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Healthcare Clowning Hub 

Welcome to the Healthcare Clowning Hub!

Below you can find masterclasses, panels, conversations, and articles relating to healthcare clowning.

Healthcare clowning plays a vital role in hospitals, care homes, and community settings, offering presence, play, and deep human connection in environments that can often feel clinical, stressful, or isolating. This hub brings together resources from practitioners, researchers, and performers from around the world to share knowledge, practice, and lived experience from the field.

Here you’ll find recordings, reflections, and learning resources that explore techniques, ethics, and the impact of healthcare clowning, alongside real stories from practice, offering both inspiration and practical insight for anyone interested in this evolving field of care and performance.

Masterclasses

Below are four incredible masterclasses from leaders in Healthcare Clowning!

Olivier Hugues-Terreault

Olivier Hugues-Terreault is a healthcare clown, performer, and facilitator best known for co-founding Dr. Clown in Montreal, and for helping pioneer healthcare clowning in Canada through improvisation, empathy, and compassionate play in hospitals and care settings.

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Patrick van den Boom

 Patrick van den Boom is an internationally recognized healthcare clown, performer, and trainer known for his work bringing improvisation, presence, and compassionate play into healthcare environments.

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Raquel Gendry

 

Raquel Gendry is a healthcare clown, performer, and educator best known for founding Narices Rojas Ecuador and training hundreds of medical clowns who have impacted hospitals and communities across Latin America. She has also collaborated on hospital clown research with the University of Southern California and currently works as a hospital clown in France while directing Les Grands Nez Rouges.

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Dick Monday & Tiffany Riley

Tiffany Riley and Dick Monday, known internationally as Slappy & Monday, are a comedy and healthcare clown duo who use physical comedy, music, and improvisation to entertain and educate worldwide. They are co-founders of The Laughter League, bringing therapeutic clowning into hospitals and camps, while also training performers and helping establish clowning as a tool for connection, wellbeing, and care.

Watch Class

Clownversations

Below are some amazing Clownversations with leaders in Healthcare Clowning! 

Articles

Below are some research articles about healthcare clowning. 

This research summary examines the integration of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit (CCU) into pediatric hospital care, drawing comparisons between clown doctors and traditional shamanic healers.

 This study evaluated the efficacy of Theodora Trust clown doctors in a southern English children's hospital, surveying children, parents, and healthcare staff. While historical literature on clowning is vast, empirical data regarding its use in children's healthcare remains limited.

This meta-analysis examines the role of hospital clowns in the care of ailing children, drawing on a 7-year research project conducted in Sweden. The study utilized qualitative interviews with 51 individuals, including clowns, medical staff, children, and parents, to gain a deeper psychological understanding of these encounters.

This summary reviews empirical research concerning the effects of humor and laughter on physical health, as discussed by Rod A. Martin.Overview of Research Findings

Elder clowning is a psychosocial intervention in long-term care that uses empathic, adaptive clowning to build connection with people living with dementia, supporting wellbeing across cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioural domains through meaningful interpersonal engagement.

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