A reviewer wrote about the Danish edition: “A hit-man dressed as a clown? Seen it before!”
Now, where have we seen that before?
I don’t really know. My idea came from a role-playing game scenario.
The plot: 6 bad-ass criminals hired to do a job for an unknown party. A hit in a mall restaurant and the retrieval of a mysterious case. Yes, that sounds familiar too. I stole the plot (from myself!) for “The Devil’s Concubine”.
In the scenario, none of the hired guns knew each other. They were all given codenames; Bingo, Krusty, Bozo… I know, that sounds familiar too. I was immensely influenced by a little movie called “Reservoir Dogs“. You may have seen it. If not, what are you doing reading this? Go find a movie store RIGHT NOW!
So, why clowns? Two reasons; First off, I wanted the players to show whether they had their disguises on or not, in-game. So I bought a truckload of ping-pong balls, painted them red and cut a slit in all all of them. Just big enough that it would fit on your nose, in a not very comfortable way. I had dozens of red noses drying on every surface in my apartment, hanging like Christmas decorations ot strings betwwen the furniture. Guests were amused and/or feared for my mental state.
The other reason, was of course the code names. Q: “Why do I have to be Bozo?” A: “Because you’re a clown!” Again, a reference to “Reservoir Dogs”.
But I actually think the main reason was the song featured on the movie soundtrack:
“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you…”