Archive for the ‘Costumes’ Category

13 Tips to a Better Looking Clown

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Today we are going to look into common mistakes new and old clowns make with their makeup.

  1. Nose is to Big: We have all seen these clowns, heck for a couple of years I was guilty of this. While a big red nose is the trademark of a clown a smaller nose will make you seem less foreign to children as well as make it easier for you to see, which is important to the jugglers, magicians and stiltwalking clowns out their.
  2. To Much Outlining: Nothing darkens up a clown face like to many black lines on it. When you are designing your face make sure that you only outline the colors where it is necessary. This will allow you to have a lighter look to you face as well as help you appear more human to your audience.
  3. Mascara- That is correct gentleman you need to wear mascara. This will get rid of the white eyelashes that most of us get while putting on the white parts of your makeup as well as make your eyes more expressive.
  4. Shoes: A lot of clowns feel that they need to have those big crazy shoes. While those big crazy shoes are cool, they really only look nice when they are professionally made and match the rest of your costume.
  5. Color Coordination: Being a clown dosen’t mean you don’t have to match. Some of the best looking clowns you will ever see have costumes that match from top hat to big shoes. When a clown first starts out the usual idea is to buy the zaniest brightest outfit you can find, because that is what clowns wear. Most clowns where oversized or colorful normal clothes, giving them that clown look without overwhelming their audiences senses.
  6. Untrimmed Wigs: When you buy a wig you might think that it is fine as it is. That unfortunately not true. You need to go get it trimmed to fit your character so that you don’t look like every other clown that wears that same wig. There is nothing worse then one hundred different faces with the same haircut.
  7. Wig color: Traditionally clown wigs where “normal” colors such as red, yellow and orange. As dyes got fancier greens, blues, pinks, purples and ,any other colors arrived on the scene. The thing to remember is that the color of you wig should match your character and compliment you costume.
  8. Powder: Powdering is the most important part of your clown makeup. Without makeup you will become a melted faced mess. Powder often and you will have a clown face that can withstand the greatest heat as well as getting hit with a pie, jumping in a pool and eating.
  9. Makeup: Use actual clown makeup. Women’s face makeup isn’t made to withstand the stress of clowning nor is face paint. There are many manufacturers of clown makeup and their products will stand the test of time.
  10. Stay in Shape: Clowning is a physical art form. You want to make sure that you can do whatever it is that you do as a clown without running out of breath. It is ok to act like you are out of breath, but you need to be able to go and go and go. You don’t necessarily need to lose weight or change you appearance, but you do need to exercise to stay in shape.
  11. Practice: When you are first starting out practice your makeup, performing in costume, anything that has to do with your appearance so that you know what it looks like and what you need to work on. Even so of the older clowns could probably use some practice on their makeup since you have possibly getting sloppy.
  12. Ask for Help: Ask your friends and family what they think of your look. They hopefully will be honest and you will be able to improve your look. If you have no one to show your clown to email pictures to theusableclown [at] gmail [dot] com and I will be happy to critique your look.
  13. Be Honest With Yourself: If you think something doesn’t look right with your costume, it probably dosen’t. The hardest part of being a clown is knowing what looks good on you and what doesn’t. If it feels to tight, it probably is.

There you have it, 13 ways to make you a better looking clown. Good luck and keep on being funny.

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No Really You Can Make Your Own

Monday, November 12th, 2007

A lot of clowns when they first start out get in a mood to buy, buy, buy. This unfortunately leads to a lot of purchases left unused in the garage and a lot of money spent on equipment before it can actually be used. One thing that can be used to remedy this spending spiral is to build\make more of your own props.

What’s that you say, “Building my own props/costumes will take to much time and cost more money.” That is incorrect. Most prop builders and costumers are taking a skill that can be done by anyone and created a niche for themselves by marketing towards clowns. What you can do is learn to make your own costumes and props.

Sewing is relatively easy to do and while making a whole costume would require a sewing machine, modifying cloths for a tramp type character is easy to do with a needle and some thread. Plus the beauty of sewing your own patches onto your costume is that it gives it the down home look of a tramp sewing on the road.

If you are interested in sewing a full costume for yourself make sure you are prepared to learn to sew. Take a class at a craft store or community college to learn the basics and you should be ready. Finding patterns for clown costumes is easy, just find a regular pattern that you like, by a couple sizes to big and sew it in a fabric of your choosing. This will give you infinitely more choices then buying an off the rack costume and it will save you hundreds of dollars on a custom costume.

Typically clown shoes are another major expense for a professional clown look, but at $200 plus for a nice pair it can be a huge expense for a new business. What I would suggest is to find shoes at a thrift store that fit you character and modify them accordingly. Another option if it fits you character is to by some canvas shoes and paint or decorate them to fit more with your costume.

There are a lot of everyday clown props are easy to make and always turn out better then purchased ones. Most of them are either substitutions of everyday objects decorated to fit your clown. There are a few that you can make from scratch.

If you are a juggling clown you know that juggling clubs are about $25-$40 a piece, a cheaper and funnier alternative is a plunger, a rubber chicken with a dowel in its mouth and a spatchula. All of these things are easy to find, well you might have to order a rubber chicken, and can be decorated with duct or plastic tape. These three objects can be juggled just like clubs and tend to make people laugh before you even start juggling. Other juggling props such as bean bags and cigar boxes can be made with just a little sewing or general woodshop knowledge.

If you are a ventriloquist clown you have probably looked all around for the world for the perfect puppet. All you have been able to find are copies of puppets that other entertainers the world over use. The only problem with those puppets is that they all look the same and getting a custom puppet increases the cost from $150 up to $500 and typically a lot more.

What you need to do is build yourself a sock puppet or better yet a foam puppet. Both of these puppets can be made by anyone and while you first attempt may not turn out perfect it will be more fitting to your clown character then any purchased puppet. Also as you get better at fabricating them your puppets will only get better.

These are just a few of the clown items that you can make on your own. There are many more and the resources for learning to make them are all over the Internet. Just search around and you will find places where you can make your own puppets as well as being able to look at sewing patterns online without having to go to the fabric store.

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