There’s more than a few ways to earn a crust – one man who calls Canterbury home makes his living with laughter.
Fraser Hooper – who trains clowns here and around the globe – is back down under for Christchurch’s World Buskers Festival.
“I’ve wanted to be a clown since I was four or five years old so it was in me. It’s what I wanted to do. It was my dream – my life’s dream – and I’ve been doing it now… this will be my 35th year professionally, playing around the world.”
Hooper doesn’t just don the suit – it’s his job to transform a mortal man into a classic clown.
“I get them to be really stupid. We are naturally stupid people.”
He runs workshops in 20 countries, often using a translator to help.
“I said to my students, ‘any questions?’ And in English, [the translator] said ‘any Christians?’ One guy said, ‘I’m Jewish’.”
His key to laughter is getting people to breathe out.
“So if I blow up a balloon, a balloon gets bigger and bigger and bigger, the audience is just going to go, ‘it’s going to burst, it’s going to burst’. When it bursts, the air comes out, you laugh. You let your breath out.”
Hooper’s on the road for most of the year but he’s back on home turf for an iconic Christchurch event he’s headlined for decades.
“I get nervous still. I get a thrill and… playing to your home crowd is such a joy,” he said.
The World Buskers Festival officially begins in the city tomorrow, with everything from acrobatics and circus to comedy and cabaret.
The 10-day festival has been running since 1994.
