Last night I attended the panel discussion of the excellent Clowns in Crisis conference, hosted by the Online Clown Academy, hosted by. Here are some things I took away from it.

The panel was hosted by Holly Stoppit, Robyn Hambrook and Bea Golding and featured:

  • Rachel Caine (Sacred Clown healer, Spain)
  • Faith Tingle-Bartoli (Clown performer, Giggle Doctor, UK)
  • Hilary Ramsden (Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, UK and Greece)
  • Sabine Choucair (Clown Me In, Beirut)

These are the pearls of sanity I wrote down:

  • Let’s find a game. Is there a game we can play here? It’s the mantra of the clown. By asking this question we rekindle childhood curiosity and levity.
  • Not all clowns wear noses. You don’t need to be wearing your nose to find a sense of play.
  • You don’t need to know everything about a situation to protest about it. By letting go you can sometimes see the obvious answer.
  • Clowns can change the atmosphere, reminding people it is ok to be happy and delighted.
  • Find the humanity in any situation.