Jessica Aszkenasy on reclaiming her body: ‘A woman can be an OnlyFans creator and a serious artist’
Despite touching on serious issues, Jessica Aszkenasy insists her eye-catchingly titled clowning show is mainly fun. She chats to Evie Glen about her experience of clown guru Gaulier and finding joy in the darkest places
Jessica Aszkenasy is a performance artist whose show sits at the intersection of two planes of her working life: clowning and OnlyFans. It’s a good hook and Aszkenasy knows it, though Titclown: Daddy’s Little Girl hinges on more than mere provocation or the promise of potential nudity for the sake of ticket sales. ‘I’m trying to show that a woman can be an OnlyFans creator and a serious artist,’ she says. ‘Coming up through social media, people can sometimes see it as a shortcut, but I see it as a way to take control and be able to perform on my own terms. I’ve been sexualised pretty much constantly since I was 11, so it’s kind of a way for me to take some of that power back and put it into something I find really joyful.’
She made her Fringe debut last year with the first iteration of Titclown, inspired by her experience at the renowned French clown school, École Philippe Gaulier, which boasts alumni including Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter. Aszkenasy was a student in one of the final cohorts to be taught by Gaulier, the white-haired and red Lennon-spectacled master clown who passed away in February. Gaulier was infamous for his uncompromising and sage-like tutelage that some viewed as a pilgrimage through humiliation towards completely free and enlightened clowning. Aszkenasy, however, was less convinced. For female students, the line between pseudo-ritualised shame and sexism is narrow. ‘Last year my show was quite angry because it was the result of me processing some stuff I saw in clown school, seeing the way women were treated there and how women were perceived.’
This year, though, her new Titclown is more sentimental and softer in places. A year of heartbreak, therapy and the passing of Gaulier can do that to a clown. ‘It’s more to do with the politics of being loved and so that relates, I guess, to clowning and clown school because you always want the audience to love you.’ Yet that love is beyond her control, influenced as much by a crowd’s temperament as by their socially ingrained biases.
Though Titclown’s 2025 outing was well-received, she noticed the bewilderment it induced in some male reviewers. ‘There was a lot of not wanting to say the wrong thing but also not wanting to take it completely seriously or see the double meaning in things.’ That bewilderment is precisely what she aimed for: a sign she was doing something different. Despite her often heavy subject matter, Aszkenasy’s work is driven above all by a desire to bring the audience an hour of fun. ‘The amazing thing about clowning is you get to find the joy even in really dark places and just be really silly. The fact I even have the opportunity to do this… I feel like I’ve already won.’
Titclown: Daddy’s Little Girl, Summerhall, 6–31 August, 10.45pm.