扮小丑：乐人悦己才是真

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：扮小丑感觉怎样？

小丑：嗯，对我来说，扮小丑应该是世界上最好的工作。我从小就想做这份工作。

只要看看小孩子们的笑脸，就会觉得那是最好的回报，所有的辛苦和努力都是值得的。

这是我以前的装扮。我是说，从那以后，我的扮相已经换过很多次了。我很幸运，我生长于一个海滨小镇，那里每年都举办小丑节。因此大约十岁时，我被小丑节吸引了，然后，你知道吗，我当时就被迷住了。

练习，练习。这是一连串的动作，呃……还有多不胜数的戏法可以学。保护这种艺术形式真的很重要。你要知道，这是一种正在消失的艺术形式。人们常问我：“作为一个小丑，你最拿手的戏法是什么？”而……而我会老实地告诉他们“维持生计”。

嗯，我觉得这份工作最糟糕的一方面就是要到处走。很多时间我都在开车，奔去下一个演出场地。

哎，不论何时，在表演之前，我要做很多准备工作，比如要支起一个大帐篷，接着真正的工作开始了——表演。

成为小丑要做的第一件事情就是……是找出一个适合自己的小丑脸相。是啊，这可不容易，因为小丑脸相有无数种，但你不会想重复别人的脸相，或者只把别人用过的稍加修改。

好，就这样吧，我准备好表演了。

（表演）大家好！

我就是把自己当作是一个娱乐家庭的人，呃……我通过小丑表演给家庭成员带来欢乐。

（表演）停！我才刚刚开始。看，蓝色的在绿色的旁边……家长们常常对我说：“我的小孩很害怕小丑。”但通常事实并不是这样的。他们可能只是有点小问题，他们可能看了太多史蒂芬·金的电影。

（表演）唉，小孩子们都喜欢刚才的表演，但大人就是不鼓掌。来吧。你准备好了吗？放在伞上吧，一！二！三！走！

如果你看看周围人的表情，尤其是小孩子，你就知道没有人怕我。

小男孩1：小丑在骑独轮车，我觉得很有趣。

小男孩2：我喜欢……看他骑独轮车，还有当他遇到麻烦的时候。

（表演）三！二！一！走！嘿嘿！小女孩：他在耍帽子的时候，每个人都在大喊：“好！”“不！”

小丑：如果我两个儿子中有一个决心继承我的工作，让小丑表演在这个家延续下去，我会感到很欣慰的。我们真的需要把小丑表演这种艺术坚持下去，并去关心这些小丑演员。你知道吗，如果我们……如果我们没有像支持其他艺术那样支持它，它就会消失，那将会是真正的遗憾。