Play, Healing, and Wellness as seen by a Physician Who Clowns - An Interview with Bowen White

Oct 15, 2026

Interview with physician Bowen White (Dr. Jerko) on how clowning, playfulness, and humor intersect with healing and good health. White explains his path from practicing medicine to combining medicine with clowning, speaking, and consulting after experiences that began with a consciousness exploration conference and trips to Russia. He describes the “residual effect” Dr. Jerko leaves in his psyche, shaping daily mindset, relationships, and views of work as play.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Bowen White’s dual career

From medicine to clowning

Dr. Jerko’s impact on Bowen White

Work, play, and everyday mindset

Play, Healing, and Wellness as seen by a Physician Who Clowns An Interview with Bowen White Bowen White is a physician. He founded the Department of Preventive and Stress Medicine at the Baptist Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1983 and later established the center’s Department of Wellness and Health Promotion. White is also a clown who goes by the name of Dr. Jerko. For years he mixed these dual interests, skills, and egos while practicing medicine, and more recently he combines them as a writer, speaker, and consultant to a wide range of institutions and corporations. He is the author of Why Normal Isn’t Healthy: How to Find Heart, Meaning, Passion, and Humor on the Road Most Traveled and has lectured and clowned across the globe, in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, homes for the aged, hospices, schools, refugee camps, prisons, and more. Play and playfulness lie atthe center of how he views the world, and here he discusses how, in his opinion, clowning, play, and playfulness intersect with healing and good health. American Journal of Play: Dr. White, you practiced medicine many years before taking up clowning. How did you, a doctor, get into clowning? What led you to this unusual combination? Bowen White: Another physician who clowns led me to it. In April 1991, Icochaired a conference on the exploration of consciousness sponsored by the Voluntary Controls Research Group atthe Menninger Foundation. The cochairs got to choose the theme and speakers, and after picking “Humor and Spirit: The Divine Comedy” as the focus, we invited our good friend Patch Adams to be one of the speakers. You might remember that about ten years ago Hollywood made a movie about him, and actor Robin Williams played the lead role. This was well before the movie, though. We’d known Patch for years and correctly assumed he’d be a perfect fit. During the conference, Patch asked me to go with him and a group of clowns to Russia in November. I said I would like to go but not do the clown thing. I was goofy enough already and had no interest in dressing up. Patch allowed as how clown experience wasn’t necessary, but clowning was a requirement for going. He and those traveling with him intended to clown in hospitals, © 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois orphanages, homes for the aged, schools for the handicapped, and other places to bring a little joy into people’s lives that didn’t have much. Everyone had to go in clown getup. The group would even fly to Moscow in clown. I got some healthy encouragement, paid my money, and went as Dr. Jerko, a clown I created over the summer. I hadn’t gone to clown college; I’d gone to medical school. But while I was there, I learned to juggle balls and pins, and things like that. I even took up tap dancing for a few years after finishing medical school with my buddy who is a lawyer. I was once in a recital even at the Music Hall in Kansas City with my three oldest daughters. I also knew how to walk a slack rope. So I did come to clowning with some experiences that proved useful. AJP: Having overcome your initial reluctance to dress as a clown, how do you feel about it now? How do you react when people call you a clown? White: That depends. Dr. Jerko would say,“I’m dressing for success. I’m on my way to the top! The Big Top!” You see, my clown is obvious. He has a big butt, and he’s a proctologist. He’s playful. He gets up each day, puts on his silly clothes, and goes off to play. What’s better than that? As you may have noticed, most clowns don’t dress up, at least in obvious garb. They getup and start each day with a knot around their necks, dressing for success. Vestis virum facit, clothes make the man. Because they’re dressed like eachother, they’re not obvious. It’s normal. If you want to get to the top, you need to dress the part. You only have one chance tomake a first impression. So, context is important. When I’m inside that character, I’m not dressing like a cl

FAQs

Who is Bowen White in this interview?

Bowen White is a physician who founded departments focused on preventive and stress medicine and later wellness and health promotion. He also performs as a clown named Dr. Jerko.

What led Bowen White to begin clowning?

He was led to clowning by another physician who clowns. After co-chairing a 1991 consciousness exploration conference and meeting Patch Adams, he joined a group traveling to Russia to clown in hospitals and other institutions.

How does being Dr. Jerko affect Bowen White’s daily life?

He says he is more playful since beginning clowning and describes an ongoing residual effect in his psyche. He can enter a “play state” readily and often frames everyday moments as playtime.

Oct 15, 2026

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