The Thin White Duke alleged to be a Nazi salute. Bowie denied this, saying that he was simply waving and the photographer captured his image mid-wave. As early as 1976, Bowie began disavowing his allegedly pro-Fascist comments and said that he was misunderstood. In an interview that year in the "Daily Express", he explained that while performing in his various characters, "I'm Pierrot. I'm Everyman. What I'm doing is theatre, and only theatre... What you see on stage isn't sinister. It's pure clown. I'm using myself as a canvas and trying to paint the truth of our time on it. The white face, the
To Kill a Clown into the room, with his face covered in shaving cream to imitate the white makeup of a mime, and begins to perform "the definitive ape." This disappoints Lily, who prefers his clown act, but Ritchie comments that Timothy shows more concentration when he does his ape routine than he shows in the rest of his life. He points out that gorillas are usually seen behind bars and, claiming that the experience of prison focuses a person, convinces Timothy to agree to meet him at dawn for a psychological experiment. The next morning, Ritchie wakens the hung-over Timothy and, treating him