At this Las Vegas school, clowning around is encouraged — and taught

By Emma Brocato (contact)

Friday, May 10, 2024 | 2 a.m.

The type of clowning Erik Engman teaches at the Clown School Las Vegas doesn’t have many of the typical features you’d expect, like balloon animals or pie-throwing, but it has one key visual indicator: red noses.

“It’s kind of like this European clowning that ultimately came from theatrical mask work after World War II, and it’s passed down so that’s why we’re a different type of clowning than circus clowns because we just do it as a more theatrical presentation,” Engman says.

The style of performance taught at Clown School Las Vegas centers around audience interaction, emotions, reactions and what happens in between the performer’s actions. It can take the form of trying out a song to see if the audience likes it, or accidentally dropping a ball while juggling it and then continuing to drop it for humor.

It’s also about what Engman calls “emoting at 100%,” which means feeling and showing a range of emotions with intensity.He believes that to be funny a clown must let go, and that the practice of clowning brings out a version of yourself that has been hidden since childhood.

“Because that’s really the heart of the clown ... the honesty,” Engman says.

The Clown School employs some props and costumes, but clown-face makeup is minimal. Many people have developed a fear of clowns, which Engman says is understandable when clowns wear full makeup and look “inhuman.” Instead, he and his clowns wear red noses.

The Las Vegas school is currently offering a six-week course from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays at the Super Summer Theater Studios for the Performing Arts, on Valley View Boulevard. The course Clown 1, goes over the basics of the profession, such as how to exaggerate emotions and reaction for humor.

A second foundation class, Clown 2, focuses on embodying clown characters.

“(There’s one character) called Joey, which is the more confident — maybe falsely confident — but the more confident and happier, and maybe a bit angry and frustrated, clown,” Engman says. “And the other clown type is an Auguste … and that’s more the sad or frightened clown, right? And we discover that just based on the student’s natural tendency toward one of those two types.”

The last course, the advanced-level Clown 3, goes over the specifics of how to put on a show for invited guests. Participants produce a program as part of this level.

The school is based in Los Angeles, where Engman was trained. He is trying to build up interest in the new school in Las Vegas, a city that, he says, has a lot of industry potential for clowning.

“You know, I think it’s interesting because the landscape of entertainment here changes all the time,” Engman says, explaining that this type of clown act could add something new to the Vegas scene.

He pictures his students creating their own shows in rented spaces. But the skills learned at the school can also contribute to a performer’s acting or stand-up comedy.

That’s been the case for Mark Valentin, a writer and improv comedian.

“So in clown, you’re really getting in touch with being present and being in the moment and sort of letting go of the self-conscious part of your mind,” Valentin says. “It’s really bringing you back to being like you were when you were 6, like being a kid and being playful, and trying to let go of the masks that we put on for everyday life.”

Valentin says the lessons he learned at the school helped him address stage fright and transformed his writing from the usual dialogue-heavy to more physical and reactionary work. He also says clowning made him a better person.

With the increasing difficulties of life in this era, Engman says humor allows us to “process the world more honestly.”

“So that’s what clowning does … you can bring situations and bring this sort of humor into a way to even address world issues in a very basic way,” he says.

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