| A TWICE WEEKLY SERIAL OF BIG TOP FOLK BY
SIMON PARKE |
|
EPISODE 5
WHY PEOPLE LOVE THE CLOWN
"Why do people like me?" asks Jess, unsettled by the warmth of the applause. He enjoys it, of course; but never quite owns it, feeling always it is for someone else.
"Is it because I make them laugh?"
"Oh, they enjoy a laugh," says Tent-peg Ted, the circus roustabout for 30 years. "Who doesn't?"
"My colourful clothes, perhaps," continues Jess. "My large shoes and big smile?"
"They enjoy those too."
"But they're not the real reason for the applause?"
"No, Jess."
"I don't understand the warmth coming towards me."
Ted pauses; then speaks:
"The real reason why people like you is this: you always get up, Jess."
"How d'you mean?"
"You always get up! Whatever has befallen you; however hard you've been knocked over or sent tumbling – you always bleedin' get up!"
"I suppose so."
"With the clown, the story's never over; whatever the disaster, the story gets up and goes on."
"That's true."
"More than the funny man, Jess, you're the fuckin' resurrection man!"
(I apologise, but Ted's language can be colourful. Well, sometimes it can curdle milk.)
"And if it's true for you, Jess; then it might be true for us as well. And that's why people love the clown."
More clowning around |
