How to be a Clown: The Sensual Fool

Where we use our shortcomings to serve.

I didn’t use video in the previous Fools Training posts but I thought it might help here. Meredith, my teaching partner, and I created this video years ago. We unpack not only the Clown, but the Jester and Dunce as well. You can see how the Five Fools relate to each other.

The Clown seems like a divergence but it is not. 

As the Jester built on the humility of the Dunce by adding silliness, the Clown pauses a moment and welcomes in something powerful:  our shortcomings.  

This is at the foundation of any success - quite literally.  It is what has made a human a human through evolution.  One tool has made us as amazing as we are: mistakes.  So with the clown we see our mistakes, honor them and then adjust accordingly.  But we need to see them. Painted on our faces.

Children navigate self development much more fluidly than grown ups. 

This may be why children laugh at clowns while we grown-ups freak out.  Clowns are psychopaths for many adults whereas children can enjoy them like entertainers.  They invite them to their birthday parties. 

Photo by Pascal Bernardon on Unsplash

We call the Clown the “Sensual Fool” because it is the one that is swept up in the senses. This is not a witty fool like the Jester or the Joker. It is not a genius like the Bard. The Clown is probably closest to the beginner’s mind of the Dunce, but so fully wrapped up in its own experience. Fully embracing what a fool “feels” like.