Clown 10 – going forward
ending-beginning
Guess what?
You are reading my last post in this clown series. In both English and Spanish. The end.
Two and a half years ago when I took my first clown class at the Escuela de Payasos los Hijos y las Hijas de Augusto, it was a different world and time, and I was a different person.
Clown has gone from being a fun hobby and another useful facilitation and life tool, to simply being me and the way I am in the world. Pop Corn is another side of my everyday personality and being.
As a way of marking this transition I am finishing this series and starting Pop Corn’s own blog! So this is actually an ending-beginning.
planeta palomitas
The site is in Spanish and it called Planeta Palomitas, which translates to Planet Pop Corn.
On Planet Pop Corn we are fond of saying, there is only one Mother Earth and no Planet B, but there is Planet Pop Corn. Join us in silliness and nonsense before the mainstream reality devours your spirit!
shop window
Pop Corn needs this website, a window out onto the world and a window into her world because she is working! That’s right. True, true, she needs to work more and be paid (more) but being paid with truffles wasn’t too bad. Either way there are indications that Pop Corn is on her way to generating some kind of income stream.
I continue the nature connection and clown classes, but much to my surprise street animation and performance work is what is cropping up. Something I never would have imagined. In fact, we just marked our 6 year anniversary in Valencia. If you had told me then that the professional and personal change I longed for but could not name would turn out to be becoming a full-time clown, I would have asked “what went wrong?”
I don’t know why I couldn’t see it. Or why it took me so long to find my teachers and tribe but I have. And that’s the important thing.
at the heart
This transition has not been obvious or easy to find my way forward. But my mission is becoming clearer.
I am not a circus clown, I am not a children’s birthday clown (but I do not rule out that type of work), I am a social clown. At the heart of my clown work – whether that’s teaching, performing or doing street work – is highlighting the art of everyday life. The things we learn by living our lives and that are passed one from person to person and sometimes generation to generation. I am interest in all the creative and different ways people, communities express ourselves, how we resist the bad things and share the good. How resilient are we, and how are we resilient?
We need to tap into our human and clown super powers more than ever before. And I/Pop Corn see resilience, resistance, joy and signs of alternatives in everyday life. In simple things like the relationships and “families” we create, to the food we make and eat, the music and dance we like, stories we tell ourselves, popular beliefs our choice of dress or appearance.
I have also discovered that Pop Corn and her community work is what makes me come alive. Also I now understand that Pop Corn’s work is not to convince everyone to find their own inner clown, though that remains a reasonable and worthwhile goal, her work is helping others along their path or getting on the path to doing whatever makes them come alive!
love at first laugh
Do you believe in love at first laugh? Pop Corn and I do. Our relationship, like any other intimate relationship, requires time, work and energy. What I am noting in finishing this series and starting her blog, Planeta Palomitas, is a maturing, a normalizing feeling to my clown energy. I really still love it, I find it special and a unique way to handle moods or problems, but it is more natural and just there now.
That delight and that love that I felt two years ago (on 23 February) when I learned to communicate better with this clown energy and Pop Corn revealed her name and told me more about herself is still there. It can give me butterflies in my stomach, it can make me laugh and pull through some stressy, nasty moments, and it’s still comfortable and special. But it also just is. And that’s nice.
And so I hope to see you on Planeta Palomitas soon. Thanks for reading.
act, believe, change 
Continued success Popcorn ! Planet Palomitos is a very nice place to be! And Denise, wow, yeah, thinking back, 2 years ago when you started your first clown class……this was even pre cover wasn’t it? Holy Moses, you were a different person- we ALL were! Thank you for these lovely blogs and as usual, love looking at your art. xoxoxoxoxoxoxox