"Using Clowning To Overcome Fears!"

To be a clown is to be fearless; to appear in a clown nose and big shoes in front of people you have never met and try and make them laugh requires you to do what many people find scarier than death...stand in front of a group and perform!

Maybe not fearless...maybe foolhardy. But for whatever reason, I've done this very thing as my profession for umpteen years. And to prove I must be nuts, I've done it umpteen times for free.

I think a lot about things I'm passionate about and things I've had to overcome to become the performer that I am. Something that has come up for me time and time again is that I use clowning as a way of confronting my fears and and prejudices.

When I first started, I had a fear of the elderly. (Not so bad now, I'm a lot older!). I thought like many young people, seeing white haired people in wheelchairs was like dealing with a foriegn culture. I could hardly even relate to it.

The first time I was asked to go to an assisted living establishment, I grumbled and was scared and generally didn't want to do it. Using my clown, I do what I do and had a wonderful time and visited some wonderful folks. I have done so many visits and shows in senior centers and convalescent hospitals, I can hardly count at this point. I was able to turn my emotions into clowning. Everyone had fun.

I have had so much joy and fun with seniors, I consider myself very lucky I got over that one very early. I've had so many nice experiences with seniors over the years, thinking back, it seems so silly now.

I'll also admit, early on, I was afraid of the disabled. Mentally and physically.

Again, I have visited and done shows for disabled folks for years.

One of my all time favorite shows was for a woman in her late 30s who was menatally disabled. Her mother threw her a birthday party where I was her clown. She invited her friends from the center where she spent her days and we had a party at their house.

It was just so much fun. I love this community, They laugh with such abandon and true joy. There is such wonderful innocence, no questioning, just trust, a total freedom to love and laugh.

If I show a magic trick, I am the most amazing magician on the planet. If I say I can read your mind, it's completely believed. Just so cool for me.

I used to be afraid of sick people. Again, I have been in a lot of hospitals. I'm sure there are many kids that I met that are not with us. Not anything I want to think about but seeing them smile is fun for me.

I always remember a beautiful little girl with only one leg. She had cancer. She keept trying to poke me with her crutch, which I would pretend to get really mad at (in a clown way of course). She just had such fun messing with me with her crutch. A goofy thing for a child to do, the same as if I child had a balloon and hit me with it. This little girl, I'm sure had it up to here with people feeling sorry for her. I played with her. In the clown world, it doesn't matter if it's a crutch or a paper airplane, you just mess with the clown.

I realize how hard it is for people to see sick children but I revel in it. I just have a blast being with them, I go in and see them as children, clowns don't see "sick" just opportunities for laughs.

As I think about what I want to write, I get chances to count my blessings. Getting in the face of my fears is freeing. And, hopefully, fun for the people I've met!

"Honesty"

Are clowns honest? Or are they dishonest? Hmmmm?

Well, you can say just about anything you want as a clown and get away with it - But you cover your pretty face with grease paint and exaggerate your nose size.

You can do what your heart desires - but you are wearing over sized shoes...

It's the question that is really important to what a clown is. You have to be truly honest to yourself, you have to dig in and look at your own fears, foibles and flops and turn them around into comedy. Yet it looks like a big old joke to the world. What may be very very personal will always come off as a gag.

Yet, for a gag to work, it has to come from a very very personal place. Kind of hurts your head doesn't it?

So, I'll put myself on the dissection table for a minute to see what drives me and if I'm being true to the art of clowning. I have a fear of not belonging. I truly think there is a party going on that I wasn't invited to.

So, I go to parties a lot. And I sure make myself noticed. And I am making sure people are laughing on my terms, I'm totally in on the joke because I made the joke!

At the same time, it's pretty dishonest to want to be the life of the party by highjacking the party.

I can spot a fake laugh, a fake voice a stolen show a mile away. It just doesn't work for clowns.

I'm a great big lier telling the truth! Or maybe a truth-teller telling a lie!

"Who's Really Important On Stage?..."

When we are in front of people we think we're pretty important. And why not? There are tons of people looking at us, laughing, pointing enjoying our antics.

At varying times, we are the most important but very likely we are the least important. Now here is the really weird part, if I'm juggling and the juggling clubs are hitting my head and I'm mad at the juggling club...I'm the least important thing up on stage.

On stage, I'm the puppet master. If you watch a puppet show, you would be laughing and enjoying the puppets even though you know there is a person controlling the them. The puppets have personalities that's why we like them.

Yet, I'm the one juggling, I own the juggling clubs! The Clubs are hitting me. They're hitting the clown!

Making the choice to be the least important thing on stage is a huge comedy opportunity. Personifying my juggling equipment is just funny. The only way to personify the juggling club is to give it power over me.

Let's make a huge leap. An audience volunteer is a prop. At the same time a living breathing prop with feelings. A living breathing prop that is waiting for instructions. One of the most distasteful things I've ever seen was a magician doing a lecture and ignoring his kid volunteer and doing all the jokes to the audience with the kid standing there alone.

The same way I can get a juggling club to hit me, then get mad at it. I can also get a volunteer to do things that make them the most important THING on stage. It's as simple as trying to have a child look at the audience and not at you, so you turn their head to look forward. Bam, they will start to look at you every time you look away. They get all the power and focus during this. What do you get? Laughs! And the audience will love you! Pretty good for giving the child focus.

"Man It's Hard To Ask For Help..."

I heard once that if you look around, you have, at your fingertips something like 250 experts.

If you look at it, you have your friends and family. My brother is an engineer and has a computer company. If I needed information on computers he would know an awful lot, (in fact often too much). My best friend from kindergarten to college works for a company setting up conferences for industry. He knows a lot about the booking of hotels, hiring speakers, the organization of an event of that size etc.

I tend to try and get everything done myself, I don't think this is terribly wise, it's just the way I'm wired.

I stepped out of my comfort zone today and took a magic lesson from a friend of mine. I am an ok magician, I deal in kids magic but I know what I know, I haven't studied magic the way he has.

I tend to "think" I know a lot because I hang around magicians a lot, I buy stuff at the magic store, I perform magic but there is a much bigger world out there to explore. I needed help to improve on a demonstration I'm doing for a company. We spent an hour and a half working on things, mostly him correcting me, or working on my presentation or just saying dump that trick and do this one.

The dumb part, he's my best friend, we talk constantly but I'm embarrassed to ask for his help. Him showing me the presentation on these tricks is like me making a balloon dog for him; So easy.

There are experts in our lives, people that know an awful lot. In the case of my brother, he has colleagues that would be happy to help their friends brother, my friend that does conferences knows people all around the country that would do him favors. We have so many people at our disposal. I don't use it but I have to think what would happen if I did.

I have access to theatre people, to web designers, to doctors, to teachers, nurses, artists, police officers, of course clowns, magicians and jugglers. Doing everything myself is maybe the way I'm wired but is it best?

It's why I started this blog. I wanted to share my knowledge. What I'm getting is an expansion of my world.

"How's Your Health?"

One of the great learning experiences of my life was meeting the great Lou Jacobs when I was at Clown College.

He had a thick German accent, he was well in his 70s, he walked like a question mark and repeated himself "less spaghetti, less spaghetti" (his term for extraneous movements).

I was in his classes thinking, how does this guy take a fall? How does he run off when the ringmaster blow his whistle when the next act is starting? How does he travel across the country? Who would want to hire an ancient clown? Of course, I was pretty young and really into the falling over. Hey, everyone knows clowns fall over...

Now just to shut my mouth. Lou did a public performance in his little car. He had a mastery of the audience, the likes of which I can hardly describe.

His tiny police car races around the track, comes to a halt. (Long pause) A door flies open. (Long pause) A giant clown shoe appears. (Long pause) A leg seems to unfold from the car. (Long pause) followed by a hand. This goes on with the crowd going nuts laughing and loving it.

Here's the thing. He was funny. This "old man" had complete control of a room of hundreds and hundreds of observers.

Wasn't I the lucky one to have seen this? Yup, for many reasons.

I watched realizing, it's not how old you are. It's not that you can take a fall and pop back up. Clowning has nothing to do with any of those that, that's just a skill, clowning is not simply about skills, skills are icing on the cake. Clowning is an entire character from the inside to the outside. It's how you walk and talk, how you move, or don't move, what you think, who you voted for, why you choose to do this for a living!

I watched Mr. Lou Jacobs realizing you not only can be a clown your whole life; you get better and better the longer you do it. What you leave behind in physical ability you make up for in physical control.

In my own life, for spiritual health and physical health, I do Aikido. Aikido is a martial art with a mind body connection. it is very physical, a lot of fighting moves and a lot of rolling when you get thrown. I have learned to move purposely. The person that gave me my black belt test from Japan is in his mid 70s and is a solid piece of steal.

There might be a pattern here of teachers in their 70s. Hmmm. I'll have to think about it.

The point being, use what you have with purpose and control. You will have more control and be funnier.

"What Does Your Car Look Like?"

What does your car look like? You can do anything from adding a clown nose to the hood of your car to getting chauffeured to events in a limousine shaped like a hotdog.

it's likely you also need to use your car to go to the grocery store, take your kids to school, or drop off an old chair at the dump. If you have a really fancy car painted up, people are going to be looking at you even when you aren't in make up. Imagine taking your old cans of paint to the drop off center in your car with a top hat on the roof?

I'm not real into that, Although I can never completely stop being a clown I don't want people staring at me.

Your presentation though should start with how you arrive at an event. Your car should be clean and look good. The car is reflective of your costume. I don't assume you can afford a new car on a clown salary but you try not to have holes in your costume, or miss buttons on your shirt, wear shoes with broken laces etc.

If you are willing to sew on a button on your shirt, you should also be willing to replace the hubcap that fell off your car. If you keep your costume clean, you should put your car through a car wash. Kids see you coming down the street, they see you coming out of your car. What sort of first impression would you like to make?

Every aspect of you will register with your customer, from your costume, to your contracts, how fast you return a call, to the car you drive registers with a client. We should all be looking at everything we put out in the world, including our transportation as an extension of our show. What car or van we take to the grocery store does not matter but what we take to our shows does.

"Do You Return Your Calls Right Away?

Being organized is such a battle for me, I have put a zIllion check systems in place to make sure I don't double book myself, return calls on time and basically don't make a mess of where I'm supposed to be.

My number one concern is to return a call or email within minutes of getting them. Of course, sometimes I can't but here's why.

When I wait, I notice all sorts of little voices in my head (oh no the little voices are yelling!), telling me to avoid the person calling, they don't sound nice, they can't afford me, they are going to question my prices..." (shhhhhhh little voices!).

The quicker I return a call the less noise in my head. Plus, it's just done and not nagging me as I'm watching my umpteenth episode of the Simpsons.

And here's the really dumb secret. I return calls and emails promptly because it's polite. The voice in my head is my mother telling me to send my grandmother a letter from summer camp or a thank you for the $5 for my birthday, it's just manners.

I have booked so many jobs over the years because I was first in calling back or (this is the totally baffling one to me) the only one to return a call. That's just so odd.

I noticed a couple of years ago, there are no neat kid's entertainers.

Yes, some folks have boxes of props labeled and nice costume racks but every desk I've ever seen comes with the qualifier, "sorry about my desk, it's a mess"

There is something about the brain of a variety entertainer that seeks organization but can't quite find it. I wonder what is it about us that is such a mess?

So...what's the connection here? We are a mess. That's what makes us funny and fun to be around, chaos drives us. Folks are amazed we can make money out of mayhem.

The hard part. Rise above the chaos and return the calls, send the contract right away. The mess will be there tomorrow and the next day, the customer will find someone else!