Mime vs. Clown: What's the Difference?
Table of Contents
Main Difference
The main difference between Mime and Clown is that the someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or performance art and Clown is a comic performer.
Mime
A mime or mime artist (from Greek μῖμος, mimos, “imitator, actor”) is a person who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art. Miming involves acting out a story through body motions, without the use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer. Miming is distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a seamless character in a film or sketch.
Jacques Copeau, strongly influenced by Commedia dell’arte and Japanese Noh theatre, used masks in the training of his actors. Étienne Decroux, a pupil of his, was highly influenced by this and started exploring and developing the possibilities of mime and developed corporeal mime into a highly sculptural form, taking it outside the realms of naturalism. Jacques Lecoq contributed significantly to the development of mime and physical theatre with his training methods.
Clown
Clowns are comic performers who employ slapstick or similar types of physical comedy, often in a mime style.
Mime (noun)
A form of acting without words; pantomime
Mime (noun)
A pantomime actor
Mime (noun)
A classical theatrical entertainment in the form of farce
Mime (noun)
A performer of such a farce
Mime (noun)
A person who mimics others in a comical manner
Mime (verb)
To mimic.
Mime (verb)
To act without words.
Mime (verb)
To represent an action or object through gesture, without the use of sound.
Clown (noun)
A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and typically characterised by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig.
Clown (noun)
A person who acts in a silly fashion.
Clown (noun)
A stupid person.
Clown (noun)
A man of coarse nature and manners; an awkward fellow; an illbred person; a boor.
Clown (noun)
One who works upon the soil; a rustic; a churl; a yokel.
Clown (verb)
To act in a silly or playful fashion.
Clown (noun)
a comic entertainer, especially one in a circus, wearing a traditional costume and exaggerated make-up
“a circus clown”
Clown (noun)
a playful, extrovert person
“Martin was always the class clown”
Clown (noun)
a foolish or incompetent person
“we need a serious government, not a bunch of clowns”
Clown (noun)
an unsophisticated country person; a rustic.
Clown (verb)
behave in a comical or playful way
“Harvey clowned around pretending to be a dog”
ncG1vNJzZmilkZ67pbXFn5yrnZ6Ysm%2B6xK1mpqGdmnq3v4yco6ivnmQ%3D