For the NNPA
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (NNPA) – When the “Greatest Show on Earth” came to Arco Arena, it was imperative that the community of Sacramento paid special close attention to the clown dressed in hip hop attire.
Jamarr Woodruff is the first-year clown with the 136th edition of the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus that performed here last month.
Reflecting on the urban culture of hip hop music, Woodruff considers himself the “Clown of Crunk ” – a high energy style of music that started in Atlanta and has grown nationally through the hip hop scene.
“It’s more of a philosophy, a lifestyle, and just having fun,” Woodruff said of the music genre. “It solidifies what Atlanta is, where I am from, and who I am. And your clown is who you are … exaggerated. So with me being born and raised in Atlanta, I cannot see myself as being no other kind of clown but the ‘Clown of Crunk.’”
Woodruff said the audiences in previous shows have warmed up to his type of character and flavor. Especially the youth, who can identify themselves with hip hop.
“Oh, they love it,” Woodruff said. “It’s always good for them, especially for the younger generation because hip hop is such a heavy influence in their world and it gives them something that can grasp on to. So they always want to take pictures with the ‘cool’ clown.”
Woodruff’s costume is also a major feature that attracts everyone’s attention. He wears a pair of specially made Timberlands boots that he calls “Clownberlands,” baggy jeans with a striped shirt, a jacket with the words “Clown of Crunk” written on the back, and a bucket-Kangol style hat.
“My costume is more related to kids which makes them less frightened,” Woodruff. “And then I can see through the African- American kids, ‘Hey, there’s the one that looks like us.’”
Behind the makeup, Woodruff is not just one of your ordinary clowns. He takes his profession seriously. When he was a senior in high school he saw a poster to audition for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Clown College in 1997. The audition didn’t “amount” to Woodruff getting hired, though he stuck with his dream.
Woodruff attended Alabama State University where he graduated cum laude in the school’s Theatre Arts program, and then he went to graduate from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in 2004 followed by the San Francisco Clown Conservatory in 2005. Woodruff saw on a Web site that one of the clowns for Barnum and Bailey went to Dell’Arte. The work paid off and eventually got him a job with Ringling Bros.
“I saw that he had additional training that I felt would make me more desirable to Ringling Bros.,” he said. “While at Dell’Arte I found out about the Clown Conservatory. So it’s been like a eight year process to make myself prepared as possible. My sister said I’m the most educated clown she knows.”