Greetings from the heat of summer!
Cutie Pie, Juggles, Twinkle Toes and I have been busy with camp at Boca Pointe at the Club. Juggles teaches juggling on Tuesdays and the rest of us teach clowning skills on Fridays. We have had anywhere from 16 to 23 campers, from ages 4 to 12. It’s amazing how easily many of them mastered magic tricks, basic balloons and now skits. This week we will practice for our “Kazoo Band” performance at the “Jr. Wiggles and Giggles” show on Friday, Aug. 8 at 3 p.m. at the Sports Center. Each camper will have made his own decorated kazoo in the arts and crafts sessions. We use a small kazoo attached to a16-inch piece of a pool noodle and decorated with various plastic flowers, stickers etc. The result is a very pretty, colorful, weird looking “instrument”! Kids love playing music on these and we do three songs they know, so everyone has fun. The hardest thing is keeping them together, so it sounds like the song they are playing! The program will include several magic tricks, a demonstration of how to twist a long balloon into different shapes, some juggling of scarves and spinning plates and three to four clown skits. Last year’s show was so successful and the parents and grandparents who attended just loved seeing their kids in something so unique and requiring new skills! Needless to say, those of us involved were really proud of the accomplishments.
Throughout the country today, there are very few groups teaching kids clowning skills. During my early years of clowning, I knew several clowns who had clown classes for kids, which were fairly costly and very productive. Of course, the two national conventions still encourage “Jr. Joeys” to attend and have some classes included in the curriculum, but they generally don’t have more than five prospective students, and most are relatives of the clowns attending. There are “circus” summer camps around, but they concentrate on circus skills and very little clown training is offered. So, our services are unique and we love it!
Some of you younger residents attended the Family Day at the Sports Center and of course we were there. It was very hot that day and we stayed inside making balloons etc. Juggles of course was outside thrilling the kids with his huge bubbles. It was great seeing so many young families all having a wonderful time.
Looks like August will be a quiet time and we are disappointed that we will not be doing any clowning during International Clown Week, Aug. 1 to 7 this year. I remember the years we did an event every day and one year we did two on two days and one every day! That was tough, but we were all younger and there were at least eight of us available. People constantly ask us, “Are you still clowning?” My answer always is, “As long as there are places to go, those of us who can will continue to bring laughter and smiles if only for a little while!” It’s wonderful to be able to still make others happy!
Don’t forget to wave if you see a clown on campus!
