"Listening To Your Customer...Then Doing What You Want!"

I was hanging out with one of my two oldest clown friends last night. He was reminding me of crazy stories. I told him how I recently got in a bunch of trouble at a hospital visit, I went to where I wasn't supposed to. I did it because I was waved in. When I see someone in need, I'm the Underdog of clowns, I fly in!

Then I got in trouble for not following the rules. Hey I got it, rules in a hospital. I do that stuff all the time, getting into trouble is a lifetime occurance for me.

Then we got to talking, what do people expect when they bring a clown in? If you are a clown, just by definition, you are going to be unpredictable, possibly edgy, you might even get into a little trouble. It's pretty much a dictionary definition of a clown.

I'm thinking of the times people want me to do things, I know that won't work and I just do what I do anyway and it all works out. Or throw in some lame thing they wanted as a bone and then do my thing anyway.

I have so many of these kind of stories. I am often asked to do shows very religious folks. Got it, cool I can do that. Here's what they say to me... "but pleas don't use the word magic". Not too hard, I can say "trick" Like, who wants to see a trick? Or I'm about to trick you.

I go through this routine at the beginning, "I'm going to fool you today but I'm a trickster, I don't really do magic. The only person that does magic is?..." Always always always the kids will say "YOU!!!" No, I say, Jesus does magic, I'm just fooling you. "NO, YOU DO MAGIC!!!" say the kids...

You know, I've done the best I can, I have no intention of stepping on people's religious views. But, I know kids. I know how the react interact and what they'll say before they say it.

Or the most common. "Can you come to my party for 3 hours?" Um...sure. But how many kids do you have? Why would you want entertainment for 3 hours? I gently guide them...this is what works...an hour is what I've found works. I'll lose gigs because I won't do weird things like this but I hate feeling like I've done a bad job.

Or the office visit. I call them "telegrams" "Come by for an hour or so..." This is an office? Yes. In the middle of a work day? Yes... People don't want that, they still need to work or we're going to get a bunch of folks in trouble. For the record, I almost always get in trouble at offices, they amuse me, I've never had a job like that, the whole world of cubicles and stuff intrigues me. I'll end up going a little nuts, I'm in this world that looks like a cartoon to me!

Clowns are unpredictable, funny, magical, offbeat. Stay true to your character! I'm into the laughter, I'm into the offbeat nature of being a clown. I walk away sometimes and think about the stuff I just did and say "man, I'm nuts" On the other hand, it's who I am through and through. I like pleasing people but there is an important code of conduct for clowns. Be unpredictable, be outrageous, be funny!