I did clown training for months.

As I see it, fast food outfits have targeted small children with their advertising in a very effective way. You know, it's clowns and kid's toys and bright colors and things like that.

I'm a natural clown, I suppose, in writing, and one has to accept that; I can't do anything about it. I have written one or two novels which are not specifically funny. I wrote a study of Shakespeare which was not intended to be funny, but some people regard it as such.

To my family and friends, I'm very definitely a clown. But do you know what? Doing a drama would almost seem easy because I wouldn't need to find that gag in a line.

I'm never scared, so I don't watch horror movies. Back in the day, I was. I was scared of 'It' - you know, the one with the clown. That's the thing I found scariest in my life, but since then, not really - I don't watch them.

Every role is a potential lover. I ask: Are they someone I want to wake up to in the morning and go to bed with at night? Do they question my assumptions about life? Consume me to distraction? Make my cry, then clown to make me laugh again? If I say yes, then it's all I need.

Both my uncles were in bands, my grandpa was a comedian who wore clown makeup on stage.

Since childhood, I've been a clown. I've always liked being very funny or trying to make people laugh. It's my original self.

I was this kid who never sat down. Nobody liked me? Well, I'd make sure they'd like me. I was the class clown, always doing crazy stuff and causing riots.

I was the biggest class clown. I loved attention.

It's really easy with makeup to look like you're trying too hard, like a clown. That's not what you want!

What I loved about wrestling was just being foolish, so I studied clown. I studied clown. I studied the art of clown. I actually did my thesis on clown.

I did my thesis on clowns. It's a powerful thing when you've got this little red nose on. It's a mask, the smallest in the world, but it unveils you. You stand up there and do these exercises that free you, let you play, and see what comes out. What comes out is the truth.

My father was always clowning around. It was a huge influence on me. In my family, everything is turned into a joke.

I don't care about how I look; I'm dedicated to the laughs. You know, I used to be a clown, so - my name was Smoothie the Clown. All the training I had, all my training is geared toward making people laugh, and I didn't care about being cool.

I'm funny. I'm a comedian. I'm not a clown.

I've always clowned around.

My mom used to play a lot of super character-y parts... so I was sort of raised to be a clown.

I'm clown realness!

These are truly special days we live in - where a clown in a gown can make her very own drag queen revenge-comedy.

We used to have a photo of me in full clown makeup taken when my son was 5. And when he was 17 or 18, he said, 'Yeah, that thing used to scare me. I hated that photo.' So it is scary; clowning is scary to people.

Acting is all about relating to the people on stage with you, even in plays that break the fourth wall. Clowning, for the most part, is the opposite. If somebody in the audience sneezes, I can count on it: I don't even have to look at Shiner; he'll have his handkerchief out. It's all about all of us in the room together.

Here's my story: My mother and I were at Cirque du Soleil, looking down on Shiner doing his act. She was always tolerant of my being a clown, but I don't remember her rolling with laughter. But with Shiner, she could not sit up straight!

I used to be called a post-modern clown. But now, post-modernism is a quaint notion, too.

If you ask anybody what they think of clowns, it's associated as much or more with something crazy and scary as it is something joyful.

I don't give a crap about clowns.

I want people to watch us and think, 'They're idiots. They're clowns,' I want them to watch us and think Tommy Cooper or Spike Milligan.

I wasn't the class clown. I wasn't that obvious. There would be a circle of guys, and they're watching the class clown. And I'm standing in the back, and I turn to the guy next to me and I say something funny to him, and he starts to laugh. And the guy next to him says, 'What did he say?'

All people are sad clowns. That's the key to comedy - and it's a buffer against reality.

I was the class clown type of guy.

I'm not very good in a classroom sort of setting. I never was. I was kind of a clown in high school - got suspended a lot.