Susanna Plotnick

WHAT I LEARNED IN CLOWN SKOOL, PART 1

In the Fall of 2024, I was offered an opportunity to draw at the inaugural year of the Coney Island Clown Skool. I jumped at the chance! My subject matter had always been focused on circuses and amusement parks, whether it was life drawing or fantasy illustration. My friend Janet Morgan had been offered the opportunity and had invited me to join her.

Janet and I had drawn at Coney Island before, during the summer of 2020 when the boardwalk, rides and games were shut down because of the pandemic. I produced “Coney Island During the Pandemic”, a book of black and white drawings, and she produced “Coney Island Awakes”, a colorful children’s book.

The Skool was to be a week of intense workshops and practice at the Coney Island Museum on Surf Avenue.

On the first day, I entered the Freak Bar at the Coney Island Museum, and was greeted by a group of men and women dressed in colorful ruffles, striped leggings, and spikey hair in many different colors. Here I was! I met Glen Heroy, Director of the Skool, who greeted me warmly. Glen is a well-known clown, having worked at the Big Apple Circus and many other venues. He made me feel welcome.

Each student introduced themselves, and they got right into clown performance exercises under Glen’s tutelage. Glen put a fedora in the middle of the room, and each student was to walk across the room, notice the fedora, and create a scene. There was a large variety of ideas, some funny, some sad, some outrageous!

The second exercise really struck me- each student was to walk across the room, sit down, and say “sorry I’m late”, AFTER CHOOSING A SOCIAL STATUS OF 1 – 10. Because we live in a society that is supposedly status-free, the honesty of this exercise was a revelation to me. CLOWNS TELL THE TRUTH.

Clowns tell the truth, with grace and humor. They have always done this while walking a fine line of not offending the powers that be. I thought of the jesters in the courts of Europe.

I knew that my drawing would have to change this week. I am used to the usual 1- to -20 minute poses in life drawing, and I knew that the clowns would not be posing for us. I had never drawn this way, and knew that I would have to capture ESSENCE. I brought a small 7″ x 7″ sketchbook, black pencils and colored pencils. For drawing in the dark, I brought a small lamp that would cast light on my sketchbook only.

The days continued with classes in mime, puppetry, slapstick, props, drama and more. The culmination of the week was the show – each student performing his/her specialty.

Three of the students had clown personas that resonated with me – Magie, a Pierrot-type melancholy clown, dressed in white; River an athletic, physical clown with dramatic makeup; and Miss Lixx, a very daring burlesque dancer. In real life, Magie is a highly skilled and creative tattoo artist, River is an accomplished actor, and Miss Lixx is a beautiful and hilarious burlesque dancer. They became Jamie, Ocean, and Miss Kiss, respectively, as a story began to take shape in my mind.

The story that started to take shape in my mind: The same week that I drew at the clown skool, DONALD TRUMP WAS ELECTED TO A SECOND TERM. The juxtaposition of this nightmare and the beauty of the clowns started a storytelling process in my consciousness – a clown rebellion.

Of course, I would need permission to use these characters in my story. I wrote to Glen and told him my idea and he was very excited and supportive. He gave me the emails of Magie, River and Miss Lixx, and they all agreed that I could use their clown personas, of course giving them credit in the back of the upcoming book. They were all very excited and supportive also!

These are some of the drawings I did at the culminating show at the Skool. I believe I captured the essence of each performer.

And so, I started to work on my story.

TO BE CONTINUED…….

Written by Susanna Plotnick, October 17, 2025