Alistair Aitcheson - Clowning

Get silly with clown Alistair Aitcheson as he expands what’s possible in audience-centric theater. Dig into why clowns can feel both joyful and unsettling, and how curiosity, audience trust, and failure turn a show into a shared act of play. In this episode, Alistair shares how clown training reshaped his interactive work, focusing on his show My Date with Pierce Brosnan, fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  The conversation also explores how clowning overlaps with drag, how audience participation becomes safer when the performer takes the risk, and why “every bug is a feature” might be the best clowning principle of all.Key topicsWhy clown makeup can be uncanny, especially when it exaggerates the mouth and breaks normal facial expectationsAlistair traces his path from making video games as a teenager to building interactive theatre experiencesHow clown training helped solve a design problem by teaching him how to connect directly with audiences and remove the “fourth wall”Why the clown should be the most outrageous person in the room so that the audience feels safe to take risksCompare clowning and drag as related forms that share curiosity, theatrical exaggeration, and a challenge to social normsHow the clown sees the world as a blank slate, asking what objects are for and how they might be played with instead of assumedClowning and software bugs are connected because failure creates surprises, and surprises are where the real magic happensResorucesAlistair’s website https://www.alistairaitcheson.com/My Date with Pierce Brosnanhttps://mydatewith.show/Edinburgh Fringe Festival https://www.edfringe.com/More on clown makeup https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/gallery-london-houses-dozens-clown-egg-portraits-180968914/Coulrophobia - Fear of Clowns https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21835-coulrophobia-fear-of-clownsHolly Stoppit https://www.hollystoppit.com/