Jango Edwards

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Jango Edwards

Jango Edwards (born Stanley Ted Edwards, April 15, 1950, Detroit, Michigan) is an American clown and entertainer who has spent most of his career in Europe, primarily in France, Spain, the Netherlands, and England. His performances are mostly one-man shows in the European cabaret tradition, in which he combines traditional clowning with countercultural and political references. A charismatic performer, Edwards achieves a strong rapport with his audiences, and has built up a cult following over three decades of touring Europe with his shows.

Edwards grew up in Detroit, where his family owned a successful landscaping business. During the late 1960s, he became immersed in radical politics, philosophy, religion, and the esoteric sciences. After three trips to Europe, he decided to give up his possessions in the U.S. and to travel to Europe to study the art of comedy and the clown. He became a busker in London and formed traveling comedy groups there.

Beginning in 1975, he became known as one of the primary organizers and performers at the “International Festival of Fools”, an occasional city-wide festival of alternative comedy and clown acts in Amsterdam. Edwards gained a fan base in the Netherlands and continues to attract enthusiastic audiences to his performances there. From the 1980s, Edwards spent much of his time in France, where his style of performance was well-received. For a time he gave regular performances at a small theatre in the Pigalle district of Paris. More recently, he has been based in Barcelona and in Cannes, where he collaborates with Peter Ercolano on a clown workshop.

His name is sometimes incorrectly written as Django Edwards.

In 2004, he released a DVD compilation of live performances: Jango Edwards: The Best of Jango