Bonjour dear listeners. For this special season of the Duolingo French

podcast we're celebrating the arts. We're revisiting some of our favorite

episodes featuring singers, dancers, actors, and other performers in the Francophone world.

Today's episode is from February 2020, and it features a type of performance that has deep roots in France, the art of clowning.

Our storyteller today loves to dress up and make people laugh, but for a long time he had to do it undercover.

Listen to his story to find out why and stay tuned until the end for an update.

In 2002, David S was late for a meeting.

He hurried back to the headquarters of a French energy company

where he worked as an engineer.

Before going in, he stepped into the bathroom

to make sure he looked presentable.

In the mirror, he saw he had marks on his face.

He had a mark on my name and on my

jou.

This was the trace of my erosion of clunna.

We've here, also, the trance of the elastic of ne'erouge.

It's difficult in the

the mark in an elastic on the pole.

Earlier that day,

Baveed had turned into his alter ego,

Sputnik the Clown.

He had put on golden shorts, white makeup,

...