I found my seat in the back row at Playspace—in the Skunk Room in Los Angeles’s Elysian Theater, as Zachary Steel, a clown teacher, led a workshop where both seasoned performers and complete newcomers test out short clowning exercises before an audience. About 50 people filled the garage-like space.
“Something about the clown is that they are a skinless grape,” Steel said to us. “They are sensitive people. They can’t hold back from oozing emotional juice all over the room. They are susceptible to personal bigness.”
