On The Topic Of Clown Schools

In case you are looking to dress up as a clown for Halloween or possibly a party, you could buy a clown costume that includes most of what you'll need for the event. But if you want to create a clown character, if you want your own look and personality to make an event truly special and bring a big smile to everyone in the room, in which case you need clown accessories.

Clown accessories will be the many choices you make to assemble a final character. They include clothing, for example shoes, socks, suspenders, buttons, gloves and hats. Clowns pay special attention to their face and so some kind of face painting or clown makeup is crucial, in addition to perhaps a clown nose and also a skullcap or wig. And a unique clown personality will add decorative details to complement that clown character. Pins and clown jewelry, special glasses, or props like balloons and magic tricks are other clown accessories to consider.

It might help knowing that there are actually different 'traditions' or 'types' of clowns which have developed over many decades and also centuries. You may develop a character within one of those traditions, or for the better adventurous, incorporate different elements from through the types.

The Whiteface Clown - As the name implies, a Whiteface clown uses white base face makeup - like that of a classic circus clown. Despite the artificial coloring, whiteface makeup is just not meant to hide but instead to accentuate, or even in some instances exaggerate, the clown´s facial features.

Female Whiteface clowns generally have one type of costume, but use additional makeup to accent the feminine facial features.

The male Whiteface clown has several varieties. The Classic (European) Whiteface is a jester, with soft shoes, baggy pants, a loose fitting top, a neck ruffle, and also a soft pointed hat. A floppy hat or black skullcap may be substituted for the traditional pointed hat.

The Straight Whiteface clown also dresses in baggy clothes, but uses either all-white clothing with a colorful trim, or multi-colored clothing with a contrasting trim and ruff. Typical clown accessories are a skullcap and wig.

The Grotesque or Comedy Whiteface clown often has more exaggerated makeup than the Straight Whiteface to reflect a far more buffoonish character, and irregular body proportions for example long stilt-legs, a big fanny, etc. Baggy clothing is used, but tailored to highlight these irregular proportions, and is usually colorful - or maybe mismatching. This type of clown often wears gloves and wig among other clown accessories.

The Auguste Clown - The classic Auguste clown may seem at first glance to be closer to the Grotesque Whiteface than the Classic Whiteface, in that the costume is usually extravagant, exaggerated and mismatched, sporting bold colors and large prints. Augustes often use oversized or undersized Clown Events accessories, such as a massive bow tie, a tiny hat, enormous glasses, too small pants, or boat-sized shoes. Suspenders and gloves are other important clown accessories. Although the overall point about Auguste clowns is the fact that you can find few absolute costume "rules," and also the character has more leeway as to just how to convey the 'zany-ness' of this type. Auguste makeup includes whiteface but may keep partial flesh tones, and otherwise complements the overall 'exaggerated' look with additional, feature-exaggerating makeup.

Female Augustes frequently sport long eyelashes, wear outrageous dresses, and carry purses.

Tramp Clowns - Tramps will be the most frequent of another type of clown, sometimes called a "Character Clown". Besides Tramps, character clowns can include "Cowboy Clowns", "Rodeo Clowns" and other modern or contemporary kinds of professionals like policemen or firemen or nurses.

You will discover different types of Tramps, such as "happy, vagabond Hobo" or "sad, down-on-his-luck Tramp", though the costume is the similar for all of them. A heavily patched dark suit or tuxedo, battered shoes, a crumpled derby or top hat (often without the very best) and fingerless gloves are the basic costume components. Clown accessories for tramps include brightly colored vests, long dark overcoats with lots of pockets, and walking sticks. Makeup may include white face, and sometimes 'soot' makeup from purported train-travel could possibly be applied to the face also. (The "Bum" type did not travel, so would probably not have 'soot' on his face.)

Female Tramps, called Bag Ladies, usually wear sneakers, a frumpy dress, a scarf or cheap costume jewelry, and a kerchief or a floppy hat.

So that´s a start for building your clown personality. Whether you want to be a 'traditional' type of clown, or create a wildly original character, clown accessories will be the building blocks for your own clown character. Good luck, and happy Clowning!