Zoe thought it might be easy to be a jester, but you needed plenty of skills and lots of energy … and although jesters were also called fools, they needed to be quick thinkers to entertain the royal court all day long.
What do you think? Do you have what it takes to be a jester?
Can you make up a rhyme right now, on the spot?
Can you sing and dance and giggle a lot?
You’ll have to tell jokes, lots of jibes and jests…
At the same time as juggling balls would be best.
Can you spin around fast and fall to the ground,
Then bounce up and down, making animal sounds?
Now cartwheel and leap to incredible heights,
And make us all laugh from morning ’til night.
That’s quite a challange and definitely a lot of hard work! Maybe being a jester wasn’t such an easy job after all.
The uniform is important too. Hundreds of years ago, a jester wore a pair of donkey’s ears and a tail, but luckily for Zoe (and you) that changed to a suit of brightly-coloured cloth, in patchwork bits and pieces, and most importantly a ‘cap and bells’ hat.
From the Powerhouse Museum’s collection:
Clown Banner, 1950-1959
Clowns are our modern-day jesters. This sideshow banner featuring a clown was used at the Royal Easter Show during the 1950s. Take a closer look.