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This article focuses on a group of artists little known to the social sciences: “hospital clowns”. It shows that their socialization is characterized by the creation of a specific, individual identity as a clown, which is then put to the test in their hospital work. Indeed, creating one’s own clown is a prerequisite for becoming a member of the group. It leads to a wide variety of characters that are not interchangeable (you can’t play someone else’s clown) and that you can then “bring” with you anywhere, including the hospital. What does the work of building up a personal clown identity actually involve? How does the professional group regulate this diversity? And once in hospital, to what extent do clowns manage to preserve their identity as artists? Based on an ethnography conducted with a French NGO called Le Rire Médecin, this paper shows how hospital clowns build a professional identity that is “not like any other”, in a process at the crossroads of the world of arts and the world of medical care. This identity is based on their professional socialization and on individual and collective practices for regulating their identity as artists.