If Elon Musk’s antics over the past few years have felt like a three-ring circus, there just might be a reason for that.
As it turns out, one of the billionaire’s key legal strategists isn’t just an attorney but a professionally trained — and currently practicing — clown.
We wish we were kidding. But new reporting by Business Insider tells the tale of Jaymie Parkkinen, an intellectual property lawyer representing Musk by day while working as an actual clown by night. Amidst a massive courtroom drama playing out between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Parkkinen has stood out, occasionally going it alone against esteemed counsel for OpenAI and Microsoft on the multibillionaire’s behalf.
“All of my comedy friends — none of them can believe I’m a lawyer,” Parkkinen told BI. “And none of my lawyer friends can believe I do clown.”
“Clown” is his preferred term for the act of performing onstage in the slapstick tradition, an intransitive verb similar to “improv” or “vogue” dance. For Parkkinsen, clown is less about dressing up in big goofy shoes and throwing pies, and more of an artistic craft, similar to the way silent artists mime as a comedic technique.
“When you strip away all the social masks that we all wear, if you strip away gender and politics and money and status and power, and you’re just your raw human self without all of the trappings of society — who are you?” Parkkinen mused to BI. “Clown tries to answer that question.”
Parkkinsen even found a way to monetize the gig, through a fitness business called Clown Cardio. It’s more or less exactly what it sounds like, according to a New York Times article from 2024: an hour-long class in which participants participate in improv troupe warm-ups enhanced with vaudeville-themed aerobics and clownish props.
Heck, to each their own. But whether you respect Parkkinsen’s craft or not, it’s hard to shake the image that one of Musk’s top litigators spends his off-hours, literally, as a clown.
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