Jeroens Clown Festival shows: ‘are more than red nose and flap shoes’

With their big red nose and flap shoes, clowns such as Bassie and Pipo mainly focus on children. Modern clowns focus more on adults with a comic, but sometimes also serious view of society. They want to hold up a mirror to them. “They are moments with a smile and a tear,” says Jeroen.

Modern clowns are already extremely popular in Spain, Italy and France. Jeroen hopes that they will make a rise in Dutch theaters. “Anyone who opens to an experience that touches, moves, encourages thinking and daring to feel can discover the pleasure and impact of modern clown.”

Young learned
Jeroen has been a passionate entertainer for thirty years. As the Dutch Juggler with fire at a Tiësto show in Gelredome, he spewed together with presenter Sophie Hilbrand Vuur in a television program and acted as a clown on street theater festivals.

Learned young, is done old. Jeroens love for entertaining started in 1995, when he received three juggling balls as a gift from his grandfather. A little later he followed circus lessons at school, which were given by a circus clown. Gradually he became increasingly interested in the clowning.

In 2019 he left for Barcelona for five weeks, to follow a master class of the now deceased Clown Jango Edwards. Jeroen is now continuing those clown lessons in the Netherlands, the week prior to his first Echoes of Laughter Festival In former Drimmelen. Twelve people from five different countries participate in the Masterclass and will also perform their acts at the weekend.

In the master class, Jeroen learns the clowns in the making that humor does not have to be a requirement for a clown act. An unexpected twist can also work well. For example, he once sang a song about a lost love, on the melody of ‘ne me quitte pas’ by Jacques Brel. “The audience took a tear away, but at the end it was about a giraffe.”

Pleasure
Jeroen will perform on Saturday with his show ‘Chez Cirqimes’. It is a clownesk piece about a restaurant, where Jeroen is already juggling with leek and burning potatoes all the balls. There are also guest appearances of national and international clowns, such as the English Nola Rae and the Italian Claudia Cantone. The audience can expect a festival with a good dose of absurdism, poetry and cabaret.

The pleasure that Jeroen has with clowning is hoping to be able to transfer to the festival visitors. “That is incredible, if the audience can empathize with your feelings and emotions. Clownerie fraternizes, connects and rejoices, but can also be sad. We really miss that in Dutch theaters.”