When you sense that positive response, you will continue to pursue that direction in your clowning. Vice versa is also true. When you have a poor response you automatically determine that you need to stop doing that and go a different direction. So you see, your audience helps you know what works for you, and what connects with them. There is no replacement for experience.
Books are good.
Videos are wonderful. Conventions are a blast. But, nothing replaces doing it. We need to be people who not only talk about doing clowning, but actually are doing it. It's not enough to just listen.