His classmates remember him as 'the class clown'. [=a student who tried to make other students laugh]
a rodeo 'clown' [=a person in a rodeo who dresses like a circus clown]
He was always 'playing the clown'. [=trying to make people laugh]
(..) the day we were packing to go on location. MAN: Off we go. YORKE: Production wasn't concerned about what was actually going on on set... ...apart from the clown. Peter drove up in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that day. I think that really set the tone for that day. JACKSON: I've got the original car. (..)2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
(..) - It's just my feet size. GIRL: Yeah. JACKSON: Let's put Amelia down in the front here too. My main memory of that day is, A, we had to hire a clown to entertain the children. So we were all about the clown in the production office. Hi. Heh, heh. That wasn't me, by the way. I didn't do that smell. (..)2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey