The Role of the Festival Fool
The value and work of a social acupuncturist.
Like the human body, a community or festival needs a healthy balance to function well. Especially small spiritual or human development festivals and even communities do well to have a fool present. Fools can bring this balance. When things get too serious, they make fun of the seriousness. When certain things get taken too lightly, they’ll drive home the point. This can be an official fool, a lighthearted empath, or a socially fun outspoken figure who naturally fulfills this role. Call it playful love in action.
In his outstanding ‘In Praise of Folly’ Erasmus points out an important side note. There is the idiot, stupid fool, or plain dumbass making silly or terrible mistakes. People we laugh about or get angry at. They are examples of how not to do things. And there is the conscious fool. They should make us feel lighter and become a little wiser. They too show how not to do things, but more as a conscious mirror. This article is all written about the role of the conscious fool in society. At best this is the sacred or holy fool.
I have played the role of ‘fool’ or free spirit for over 20 years at various festivals, events and taught workshops in it. What may seem lighthearted fun on the outside can be hard-focussed work on the inside. It is playing with a mission. Before I explain how this role can be applied at a festival or in a community, let’s look at the essence of the role, and the qualities needed.
The Roles of the Fool in a Society
We see this role popping up everywhere. They are the political stand-up comedians, cartoonists, and satires on tv in our society. It is the class clown at school. It is the court jester. It is the Heyoka among the Lakota Sioux. This last fool counts as a sacred role among this Native American tribe. And while these conscious fools are great fun and make everyone happier they function on more levels than this one.
Heyokas play different roles. They may expose a too big ego in certain Chiefs. And like being drawn by a cartoonist, being targetted by a Heyoka is also an honor. Heyokas can literally piss on the sacred fire during a sacred ceremony, to show it’s also just a fire. One could say they keep people real and prevent fanaticism and religious delusions. Heyokas can expose rigidness in society, by grotesque play-acting eccentric behavior opposite of everyone else’s behavior. They can live backward in time or treat summer as winter and the other way around. This can create space for new ideas. It shows we can break social codes and live. Only custom and social anxiety keep us imprisoned. Yet this same act reveals the suffering one creates by trying to go against natural processes, like by wearing a winter coat in a heatwave.
The Fool Operates Free from the System.
For a festival, I organized a Counter of Life Questions. People could ask their life questions to helpers behind the counter, children about 10–12 years old. It helped reveal how much children actually see, how many adults think children are empty vessels to be filled with knowledge, and how young people get empowered when they get really listened to and feel they’re adding meaning. We think strength is being more powerful than another. Perhaps real strength is bowing to listen to someone who is weaker than you.
Fools reflect and unveil undercurrents in events and people. They may show over-the-top reflections, which paradoxically have to be free of any personal judgment.
Fools operate outside the system or political hierarchy. They may comment in unique ways but should offer no guidance in how to interpret the message. I found this can create a weird kind of suffering. Either people don’t get or ignore the point, or they don’t take you seriously, as the message was gift-wrapped in humor. This the fool has to accept. As soon as a fool also offers an interpretation, or suggests actions, he becomes a political player. A political player who pretends to be outside the system is a cheat and feels twisted.
It is not for nothing that when you Google search images of the fool, the jester, clown, trickster a lot of scary creeps pop up too. The fool can say everything, touch on everything, yet is seemingly untouchable him or herself. The power of not being part of the system is both nothing and huge at the same time. Batman’s Joker, being totally unreliable and free without morals gives him huge warped power. Thus someone being the conscious fool for a community must have very high integrity, let go of desired outcomes, nor judge others.
Other Necessary Qualities.
Equally often on Google, you’ll find a direct connection between Heyokas and empathy. Fools must be sensitive to people and undercurrents in the community as a whole. There’s the quality of observation and also intuitive reading of people’s energy. The fool must be able to tune in to the experience others are having. Otherwise, his interventions will make no sense.
At the same time, fools must have the courage to be considered crazy. They must dare to say and act out the crazy, the very personal and address the hidden no one else dares to. And once again all without judgment. If one speaks the truth as everyone feels it, it is recognised. If one judges another it will be perceived as an attack and suddenly you’re part of politics. Hence the emphasis on freedom from judgment, outcomes, and politics.
All this is preferably delivered with a smile, with a kind lighthearted mindset. However sharp and precise a fool delivers his intervention, a bite must feel like tough love. Indeed, a sacred or holy fool acts from love, even when he strikes hard. A fool must both have the pure quality of a child, being able to wonder about little things and the wisdom to see and reveal hidden essences.
Possible Fool Interventions at a Festival
CONFRONTING. Once at a ‘spiritual’ festival, the clean-up was a mess. Everyone had to clean up after themselves to help the organization, yet too few actually did. So I climbed on a table, called everyone together, and asked: “Who loves the festival?” The audience shouts a enthusiast hooray. I asked: “Who loves those next to you as their brothers and sisters?” The audience shouts a enthusiast hooray. I asked: “Will you clean up for them or after them when they forget?” The audience mumbles something. I comment loudly: “Where’s the enthusiast hooray gone suddenly? As long as we have that gap between belief and concrete action, all your imagined spiritual growth is bullshit.”
PERFORMER. Fools can lighten up waiting times, rituals, and gatherings. They can play silly with kids so they have fun, rather than become a nuisance. Fools can even make family theatre with satire about the people at the festival. Fools can sit in at meetings and keep them focussed, deflate ego’s or address points no one else dares say aloud. They can be the official festival announcer and bring practical messages in a fun way.
FILL GAPS. Since fools have no official task, fools are always ready for everything. They can step in all spaces and intervene, comment, act, and play with all situations. In short, they are social acupuncturists that treat the whole community with their nudges, play, jolly, and interventions. Follow the link for examples of how I played out this role at various festivals.
SPACE HOLDER. Fools also help to hold the space. As long as they act playfully, there are no real problems. As long as they keep it light, people’s worries are only their own. So empathic as they are, they should avoid being sucked into personal drama people project on the outside world. Yet, be warned, their playful light tone must be real. When real accidents (threaten to) happen they need to seriously address the issue and support necessary action.
Secret Levels of Fooling
MYSTERY. We once at a festival created a Red Man, a big doll, we placed up high in a tree. Many people wondered, some thought it scary. The next day, he appeared high up on a tent. This was not done by us. A small group of participants had claimed ownership and kept replacing the Red Man in secret on a daily, read nightly, basis. It hugely added to their fun of the festival. Many wondered or even discussed where he would pop up next and who might be behind it. Wonderful!
LISTENER & COACH. Fooling also has levels of intervening that are less visible. Foremost is listening to people. The medieval jester was the confidante of the king, the community fool is more like a priest, listening to everyone’s confessions, complaints, and wishes. Some people complain to let off steam, others may point to something significant a fool may later use in an intervention. Sometimes the best reaction is to stimulate people to act out their own suggestions, thus empowering them to take responsibility.
CO-HOST. I also played the confidante of organizers, sitting in at meetings, making suggestions on non-practical levels. Here I might, clearly out of role, suggest bigger interventions, like an extra family activity, or ask all workshop teachers to address a certain issue to improve the festival. All so participants would experience the festival more as a whole. Behind the scene’s fooling can be plain pragmatic helping, asking questions, sharing observations, or nudging with suggestions. Yet, once again, feel no grudge nor disappointment when no one wants to implement your ideas. Let it go.
MEDIATOR. I also have mediated in conflicts behind the scenes. As ‘free role’ not being part of the ‘normal’ hierarchy (I find hierarchy very strange), I kind of am not part of any sides. Therefore I can listen en help organisers and others to work stuff out, when they need a facilitator. But being non-judgemental, have no interests in the outcome, I could be truly neutral non political in my suggestions.
SACRED FOOL. Finally, the position of fools can become sacred or holy. This is when fools become sages at the same time. Thus as the fool, they tap into the deeper madness of it all, embracing the ‘Big Joke’. And as the sage to tap into the deeper connectedness that embraces everything. They know, but don’t cling to it. They enjoy the ride and don’t need to get anywhere. They give out of love, but not to achieve anything. The whole world has become a wonderful playground.
And then one’s influence isn’t because of actions, achievements, jokes, or interventions. It is because one is experienced as a paradox, as a light in the dark, and as lovable free chaos amidst stifled structures at the same time.
So the lesson is, by being aligned, being in connection we can see what is happening and needed. By being free we can choose the strongest intervention outside cultural boundaries. Empathy helps to see, sense and care. Heyoka ‘power’ is being free to act in an unconventional ‘funny’ way. It means being able to break the pattern everyone else is stuck in.
Know that acting as heyoka or fool can be very painful too. You may have to act against all cultural codes of your society. That hurts. You may lonely because you’re different. That hurts. Embrace it. This text may help understand a bit. Don’t mind that too much. When I work as festival fool I don’t consider all these things. I what I am, nor why. I just feel and act. If I’m right it helps, when wrong I apologise and die from shame, .. once again. Be authentic and true to your intuition and, whether you’re a true heyoka or not matters less. Mind you, in the end what matters you’re true and authentic and the rest will unfold. Happy journeys.
Comment of the Sage: “You better not try to achieve this becoming a light. When you do, ego, vanity, and desire already have a grip on you. So, let it go.”
Comment of the Fool: “Oh, wonderful advice! How to achieve anything without going for it? Let me try that with some beautiful women!”
Comment of the Sage: “You fool! When will you ever learn?”
Comment of the Fool: “Now you’re the fool. You just told me to let it go. So, I’m off, meeting some ladies.”
A great thank you goes to all who gave space and trust to allow some fooling at their festivals. A huge shoutout to all fellow fools and those who kept the tradition alive during the ages and help carry the wisdom in the ‘madness’.
Final Note: Wow you arrived here. Great. This is my dream: That we’d also have fools in Peace Conferences. Somebody who isn’t on any side, but reveals undercurrents when they hinder. Somebody who dares to address ego, angst, personalities power hunger in the way of peace. Somebody who will make everyone aware when personality block steps forward. Somebody who makes everyone laugh and helps them to see the human in the other across the table.
