‘I hate clowns,” so many people still say, and it’s frustrating. If only they could see shows like Clownts, as distant from Big Top cliches – or from Stephen King’s Pennywise, who has a lot to answer for – as it’s possible to be. Clownts marks the last night of the London clown festival, and finds alt-comedy godfather John-Luke Roberts presiding over a clown contest between three maestros of the art form.
It’s a night of which you might say “it descended into chaos” had it not also started at chaos, making mincemeat of Roberts’ authority and the challenge format. It also generated a species of hilarity perhaps unique to this anarchic and childlike practice: delighted, disbelieving, and of quite a different order to the laughs that greet most standup.
