No joke: Interactive one-woman clown show comes to Vashon

Most people associate clowns with colorful hair, lots of over-the-top makeup, and a big red nose.

But clowning as a theatrical art form is far more complex than that, says performer, acrobat and dancer Molly Shannon, and it has a long historical tradition.

“Clowning has so many layers, and so many influences,” she said, “everything from the commedia dell’arte that emerged in 16th century Italy to Koshare, the sacred shaman clowns of Southwest Native Americans.”

Shannon has recently returned for a month to Vashon (where she lived for seven years), and on April 19, she’ll perform her acclaimed new one-woman clown show, “Oh Johnny,” at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 19, at Open Space for Arts & Community.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Shannon attended an arts high school and “essentially majored in theater there,” she said. “I was always drawn to physical theater.”

After graduation, she attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she “did random stuff for two years while trying to find my focus.” In 2005, she decided to go to clown school at the San Francisco Clown Conservatory, and she never went back to university.

There, she met Luz Gaxiola, and the two immediately began a friendship and artistic partnership. That led to the formation of a quartet called Circus Finelli (which became Duo Finelli when she and Gaxiola lived on Vashon). The troupe garnered a reputation for their theatrical creativity, performing a circus variety show that they later took abroad to Mexico and Europe. Shannon has worked as a clown in hospitals with the Medical Clown Project, and has toured internationally with Clowns Without Borders.

Shannon also has a long career as a professional samba dancer with the Bay Area’s premier Brazilian dance group, Aquarela. “I’m still involved in samba, but rather more than I want to be,” she says, smiling. “I just don’t have enough time these days to practice and maintain that high standard.”

Her new interactive show is framed in film-noir style, and features “Gildana Desdemona”, a character inspired by Shannon’s love of the 1946 movie,” Gilda,” starring Rita Hayworth. With occasional help from her deceased scene partner, Gildana “communes with the spirit realm, meets old flames, encounters new ones, foretells the future, and dwells in the past.”

With regard to Gildana being a comedy fortune teller, Shannon is quick to note with a laugh that she claims no talent for actual fortune telling. “It’s funny when I do that,” she says. “People really want to believe what you tell them.”

There is some ad lib in the show, and also a little magic. “Clowning can be very surreal and poetic,” she notes, “and magic lends itself well to that.”

“Oh Johnny” premiered at the Church of Clown in San Francisco, and in August she’ll take it to the San Francisco Fringe Festival. Shannon, who speaks fluent Spanish, hopes to perform the show in Mexico at some point, but notes that the cultural differences between the two countries make a direct translation of the content challenging.

“Clown shows are always in development,” she says. “You learn what works and what doesn’t. They evolve, and incorporate influences from each audience. … So the next time I do the show, it’ll include a little bit of Vashon.”

More details and tickets for the performance of “Oh Johnny,” at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 19, at Open Space, are available at openspacevashon.com.

Phil Clapham is a writer and retired whale biologist who lives on Maury Island.