I didn't start off by calling myself a clown.

Early in my performing life, a person with significantly more formal training and foolish wisdom called me that. I thought to myself that "clown" seemed like a fairly accurate warning label for the aggregation of misfit weirdness that is me, and so I ran with it.

By academic definition, I'm considered a folk artist...which is a pleasant way of saying I'm an idiot who has learned everything I could in the hardest way possible. By being willing to go and pester the living legends, I've been able to learn from some of the best clowns and physical performers in the world.

I've been personally yelled at by Aitor Basuri from SpyMonkey, slept in a barn so I could follow Avner the Eccentric around, been told by the New York Goofs that my dancing needed work, and told to "cut the crap" by the amazing Angela DeCastro of the Why Not Institute.

More importantly, I listened...and eventually learned how to do the work of the theater clown.

I spent a few years figuring out how to share the wisdom I'd collected at a cultural center in Dallas. Their artistic director gave me an incredible gift, a black box theater in which I could play! We explored there in an experimental lab of my own devising for nearly five years, and I gained a reputation for being a somewhat eccentric-yet-effective educator.

Midway into that adventure, I caught on to the possibility that there might be gentler ways to share knowledge than with a metaphoric stick. I redirected a great deal of my energy into learning the skills of a proper teacher, and my table manners are better for it.

This naturally opened doors, and I was invited to create a clown theater program at a circus center. I remained there as the clown in residence, adventures as a touring performer not withstanding, until the pandemic ended the program.

There was then a blurry montage wherein I ran several online programs, and approximately a year ago my performing company and I hatched a plan to travel across the country to renovate a 100-and-something year old building into our very own clown school, artists residency program, and theatrical play space.

Renovations to the building are currently underway.