Jesse Buck now clowns around with Cirque du Soleil.
Devoted fans will soon be able to see one of Centretown’s most successful performers without having to leave the country.
Clown Jesse Buck, now on tour with Cirque du Soleil, will be performing in Montreal the last two weeks of December.
Buck, who lived and clowned around Centretown for 12 years was scouted and hired by Cirque on the merits of his one-man show, Bubkus.
He is now on a two-year contract with Cirque, and has been touring North America with the show Alegria for the past several months.
Buck, routinely performs in front of thousands of people per night, but was not always so keen to be in the spotlight. In fact, his first foray into the world of theatre was forced upon him at age 12 as a punishment.
“I was a bad little kid,” says Buck. “Grounding didn’t work, taking my stuff didn’t work, no TV didn’t work, so my mom said ‘Boy, you’re doing a musical.’”
To inflict further punishment upon the young Buck, his mother also forced him into the arts program at Canterbury High School. By the time he graduated, he had developed a taste for the thespian arts in general, and clowning in particular.
He formed a company called Counternotes Theatre Group with some friends and they started performing clown shows around Ottawa.
Danny Layng, a member of Counternotes, estimates he clowned with Buck in about 10 or 12 shows between 1996 and 2003.
“Jesse was a dynamic performer who could instinctively read what the audience would react well to,” says Layng.
Counternotes split up in 2004 when Buck moved to Paris to study with the world famous theatre and clown expert, Philippe Gaulier.
On his return, he joined another company called Theatrophy, and started performing with the creator of that company, Aron De Casmaker, who was also scouted by Cirque and is Buck’s current clown partner.
“They hired us as a duo because they’d seen us in another show and aesthetically we just fit the bill – Cirque is very aesthetic,” says Buck. “I’m tall, he’s short, those were the rules. Had to be that way.”
Caroline Orrbine was Buck’s manager at the time he was scouted.
“He’s the most talented actor I’ve ever worked with,” says Orrbine. “No matter who else is on stage, all eyes are on Jesse.”
The clown duo performs two acts: one in the first half, and one in the second.
“It’s not based on trick. We’re not coming out there and juggling and beeping our noses,” says Buck. “We’re characters who emote. It’s not all fluffy and happy.”
One of the acts is a parody in which the two clowns attempt to imitate the other circus performers.
Other times they are used as time fillers, running on stage for 45 seconds while the sets are being changed.
Also, in circus tradition, when something unexpected goes wrong during the show, Cirque “sends in the clowns.”
While he very much enjoys his job, Buck does admit that living on the road takes its toll.
He says hotel rooms are not very homey.
“I moved to Ottawa and I stayed in Centretown for 12 years because there’s community,” says Buck. “You lose that sense of having any community around you.”