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
Circus clown to cover their entire face and neck, with none of the underlying flesh colour showing. Features are then usually painted on in either red or black. The whiteface clown is traditionally costumed more extravagantly than the other two clown types. They often wear the ruffled collar and pointed hat which typify the average person's idea of a "clown suit". Notable examples of whiteface clowns in circus history include François Fratellini and Felix Adler. Canio, the tenor protagonist of Ruggiero Leoncavallo's famous tragic opera "Pagliacci", is usually garbed on stage as the whiteface variety of clown. In this particular instance, he