The earliest of the Fool Companies, called Les Enfants sans Souce,
originated toward the end of the fourteenth century...founded on
the splendid principle that the world was mad and all men fools...all members
wore the established fool's costume in public.
- Hiler Harzburg, Slapstick and Dumbbell

The Million Dollar Secret
(free to our readers)

Quietly, harmlessly
in your pocket,
sits a cheap, rubber clown nose...

Quickly,
put it on...

VOILA! You are transformed!

You are one of us!

You have Instant Permission

to say ANYTHING,

imitate ANYONE

make ANY RIDICULOUS GESTURE!


You wear the RED NOSE -

You are no longer INSANE!


Like the wire-walker, the clown treads a narrow path; he walks the knife-edge
which divides humour and pathos. He holds the balance between action and repose,
between the clearest madness and the cloudiest sanity.
- Hippisley Cox, A Seat at the Circus

Pop your nose on at the cafeteria, on the bus,
in the boardroom... and begin the holy task
of converting the world to a new confusion


You will SOON REALIZE:
WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

...a witless oaf who was, in a sense, miraculous -
for the derangement of his mind was a visitation from God...
his antics had a lunatic logic that could not be shared
by an (allegedly) more rational people,
who were awestruck by the thought that perhaps
this pitiful clod was the only one in step with life.
- Alan Wykes, Circus!

DIVE IN!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

ABSURDITY IS HABIT-FORMING
(and the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true)

Become a Magician of Mockery
a Shaman of Silliness
a Reverend of the Ridiculous!

The ultimate quest: the awakening of foolishness
in every human being on this planet
(don't worry, most of you are already there)

LITTLE risks lead to BIG risks
Which lead to little Faux Pas
which lead to acts of Public Humiliation and Embarrassment
which enters you into the Idealized
Permanent, Irreversible State of Foolishness

at this point, you can either
skip town, hide in a cave,
and retire in shame from the Human Race

OR
ADMIT YOU ARE A FOOL!

The Fool is that part of us which, innocently yet knowingly,
finds itself on the quest for self-knowledge. Through him, we fall into
seemingly foolish experiences we later see were crucial to the pattern
of our lives...from the stroke of the Fool one never recovers.
And who would want to!
- Sallie Nichols, Jung and Tarot