Melissa Aston is a Vancouver-based clown, physical performer, and theatre artist whose work spans festival performance, street theatre, circus, and contemporary clown practice across Canada and the United States.

With more than two decades of experience in live performance, Melissa creates work that blends physical comedy, visual storytelling, improvisation, and relational performance. Her practice moves fluidly between stage productions, public space, and intimate audience interaction, grounded in a theatrical approach that values presence, play, and emotional responsiveness.

​

Melissa toured internationally as the sole female clown with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, travelling by train and performing in arenas throughout the United States. Since then, her performance career has evolved across a wide range of artistic and community contexts, including festivals, ensemble creation, applied clown practice, and solo performance work.

​

She trained at the Clown Conservatory in San Francisco under Jeff Raz, with further study in clown, character, and mask work through John Turner (Mump & Smoot), Ian Wallace, Mooky Cornish, and Deanna Fleysher. These influences continue to inform a performance style that combines theatrical precision with spontaneity, vulnerability, and audience connection.

​

Alongside her independent artistic practice, Melissa has spent many years working within long-standing healthcare and community-based clown programs in British Columbia. This work has deeply shaped her understanding of responsiveness, nonverbal communication, and the subtle dynamics of human interaction.

Melissa is also the creator of Bucket Sessions, an exploratory creative process rooted in voice, movement, imagination, and play. Developed through years of artistic inquiry, the process investigates the relationship between emotional expression, embodiment, and performance creation.

​

Her current work includes solo clown theatre, roving festival performance, and the ongoing development of original theatrical projects that explore humour, humanity, and transformation through the language of clown.