CLOWNFEST 2026!
You have pulled Clownfest 2026!
CoHo is thrilled to launch our fifth annual Clown Festival, celebrating physical comedy, movement arts, humor, and fringe performance! Our goal is to embrace the entire clown community and center CoHo as a home to clowns from all walks of life.
Before Philip Cuomo passed, he shared dreams with our team about his vision for the CoHo circus, imagining our little black box theater as a central hub for circus artists across the country to gather, create, and spread joy with their latest creative characters. Today, the idea for the circus has evolved into what has become the CoHo Clown Festival, a four-week celebration of all things funny.
CoHo is the place for clown, for physical comedy with an absurdist spin, for community and connection, for laughing and letting go. When our artists find joy, our community finds joy, and we can’t wait to share four weeks of playful whimsy with you.
The CoHo Clown Festival will take place from September 3 – October 4, 2026 at the CoHo Theater, located at 2257 NW Raleigh Street Performances will run Thursday – Sunday at 7:30 PM. Tickets to all ClownFest performances are Pay-What-You-Can.
2026 Festival Lineup!
Full of whimsy and wonder, we have a wonky, wild, wonderful lineup ahead of us with shows for everyone!
Check out what’s ClownFest 2026 has in store!
Opening Follies: Clown Dance Ritual
Hosted by Rachel Wells
September 3, 2025 @ 7:30 PM
Come one, come all to the CoHo Clown Festival Opening Follies. Join host Rachel Wells who will lead us in Philip Cuomo’s Clown Dance Ritual. Everyone is invited to participate in this joyful, high-intensity, celebratory, guided dance ritual. Bring your dancing shoes and playful spirit, no experience is required. Costume options will be provided.
All movement levels welcome!
Bubblegum
Presented by Daniela Nenova
September 4-5, 2026 @ 7:30 PM
The show begins like any TV show – a jingle, opening credits to signify start of the program. the TV host bursts out of a puppet vagina after we have watched a herd of puppet sperms compete for who gets to “pop the bubblegum”. They are already seen as a full-on clown – Pink traditional Pierrot clown suit, bubbly (get it?) personality, big smile, almost sinister-like in the way they appear with positive “good vibes” only. Seemingly everything is bubblegum pink and perfect, but there is something haunting underneath the surface, harder to ignore as the show progresses. We all must continue chewing the fake heavily perfumed fakeness while smiling, as our host is doing their best to stay true to “the show must go on” while dealing with the main clowning principle: things continue to go wrong and it is progressively getting worse.
Learn More:
IG @schmuppetspuppets
Kraken-Ka, The First Komodo Dragon
Presented by Jusby
September 6, 2026 @ 2 PM
An eruptive, mythic, emotionally raw act blending clown tragedy, volcanic imagery, and a Lovecraftian-meets-folkloric monster tale. Kraken-Ka is both creature and mirror — a symbolic eruption of shame, grief, power, and empathy. Jusby shares an Indonesian Fable updated with horrors of the modern world. Kraken-ka was originally bright red with glittering ornamentation, but he could not follow the Goddess Naga’s single rule: Take from the Earth only what you need.
When Jusby breaks character and shares a true life murder mystery the tone becomes anything but kid’s play. This show has played during the Coho Clown Festival, the Thorpe Community Days Festival, and at the Robinwood Station in his hometown of West Linn.
Out With It
by Claire Saxe
September 10-11, 2026 @7:30 PM
Rough House’s OUT WITH IT, created and performed by Artistic Director Claire Saxe, tells a wild and lyrical tale of holding things back and letting things go. In the languages of movement, clown, and found-object puppetry, OUT WITH IT unpacks a story both intimate an universal. Within a whirlwind 55-minutes a fastidious clown takes on the forces of chaos: they spar, spurn, make a mess, and –somehow or other– come to terms.
In the company’s signature “rough-theater” style, OUT WITH IT is fabricated from found and repurposed materials. A world of objects come to life from a palette of shredded bedsheets, clothes-hanger-wire, and spruced-up cardboard.
Rough House Puppet Arts (Chicago) is on a mission to connect individuals and communities through puppetry-arts, celebrating the weird things that make us unique, and the weirder things that bring us together. Rough House’s work collides puppetry with physical theater, music, visual arts, and an insatiable taste for experimentation.
Learn More:
The Domme
by Nicole Madema
Thursday, Sept 12 @ 7:30 PM
What do you get when you cross a clown, a coach, and a mistress? The Domme! This interactive comedy is a facilitated container of sexy reinforcement. Accountability never felt so good.
Welcome to the dungeon, where you, the audience, have the opportunity to comply with the mistress’ orders. If you consent, the world opens up to you. The madam will guide you as to how to please her. Her kinks are civic engagement, personal accountability, positive self-talk, and really stupid jokes. Have you been good or bad? She may not be Santa, but the mistress will get to the bottom of things. From the top, of course.
Maybe you aren’t sure if this show is for you. It sounds scary. You don’t have a kinky identity or background. You just want to have a fun night watching a dumb clown. That’s fine. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy. The Domme is pleased by your applause and attention.
Audiences are saying, “Oh my god, could you do that to me again?!” and “You had me in stitches!”
Whatever safe word you use, The Domme is an interactive and fun dive into using power for the good of society. Your mistress will demand your honest consent or refusal. Participation is voluntary, but change is inevitable.
Me, Myself and Us
Presented by Stefano iaboni
September 13, 2026 @ 2 PM
Me, Myself and Us is a visual physical comedy show created, directed, and performed by Stefano Iaboni, an international actor, clown, performer, and teacher from Rome. The show asks very important questions, such as: can a kazoo take you on a high-speed adventure, can sausages perform magic, and are martial arts actually real arts? The answer is: come to the show and find out before the sausages unionize.
Appropriate For All Ages!
Learn More:
IG @stefano_bolony_
Dean Evans: My Finest Work
by Dean Evans
September 17th-18th, 2026 @ 7:30 PM
Acclaimed movement artist Dean Evans attempts to perform their life’s work ranging from botched mo-cap choreography to lyrical moving poetry. Evans’ mellifluous voice guides us through their own scraps from the cutting room floor assembled to create a theatrical portrait of an artist unraveling. Dean Evans: My Finest Work is an out-of-control clown show on fire performed by a master of precision.
A.C.W. All Clown Wrestling
Presented by Clownbloc
September 19, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Regina, CEO of Imperialism, challenges The Clowns to a pro wrestling match. She reveals she actually wants to buy Clownbloc, and after being denied, gambles the rights to Clownbloc on the outcome of the match. Imperialism’s wrestlers cheat, and Clownbloc loses the fight, becoming Clowns, Inc. An intermission follows, and after the audience returns, we play a training montage where The Clowns get stronger, skill up, and build alliances with other orgs. Now The Clowns challenge Imperialism to a rematch for the rights to Clownbloc, and with the power of the people, are able to defeat Imperialism, win back Clownbloc, and save the day.
Learn More:
IG @clownblocpdxx
Clown Variety Show for Kids
Presented by Abby Christopher
September 20th at 2pm
This is a zany, fun-loving, family-friendly, Looney Tunes-inspired variety show featuring: Kristen Schier, Merrie Hildebrand, Jenny Rayfeld, Erin Cunningham and Abby Christopher
Appropriate for All Ages
Mae West: The Comeback Tour
Presented by Fail Happy Productions
September 24-25, 2026 @ 7:30 PM
It’s the opening night of the Comeback Tour, 2026. Sex symbol, gay icon & O.G. Prophet of Camp is BACK (1980 death rumors are LIES.) Meet Mae West: 134, hotter than ever & now accepting Venmo.
In a time where people’s rights are moving backwards, this show celebrates the original queen of the comeback — who, despite censorship (Hollywood’s Hays Code was literally invented for her), blacklists & ageism, championed visibility for women, gay men, and most of all, herself.
Expect all the hits, the one-liners, the hip shimmies, the bio-queen realness and of course, the glorious unhinged chaos.
“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” — Mae West
Strap in — let’s ride.
Big Baby
by Emily Newton
September 26 @7:30pm & 27th @ 2PM
Emily June Newton takes on her most ambitious role yet: a baby. Arriving on stage in a wicker basket, bibbed and toothy and dressed for the occasion, Big Baby must figure out how to communicate with the world entirely without words. Expect audience inclusion, physical comedy, and an invitation — gently, playfully, irresistibly — into the role of caregiver. But babies don’t stay babies. Over the course of the show, Big Baby grows up — and growing up is harder than it looks. The grown-up shoes are too big, the rules make no sense, and somewhere along the way the world loses its magic. The wide-eyed wonder of infancy gives way to the weight of becoming: who am I? Who will I become? What happens when the things that once delighted us start to feel impossibly far away? Drawn from the lineage of Pierrot — that ancient, lovesick fool in white, always longing, always just out of reach of what he needs — Big Baby doesn’t just invoke the archetype. Somewhere along the way, the baby becomes the fool. Moving through joy and loss with an open heart and a body that says everything words cannot. Stumbling, aching, getting older, getting sick. And eventually, leaving. But before the end, something returns. A glimpse of the beginning. The basket. The wonder. The audience, still here.
Juicebox
by Anne Zander
October 1-2, 2026 @ 7:30 PM
BOY BANDS! CRUSHES! TANTRUMS! TRIUMPHS!
Jessica is an adolescent who just wants to go to the movies with her crush, but when circumstances beyond her control [and puberty] intervene, her life is forever changed.
Cluelessly insatiable and hilariously vulnerable, Jessica (Anne Zander) walks the teetering edge between innocence and desire and discovers what happens when she’s left to her own devices in her own bedroom for one hour. With what audiences have called “some of the best clowning I’ve ever seen,” music that will transport you right back to the late 90s, and very bad seduction, JUICEBOX is as outrageously and emotionally outsized as every teenager has ever felt.
Called “painfully funny,” “completely ridiculous” and “completely vulnerable” by BroadwayWorld, JUICEBOX was Official Selection 2020 at Chicago Sketchfest, Dallas Comedy Festival and HBO’s Women in Comedy Festival in Boston. After two years touring her award-winning solo show, MOTHER, Anne Zander returns to CoHo Clown Fest with her Portland-smash-hit-pubescent-clown-show, JUICEBOX.
TUBE TIED:
A Mind-Numbing Absolutely Horseshit “Show” About TUBES and SECRETS
By Amica Hunter
October 3 @7:30 pm
October 4 @ 2pm & 7:30pm
“TUBE be, or not TUBE be?” IS that the question? Not really. Maybe? It doesn’t really matter now, it’s too late.
Behold! Amica approaches with a fistful of TUBES and a mouthful of WORDS, to give you an earful of SECRETS in this stand-up-lay-down squirm-around comedy set. It’s about secrets, it’s about cylindrical structures, and it TOTALLY MAKES SENSE! 20+ time award winner, and self-professed “failed abortion,” Amica Hunter, has “lost the plot” and seems to “unravelling” in this ridiculous anti-theatre “show” that is literally about literal tubes in the most literal way (…it also has secrets in it, but why? What even is a secret, when you really think about it? It’s okay, you don’t HAVE to think about it too much YET).
Old anonymous secrets will be shared! Fresh annonymous secrets will be harvested! TUBES will be examined! Revered! We will build a SECRET SOCIETY! Don’t be scared! Amica is a consumate professional! It’s not a big deal guys, c’mon. Just come with an open heart, an open mind, possibly open eyes and ears and some WATER if you want, and of course, all of your glorious, wet, glistening meaty tubes. IT WILL BE FINE. A wise anonymous meme account once said: “Shirts are crazy because your body goes into one hole, and comes out of three.” Now if that doesn’t alight a curious burning fire inside of you, well, idk man, maybe it’s time to try a new antidepressant medication? Or at least increase your dose. TUBE TIED! That’s the name of the show. It’s only like, an hour long. You can totally handle it!
The CoHo Clown Festival will take place from September 3 – October 4, 2026 at the CoHo Theater, located at 2257 NW Raleigh Performances will run Thursday – Sunday at 7:30 PM. Tickets to all ClownFest performances are Pay-What-You-Can.