Students have been clowning around for generations but rarely have they been given a university qualification for doing so.

Now the French Education Ministry is to award it official recognition by authorising the launch of a degree in how to be a clown.

The pioneering one-year, postgraduate course is being laid on by Lyons II University in central France and is expected to begin this autumn.

“There is a huge demand from people wanting to become clowns in France and we thought it was time to offer technical training and a diploma in this area,” said Marie-Thérãse Maurer, the vice-chancellor of the university.

Students will follow a syllabus that included anthropology, sociology and economics. “It is important for them to have a good knowledge of the world of entertainment in case they go on to manage a troupe,” said Mrs Maurer.

After the lecture theatres of Lyons II University, students will move to the House of Circus and Clown Arts, at Bourg-Saint-Andéol, also in central France, for practical education.

Among the subjects on offer are corporal presence, voice games and body and rhythm.

The vocational degree will end with an apprenticeship, mainly in hospitals, children’s centres and old people’s homes.

“These are the places where the demand for clowns is greatest now,” said Mrs Maurer. “The phenomenon is growing following the arrival of theories about laughter therapy, and the idea that old people in homes and hospital patients need to be entertained. With people living longer, we are going to need more and more clowns.”

To avoid saturating the market, officials have restricted the number places on the Art of the Clown course to about 15. Candidates with an undergraduate degree in theatre studies or a related subject are more likely to be chosen but all will undergo a one-month test to demonstrate their aptitude.

Claire Paysson, coordinator of the House of Circus and Clown Arts, said: “There is a clown in all of us and we have to find it. Perhaps you’re a clown and you don’t know it.”

We’re born, not made

The world is made up of two sorts of people: those who are clowns and those who are their audience. Great clowns cannot be taught. The idea that you can get a degree in clowning is frightening. I've been a clown for 40 years, I run a circus school and we train everyone but clowns.

Of all the circus disciplines clowning is the hardest to learn. A great clown must stand mentally and physically naked before an audience. You need to be willing to lose all your dignity.

I learnt through many years of training in mime, clowning and acrobatics. We train clowns in the harsh environment of the circus ring. The X Factor was not invented for TV, it was invented by clowns 200 years ago. If people laugh at what you're doing, you're good. If not, you're out.

Zippo the Clown

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