Has there ever been a (famous) Non-Caucasian Clown?

Granted its hard to tell with all the makeup on, but then we could split the question into 2 and ask if any Clown was ever as a Clown while being Non-Cascasian.

I did some preliminary Googleing, and confirmed that Bozo (Bell and D’Auria) was indeed Caucasian.
It boils down to this;

Are clowns typically American Caucasians?

J. P. Patches, a Seattle area icon for over 40 years, is actually an African American gentleman named Chris Weddes.

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Does Alan Keyes count?
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Well Damon Wayons did “Homey the Clown” on the series “In Living Color” back in the early ninites. Famous forthe line “Homey don’t play that!” while bopping someone over the head. :smiley:

Wasn’t the guy who played Barney the Dinosaur black?

That is the first thing I thought of, as well. I don’t know if it really counts, though. :smiley:

Beyond that, I can’t really think of any. But I’m not a clown expert.

Forgive me if I’m using too narrow a definition of “Caucasian” and too broad a definition of “clown,” but I submit Mario Moreno Reyes, also known as Cantinflas, who was Mexican.

Holy crap! I had no idea he was still working. Used to watch his show religiously in the early seventies. Whoa.

No. The man who did the voice of Barney was Bob West and he is caucasian.

You may be thinking of Kevin Clash, who does the voice of Elmo on Sesame Street.

bizzwire. While I know how tempting it is to respond in GQ to such great straight lines, please don’t do this.

samclem GQ moderator.

How many “famous” clowns have there been on a national level?

But the actor in the Barney suit was a black man.

I’m talking about Bob Joyner, who was the black guy inside the purple dinosaur suit.

Yes… his name is David Joyner.

The International Clown Hall of Fame (see www.theclownmuseum.org) does indeed have histories of several very famous clowns who were black.

I had the very great privilege (and it was wonderful fun, too) to investigate clowns and clown history for a Staff Report. It was several years ago, the clown museum seems to have moved from downtown Milwaukee. I did mention one famous black clown, Bert Williams (1874-1922), in that report. My recollection (faulty at times) is that in the early part of the 1900s, it was possible for blacks to be clowns even though many other jobs in entertainment were closed to them, precisely because under all the make-up, who knew?

About 5 minutes after I Asked, I thought of Homey. But I figured he was created more or less on the fact that people can’t think up African America clowns on the spur of the moment. While I agree he does fit the bill, I was hoping for less novelty acts. (That is, not one invented just to fill the perceived gap.)

Yes, I was just being facetious. :wink: But Al Sharpons been around for a while . . . opps, there I go, doing it again, sorry admin!. :wally

What a cool job, investagating clowns. :cool: What a cool board, I actually learned something today. :cool:

There have been lots of non-caucasian clowns in the Beijing Opera.