The result of a one-year pilot project in an adult palliative care unit in Quebec, this article explores the theme of subjective transmission through play. Using clinical vignettes from the journals of therapeutic artists, the authors describe the relationship between end-of-life patients and clowns as well as the narrative forms at work in the specific context of palliative care visits. How do these sessions with therapeutic clowns support the transmission of existential reflections, fears, learning and dimensions of the patient’s autobiographical identity? What is told and transmitted in the presence of these artists suggests ways to enter into relationship through humour and sometimes laughter, but especially through the transposition by metaphor of important themes for the patient and their relatives.