Who was Jack?

 

Jack the Clown is a strange and interesting stage entertainer at Universal studios created in 2001 after Universal Studios decided that a minor character named Eddie Schwartz a stereotypical slasher figure was somehow extremely insensitive because he was very similar to 9/11 first responders. Out of this very strange decision came Jack the Clown a quickly slapped together character that quickly became a show at the Halloween Horror nights. 

But what is Jack? It is hard to tell. Not physically but his act. The main meat of his act is a variety of clever variations on the woman cut in half trick but of course never with the put back together ending. That does not exactly make him a magician and while there are jokes in his act they are not particularly well thought out and are clearly not the main part of the act. 

So horror performer maybe?

But that doesn’t seem to really fit either. Jack’s show is frightening in a way but Jack assumes the audience is on his side. He starts his, as I have discovered tightly scripted shows by explicitly presenting the audience as perspective minions. So he cannot truly be called a horror performer. 

I came into this piece trying to write a piece about the definition of clowning only to discover that clowning so a deeply unique thing that has no specific definition it is simply an instinctual human thing. For me Jack the Clown is not a particularly good clown there is little technical merit to his acts. If you look at his 2015 act especially the only main act of his not to flash was the finale where the effect was covered up though I do admit it was interesting. For some people Jack the Clown is the kind of Clown someone would be interested in. Because that is clowning.