John Wayne Gacy - The Sopranos TV - William Shakespeare - Stephen Sondheim - Jim Morrison - Margaret Rutherford - Rick Riordan - Frank Sinatra - Simon Munnery - Tommy Cooper - American Juggalo 2011 - Killer Legends 2014 - Making a Monster: John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Clown TV -
I’ve always told people when I got into clown make-up I regressed into childhood. John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise II: Warning Signs, Gacy
The sad clown. The Sopranos s4e10: The Strong, Silent Type, Tony in therapy
It is meat and drink to me to see a clown. By my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for. William Shakespeare, As You Like It V i 10-12, Touchstone
Isn’t it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground
You in mid-air
Send in the clowns. Send in the Clowns, Stephen Sondheim 1973 song
I see myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most important moments. Jim Morrison
I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician. Charlie Chaplin
You never have a comedian who hasn’t got a very deep strain of sadness within him or her. Every great clown has been very near to tragedy. Margaret Rutherford
All the world loves a clown. Cole Porter
cf.
‘Everyone hates clowns,’ Otis said. ‘Even other clowns hate clowns.’ Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena
Dare to wear the foolish clown face. Frank Sinatra
Clowns divorce. Custardy battle. Simon Munnery, Edinburgh Festival 2015
Two cannibals were eating a clown – one said to the other, ‘Does he taste funny to you?’ Tommy Cooper
We used to think of clowns as fairly happy characters … What was it about the clowns of today that turned them into something evil? … They were out there, snatching kids off the streets … We called them the killer clowns and they only wanted one thing – to kidnap kids. Killer Legends, Netflix 2014
‘There was a real city-wide scare: the Chicago police were being called.’ ibid. Isaiah Thompson, reporter
‘Clowns appear in California in 1967, in Newark 1980, Omaha … Boston … Phoenix … Scotland 1991 … throughout a large portion of South America …’ ibid.
All over the world kids were seeing killer clowns. ibid.
Here in Chicago where the notion of killer clowns became a reality. And the most evil of them all was Pogo, the alter-ego of one of the prolific serial killers in all of history – John Wayne Gacy … a sadistic serial killer who brutally slayed 33 young men between 1972 and 1978 in the Chicago suburbs. ibid.
His [John Wayne Gacy’s] most colourful creation: Coco the Clown … Many killers develop a separate killing persona that they learn to hide from the world behind a mask. Making a Monster s1e7: John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Clown, CI 2020