I was actually pretty shy in school. My defense mechanism was to be the class clown. I remember getting into a lot of trouble for being disruptive, and I was brought in front of the headteacher, who said: 'What's going to happen to you; what are you going to do when you grow up?' and I said: 'Well, I'm obviously going to be a comedian.'
Adam Clayton
The first thing I wanted to be was a clown.
Adam Page
All my life I've been a show-off. Ever since first grade I was a clown, and even then I tried to entertain everyone.
Adrien Broner
I wasn't a class clown, I just found at an early age that I was able to make people laugh. So I mostly wrote funny stuff instead of writing what I was supposed to be writing.
Alan Zweibel
I guess I was the class clown - with a name like Albert Einstein, you don't hide in the back. I'd read the school bulletin to the class, and I'd add activities and make stuff up. It was good, a good 10 minutes every morning.
Albert Brooks
Donald Trump, an oft-bankrupt make-believe mogul clown with a television show where he pretends to fire America's saddest former celebrities, is one of the Republican Party's most prominent national figures because he is on TV and people have heard of him.
Alex Pareene
I get all dressed up in fuchsia, looking like a clown, and show pretty pictures to people.
Alexandra Stoddard
By blood a king, in heart a clown.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
I've said this before, that, when you're in school and you're the class clown, men are really good at making fun at other people and women are really good at making fun of themselves.
Amy Poehler
I was a monkey child. I was like a clown.
Andrew Garfield
I had a fifth grade teacher who, as a very small way of trying to contain my class clown energy, gave me 10 minutes at the end of class every Friday to present whatever I wanted. A lot of the time, I did an Andy Rooney impression. I would sit at her desk, empty it, and just comment on what was in there.
Andy Daly
I thought I wanted to be a clown, because what would be better than making people laugh?
Andy Grammer
I don't have a negative perception of clowns.
Andy Muschietti
I really didn't want to expand the negative vision of clowns because clowns are not intrinsically scary.
I enjoyed clowns when I was a kid going to the circus. Mainly I mean the good clowns, when you go to a circus.
I'm a tearless clown. If I were to get a tattoo, it would be the two masks, and they would be both smiling.
Andy Samberg
I was never the class clown or anything like that. When I was growing up and doing theatre in Seattle I was always doing very dramatic work. Now I can't get a dramatic role to save my life!
Anna Faris
If you've ever been to a great clown show, there's always a moment where the clown goes into the house and fuses with the audience. There's something fantastic about the improv of it all.
Annaleigh Ashford
I did clown training for months.
No one knows Anne's better side, and that's why most people can't stand me. Oh, I can be an amusing clown for an afternoon, but after that, everyone's had enough of me to last a month.
Anne Frank
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.
