Washington Square Park is one of New York City’s gems for lounging around on the lawn and pretending to forget about all the work you have piling up. There’s always something to see— whether it be the guys playing chess or the guys playing renditions of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington on their jazz instruments. And then there’s Roadie, a silent clown performed by Jared Thompson. Jared is a graduate of the North Carolina School of Arts who describes his act as physical comedy and emphasizes the importance that dancing has on the tradition of clowning as a form of carefree self expression. As Roadie glides across the pavement breakdancing, he feeds off of the audience cheering him on and clapping. He even includes the audience in his act as he mimes. When we watched Roadie in his element, a man sitting and watching on a bench close by offered Roadie a stick of gum. Roadie exited the stage, which he created by forming a circle with red string, accepted the gum, and proceeded to choke on it while asking the man for help. After his performance Jared gracefully agreed to be interviewed.
How often do you perform?
JT: Now I’ve started to get into routine where I do it three times a week, depending on the day, like today is super beautiful so I decided to come out here [Washington Square Park] but normally I would perform in the subway. Now it shifts back and forth because what I try to do, and I would say I’m a clown in training, so I’m performing and then every other day I’m exercising, working on skills and things like that, and then I’ll perform and exercise again, so I try to keep that up depending on the day.
Is that self taught or do you have formal training?
JT: So I went to an acting conservatory in North Carolina, so North Carolina School of Arts. And I trained there for four years with classes in Stanislavski and Chekhov, a little bit of Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner and my, I wouldn’t consider him my mentor because we don’t work closely together but he was my favorite teacher and what got me to start doing comedy and he teaches mask and movement. He builds the masks in a way that he starts off with the black face hood then he works it into neutral mask, full mask, half mask, and then lastly is the red nose. And the red nose was something that I gravitated towards and then the amount of training I got from the red nose was maybe three months of training and then I moved to New York after that. I was living in New York for three or four years and that’s when the nose kind of found me rather than me going oh yeah red nose, clowning. But it sort of found me cause I got burned out on audition stuff, and I started, me and my friends got the red nose and we just started playing the streets.
Is there anything you do on the side?
JT: Yeah so, I still do acting, but something to keep me afloat, it’s not what I’m trying to do full time, but it’s making the money, I work as a production coordinator for a video utility company, not video but like video production. So production coordinators basically organize labor and events.
Would you say there’s a difference in the way the audience perceives your performance on the subway versus outside?
JT: Yeah it’s a different energy, on the subway it’s a lot more contained, interestingly enough before I came here today I was like I had been performing in the subway a lot I don’t know its going to be really different cause it’s so spread out but its all relative its really how you grab the persons eye and I’m a firm believer of you know some people they just don’t like this type of performance but I’m a firm believer in if you’re good enough and you know how to connect with someone on a way that doesn’t scare them you can get anybody interested it just really depends. But it’s definitely different on the subway versus out here how the audience perceives it because it’s just like, “Oh it’s such a beautiful day I might just stick around and watch this,” whereas on the subway they’ll just be walking by cause they’ll be going to the train.
Does your performance have any message you want to send out to the audience, whether it be political or social?
JT: Yeah, you know my message has always fluctuated on a specific three words or whatever, it’s mainly and simplistically based off of love. That’s what the clown is based in a world of curiosity and innocence, the clown really taps into a child, and a child, I believe, they have no inhibitions of how they start off as a kid. Very vulnerable and open and so I think that’s one of the reasons why the clown connected with me and this message of I want people to tap into their innocence I want people to go from cerebral to more of the heart- so let down their barriers– yes exactly so I want, Jim Carrey actually has a really good theme of his life is he wants to free people from concern and I like that. I actually gravitate towards that thought process, as a clown I want to free people from concern and not take things too seriously.
Why did you incorporate dance into your performance?
JT: Oh man, I just love to dance. So yeah, I’ve really wanted to start taking more classes. There were dance classes in my school but they were more to build you up if you wanted to do musicals, there was tap, jazz, modern, and yeah those were the three heavy hitters. I really love modern but what I found myself really gravitating towards is that 1920s crazy swing thing, either that or hip hop. I love hip hop. I would love to start taking classes in hip hop or breakdancing, and then as well as that. Now that you’re asking me these questions it’s good because it’s kind of illuminating what I’ve been trying to do. We’re forcing you to be self aware.
Would you say dancing sort of lets you let loose, be a free spirit, be childlike?
JT: Yeah, most definitely. Absolutely, dancing is a vulnerable thing for people who aren’t comfortable dancing in public spaces. I mean when I’m walking around and not doing this, I like to talk to people, but sometimes I can be very to myself and I’m not randomly jumping around dancing. But when you do it can be very freeing, even if you’re not a good dance or whatever that means. When you watch kids they act free and carelessly, when they hear some good music and they will dance.
What is the greatest compensation you have received, or any street performer/dancer can receive in terms of compensation from the audience ?
JT: The best compliment I can get from somebody is “Wow, that made me feel like a kid again,” or “I really loved the dancing,” small things like that. Something like “You made me feel like a kid again” is a great compliment. And another compliment can be somebody who just sticks around until the end, like those people over there who stuck around until the end that always feels nice. Kids are usually the ones who stick around until the end-they get it. It is very fun how, either its instilled in them from a very young age that clowns are scary, or either they saw a clown that was a really shitty clown and they got really scared. Most of the time I feel that people are scared of clowns, because of what society has put in movies and stuff like that. So that’s one of the reasons why I don’t wear makeup, I try to stay very fresh, very similar to Charlie Chaplin and Lusker Pete. There is select people I have had who ran away screaming, but that was few and far between. I tried experimenting with a little make up, and it was just little white around the eyes and white around my mouth and nothing else, and that scared the shit out of somebody so I try not to play around with that.
What role would you say New York has had on your performance ?
JT: New York is like an unforgiving place, it’s just fast paced whether you like it or not. Again it’s all in perspective but New York is like a hub of creative energy, and that energy has either pushed me away to be recuperate, or its like I’m in it and I’m going for it. I moved away for a little bit, because i got very depressed. Most of the time it’s in the winter months so I moved back home, and I decided to travel. I traveled through Central America, and I performed for kids who are in NGOs. So New York had kind of pushed me out, but more of my decision of like I need some time away, and I didn’t even plan on moving back. I was like New York you have been good, but I’m done. And then I got a call from one of my best friends who is also a clown, and he’s working on a clown show and he wanted me to work on it with him. And I decided I can’t pass up this opportunity, so in a sense New York pulled me right back in.
