I have a friend that is terrified of clowns. Its pretty funny.
Yeah clowns are hilarious comic performers often make good mimes, if they are good.
I have never really minded them myself. Do you know when the whole clown concept was invented?
Well clowns have been around since we hand kings and monarchy, powerful people like being entertained. But there is such a wide variety of costumes and performance.
Oh cool. Do you know what sort of costumes are most prevalent? 
Modern clowns a strongly associated with the circus clown mainly.
Thats what I assumed. Are there any other fun tidbits about clowns you could tell me?
Well before clowns were for the entertainment of the select few, now a days they are generally designed to entertain large audiences from a distance.