Be afraid, be very afraid! The clowns are set to invade Williamsburg, not it's a political convention coming to town but the New York Clown Theater Festival:
Most of the clown events are either free for $10, so it looks like the evnt is in fact well worth checking out. Sadly it looks like I missed a performance of the clowns at my local L train stop:
bricktheater.com/Pies.html