Are there other ways ,besides balloon twisting and party hopping, to exercise clowning skills or is there a theatrical sense to it. I guess what I'm asking is what are my options other than what I mentioned above?

Yes there are many things that clowns do. there is juggling, magic, pantomime. If you are looking to excecise skills i would sugeest finding a local clown group like a COAI Alley. Most alleys has a lesson or guest speaker and then some time to practice. If you are looking to learn new skills this is also a good place to start.

If your a juggler it can be a great place to find a partner to team juggle with. If you do magic is a good place to practice with people who can give honest and constructive help.

There is a certain theatrical sence to clowning. It is not really the same as acting though. An actor practices so they can play many different parts. A clown finds the funny parts of themselves and develops that into a character. Historically clowns are often traced to the Greek Theater Character of Comedy. Comedy was often played by the same actor over and over. Different plays would have a "funny man" and people could make a carear out of it.

In the circs a clown usually has a part in a skit or gag they do during the show. they have to improve during the show if somethign goes wrong (the elephant are grumpy and don't want to come out). they may also work the midway in character making people happy, selling ballons, challenging them to games (trying to get people to spend money).

In this day and age there are several clown shows that are stage shows. there is one show that does 46 acts in 45 minutes. They are basically half a dozen clowns who do everything from juggling to taming a pantomime lion.

If you are looking to learn new skills there are all kinds of good books out there. Juggling for the complete Klutz for juggling (I know self explanitory), Mark Wilson's Cyclopedia of Magic,

If you are looking for venues to practice there are always hospital and nursing homes. Before you start in hospitals I would sugegst reading Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins. It is the story of man who had an incurable illness. He used a positive attitude (and tons of vitamins) to help him over come his illness. It is a great insight into hospital culture. there is also a book called Bedside maners. i forget who it is by. But it give lots of helpful advice on visiting people in hospitals.

If you have never room hopped in a hospital i would suggest finding someone who has done it and go with them a couple times to get the hang of it.

If you live in or near a college town they often have improv groups or nights. Nothing get the blood flowing as much as the shear terror of being infront of people with no plan. It is very helpful with clowning. Even if you master all the core clowning skills you still have an often uncontrollable audience to deal with.

I'd turn the question around and ask you what you're interested in doing with it. There ought to be an outlet for about anything you desire to do with your clown.

Before you go running off to hospitals, though, please remember that there are all kinds of people who try to bring alternative "therapies" into hospitals. They're bombarded with requests from entertainers, magicians and so on. I know this because I worked in the healthcare system and talked to nursing supervisors and program directors.

My point is that whatever you want to do with your clown, as Tim said, is possible IF you're willing to take the talent you have and bring it into as many different disciplines as possible. Want to juggle? Juggle funny; make it unique. Want to dance? sing? draw? Make it funny and memorable and you'll open more doors than you can imagine.

Make the effort to insinuate your clown into your VERY local community. Little League games, libraries, walk-arounds at your local parks... get everyone in your particular community familiar with you and your talents, and NETWORK LIKE HECK. Go to the nearest community theater and chat with the directors and choreographers. You'd be surprised how many tips you can get for free from paid professionals if you know where to go and how to ask.

Need an example? Google a clown named P.J. Patches. He's from the Seattle area and he was a VERY successful and well-loved children's entertainer and TV show host for decades. Many others nationwide might not have heard of him, but there's whole generations of people in the Northwest who couldn't imagine their kid-hoods without him. Where was he? Where WASN'T he?? Store openings, car dealerships, parties, parades, TV, books... and he's a warmly-remembered legendary friend to millions now, all because he started right in his own hometown and made the funny happen. He's FDS funnier than Frank Avruch's attempt at Bozo any day of the year.

Really... just take things you already love to do, incorporate them into your clown's persona and then just make your presence as ubiquitous as possible in your area. The opportunities and offers to branch out will come soon enough, and your "dream gig" will begin to take shape.

Best of luck. You can learn a lot here; stick around and read a bit.

WOW! You guys have probably given me more information right here than I've gotten researching this past week. hahaha I'm 17 and I'm at the point in my life where I need to decide what I want to do and Clowning is what that is. I have developed some skill over the past few months but I am very aware that I have a lonngyyy long long way to go.haha Thanks for all the help and support. Keep on clowning!!!

At your age, there should be an entire world of opportunities for learning, growth, and experience at your fingertips. All the best with it and don't be afraid to ask about where to find assistance, a class, or what have you with this or that.

One of the most impotent part of response is it depends on the age of the individual if the person is a kid or teenager you’re a bit limited to where you can go and creating doors to open, ( for the study of human habits) and then a parental approval and support, its all a learning thing and including demographics, cattle calling, and understanding habits of groups of people in order to know what will create a smile and laugh. Balloons, I have always said are not clowning, but by doing a couple of things with balloons to stop traffic opens the door to comedy, not these balloon machines you see at conventions or working a balloon line, it took me 10 years to truly make it work so that everything had flow. And don’t take to heart what other clowns say ( unless your doing production venue with other people you just do the best for the bit ) ) after you’ve spent some time, learning you either blow it off saying it not worth it, conform to clown organization, or find your own style comedy that works.

Alpha clown is right on the money. Clown organizations can be great for networking. Even this forum is very useful and helpful... but it's no substitute for insinuating yourself into society and learning about people as much as you can at your level.

Oh, and STUDY, STUDY, STUDY. Take a drama class at a theater or in school if that's where you are in life. Maybe gymnastics if you're physically able. Go find art to look at and appreciate and study why the artist used the colors, shapes and materials they did to convey their message.

DON'T make the mistake of accepting and desiring the approval of the clown police at the big generic clown-machine organizations or even the approval of those on here IN PLACE OF the approval of the crowds.

It's the funny that matters. Make yourself memorable, touch a heart-string as well as the occasional nerve, and you're on your way.

Oh, and don't be afraid to CHANGE as you grow. The person who started out knowing nothing is NOT the same person that has learned a lot, opened up a lot and then realized how much more they have to learn.

Some people will want you to be one person, one character, one "look" and just stay there and stagnate. Don't let them.

All the best!

Would you reccomend joining a big clowning organization such as COAI or World clown? Or would it be more desirable join a smaller clowning group or local alley?

I would also say, explore every possible way you might be able to make your dreams become a reality.

I'm 52. Puppetry, magic, clowning and theater were all part of what I wanted to do at 17. In fact, I was performing puppet shows for parties and local groups and appearing in school plays while I was in high school.

I got sidetracked, though, because many people around me thought I needed to pursue a "more realistic" or "more practical" career path. If I had a chance to go back to 17, I would try to keep closer to what I wanted to do and pay less attention to what others wanted.

Would you reccomend joining a big clowning organization such as COAI or World clown? Or would it be more desirable join a smaller clowning group or local alley?

I would recommend joining a big clowning organization when you have some more well-rounded ideas about your character in place. It can be very hard to learn to develop an INDIVIDUAL clown persona if you join an alley or a big organization too soon, because you'll be surrounded by (and probably bombarded by) opinions and 'rules' that may or may not even be useful.

Go learn as much as you can about performing in public, acting, dance, pantomime, all of the disciplines that develop a PERSON'S CHARACTER. Once you've got a good grounding in those things, you can then go learn the stuff that's purely mechanical, like juggling, unicycling, etc. Of course, you can learn the physical/mechanical stuff at the same time as your character studies, but it's always better, IMHO, to grow the CLOWN first; that way, it's YOU that has a juggling routine that's YOURS.

See what I mean? Don't put the cart (gags and skills) before the horse (the development and maturing of your special, unique clown attitude),

I'm actually in drama right now and I've excelled pretty far landing leads in 3 acts. But ,Mr. Humblestone, if i were to make the decision to pursue clowning as my first career, what would be a good way to go about that? Should I do parties? or I've even thought so far ahead as to gooing to college for something that would allow me to focus on clowning. Such as business school would make me qualified to be a big part of a major clowning organization. And as to what you said about a "more realistic" or "more practical" career path, my parents also have said I'm too smart to pour my abilities into clowning. Which I do not believe that this would be in any way a waste of my brain but, more of a way of expanding it. And others don't be afraid to give me input towards this matter.

Two things...if you were to go to college...find one that has a good drama group. I went to LaGrange College and lucked up!! they have an incredible one, luckily they had a great Stage Fighting class which turned into the art of Slapstick (learning to fall, take a hit, etc).
Also with the drama you learn how to interact with others on stage, which is just as good as interacting with other clowns or children or adults.
It also helps you get comfortable in front of an audience.

P.S. as far as Magic goes...i do recommend Mark Wilson's Cyclopedia of Magic. it covers all types not just one specific type. (i.e. card magic, coin magic, stage magic)