Billy Corgan’s Weekend Was A Clown Show

Clowns are scary. We know this. In 2024, you are not especially likely to encounter a classic silly goofball clown entertaining children. Instead, there are currently two different evil-clown movies in American multiplexes, and one of them is an unrated smash that pushed the limits of extreme gore. If you go into any Spirit Halloween this year, you will be confronted with so many scary clowns. But Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan is a product of a different time, and he’s still down for the non-scary clown agenda.

Specifically, Billy Corgan is down for Bozo The Clown, the figure who was once was of America’s most popular children’s entertainers. The Bozo character dates back to 1946, and it was licensed to TV stations across America three years later. Specifically, the most popular Bozo was the one that aired on the WGN Superstation in Corgan’s Chicago hometown. Bob Bell started playing the Bozo character in Chicago in 1960, seven years before Corgan’s birth. WGN ran its Bozo Super Sunday Show until 2001. Billy Corgan appeared on the final Bozo episode, covering Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young,” and he posted on Instagram about it a while ago.

On New Year’s Eve last year, Billy Corgan performed at his tea house Madame ZuZu’s with a Bozo-esque figure known as Wizzo The Clown.

This past weekend, Madame ZuZu’s hosted an entire Bozo Weekend. Corgan announced the occasion on Instagram a few weeks ago.

Corgan and his wife Chloe Mendel also appeared on WGN to announce the event.

On Friday, Corgan stopped by the WGN studios with the current Bozo The Clown and with Joey D’Auria, the actor who played Bozo from 1984 to 2001.

The actor David Arquette currently owns the rights to Bozo The Clown, and he was on hand at Billy Corgan’s Madame ZuZu’s weekend. On Friday, Arquette took part in a panel discussion. On Saturday, Arquette appeared as Bozo to give a Bob Ross-style painting class. That was almost certainly Arquette as the current Bozo on WGN, too.

Madame ZuZu’s sold merch, including a Mellon Collie-inspired Bozo shirt.

When we posted about Corgan’s Bozo weekend on Instagram, Corgan himself replied with a clown emoji. While we’re on the subject, here’s Smashing Pumpkins playing “Geek USA” with clowns in 1993.