Whiteface a "Death Mask??!"

[Snugglesnort]

This is from the speaking or not thread:

<<"In clown ministry, the non-verbal clown is the WORD becoming ACTION. The clown must show meanings rather than trying to explain them." She goes on to explain another reason as well: "Another reason many clowns remain silent relates to the symbolic death mask of the white makeup. Dead people don't talk. In respect of this, clowns give up speaking. Putting on the white face becomes an opportunity to recall things they must die to; a type of confession for clowns."

Clown Ministry by Floyd Shaffer, pg 25.>>

Okay. I am going to take issue with this. I am a English major and appreciate symbolism and metaphor more then most, but calling a whiteface's makeup a "death mask" is absurd. Here is why:

1) The face moves whether it speaks or not. It is expressive and alive.

2) The Red Nose and color on the lips and cheeks. In dead people all the blood moves away from the face, (if you can see the face that is) and since it doesn't circulate it turns blue. Red is a live blood color.

3) The clown is antithetical to a zombie. They don't act anything a like. Clowns move a lot more and respond to the world a whole lot more than any dead or undead person. Also Clowns are representations of life not death.

4) The white face makeup is much more easily explained as symbolic of a drunk. Just watch W.C. Feilds movies, and it is obvious.

Oh and 5) It is not only the only kind of clown that does not speak.

Now, if you stretch it. If you really stretch it. There is a kind of death the clown face symbolizes but it is the same "death" that clowns symbolize in general: death to stagnation, propriety, superego, boundaries, pride, and everything that stands in the way of actual life happening. When you are watching a clown, or being a clown, just about the last thing you are thinking about is death. Transience? Sure. But the point of a clown, the point of comedy is that life goes on. Death has no hold on a clown. Things appear and then go away, stuff happens, the clown remains.

The spiritual implications of this are pretty nifty, but belong in another thread (forth-coming). My point here is that there is no connection between a whiteface and a death mask and certainly not to the lack of speech on a clown's part.

[Scruffy]

Yep. I've got that book. It never made a lick of sense to me either.......

[Fitzwilly]

The first clown I trained with worked directly with Floyd Shaffer for seven years. She finally left in part because her views on the necessity to remain silent. At one point someone mentioned the "death mask" and she was closer to the oppinions expressed here than in the book. I know that to me it seems more like someone at the beginning was really stretching trying to justify what they were doing so that it would be more likely to be accepted by some of the more conservative congregations of the 70's. This would be a good question for Brenda Marshall. Tony Jones might have some knowledge in this respect as well.

[tim]

I don't know to what extent I agree or disagree with the thesis expressed in her essay. But I think I can see in some sense how the whiteface, particularly, can be symbolic of a certain death to self. Even many people who first start out as whiteface clowns like how it allows them a certain anonymity and freedom to explore apart from their typical selves. So to the degree that a whiteface enables one to put self aside in order to become a new being, there is I suppose some truth to it.

Of course, it could be argued that the clown is showing us the foolishness of humanity and the world, to which we must die in order to become a new person and find our true selves in Christ. In this regard, the actions of the clown could be perceived as the a kind of enlivened expression of death and sin rather than life in Christ.

I'd like to know more about the real reasons why clowns so often wore white in the earliest incarnations of this expression. I imagine that it may have been part theatrical, even for mere expression of "read" to an audience, and part to offer a sort of mask of anonymity which focused your attention on the character apart from the human being who is playing it. This would have been especially important in the days when a clown had a more serious purpose of social commentary and not just silly circus fun.

But I basically see the whiteface as something of a blank slate on which the brightness of color and characterization can be expressed.

[noname]

Based on this conversation, now you might understand why I had a hard time understanding "Gospel clowning."

I understand where she is coming from, but this is exactly one of the difficulties I found; the stretching to find a religious connotation in a lot of what a clown is and does.

BTW, that was a very interesting book. She even talked about the "seriousness" in which a clown undertook putting on make-up, that the moment they were in it, would stop talking, which is why they put on soothing music to help them focus. It got a tad strange, here and there.

[tim]

Originally Posted by noname

BTW, that was a very interesting book. She even talked about the "seriousness" in which a clown undertook putting on make-up, that the moment they were in it, would stop talking, which is why they put on soothing music to help them focus. It got a tad strange, here and there.

I imagine she never spent any time in an old skool circus clown alley. I'm sure that things were very much UNLIKE that.

[Chance Marmalade]

I suppose someone could make the white face represent death using their own interpretation, but I agree that it isn't the tradition. Even in basic mask work you don't use a "Death Mask". It's a neutral mask that shows life. If you were experimenting with an alternative form of clown or mask work I could see "death mask" but that's a stretch and a less interesting choice for the style in my opinion.

The white face to my knowledge comes from Commedia in which Pierrot who is always hungry has flour all over his face from cooking, while the red nose is from the jam he was gulping down.

[Snugglesnort]

<<Based on this conversation, now you might understand why I had a hard time understanding "Gospel clowning."

I understand where she is coming from, but this is exactly one of the difficulties I found; the stretching to find a religious connotation in a lot of what a clown is and does.>>

I think there are some great and wonderful spiritual implications of clowning and being a clown... but Chrisianitian worship and clowning don't seem to mix well. The main problem is that Christians take worship very seriously. So anything you put into the worship has to also be serious. Clowning is can be serious. But it cannot only be serious... or for the kiddies, which tends to be vapid for their own good.

Thus, appears to me, though it certainly might not be the case, that to get into church, clowning is toned and dumbed down a whole lot. So much so that much of the deeper spiritual value that clowning intrinsicly has is lost. We use clowning as a teaching tool, when really by its nature it is much more suited for prophecy. Clowns keep on claiming the medieval fool for an ancestor, and how they could speak the truth through thier humor when no one else dared to those in authority but clown ministers don't do that! The difference between what clown ministers do and what they could do, is the difference between "Veggie Tales" and Monty' Pythons "Life of Brian." The first taeches kids bible stories in a cute and somewhat amusing way, and the second makes you laugh very hard and then think very very carefully and hard about what you believe.

Anyone up for starting a new clown ministry movement?

[noname]

Originally Posted by Snugglesnort

Anyone up for starting a new clown ministry movement?

How would it be different from the current clown ministry?

[tim]

I actually think that some of what Roly Bain does could be considered legit and quality clown ministry of the type which Snugglesnort is, perhaps, suggesting. That said, I admittedly wouldn't really want a Catholic priest doing in a Catholic Church what he as an Anglican priest does in Anglican Churches. It does seem to clash with the proper purpose of liturgy. Though, I must say, it sure would be interesting to see what kind of reaction it would receive from Catholics.