Clown a performer, usually in a circus, who plays the fool, performs practical jokes, and does tricks to make people laugh. Other names for clowns are buffoon, jester, fool, conjurer, mirthmaker, tumbler, gleeman, mime, actor, harlequin, merry counselor, comic, and puppeteer. Even though there are many types of clowns, each clown develops a face, meaning a personality. A clown’s face, once created, becomes the clown’s unique personal property. The oldest type of clown is the whiteface, which dates back to the 18th century. The white color of the face was first done with flour. White lead replaced flour, but in the 1880s,