Laughter

Clowns from Air Play say world needs laughter in Donald Trump era

Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone have brought their show Air Play to the State Theatre in Melbourne.

It features the pair inside giant balloons and "air sculpting" — the art of manipulating fabrics and confetti using air.

While the show is apolitical, Bloom said the New Yorkers could not avoid questions about the soon-to-be inaugurated US President-elect, Donald Trump.

"This show was built in an Obama world, when people liked to laugh and see things that were beautiful, so that's the spirit we take forward with us," he joked.

The science of laughter

We don't do it when we think we do. It's been found that if you ask people what makes them laugh they'll talk about jokes and humour, but we laugh most frequently when we are with other people - and hardly ever at jokes.

It's a social emotion and we use it to make and maintain social bonds.

We also make very strange noises when we laugh - from wheezes and squeaks to gasps and snorts - and each sound simply reflects the muscles in the chest squeezing out air from our ribcages under very high pressures.