Becky Lynch reflects on her colorful college days.
In the present day, Becky Lynch is a top star in professional wrestling, widely considered to be a mix of performance art and combat. Nearly two decades ago, Lynch found herself particularly honed in on performance art aspect when she attended Columbia College in Chicago. As noted on Something’s Burning, this art was in a different medium.
“I studied clown in Columbia, she said. “More the nose and the embodiment of the clown, just mask work.”
After pausing her wrestling career at the age of 19, Lynch went on a quest to find a new passion, which involved a stint as a flight attendant for Aer Lingus. Additionally, Lynch enrolled herself in college with the aim of obtaining an acting degree. Amidst her studies, she was then introduced to the art of clown, which deeply fascinated her.
“I had left home at 18; I was living in Canada. I was wrestling over there, I was wrestling in Japan, I was coming to America. Was wrestling here, but WWE was very much models and it was pillow fights, it was mud wrestling matches, it was all the stuff that I didn’t want to do and nobody would want to see me do,” Lynch said. “I was no model. I wanted to be a wrestler. But anyway, my mom was like, ‘What’s your plan? What are you doing?’ And I couldn’t point to anything and say, ‘This is what I’m going to do.” If I pointed at WWE anytime when she came in and she’d see what the women were doing, she’d avert her eyes and walk out like, ‘Oh, God, what is this?’ So I went on a quest and I did everything from being a flight attendant for Aer Lingus.
Lynch Wrote Her Thesis On The Art Of Clown
“Anyway, I did that and then I didn’t like it, so I went back to college and I did my degree in acting. I went to Columbia College. Then at the end of the semester, I was in physical theater and this teacher, this little Italian woman brings in the clown nose. Everybody just stood up there and she wouldn’t let you do anything. You just had to stand there and everybody just started crying. I was like ‘What is this? What is this thing?’ so then I became fascinated with it. I ended up doing my thesis on it, on how clown can bring out a truthful performance. I loved it.”
Lynch eventually circled back to wrestling and inked a contract with WWE in 2013. Excluding a brief period of inactivity as a free agent, Lynch has remained with WWE ever since.
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