Our town did big Trolls all over town they were decorated by various artist, some were done very well and others well.... At the end of our short summer season they are auctioned off for charity. Some were stolen some were broken and vandalized. Our town has a 3 legged foot bridge they call the tridge and our paper did a series of articles about the tridge troll, that is how they came to be.
We have also had fox, let us know how this plays out in Florida. Its hard to believe how insecure some people are. The amount of foot traffic these sculpture generated is amazing, you see people posing for photos with them too. There is a big kick off party when they fist hit the streets and the auction party at the end. this brings a lot of people and tourist to our downtown area. I think clowns would be a big upgrade from these goofy looking trolls!

Jewls

Hi Skip,

One thing that I do is to gently ask people who use "Clown" as an epithet to think about what they are saying. Do they really wish to use a word that describes, ". . .an artform based on the most positive human tenets... love and laughter.", in a negative way. Of course, some grumpy folks, including at least two on the Café, took umbrage with my call for respect for our art. But then, the guy who brought up Gacy hits kids (HE said so in post, here! :roll: ), so what do I care about his opinion... Happily, reasonable people 'get it'. I have also made this request of some in the media, as noted so poetically by a Very Darned Grumpy magician in another thread.

Sadly, we cannot even get respect from SOME fellow performers whose art we share.

Oddly, I was twisting at one of my restaurants tonight, and a guy was very relieved that I was wearing a Santa hat, and no make-up. Turns out that he is very scared of clowns. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. 'Good thing that he didn't see my VERY MUCH CLOWN shoes. He is not the first, and won't be the last, I'm sure. This fear, I believe, is caused by a combination of people in make-up who 'think' they are clowns, who force themselves on small, frightened kids, and even sometimes taunt them (so I'm told), and also parents who force the kids to go up to the clown, or sit on Santa's lap, or shake Chuck-E-Cheese's hand, etc., as the kid is screaming bloody murder. No 'good' clown would stand for a parent to force themselves on a child, nor would they do it themselves. It took some doing, but we finally got my ex-girlfriend's son over his fear. At first, he couldn't even deal with colorful clothes and a crazy hat, with no make-up. For his fourth birthday, he sat hugging his mom through the entire show Eventually, we got him in clown make-up, and would have gotten him into the act (I think), eventually. We even had a name picked out. He helped out for two tricks at his seventh year party.

In part, the fear has caused me to rarely don the character any more. The other (greater) reason is the time and energy it takes to get 'into clown', which impacts my ability to do as many shows in a day. I rarely do a clown gig for less than two, and preferably more hours.

What do I miss the most? The feeling of (nearly) having no race, nor a strong sense from the kids of being a man or a woman. <<--Odd, since I don't shave my moustache. That, and the looks and the photos taken from the people in cars zipping along side me on the highway! These are why I can't totally give up "Spazzo".