Odds of Hanging On
You can hang on and be a clown as long as you want to be. Or as long as your landlord will put up with you being late with the rent.
Build a good reputation within your community (and beyond, if you work your way to larger audiences), hone your craft, and market yourself effectively, and you should be able to find work. That said, it can't hurt to have a back-up career planned, just in case you get injured or develop an insuppressible, inappropriately bizarre sense of humor one day. Perhaps a career in politics?