Review: London Clown Festival 2026 Opening Ceremony, Jackson’s Lane

Weird, wacky and wonderful; this year’s opening ceremony to the London Clown Festival marks ten years since its inception and demonstrates clearly why it’s a highlight of the capital’s comedy scene. With varied performances and delightfully chaotic energy, this is an evening that reliably brings the house down every year and promises great things for the festival’s upcoming performances.

MC Lara Ricote keeps things humming along with delightful energy and has the audience warm and ready for the first act, “magician” Ella The Great. The quotation marks here are due to the complete lack of any kind of magic in Ella’s performance, which is precisely where the comedy comes from, as the constant build up and deflation of the supposed tricks becomes the routine’s charm; fun, if perhaps a little underwhelming and in need of a punchline to end things on.

The same could never be said for Pitor Sikora who follows with a masterclass in mime, character work and audience interaction, all wonderfully dysfunctional. It’s Sikora’s self-seriousness that makes so much of his performance hilarious, and his silent manipulation of the audience is a joy to both watch and be a part of. If the full show is anything like this, it’s a must see for sure.

Lawrence Dodd sneaks in at this point, for what was either a cameo or a public breakdown; either way it was short, sharp and barely comprehensible, all with hints of brilliance.

Finally, the Sonic Joy Orchestra (Tom Penn and Dan Lees) finish off the first half of the ceremony with what may have been musical improv or simply one of the madder sets they could possibly imagine. Ultimately the duo live up to their name, and an audience member could be heard complaining that their face hurt from laughing too much. Good times guaranteed with these guys.

Following the break, Maya Ricote takes to the stage in the most impressive costume of the night, to portray a cartoonish caricature of a “Latina baddie”, in a performance that features the most impressive dramatic talents of the evening. You’ll know it when you see it, and no other performer can cry on cue quite like Maya.

Julia Masli’s penultimate act epitomises both what’s incredible about clowning, how it rides the knife’s edge of almost going off the rails, and its potential pitfalls, such as actually going off the rails in an aborted crowd dive. Masli’s work borders closer to performance art than the others, and is all the more enjoyable and confusing as a result.

Lastly, Sarah Woolfenden ends the evening with a cobbled together ritual to mark the festival’s beginning; a ritual that might have come off flawlessly if her pants didn’t keep falling down. Planned or unplanned it’s hard to tell, but there’s no better note for an evening of clownery to end on.

The London Clown Festival runs until 13 June 2026, at several London venues.