It was shortly after 8pm on Sunday, June 30, after I arrived at Purgatory, a queer owned-and-operated dive bar and music venue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I placed on my costume (a pink foam nostril) and located myself face-to-face with different related, although extra elaborately dressed, people sporting white face paint and drawn-on smiles. As I climbed up a slender staircase bathed in pink mild, a towering clown in a thong fishnet go well with and whiteout contact lenses descended previous me, and on the high, I used to be greeted by a giddy clown with golden ram horns protruding from their head who handed me a celebration hat and a noisemaker.
That is the Clown Cult — a bi-monthly immersive selection present devoted to celebrating the artwork of clowning. Based final June by Charlotte Chauvin, who is healthier identified by her stage identify Chuckie Sleaze, the recurring occasion gathers dozens of clowns, together with each newcomers and veterans of the craft, for a humorous night time of frivolity and revelry, chock-full of rubber chickens, confetti, balloons, and whip-cream pies.
“It’s all about turning into an increasing number of clown,” Sleaze informed Hyperallergic, explaining in an interview that the occasion goals to assist individuals uncover “the facility in cringe” and the enjoyment that comes with embarrassment.
“There’s this well-known clown phrase, ‘The clown falls so that you don’t should,’” Sleaze mentioned. “The clown slips on the banana peel, will get the pie to the face, falls on their butt, and then you definately get to giggle with an viewers of individuals throughout you laughing and feeling pleasure and being entertained by this clown’s embarrassment.”
As an artwork kind, clowning has an extended historical past, courting again hundreds of years to Historic Egypt and Historic Greece, however its revival in Clown Cult is “fully novel,” in keeping with Queens-born nightlife photographer Patrick Arias, who has been documenting the clowning events over the course of the previous yr. Arias informed Hyperallergic that they have been initially drawn by the chance to get to “doc one thing [they] by no means had earlier than.”
“I’ve seen my justifiable share of particular person clown-themed drag acts, burlesque acts, and nightlife personalities, however by no means a whole night time centered round [clowning] and all of the completely different varieties it takes,” Arias mentioned.
Not like stage acts and circus exhibits, Clown Cult blurs the road between the performers and the viewers by immersing individuals in campy silliness and light-hearted humiliation that comes within the type of Rocky Horror-esque rituals like a virgin initiation and on-stage actions akin to a balloon animal competitors. Every present varies from the final, making each Clown Cult expertise a one-of-a-kind enterprise into clowning.
And pushing again in opposition to clowning’s racist ties to blackface and minstrel exhibits, these occasions are all about inclusivity and variety, attracting individuals of all races, genders, and sexual orientations. For Clown Cult’s one-year anniversary, a sold-out present featured a roster of queer performers who delighted viewers members with eccentric drag exhibits, strip teases, amusing dances, and humorous lip-syncs.
“I believe lots of people — queer individuals particularly — are drawn to clowns, whether or not archetypically or by clowning themselves,” Brooklyn-based drag queen and multidisciplinary artist Mx. Ology informed Hyperallergic, including that after they first attended one of many Clown Cult occasions in February, they immediately felt “a way of kinship and togetherness.”
“To be in an area the place everybody’s letting their clown out (even when solely as soon as a month) is so significant to me,” Mx. Ology mentioned, including that it’s very frequent to go away the exhibits having made a number of new associates. This development seemed to be the case for different lately recruited Clown Cult members, like Simply E! and Lampwrecked, who informed me that they’ve loved assembly different artists and creatives on the bi-monthly exhibits.
Later this month, the cult will host its eighth occasion, a free clown dance occasion on the Brooklyn nightclub Home of Sure, which additionally hosts the long-running Soiled Circus selection present.
Mx. Vagabond, a multidisciplinary performer who has been serving to work Clown Cult’s occasions, informed Hyperallergic that their suggestion for newcomers is “to let your freak flag fly and go in with an open thoughts and able to play.”
“Numerous us are pressured to develop up too quick and fooling around, goofy, and peculiar is taken away from us,” Vagabond informed Hyperallergic. “Clown cult provides you an area to stay out your childhood goals and fantasies and never take life so critically!”
“Apart from silliness,” Vagabond famous. “That, we do take very critically.”
