by Flavio D.
This last year made me think differently about where, how, and what clowns could do today and in the future.
Together with six clown friends (two in Portugal and four in Brazil), we created a group with the purpose of thinking about the future. Every Tuesday (3 p.m. USA, 7 p.m. Brazil, and 11 p.m. in Portugal) we meet via Zoom.
We talk about new possibilities for continuing work to be successful as a clown, figure out a lot of things and the result was we developed a first online symposium of the humanitarian clown. These clowns work in situations of conflict zone like war, vulnerability like hospitals and homeless. The goal of these clowns is to bring joy and create positive feelings for people so they spread it to family and friends.
My friend Silvio Messias developed a platform where set up everything and each of us developed a theme and contents for a class with videos, photos, and reference books. My class is about how to work as a street performer. I speak about my experience in the streets and parks of California, China, and Brazil.
It is a success and much pleasure because every clown talks about experiences in different situations of their life as a clown.
There are 14 live classes for a total of 28 hours. In July, these classes will be available to sell to other people that have interest in learning more about art of the clown.
The good side about changes is finding a capacity to reinvent yourself. I am happy that I found, together with my friends, different ways to help other people.