More stuff -- references.
I found a good book a LONG time ago called "
Be A Clown" by Turk Pipkin
It appears to be still available from Amazon.com
Do a search at Amazon and you should come up with quite a few good reference
books on clowns and clowning.
Look, watch and study the masters. Lucille Ball, The Three Stooges, The
Marx Brothers, Red Skelton, Charlie Chaplin, Tim Conway, Carol Burnett, etc.
(Notice that most of these didn't rely on makeup at all, yet were comedy
greats!!!) Find all the DVD's you can with these folks and STUDY what they
do / did.
It's not about the makeup, the costume, the props! Sure, those help, but
you need to be able to entertain and communicate with your audience
just by your actions alone. I'm not saying you have to be a mime and not
talk. What I mean is that you need to be able to convey emotion and ideas
from your body language. Exaggerate and Animate!
Clowning exaggerates the human condition - when a clown is happy, it should
be an exaggerated happiness. When sad, it should be so sad that you have
to be scraped off the pavement. Extremes.
Hope these long posts contain something that helps you to form an "act"
for your parties. There's no formula here - instead I hope to give building
blocks that you can use to create your own character.
Ashes