From Clown Haunts to Getting Pied: Being a Clown with Jusby the Clown

Transcription

(Music)

Jusby the Clown: A guy called me up and I knew him and his wife. He says, "Would you put a pie in my wife's face on April Fool's? I'll be out of town."

Dan: Today on Time We Discuss, I wanna welcome Jusby the Clown and it's time to discuss what it's like working as a clown. Jusby, thank you for joining me today.

Jusby the Clown: You're welcome, thanks for having me.

Dan: Absolutely, this is gonna be really cool. I spoke with Bullseye the Clown back in, 2024, summer of 24, something like that. He was more of a humanitarian clown, entertainer. Great, great story, great interview, great conversation. But this is great, about two years later, gonna have another conversation, wanna see what it's like from your perspective. Start out simple, what is a typical day like for you as Jusby the Clown?

Jusby the Clown: I'm glad you asked and I did watch the Bullseye episode to get a better sense of this. So I get up a little bit before 8 a.m. and I start with 20 minutes of laughing. I participate in a laughter party on the phone conference call that's based on laughter yoga. I personally am a certified laughter yoga leader. So for 20 minutes from 8 a.m. to 8:20 Pacific, me and several others up to a handful or a dozen are laughing together. And I can talk about that in the training section, how I got involved in laughter yoga. But that has really set my days off at the right note and generally my weeks and my whole life to know that these people are there and that laughter is something that I should make essential and central to my practice. Now, most of the days are not in costume. I have administrative stuff. I like to spend the morning fairly focused on administrative catching up with things, outreach, I get into some rehearsals and looking at props and costumes and things like that. And most days at about noon, I go swimming. I take about an hour and I do underwater laps and I wear bone conduction headphones. And so I get in a zone there and I script out scenes, sketches, jokes, stories, what I'm gonna do when I get out of the pool. Then I have a salad. And so that takes, I feel pretty productive by 2 p.m. and a nap might be involved at about then. But I'm up fairly late and I'm corresponding with people that are always reaching out and wondering if I'm available. So then I do gigs, of course, when there are gigs.

Dan: Let's talk about the yoga for a second. The laughter yoga, that is awesome. I've never heard that before in my life. I love it. Talk to me about that. What is that? How'd you get started with that? And what is that actually like?

Jusby the Clown: Oh yeah, that's amazing. I'm so glad it happened to me. It's called laughter yoga because it was created by a medical doctor in India. But it's only related to yoga in as much as like pranayama yoga, it's the yoga of the breath. So it's not, you don't need special pants, special mats, flexibility. You're not all facing the same way doing poses. You're up and making eye contact with people and laughing. And he discovered this, he was writing an article about why laughter is the best medicine and started this group where they told jokes and they laughed, but after a while, they ran out of good jokes and people got angry and said, you gotta stop this. So he went back, he said, give me 24 hours. He did some research and meditation. And really we come to the conclusion that it's the mechanism of laughing that does all the work. It is not, I thought something was funny and I agree and therefore I engage with it. So we kind of skipped the middleman. We know that laughter is contagious. So the more you're laughing, someone else laughs back. And in a group, we just laugh for the health of it, the fun of it. So I got certified back in 2010, I guess, and I do workshops and I do this conference call. I let myself laugh now more freely, louder, deeper. And I work it with all the other emotions and the other noises that we make. And I'm like, that's very much a laughing sound. To sneeze is a funny thing. (Sneezes) And I just give into it and I tell people do that. When people yawn, (yawns) that is super contagious. And when you can look at a photo of a person made yawn and you'll wanna yawn, or you could read the word yawn and wanna yawn. The more that you do that, it shows that you have a higher dispositional empathy. So I totally encourage people, if they yawn, you yawn with them. It says we're all in this together. Yawns catches by surprise too. It's an opportunity to laugh. Oh, I'm in court. I should not be laughing. You know, I just, you can't take. Laughter yoga, a little bit in a nutshell. There's a lot more to it. That's one of the services that I offer. A workshop on that or individual sessions with that.

Dan: Okay, cool. That's so interesting. We might have to revisit that in a later episode, I feel like, because that is just awesome. So talk to me about some of the gigs that you have. I know we were talking over email and we very, very briefly talked about, I think you call them haunt gigs or like a scary clown. I wanna touch on that for just a second, but holistically talk to me about the types of gigs that you do have.

Jusby the Clown: People are afraid of clowns. Not all people, not most people, but significantly. And a few of them, pathologically or, you know, a diagnosis or something, they have a phobia of that. And we have to be careful and respectful of that because any, you know, you don't wanna trigger people. I don't wanna go to gigs where they say, my wife is deathly afraid of clowns. And I just think it would be funny if you showed up and tormented her for a while. No, that's not, you know, I haven't been doing this for 20 years so that I could lose it all in a lawsuit like that. But I first got into the haunt clown. Let me tell you this, because there was a haunted house near where I lived. It was in a guy's yard and I went in character and I went through it. And I kind of engaged a little bit with people. They would notice me and they would be startled or surprised. And I would play in it. And then I kept going through it. I just loved it. And I stayed there for hours. And I was like an unofficial tour guide. And I could read whether or not somebody is genuinely afraid if they're a very small person, you know, and they're petrified and their parents are like, we just want them to toughen them up, you know, take them out on Halloween. And I would soften the blow for them, make it more amusing. And I would do asides to the people that were hiding. Got a little kid coming through here. I'm really scared already. You know, we got some teenagers that can't be scared by anything, they say. So I did this and it turned out at one point, I got an email from a mom saying that her daughter had been afraid, but I had been there and it made it easier. And then her friends, and this is like a late teen person, her friends, they thought it was the scariest thing ever and so much fun. It's like I was able to custom for like everybody gets something that's just for them. So this idea of screaming (pretend scream) and especially on Halloween, right, we go in voluntarily, we want that. And part of us knows it's safe, but we want to play into it. (Laughs) I was so scared for just a second, but I'm okay. It's like, (pretend scream) you surprised me. So I love this and I did this several years, then I found a haunt that was through the month of October on weekends. And I was doing like 40 hours and it got to me to be stuck in there to get in the method and just be waiting and waiting and (Groans) But you know, I love this. And by consent, I can adapt. I can bring a scary clown that's also kind of silly. I mean, I could talk about a little bit how, I've taught scary clown workshops. So CoHo Clown Theater has a clown festival in September. And the past couple of years, I've done this scary clown workshop and it combines laughter yoga in some ways, because you know all of those animatronics, all of those characters, one thing they have in common is they are laughing. (Scary Laugh) They are all having a good time. The villains are all very excited to see you. So, we work with that. And then also, the sounds of the animals of Halloween, the bats and the owl. (Imitates Owl) So we work with all that, but also I came to clown through dance. So my practice is very much centered in the body. And I came specifically through Butoh Dance, which is postmodern Japanese, B-U-T-O-H. And so they are all painted all white and they're in hyper slow motion with their eyes kind of crossed and drooling. And it's based on like post-apocalyptic Japanese reaction. And the beauty of decay and ugliness and so on. I did this in college for a couple of years and people would laugh because it's so weird and absurd. And I realized, oh, that's actually, I'm more clown than dancer or more clown than specifically Butoh dancer. But these two things can go together. You can play with the timing of things and the surprise and drool. I mean, that is the cheapest special effect that has the most ... people will flee. You could be drooling only here, only whenever you're playing. It catches the light. There's so many, but COVID and all of the diseases that we know can be transmitted through saliva and bodily fluids makes people freaked out. So you have to know, don't have spit on people. But you can play with this. So yeah, okay, creepy clown, scary clown is really one thing that I do.

Dan: You've been doing this in some capacity since you said you were in college. Now, have you been doing this like full time? Has this been your entire career? Has this been more of like a, I hate to say like a side job, but talk to me about that part of it.

Jusby the Clown: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hate to think of it as my side hustle, right? I hate to think of it as just this hobby that I've tried to monetize. And so really in 2026, I'm doing a quantum leap here. I'm accelerating it. I'm looking at it more as my full time employment, but not just clown, right? So I have laughter yoga, I have all these other things. I do workshops on Lego. I could do lots of different things, but in-person entertainment and education, et cetera. I think the purpose of the clown is really threefold. There's three things. People think, oh, it's to make you laugh, make you feel happy. I don't think so. I think it's to entertain, which may include that. I think it's to educate, which is really why, you put some context or narrative or nuance in the jokes and the material so that they go, oh, okay, now I'm following you. And it's funny. And thirdly, maybe most importantly is to ease suffering, which is kind of like where Bullseye was, humanitarians. People are definitely in pain all over all the time. Even at birthday parties, there are people that are holding that together. There's pressure at a birthday party of everybody's, have a good time. And then there's like, ah, open my present, open my present, I want them, I want them. There's some stress there. So between entertaining, educating and ease suffering, we have a lot of different things going on here, but yeah, moving into more income from this personality and less into punching a clock for someone else.

Dan: I like the sound of that. Okay, so what types of gigs, where do you typically show up? Are you doing like kids birthday parties, corporate events, like assisted living facilities, all the above, but how does that kind of break out, I guess?

Jusby the Clown: Singing telegrams are huge for me. And this happened accidentally, I guess, because a national company called me up and said, can you sing? And I'm like, ah, I guess so, you know, I have. Can you do Happy Birthday and For He's a Jolly ... Yeah, maybe something else, yeah. So they sent me on these gigs, and I realized this is quick and lucrative. And it's something that people don't, you know, it's like, oh, that's a thing from back in the day when there were regular telegrams as well as these singing telegrams. And so it's an easier bar, right? You're just on the porch maybe, or you're in and then you're out. You don't need a full hour's worth of material. So I get a lot of calls for that. I get birthdays and I get them for all ages, which is a strange thing. You might think, okay, well, seven years old, bingo, that's, you know, you're ideal, but no, no. They're like, my friend just turned 25. Okay, my wife is turning 75. Okay, there's a reason to have a stranger who can come over and, you know, brighten the mood and have some kind of semi embarrassing surprise, I guess. People are like, well, who's this? Lavishing attention on me and singing mostly on key. Well, it's Jusby the Clown and comedy consultant here, of course.

Dan: I just got this ridiculous image of a handful, a couple of scary clowns, but they sing as a barbershop quartet.

Jusby the Clown: Yes, thank you. I'm gonna write that down, barbershop quartet. Here's my claim to fame, the pie in the face.

Dan: I saw some videos on that. Talk to me about that.

Jusby the Clown: Okay, so now this also was serendipity or whatever fate. A guy called me up and I knew him and his wife. This just prior, this was a long time ago, but just prior to April Fool's, he says, would you put a pie in my wife's face on April Fool's? I'll be out of town. Well, I knew them and I knew they had, they were affiliated with clowns, they had clowned or whatever. And he told me we have this long tradition of April Fool's pranks and he listed them all on. And I thought, all right, fine, fine, I'll do this. But I'd never done it, so I asked a Ringling clown. I said, what is it about pie in the face? Well, number one, you don't throw it. That's definitely not for amateurs and first timers. It never leaves your hand until it's firmly attached to their face. So it's just, it's just swoosh right up there. I show up to this lady's house. She sees me in the pie and she says, oh, he's in so much trouble. I'm like, okay, I work at doing this. I put her, I put the pie on her face and she says, thank you. Huh? What? So then, I don't know if I was fixated or obsessed, but focused on how many people can I get to accept this if I went around and I just offered it, hey, pie in the face, sir, pie in the face, maam? I get a lot of no's. Of course I do. It's messy and inconvenient. But occasionally people are like, okay, sure. I'm like, hey, in the words of the great PT Barnum, there's a sucker born every minute. So I went around festivals and I'm just carrying a cooler full of whip topping and offering it for free and free. And then I'm bringing it into birthday parties at a big finale. And then I had so many, I had to double check the pictures and the signups and whatever. I'm like, I'm getting close to big numbers here. So when I got into like 900, I made a quest for the thousandth pie in the face. And I went to DC and I went around the monuments and so on. And at 999, my mom said, I'll take the thousandth one. She wanted it to be the special one. So I'm now at like 1700 something. The most famous person I ever pied was Patch Adams. He came to Seattle and it was his birthday. But it's been such a happy surprise. It's a way to get over this rejection too. You just know most people say no. But when they say yes, it's just worth the wait.

Dan: I like it's so random. I'm just picturing you wandering around DC with these pies. I love it.

Jusby the Clown: Pie in the face? Pie in the face, huh? Pie in the face?

Dan: So when you first decided to become a clown, how did that go over with friends? Cause it's not very conventional. How did that go over with friends and family where it's like, hey, guess what? I'm gonna be a clown.

Jusby the Clown: What was that like? Let's see. Quote, my mother, you have a wife and a kid now. You need a real job. (Laughing) Now that was before she got pied and then, you know, years had passed and she realizes now it's a thing. But you know, I had graduated from what I laughingly referred to as the greatest clown school west of the Rockies. And I mean the Evergreen State College in Olympia, which is only funny if you're in the area, you know? Okay, it's like Reed (College) or, you know, it's an alternative interdisciplinary school that people might joke about. And I had discovered that I was a clown final semester and I was unprepared to take it as an occupation. So it really did go in the closet for like 10 years. My wife says, you call yourself a clown, but you don't do much clowning. I see you have a collection of clowns. So I went to the Yellow Pages, remember those? And I looked up clown and sure enough, they're like, we have meetings. We have a special store and magazines and conventions. And I was like, oh yes. And so I was part of what is called a clown alley. When clowns get together in a formal way, through Clowns of America or World Clown Association, they can form an alley and they can be recognized. Now these are great organizations, but they are totally voluntary. You just pay to be in it. There's no certifying body for clowning. There are, you know, schools that teach some clowning. Some are called clown colleges or whatever. You know, the Clown Conservatory down in San Francisco. The Dell'Arte School of Comedic Theater. You know, Bullseye mentioned like Mooseburger Camp and there's a Camp Winnarainbow. There's ways to get education. And certainly with this alley, we had guest speakers. We went to conventions. People from all around came and taught us. I did a lot of independent study. The Parks and Rec and the library system had a lot of clowns or clown adjacents come in to do shows. And I would go and I would take pictures and I would write notes and I would steal material, of course, you know, adapt it. I would adapt it. I would inherit this. What were we talking about? Education and how you come to, how does this all work? Oh, I discovered there was a clown before I decided that I was going to be a clown. Get a website, pick a name, standardized some costume and materials, put up flyers, that kind of a thing.

Dan: And then this leads well into my next question. So let's talk about the business side of things. How did you bridge the business, the gaps in your business knowledge when it came to being a clown? Did you go, did you take other college courses? Did you read books, podcasts? How did you learn the business stuff that you might not have necessarily learned earlier on?

Jusby the Clown: Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, there was, let's see, the Small Business Development Council. Now, I don't know if they have that where you are, but where I lived, they had that and I could get free consultations on a regular basis and we could hack into things. There was also a group, I think still is, Enterprise for Equity. And that was for entrepreneurs and small businesses, 10 weeks or something. And we came up with business plans and we had all these workshops to figure that out. Trial and error. I mean, there is definitely learning the wisdom of experience, which is the name we give our mistakes. There is, I tried something, then I went back and I reflected on it. For a while I was doing these post-party videos. I'd be like, I just came from this and this went well and this went well and this thing I couldn't find when I needed it and so on and so forth. And that definitely helped me reflect on that. So blogging it, videotaping myself, journaling and tracking, just how spreadsheets work. I'm like, oh, Excel, I need to do a Schedule C on this now. I'm a business guy here. I gotta like mark my mileage when I'm going to pick my nose.

Dan: So let's talk about mistakes briefly. What are some mistakes that you made early on that you can share that might help others that want to go down this path?

Jusby the Clown: Oh, there were gigs I showed up to that had not been confirmed. I just felt like it was on, like we had a conversation and I had not really, I didn't ask for deposits for one thing. So people will flake on you and there's no one there. So there's that. A lot of scheduling things like the distance to go places. And back when we had to like print the map out and we're like, okay, burn the page, pull over. I've been lost before. I've been doing my makeup as I drive. Don't edit that out. I don't do that anymore. I parked outside a place, put on my makeup and went in without the nose. Nobody cared. There's different dress codes. There's different philosophies. Some have noses, some don't. I'm a red, I'll pull it out here. I have this clip on nose here. And I recently got this one for a new character, a little baby duckling character, a little yellow one. And I used to have the glue on ones. And they would stay on, you could sleep in those. I could spend a whole weekend in one of those. And then when you pull it off, it rips your skin. And you have red nose underneath there. I have become the mask.

Dan: One of the things I like to ask people is identifying something that is critical to their job. That if someone else doesn't like that thing, this job might not be for them. So classic example I use, if you're a web programmer and you don't like sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day, web programming is not for you. So think about your job as a clown. What is something that is critical to the job that if someone doesn't like this, it's not for them?

Jusby the Clown: You have to be seen. You have to allow yourself to be seen. There are people that just wanna disappear. They're so embarrassed, public speaking or whatever. And I personally have a strong introverted side that's shy and nervous about things and has some anxiety. But this is like a permission slip. This just says, that's not Justin, that's Jusby and he's gonna do things that Justin is not allowed to do. So you really have to believe in yourself and in the part of it and being seen by people. And for clowning, part of it is our failure. Cause I have left places feeling like it was not good. Like I had not done well, but they had no idea. They're like, that's how clowns are. They fumble, they mix up things. (Laughing) And then they laugh and we're okay. We're happy that they're here, they came and then they left. So to be a perfectionist is not necessary. It's something to, you polish things and you move on and you have to let things go.

Dan: Jusby, this has been an absolutely awesome conversation, but unfortunately I am running out of time. One thing I like to do whenever I'm speaking with someone, I like to give them the opportunity to talk about a project they're working on and the cause they believe in, more about their business. So if there's something specific you'd like to discuss, the floor is yours.

Jusby the Clown: Thank you very much Dan. JusbyTheClown.com is where people can find out a lot of stuff about me, but I'm also on the Instagram, Jusby the clown and the YouTube, Jusby the clown and the Facebook, Jusby the clown. I've been developing a bunch of new characters that are gonna come out. I have a one clown show that can be broken up. It's four different stories. All together it'll run two hours with an intermission because when they gave me the opportunity to do a one clown show, I said, I'm gonna put everything in it. So that's going on. I've got an Etsy page now, jusbyMerch.etsy.com. And so, you know, there's like t-shirts, there's fans and stickers and things. I'm trying to have some longevity there. Some passive income is useful. Get a look and let that speak for yourself. So I'm focusing on appearances, but also facilitation and seasonal work like Halloween or whatever. I love to share this knowledge with emergent clowns. I love to have apprentices or whatever, mentees. And because that was so useful to me, you're in a little bit of a bubble going, I don't know, I don't know. There's no path for me. So yeah, I'm there to help.

Dan: That is awesome. That's really good information. I'll make sure I get all of those links from you. I'll put them in the show notes. They'll be in the description. They'll be on the website. They'll be all over the place. So when people are trying to find you, they can easily find you.

Jusby the Clown: Yay. (Laughing)

Dan: Jusby, it's been absolutely awesome having you on Time We Discuss and we learned what it's like being a clown.

Jusby the Clown: Well, as we say at the end of the laughter yoga call, Aloha-ha-ha. (Laughs)