By Anne Brockmann
“There was a time when the idea of becoming a clown would never have occurred to me,” says Ines Rosner, 45. “As I child, I mostly had bad experiences with clowns. I can remember seeing a performance where one clown spat at another. The audience was supposed to find that funny. I was disgusted!”
Rosner is a qualified social worker and has worked with offenders and young people. In one of her previous jobs, she unexpectedly met the Dream Doctors – world famous “clinic clowns” who work in healthcare settings. “They taught me that clowning wasn’t about being funny, but about dealing with emotions. That inspired me,” she says.
“A clown is an encounter artist – someone with sensitive antennae for the feelings of the people around them, who is able to internalise them and reflect them back in adapted form. It could be exaggerated, ironic, clumsy, whatever.”
This article first appeared in Trott-War, a magazine sold on the streets of Stuttgart, Germany, by people who have limited other ways of earning an income.