Where the movement found its Italian voice.
Italy has one of the richest traditions in the history of comedy — from the Commedia dell’Arte to the great modern clowns. Today, it is also home to the most significant Nouveau Clown movement in Southern Europe.
How Nouveau Clown Arrived in Italy
The Nouveau Clown reached Italy through the slow, essential transmission that defines the form: direct contact between artists. In the 1990s, the festivals of Northern Europe — where Jango Edwards and the first generation of the movement had been active since 1975 — began to connect with Italian performers who were searching for the same thing: a comedy that was universal, physical, silent, and deeply human.
Italy was fertile ground. The country that gave the world the Commedia dell’Arte, was ready for Nouveau Clown. The missing element was an organized presence — a festival, a platform, a voice.
Dandy Danno & Diva G — The Italian Pioneers
Daniele Segalin (Dandy Danno) and Graziana Parisi (Diva G) are Italy’s leading pioneers of the Nouveau Clown. For decades they have performed across Europe, Latin America, Asia, and beyond — building a body of work that has placed them among the most recognized practitioners of the form in the world.
In 2015 they were recognized among the 100 funniest comedians in the world. Daniele Segalin is the author of the Manifesto del Nouveau Clown (ISBN 9798270302948) — the primary theoretical text on the discipline in Italian, and a foundational document for understanding the movement’s principles.
Their home base is Theatre DeGart in Giardini Naxos, Sicily — a cultural company through which they develop projects, train new performers, and build the institutional relationships that have brought Nouveau Clown into Italy’s official cultural landscape.
The FINC Festival — International Nouveau Clown Festival
In 2022, Dandy Danno & Diva G founded the FINC Festival — Festival Internazionale Nouveau Clown — in Sicily. It is the first and only international festival in Italy dedicated entirely to Nouveau Clown, and one of the most important of its kind in the world.
Recognized by the Italian Ministry of Culture
The FINC Festival operates under the recognition of the Ministero della Cultura Italiano (MiC) — a formal acknowledgment that Nouveau Clown belongs within Italy’s official cultural heritage. This recognition positions the festival as an institution, not simply an event.
In Collaboration with the French Scène Nationale
Since 2025, the FINC Festival operates in collaboration with the Scène Nationale — the French national theater network — creating a direct bridge between the Italian and French institutional cultural landscapes. This partnership is unique in the history of Nouveau Clown in Italy.
World-Class Artists in Sicily
Each edition of the FINC Festival brings some of the world’s greatest Nouveau Clown artists to Sicily: Gardi Hutter, David Shiner, Paolo Nani, and many more. It is the place in Italy where the form is celebrated, transmitted, and renewed every year.
Clownpedia — Preserving the Art for the World
In 2026, Dandy Danno & Diva G launched Clownpedia.com — the world’s first encyclopedia dedicated entirely to the art of the clown. It is the most ambitious documentation project in the history of the form.
Clownpedia is also the vehicle for the most significant institutional effort currently underway in the Nouveau Clown world: a candidacy to UNESCO for the recognition of Nouveau Clown as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The 30 comic formulas — transmitted orally for generations between masters and students — are being documented, archived, and presented to the international community for the first time.
This project, led from Italy, positions the country at the center of the global conversation about the future of the form.
Italy’s Place in the Nouveau Clown World
Nouveau Clown was born in Amsterdam in 1975. But in 2026, some of the most important work in the discipline is happening in Italy — through the FINC Festival, through Clownpedia, through the Manifesto, through the UNESCO candidacy, and through the daily artistic practice of Dandy Danno & Diva G.
Italy is not a follower of this movement. It is one of its most active protagonists.
“The Nouveau Clown doesn’t make you laugh despite its fragility. It makes you laugh because of it.”
Dandy Danno & Diva G
Continue Exploring
What is Nouveau Clown?
The philosophy, the rules, and the values of this universal art form.
The Masters
From Jango Edwards to Dandy Danno & Diva G — the artists who defined the form.
FINC Festival
The International Nouveau Clown Festival in Sicily — where this art lives today.