clown vs play-actor

clown

noun
  • A person who acts in a silly fashion. 

  • A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly colored wig. 

  • A clownfish. 

  • A stupid or badly-behaved person. 

verb
  • To ridicule. 

  • To act in a silly or playful fashion. 

play-actor

noun
  • An actor who performs on stage, especially one who is part of an acting troupe. 

How often have the words clown and play-actor occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )