David Arquette Opens Up About His Obsession with Bozo the Clown, Shares How the Character Has Changed His Life

While the majority of people agree that clowns are creepy (here’s looking at you, Pennywise!), actor David Arquette is a huge fan — especially of Bozo, the famous clown who was on TV between 1961 and 2001.

On the podcast David Greene Is Obsessed, the NPR journalist interviews celebrities and ordinary people about their little-known obsessions (like the marketing exec who has 13,000 Barbie dolls). On the latest episode, the Scream star, 54, got candid about how Bozo shaped his life, and how he’s now bringing him back to the small screen.

“Bozo is that childlike spirit in your heart,” Arquette told Greene of why he loved the clown so much. “You know, that sparkle in your eyes when you’re a kid. The laughing that you do with your friends…that’s who Bozo is.”

Before The Bozo Show ran on WGN from 1960-2001, Arquette says the clown was actually designed to help children learn to love reading.

“Bozo was created by Alan Livingston who worked at Capitol Records, and at first [he was part of] a read-along record that would teach kids to read and it had Bozo the Clown and all his friends,” Arquette explained. “Every time they blew the whistle, you’d turn the page, and then they tried to do a couple pilots to promote it [which led to the shows.]”

Arquette says that his initial love of clowns stemmed from his dad, actor Lewis Arquette, who played J.D. Pickett on the series The Waltons.

“My dad would dress up as a clown named Butter the Clown, and he would appear at my birthday parties,” Arquette recalled, adding that his dad would then return to the party in his civilian clothes and a young David would excitedly tell him he’d “just missed Butter the Clown!”

David later found himself studying the art of clowning himself.

“I studied with a guy named Misha Usov on how to perform as a clown,” said Arquette on the podcast. “It’s a really interesting art form… There’s a lot of surprise involved. There’s a lot of, you know, you’re amazed at the world. You hold an apple in your hand and you just look at it, like what went into creating this apple? It’s as if you’ve never seen an apple before.”

He argued that clowns deserve to be considered funny again.

“Of course it’s, ‘Oh, scary clowns!’ It’s actually part of society, but we’re just trying to shine a light on the happy clouds so that they still exist… in general, a clown creates hopefully positive memories. That’s really a clown’s job, to make people laugh.”

Arquette even credits his love of playing a clown with helping modify some of his previous behaviors and addictions.

“It’s like being super wasted, but you’re totally straight,” he said of playing Bozo himself.

“You can just be as silly as you want. You do the kind of things that you typically would, like you’d never jump up on a table and be like ‘Argh!!,’ if you weren’t wasted or a clown. So you can do those kind of things… silly… carefree… let the steam out without the repercussions of, ‘Why did I say that?’ Or, you know, ‘I don’t feel good in the morning,’ kind of thing.”

Arquette is now in the process of bringing Bozo back to TV, but he’s says it’s been slow going. The actor purchased the rights for the character in 2021.

“It’s been 15 years,” he said of his journey to franchise the clown. “He’s now on the air again in Brazil, and we’re working on bringing him back here. I perform as Bozo.”

He added, “When I play Bozo, I feel happy. I feel free. I feel light, you know. It really helps you, when you really are just spreading happiness and joy and making people laugh.”