Clowning with Angie Wakeman

Imagine turning up with some colleagues who are also friends, with some strangers too, and three hours later you are going to be cavorting across the room, all eyes on you and your clowning partner, twisting comically, distorting your body to the music of the Pink Panther? Oh yes, and you’ll be wearing a red nose and a ridiculous hat. The more ridiculous, the better.

Welcome to the magical, crazy world of clowning coach, Angie Wakeman. A playful, chuckling and delightful woman who reassures you – you’re among friends. All clowns together.

Clowning is simple, permissive, spontaneous and deceptively powerful. In one exercise, Angie placed a small piece of green fabric in the space and instructed each of us to take the stage and see what happened. I want you to let go of any planning, she said. If you’ve worked something out beforehand, I’ll know, she added with feigned threat. Empty your mind.

It’s so powerful because clowning is essentially about being in the moment. Writ large. Clowning switches off the big lever in our heads that tells us to present ourselves to the world as capable, confident, right and clever. And opens up our senses – be here now – see, listen, touch, smell (we didn’t venture into taste, we only had a morning).

Courageous fun, created together

A clown never puts their nose on in view of others, nor do they fiddle with it, and no clown ever says, I am a clown. They just are. They were born that way.

Putting on the mask of the red nose is an invitation to let go of other masks we probably don’t even know we wear. It is liberating to ‘dis-cover’ who we are beneath the grown-up seriousness of our everyday existence. And with our clown friends, we can be courageous together.

There is nothing to fear, but if you do, that’s okay too. Angie would say, show us that fear, be however you are feeling. More than anything though, what I witnessed, was so much joy and laughter and love. An abundance of the stuff, shared, and grown exponentially.

Thank you Angie for your loving care of our baby clowns and thank you Jo for herding us together and trusting the magic.

Vive le clown!

Written by Di Gammage MA Core Process Psychotherapist and member of the Petros programme delivery team. You can learn more about Angie Wakeman and her clowning workshops for events, groups and organisations at Clowns Truly.