Philippe Gaulier may be the world’s most famous clown. He’s certainly the founder of the world’s most famous clown school. Since 1980, École Philippe Gaulier in Étampes, France, has taught hundreds of students who come from around the world to learn le jeu (the game); a great actor, Gaulier has written, is “one who never lets the game die.” 

In January 2014, Gaulier was hospitalized for three months following a stroke and has since stopped teaching on the advice of his doctor. His wife, Michiko Miyazaki Gaulier, a former student, is now running the school in his stead. On the school’s website, he reassures his well-wishers: “The funeral is still a long way off.” 

Elle Hunt: Can anyone be a clown, or do you have to have particular skills or attributes?

Philippe Gaulier: No. Not everyone can be a clown. You need to have a sense of humor. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you will never be a clown. 

EH: Why does the world need clowns? 

PG: I don’t know what the world needs to stay in good health. But for sure, if people laugh a lot, their health is better. I was sick, recently. A guy with a good sense of humor would ring me sometimes, and I’d laugh a lot. After three weeks I was not sick. 

EH: What do people tend to get wrong about clowning?

PG: A clown doesn’t make you laugh because he kicks his friend up the arse. He doesn’t make people laugh because it is funny. He makes people laugh because he thinks it is funny.

EH: You have worked with many famous English and American actors and comedians, including Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter. Who stands out in your memory, and why?

PG: Sacha Baron Cohen. We are friends. He was a normal student, but he was ready to take what I said, to use it—he was commercial. I like people who say, “I am going to steal your idea, to do something with it after.” 

EH: What can you do to remain childlike in adulthood?

PG: I don’t know. Some people are children all their life, and some people, they want to be adults really quickly. They are quite boring. A child who is four or five years old, and who doesn’t know how to read or walk so well—he is the image of a beautiful clown. That is what we are looking for in a student.

EH: How do you identify that?

PG: I have three pairs of glasses.