Managing Clowns 

My family has been part of the entertainment profession going back many centuries , Our lives and our work are intrinsically linked and exemplify the 'You are what you do , Not what you say you'll do' philosophy attributed to Jung but stemming from the Aristotolien 'These virtues are formed by man in his doing the actions '.

The preceding generations of travelling performers probably never heard of Jung or Aristotle and would be surprised that their lifestyle could be described in such a philosophical way but in fact they epitomised it . 

I am a Clown / Comedian/Comic and from the age of 15 I have been self-employed , my job is making people laugh and I have done it in Theatres , Night clubs , Stadiums and Circuses. It's not the normal 9-5 job with holidays and weekends off because apart from the actual performing I have to arrange the contracts, negotiate the salary, sort out the travel and any permits , visas etc for myself and my family . 

In earlier times we had Agents who arranged contracts but with the rise of social media they are few and far between nowadays as every job opportunity and individual artists availability is advertised in a myriad of Facebook,Twitter, Whatsapp,and Instagram posts , Every circus and entertainment event throughout the world has a presence on the internet but with this advance in modern communication the personal knowledge of who the particular circus or event is owned and managed by and how they handle their business has been lost which has led to a huge change in the whole industry . Previously the reputation of a circus dictated who would be willing to work for them, the larger ones would pay a little less but the prestige of working for a successful show meant that your profile was raised and any future negotiation with another director or agent would take that into account ,with a smaller show you could get a slightly higher salary but there was always a risk that if business was bad you wouldn't get paid because the money wasn't coming in and so the merry-go-round continued . , The business thrived here post war because (A) we are an island and (B) many of the circus directors and most of the artists were related in some way. Everyone knew everyone else and any scandal was immediately known to the majority of the profession by way of the Circus 'Jungle Drums' which were much more effective than FB or Twitter to name and shame the miscreants . 

Each show had it's advantages and disadvantages but they mostly all followed the same principle which was a very simple one 

'please the public and leave the grounds clean '

within that sentence and all that it implies lay all that they needed to do.

In those times there was no major oversight organisation to supervise circuses or artists , each individual show and artist handled their business and life according to their own moral and ethical guidelines and it worked reasonably well. 

Since the eighties things have changed a lot , there are more shows owned by 'Jossers'( people coming from a non-circus background ) who have a different outlook , To the travelling families who owned or worked for a circus it was a lifestyle , The new generation of directors and artists from non travelling families treat it as a job.

I have lived though these changes and like many of my generation I've had to adapt both how I work and how I handle the business side of my life , New laws and regulations mainly regarding Health and Safety and Transport , which are necessary for large factories and haulage firms with multiple employees , have had a serious 

and in many cases detrimental affect on the travelling community and because we have no representation In Parliament or anywhere else and are a minority in the population we are overlooked .Circuses public liability insurance used to cover the Artists in the show but since the late eighties Circus Artists have had to provide their own , we obtain it from Equity the actors Union but there is no scale of price according to risk so I as a Clown paid the same as a High Wire Walker . There is a scale but its dependent on your earnings. Other companies won't provide public liability for circus artists as there are not enough to make it economically viable ,
The biggest change to Circus throughout the world has been the debate about performing animals .
Animal welfare which is a completely different topic to Animal Rights is something that circuses have adhered to for many years since the debate began but the hypocrisy , lies and criminal activity on behalf of many of the Animal Rights campaigners is staggering . The Government , under pressure and lobbying from the organisations representing Animal Rights, have passed discriminatory laws which affect only travelling circus and they claim to be doing it on 'Ethical' Grounds despite presentations from learned and knowledgeable experts in the field to whom scant attention was given .

In more recent years the influx of artists from Circus Schools has increased greatly, many of them have no experience of travelling life or have any knowledge of the history of Circus and in many cases they are taken advantage of in regard to contracts, conditions etc. 

In my opinion the virtues that Circus lived by have altered, whether for better or worse remains to be seen , I can only look through my eyes and my experience , I am pessimistic because in my opinion society is also not as virtuous or as ethical as in past times.
I write these previous paragraphs to show how life has dramatically changed for me and for other artists over the years .
Despite the changes I have tried not to change my work /life and continue with my original aim , to make people laugh.

My workshop is and has always been anywhere there is an audience , but when I perform it's tailored to the particular public in front of me , this is part of the craft and the one that gets easier with time and knowledge .
Of course it involves working for different nationalities, cultures and ethnic groups and having to be aware of those differences and how to adapt .

Some countries have a completely different humour and finding what made them laugh is challenging but vital to any success , In Hong Kong its all about physical comedy , any routine where water is thrown or something goes bang usually works well , In the Middle East much the same applied but it wasn't so much what you did but they are more concerned about following their dress code and the rules of their society. These changes don't stop at the end of the performance , you have to live your life in their way as long as you are there. As a traveller all of my life none of this is a problem we have always lived by the 'when in Rome do as the Romans do 'principle and if we are with other foreign circus artists that feeling is universal amongst us as a group . 

The central pillar of the artists social way of life involves acceptance , at any one time , especially travelling with a circus, the community around you will be composed of many different nationalities, religions , ethnicities , none of which is important , what is important is what they do as performers , a juggler is a juggler , he's not a Black juggler , a Muslim juggler , an Atheist juggler , he's defined by one of two criteria ,is he a good juggler or is he a bad juggler ! this applies to all artists.
Over the generations these virtues have brought about what I have always considered to be a microcosm of what society should and could be, compared to the mainstream we have far less instances of Divorce , Drunkenness, Marital or Child abuse, Drug use and general Anti-social behaviour , this is the same for circuses throughout the world . Our work is our life and vice-versa , A bad show will depress me until I get back and do a good one , if I have a cold or an illness , there is 'Dr Adrenalin' who will see me through the performance , 'The Show Must Go On ' isn't just a saying from the movies it is part of our moral and ethical way of life because from our earliest times.

'We are what we do , not what we say we'll do '