Hello! My name is Jon Monastero and I am a professional clown, comedian, actor, writer and performing and teaching artist.
I performed as a clown on stage with Cirque du Soleil in the international touring show, Totem (2014-2020). This included over 2,000 shows in over 30 cities worldwide with 66 performances at the Royal Albert Hall in London. I also performed as a clown on the special events team for the Cirque du Soleil show, Iris (2011-2013) at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA. While on tour with Cirque I co-founded a hospital clowning program and was an active member of Cirque du Monde – teaching and sharing circus arts to underserved communities around the world.
Other fancy-schmancy performing credits include clowning on stage with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in four separate productions at the Disney Concert Hall, and at the Mark Taper Forum as Arlecchino in The School of Night for which I was awarded with the Ticketholder Award for my role as Harlequin. I’ve performed as a clown with international musical groups at the Hollywood Bowl for two summers in the Summersounds Youth Music program and played the role of the Soldat in L’histoire du Soldat – a collaboration with the San Francisco Ballet and Symphony Orchestra.
As 1/2 of the nationally recognized clown duo, Ten West along with my partner since 2003, Stephen Simon I co-wrote, created and performed six original clown shows which we toured around N. America until 2013.
I enjoy sharing the art of clown with people and have taught clowning as an adjunct professor and guest instructor at USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, Cal Arts, Improv Olympic, The LA Music Center among many others.
I’m a co-founder of Studio Zanni – LA’s only commedia dell’Arte troupe, and created Living History in the Classroom - a workshop about the life of a Civil War soldier which I performed from 2005-2013 at middle and high schools across Southern California. I continue to write, create, perform for and teach people of all ages.
And now I perform as a comedian with LaZoom Theatre Tours in my new home of Asheville, North Carolina. I wrote and created characters for adult and children as part of this job and since 2021 have performed over 1,000 shows.
I love to share laughter with the world and feel it a tremendous honor to be a clown.
I have a wife who is an incredible visual artist, and a nine year old daughter and one year old son who never cease to amaze and inspire. Together we garden, attempt to cultivate mushrooms, hold occasional impromptu dance parties and when the mood and time allow, make silly videos.
Thank you for checking out my website. Feel free to reach out with questions, comments, inquiries and gifts of dark chocolate.
Wishing you peace and love always,
Jon
