Long before his Oscar nomination and the glorious chaos of Step Brothers, John C. Reilly says he was part of a clown ministry at his church as a kid.
In a recent interview on The Today Show, Reilly recalled getting involved in the church program early on, explaining that it was designed as a way for kids to serve people in their community.
“As a kid, I was part of this thing called clown ministry in my church,” Reilly said. “It was a way to teach kids to reach out in your community, and, actually, I learned how to be a clown, too.”
Reilly even went on to defend clowning as an art form, noting that the whole thing has taken an unfortunate branding hit in the modern era thanks to scary-clown lore and horror movies.
“These days clowns have become kind of this, like—the scary clown or horror movies or whatever,” he said. “But you know, the truth is, clowns are great improvisers.”
He added that there’s still a real clown scene in Los Angeles, even if it doesn’t always involve the full face paint and circus-energy version most people picture. For Reilly, clowning is less about the costume than the craft.
“In a weird way, clowning is kind of like very physical improvisation,” he said. “And it’s a delightful thing.”
