a chair, share feelings without any restriction.
What about face paint, the red nose and so on?
Dressing up is not essential. I’ve found that in the beginning it’s better not to let people dress up or paint their face, because it tends to act as a hiding place. First, they must get in touch with the sacred clown deep inside before they can use the red nose and the colourful suit to support their act.
In a later stage of the workshops the clown’s nose gets a special place. By putting on the nose with awareness something happens. It brings us back into our innocence, without respect for ego, status and the selfconscious images we create.
A participant wrote to me: “This beautiful little red ball on my nose was making the pointed sides of me round, and it was turning inwards all the parts that used to be pointed outwards.”
What have been the most important moments for you in your work?
In the workshops, it’s been seeing people going deeply into allowing the child to come out, being really creative again. That’s deeply touching every time. I enjoy the workshops a lot just because of that.
The performances themselves have a lot of highlights, because of having to be in the moment; particularly with the show for adults, it’s such a challenge. It has to do with being a meditation, taking the audience with you, when those moments happen it’s fantastic.