Tommy The Clown summons the next in a stream of dancers at Brooklyn Chanel’s 10th birthday party, in Inglewood, California, on Saturday, January 21, 2023. Thomas “Tommy The Clown” Johnson was the original hip hop clown. He began performing at South Los Angeles birthday parties by himself in 1992, before slowly building a team, and then a culture of hip hop clowns and krumpers in Los Angeles, and around the world.