My Final Project Steps

    My WISE presentation will be Tuesday June 14th at 2:30 in Ms. Lord's room. I've spent this past week reading through my journal and blog, gathering up all my project materials and reflecting on my experience. Mr. Heurich helped me scan my paper journal and flyer and emailed me those materials on Thursday in the library. I've been finding it hard to sit down and write my final pieces because there is so much of my project that I want to share with you all but it's difficult to write it all down and express everything clearly in 6 pages.
    I think I've done a good job summarizing my experience though and it's definitely been a positive one. In fact I'm clowning this coming Tuesday at my old elementary school classroom after all of my project materials have already been turned in. I'll update my blog about that experience after this "good-bye" post. I'm clowning even after I have to because I think I'll continue clowning my whole life. Marigold the Clown definitely won't be my profession but I've enjoyed the connections I've made throughout this process and want to continue "spreading joy and laughter to others" for the rest of my lief as Cross Roads the Clown would say.
    Please come to my final presentation next Tuesday, I would love to have you all! I will be reflecting on all of the life lessons I've learned and perhaps telling a few jokes throughout the presentation, all of course in my clown costume. Thank you for following me on my WISE journey and I sincerely hope you've been entertained somewhere along the way!

Clowning at ICS 6/7

I just emailed Mrs. Case to confirm that I will be clowning for her classroom on Tuesday at 1pm. I'm really excited to go back to my elementary school and hangout in my old classroom. I'm planning on baking cupcakes tomorrow evening and using my clown cupcake toppers so I can bring them in for the class. All of my clowning gear is functioning and ready to go! I will definitely bring my camera this time! Even though my project materials are being turned in on Tuesday I will be posting pictures and reflecting on my experience after I clown for Mrs. Case, so stay tuned, the journey isn't over yet!

A quick summary...

      I have a few odds and ends to report from my WISE journey this week. I found Ms Gergly on Tuesday and gave her the flyer I made that advertises Marigold the Clown (I still can't figure out how to show you all but it still looks awesome) She is planning on scanning it and sending it to her friends with small children. She also asked me if I would clown at her daughters birthday party but unfortunately its the same night as senior prom and I had to say no, I was so disappointed! Hopefully, thanks to Ms. Gergly's generous publicity efforts I will have more opportunities to clown around town at another time.
    Also, I have been working on my juggling. Looking back to March when I set my project outline I have to laugh. I thought by April I would be doing four and five ball juggling! No one told me at the time that that goal was very ambitious. This week I've continued to practice my two ball in one hand juggling in an attempt to start four balls, but I've also been working on an outside cascade with three balls. I will post a video to show you what that looks like soon, but basically its an inside out version of your classic three ball cascade or weave. Instead of coming under, the balls go over each other. I've been hitting balls together a lot but its amazing how naturally this new trick is improving!

Carrie's Sample Presentation

     At my mentor meeting last week (oops, haven't blogged about that yet but better late than never), Mr. Holl and I discussed what a WISE presentation should be like, or maybe I shouldn't say should, but what my presentation could be like. Since he has mentored two people in the past Mr. Holl has some experience in the area of presentations. We discussed powerpoints and what your presentation should be communicating. I decided after hearing examples of past presentations that I wanted a slide show of pictures running in the background of my presentation, but other than that I just want to be talking to my audience about my experiences. Of course I will also be doing my presentation in my clown costume.
    While Mr Holl and I made some great progress the other week on what I envisioned my project presentation to be, attending Carrie Haas' sample presentation was the most helpful of all. First of all, her presentation was very moving. I have never seen someone that confident about sharing their emotions with a crowd of people and her passion for her project was amazingly visible and uplifting. While I don't know Carrie very well, I was so proud of her and what the WISE program teaches kids who really take advantage of it.
     Her presentation made me think about what I learned about myself in my project and what skills I would like to share with my evaluators. I really enjoyed how she actually shared her poetry with us, it was a true testament to her projects journey. I want to be able to show my evaluators what I've learned as well, in both the physical tricks as well as the mental discoveries. I made a list of the core things I want to communicate that I learned during my presentation while I was listening to Carrie's.
1. I learned to be okay with being goofy.
2. I found a way to connect with kids that I really enjoy, I've never really liked them before now.
3. As a professional stresser, my WISE project and my whole clowning mindset has given me an outlet to step back and take a chill pill every once and a while.
      Also listening to her evaluators talk about the other parts of her project like the research commentary and the narrative I realized that I need to get my butt in gear because all of my materials are due on June 7th and I have a lot of work to do before then.

Clowning for Mrs. Case

Mrs. Case, a teacher at my old elementary school, called me back about clowning in her classroom this past Friday. She said she would love to have me but didn't think she had any kids who would fit the specifications I was looking for and offered to have me come and do a birthday party for the summer birthdays in her class or as the special treat the kids usually get after completing their "good job chart." I gathered up a few dates and she told me which worked best for her. We've finally decided on Tuesday June 7th at 1:15 and I am coming as a special treat for their good behavior. Basically it will still be a birthday party because I'll use all the supplies from my basket and make cupcakes so I can use my clown cupcake toppers but it won't be celebrating any ones birthday. I'm really excited to be going back to the same classroom I was in when I was for and making kids laugh there!

What's next?

This week I've been working on a different angles of my project. The first being that I tracked down Ms. Gergly in the hallway and explained my whole problem about not being able to attach and send the flyer I made for advertising. She came about with the fantastic idea of scanning! She suggested printing out the flyer at home, bring it into her and she would scan it for me so she could send out to her friends with kids. Wow, I never thought of that! So I just printed my flyer (its still looks awesome) and am ready to bring it to her tomorrow.
 The second thing I've been working on is another opportunity to clown. This past Saturday night my parents went to my elementary school's annual auction and my dad brought home a "Circus Party Basket" for me.
The basket has all the fixings for a clown themed birthday party! It includes:
1 Ringmaster giant party banner
1 Circus photo opportunity banner
1 Happy Birthday circus train banner
1 Circus train centerpiece
1 Circus tablecloth
24 big top dinner plates
32 big top circus dinner napkins
24 clown dessert plates
32 clown beverage napkins
24 clown loot bags
24 clown cupcake toppers
I called an old teacher of mine at the school and left her a voicemail today explaining about my wise project and I asked if there were any kids in the school from any of the younger classes that had a birthday around this time and wouldn't normally be having a birthday party thrown by their family. I would come into school and throw them a birthday party with my kit, Marigold the Clown being the entertainment for the day. I am still waiting to hear back from her but hopefully she will have some helpful suggestions.

Unicycling

My first attempts at unicycling!!
I'll be very honest with all of you. I most likely won't be the world's best unicyclist. In fact I'm kind of terrified of the whole idea, but on Saturday afternoon I asked my dad to help me fish out the family unicycle from the garage and teach me how to ride it. My dad has been able to ride a unicycle for years and is still pretty good at it. I've done some preliminary research on the basic skills needed, like getting on and balancing but putting them into practice is easier said than done. Thankfully we have a long fence at my house next to a flat sidewalk, so I am able to cling to that as I slowly get used to the feeling of balancing on one wheel. This first day I spent about half an hour practicing getting on the unicycle (next time I will be wearing shin guards because the pedals come up and smack my shins) and figuring out how to balance. Most of my sources suggest holding on to something and rocking slowly back and forth to find your center of balance and get used to the motion of your body and the unicycle together. After I gained some confidence I slowly rolled my way down our sidewalk, still clutching at our fence for dear life. Falling off isn't as bad as it would seem because the unicycle simply slides out forward or backwards and you land on your feet, but I will admit screaming a few times. Hopefully in the next week I'll find some days when it isn't pouring rain to keep up my practice!

Clowning at CHES 5/13

Friday morning I packed up all my clown stuff into my car and headed off to school. My mom had written me a note that allowed me to leave school for an important meeting regarding my WISE project. Little did the women in the attendance office know that this meeting involved juggling and balloon animals instead of me being in gym class, but what they don't know can't hurt them right?

   I changed into my clown costume in the locker room and then drove up the hill to Cayuga Heights Elementary School (I put my shoes on when I got there, it’s sort of hard to drive in clown shoes). I was clowning for my lacrosse coach's special education classroom. Of course as I walked into the school I received the usual laughter and giggles from adults I passed. I'm starting to get used to the reactions people give me when I walk by in a clown suit, at first I never knew what to say because I looked so ridiculous. Now I have learned to completely ignore any laughter and saw something like, "what a beautiful day!" or "can you show me to Heather Murphy's classroom?" I never make any reference to being dressed like a clown, instead I pretend it’s totally normal.

    I signed in at the main office and then someone showed me up Murph's classroom. Of course her room was at the farthest end of a very long hallway so I had a lot of attention all the way down. Kids would shyly wave if they were out in the hallway or shout if they saw me from their rooms. When I finally got down to the end, no one was in the classroom! One of the other aids in her room explained the group was doing an activity in another classroom and would be about ten minutes late. Since I was about ten minutes early this gave me twenty minutes to just hangout in an empty kindergarten classroom. Suddenly another teacher popped her head in the door and introduced herself as one of the Pre-K teachers.

      She asked if I had some extra time that day to come in and clown for her classroom too! She had seen me walking by on my way to Murph's room and thought I looked awesome. Since I had twenty extra minutes before Murph's class would be back I clomped down to her classroom and went right in. She had 3 and 4 year olds, about 12 of them and much like the Tots ans Teens kids, they immediately swarmed me. They touched my nose and I made sounds for them, and then I started touching their noses' and they would make their own sounds too. I juggled for them and they really liked that, especially when I dropped balls. 

     The one mistake I made was trying to make them balloon animals. I should have kept up the talking to them and saying silly things because I didn't have enough time to make them all an animal. So the teacher had to suggest they share the animals with the whole class and I could tell they were disappointed and I felt bad about that. However, I did say I would love to come back and see them and their teacher said she would love to have me back. I believe her name was Ms. Hubbard but I can't quite remember.

      After I had spent twenty minutes there I headed back down the hallway to Murph's room a few moments before all of the kids came back from their other classrooms. My coach was in a meeting during this time so she wasn't there to introduce me but one of the aids did an excellent drum roll and introduced me as Ms. Heather's special surprise! Apparently all week I had been used as motivation for the kids to be on their best behavior. These children have a lot of behavioral problems that come along with their disabilities and part of what they learn in Heather's classroom is how to behave properly and interact peacefully with other students and teachers. My coach has been telling us stories for years about their crazy behavior so I was a bit nervous that I would rile them up, just like I had with all of the other kids I clown for. 

    These kids were the most well behaved group I had clowned for thus far, and probably ever. I had nothing to worry about! They were so excited to see me and didn't want to get in trouble and not be allowed in the room so they sat in rows next to their friends with their hands in their laps. There were about 15 kids there, ages 5-8, boys and girls; some were bigger than I am, some about the size of a three year old. Because they weren't crowding around me and jumping all over me I had more time to think about things i could say to them and how to fill the time. This caught me a little off guard at first because I've never really stood up in front of a crowd and entertained them before. I started off by saying hello and then juggling for a bit and then I started asking them questions, like if they wanted to touch my nose like most kids always want to. They were a little bit hesitant but a few finally did and were delighted. Once the first brave ones started talking to me the rest of the kids loosened up a bit.

    I told them a lot of stories about clowns. Why our feet were so big, where we got our shoes, what our favorite animals were (giraffes because they have big necks just like our big feet), all the people we like to fit in our cars, what they teach us in clown school...among many other things. I also started making balloon animals for all of them which I think they loved. They weren't really sure what to think about me at first, whether they should laugh or not, but after the balloon animals they looked they were having a great time. Most of these kids have a lot of trouble recognizing humor in social situations. They will laugh if someone else laughs, but because they think they're supposed to not because something is truly funny. 

    I made a lot of giraffes at first, and then kids started asking for snakes which was awesome because snakes are super easy to make. I made a few poodles, a deer, a lion and one caterpillar. These kids were really patient and asked politely and always said thank you to me. Really I was blown away at how well behaved they were for me. I only had to remake one balloon that Ryan unfolded and he said please and thank you and sorry about popping his first one.

     A few of them had speech impediments so it was difficult to understand what they were saying, like their own names for example but I've learned to say more generic things in those situations like "ohh cool what an awesome name!" When I had made everyone a balloon animal, my coach asked me to juggle one more time for the group, which I did, and then they all said thank you to me at once and i waved my way out of the room. I was clowning for them for about half an hour and then they had to go to lunch.

    After school that day my coach told me that her kids loved me! They brought their balloon animals around all day and told everyone that they had a clown in their room that day. Except instead of saying clown they say "they had a down in their room" because of their speech problems. I really enjoyed spending time with all of the kids on Friday. I loved seeing how much they love my coach "Miss Heather", they always want to tell her everything that they're doing and sit in her lap. It was a different type of performance for me and I enjoyed having the chance to make up goofy stories about clowns and tell kids what we're all about...making them happy.

    Heather, the Pre-K teacher and a kindergarten teacher Margret Philipson (my mom’s best friend) have all asked me to come back and clown for all of their kids one day later this year. I would definitely go back but I would have to figure out how to handle the 50 kids that would all be there at once. My mom proposed making balloon animals in advance and handing them out and then making some but I'd have to think that show through very carefully. Hopefully I'll have enough time to do it!

    My biggest regret of this show was that I forgot to bring my camera and I don't have any pictures of the event. I feel really bad about that but if I go back again there is no way I'll forget my camera.

This weeks successes and hold ups

Monday evening I spent quite some time playing around with Microsoft Word and all of the cool templates they have so I could create a flyer that advertises my clowning skills to all potential birthday party holders. Let me tell you how good this flyer looks. It's probably the best thing to come out of the Microsoft program. To bad I can't share it with you because my computer won't let me email it or upload it to my blog and I am about to go CRAZY. Usually I don't get mad at my electronics but after trying endlessly to share it with someone, anyone, I am ready to throw my laptop out my window. After a few deep breaths, I have decided to take my computer into school either tomorrow or Friday and see if someone in the library can help me.

On a more positive note: I am clowning for the special education class at Cayuga Heights on Friday! I will be with them from 10 until 10:30. I took a trip around town today trying to find more balloons I can twist so I wouldn't run out on Friday and found some awesome ones at Maines. I got 144 for about $11 which was a bit pricier than what I paid online at La Rock's Fun and Magic but these balloons are great colors, easily twistable and make really big animals. I am quite pleased with my find and there's definitely something to be said for being able to go out and just buy the thing you need, instead of ordering and then waiting and especially worrying about whether it would get here on time. Now I have everything I need and ready to go!

This weeks summary

     The AP season has hit my life with full force, but amidst the testing chaos this week I did manage to have a few conversations about clowning opportunities around town. Ms. Lord had mentioned a that the Youth Bureau had a Tots Spot on Saturday mornings during which I could clown. On Thursday morning I visited the Youth Bureau to inquire into this opportunity only to be told that the Tots Spot had ended for the school year and would start back up in October. That's a bummer, but Janet Olsen, the very nice lady at the entrance of the Youth Bureau, gave me some helpful suggestions about other places I would be able to clown. She suggested GIAC, IC3 and then gave me the name of the theater coordinator at IYB, along with all of the contact information. I was very thankful and more than a little pumped up that someone was so interested to help me out with my project!
    I also talked to Ms. Gergly this week and she explained that she had a young daughter with a birthday in June and that she knew of a lot of other parents with kids who had birthdays this time of the year. She suggested that I make an advertising flyer for myself and she would pass it along to her friends. Not only is this a great opportunity for a clowning experience at a birthday party, but it added another layer of my project: advertising myself! I have to let people know who I am before they can ask me to clown for them. I've thought up some ideas for the flyer and I am hoping to have it done this week.
     Lastly, I spoke with my lacrosse coach this weekend and we have a tentative date scheduled for me to clown for her special education classroom. Hopefully this Friday, May 13th from 10-10:30 I will be able to come and play with them. If not this Friday then next Friday because we have a very full week of games this week and my coach thinks I will probably be exhausted by Friday. When she said this however, I realized that clowning wouldn't be that stressful for me on the last day of a busy week, but more of a stress reliever!
      Mr. Holl and I also had a mentor meeting on Friday and reviewed my progress on my project this year and things are looking pretty good! We talked about possible dates for my presentation, taking into account both of our busy schedules and also how I wanted to present my project. I don't have all of my ideas nailed down yet but I definitely have a vision of how I would like my final presentation to flow.

Tots and Teens Clowning Video

Clown Video Coming Soon

So this week I've been working on the footage of my clowning excursion with the Tots and Teens group. Mr. Heurich in the library has been a tremendous help. He uploaded all the clips and has been walking me through iMovie and teaching me how to put everything together and I appreciate the time he has taken so much. I am not familiar with making movies at all so he's had his work cut out for him but has been incredibly patient. We spent seventh period on Friday working on the movie and 7th and 8th period on Monday will be dedicated to finishing it up. In the end I hope to have a short collection (maybe 3 minutes) of clips that highlights some fun parts of my clowning adventures. The footage was great from what I've seen so far; one clip even caught a kid pulling off my nose and my reaction to it! I will post it on my blog so that you all can enjoy it.

I've also been getting some great suggestions about places to clown at in the month of May to finish out my project. Ms. Lord suggested the Tot Spot at the Youth Bureau, and I am planning on either calling or visiting the youth bureau this week to see if I would be able to come and clown there. (2738364) Also this week I am going to finalize the date with my lacrosse coach, for when I can come and clown for her classroom at Cayuga Heights. She is a K-2 special education teacher and I am really excited to finally meet the children I've been hearing about for years.

Tots and Teens Clowning Reflection

I’d like to apologize to all my faithful blog readers for taking so long to give you my Tots and Teens clowning reflection; April break and a math final have been taking up a lot of time recently. Anyways, here it goes. I was scheduled to clown for the Tots and Teens Program at the High School during second period, last Tuesday. I got up a little early and started off the day watching The Big Comfy Couch to gain some inspiration from Loonette the Clown. I had all my bags ready to go and headed off to school feeling very nervous. I left first period a little bit early and went to the daycare room to let them know I’d be arriving in full clown gear in just a few moments. It was entirely chaos when I went in for the check-in and all the adults were pretty frazzled.

                I was kind of put off a bit because the first thing Mary said to me was “wait how long are you staying? We have someone coming to sing to them at 10:30 and you have to be out by then.” Great start Marigold! I brushed it off because I was planning on staying until 10:20 anyways but they had said nothing about kicking me out when I confirmed my appointment with them two days earlier. But I moved on and quickly went in to the locker room to get my whole costume together.

                I didn’t change my costume from the first time I clowned, although I did add a penguin purse to the whole outfit which worked out nicely! An unused Christmas gift from a few years ago, it was the perfect thing to store my juggling balls, balloons, stickers and pump in, and half the little girls complimented me on it. I got some giggles and delighted stares in the locker room as I clomped through the whole length in my entire clown costume, most people thought I was hilarious. I stopped by to talk to Mrs. Bryant and Ms. Maddren before I went and oops I didn’t know that Ms. Maddren is terrified of clowns! She wouldn’t look at me for two minutes until finally she turned around and admitted I looked kind of cute, especially since I don’t wear any makeup.

                Finally I approached the door and entered into the most blurred chaotic 25 minutes of my life. I’m having difficulty even recounting what happened because the whole affair was just a whirl-wind.  The moment I walked in, ten four and five year olds jumped me. The adults had wanted the kids to sit and eat their breakfast snacks while I entertained them from the middle of the room but that was totally a lost cause. They climbed and picked and poked, ripped off my nose, explored my penguin purse, felt my shoes, pulled my pants, held my hand, all trying to get my attention at once! In the background I could hear the adults scurrying around trying to get all the kids to sit back down and eat and telling them to wait their turn. At first I tried to echo them, I tried to keep the peace but after a few minutes I said ahh what the heck and just added to all the chaos like a proper clown.

                I walked in and looked surprised to see them and started off by introducing myself to one or two of them and immediately most of them came over. Two or three kids held back but most of them were all over me. I juggled for them for a while but I kept dropping my balls and throwing them badly because I was so nervous. Turns out the kids loved when I dropped them so it worked out well. I let some kids try to juggle my balls themselves with my help and they loved it! I didn’t even need to bring up balloon animals either; some little girls digging around in my purse discovered them on their own. I made a balloon for every kid in the class, and every kid wanted theirs first. I kneeled down so I was mostly on their level and just tried to deal with them as best as I could. It was really fun for me to see them all so excited. They’d get as close to me as possible and watch what I was doing, sometimes they’d poke my nose and I would always make a noise when they did that. There was one sticky moment where one little boy pulled my nose right off! He was so shocked and I was so shocked that I just laughed and said “whoops!” and stuck it right back on. In hindsight I’ve thought up clown stories I could make up about why my nose fell off but in the moment all I could do is stick it back on as quickly as possible.

                When kids see their friend get something they immediately want one, exactly the same way. Or one asks for a dog and the kid next to them wants a dog and so you start making them a dog but then they see a giraffe and they want that too! What I realized is that most balloon animals look pretty much the same so if I started making one and then they changed their mind I’d just keep making what I was making and they would never know the difference. The first kid asked for a giraffe so I ended up making roughly twelve giraffes in various colors, one deer, one cheetah and one walking stick. Yes, the walking stick one threw me for a loop at first, but the kid loved what I made so I guess I nailed it. Most of the kids crowded around me and begged for them and I made sure I asked them each of their names, so there was a personal connection. I tried to ask questions and make loud funny noises to keep them entertained. When the more curious ones were done getting their balloons I went over to the shyer children and asked if I could make them a balloon. One little girl looked much younger than the rest and when I went over to ask her if I could make her a dog she didn’t really know what to say. I was so touched to see another boy come up and slip his arm around her and whisper in her ear, “tell her yes.” They looked very much alike and when I asked if this was his sister the little boy nodded. Of the whole experience this interaction really struck me. I was so proud to see this little boy come to, not protect, but guide his sister when she was feeling shy and out of place. In the end I got her to talk to me about daycare, her brother, and even crack a smile.

                One little boy came up to me and said he wanted another balloon animal. He practically begged me for one but I knew I had already made him one and couldn’t make him two and not make every other kid another one. So I had to tell him “No, I’m sorry I can’t, it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of your friends.” Thank god he got mad not sad, because I would have been so sad if he had cried. If I could have stayed there all day and make these kids balloon animals I would have. Instead he tried to reason with me, because “he wanted it so much more.” Thankfully I was spared having to get in a full argument with him because it was time for me to go. As I was saying good-bye to everyone, the 10:30 singers came in and were very surprised to see a clown in the room. I introduced myself as Marigold and then clomped my way out, leaving a hyped up, crazy bunch of five year olds in my wake. Hopefully the singers calmed them down a bit, but I was quite pleased with my work. I think all of the kids enjoyed themselves, and Chelsea told me later that day that the kids told her all about it!

                I’d like to thank Evan Foster and Ms. McKown who gave up their free periods to take pictures and video tape my performance; their help was invaluable and I appreciate it very much.

Tots and Teens Pictures

I promise I'll blog full details after my math final but for now, enjoy some pictures! BIG THANK YOU to Evan Foster and Ms. Mckown who took pictures and filmed for me!

My Pre- Performance Butterflies

       For the last half hour my heart has been racing as I rummage through my room, collecting my clowning supplies in anticipation of my Tuesday Tots and Teens clowning adventure. I AM SO NERVOUS. I can research childhood humor development as much as I would like, but the real test comes on Tuesday when I walk through their daycare door. Will they think I'm funny? I will be absolutely devastated if they don't. This is the first audience I have performed for, where they don't have other things to distract them like at the carnival. All of their judging five year old eyes will be on me. I want to think of the whole show as more of an interaction with these kids, but in reality I'm supposed to be entertaining them and it's all up to me to put on a good performance.
       So I've spent the weekend thinking up all the possible scenarios and routines I could pull out for them. On Friday I confirmed my "show" with Mary, the head of the program and she and the kids are super excited that I'm coming. She said she would let me walk in while the kids were playing and slowly I can gain their attention. Personally, I'm really happy with this setup because I won't be walking in to them all staring at me. (It's amazing how the five year olds can be this intimidating.) I checked a book out of the library on called "Be a Clown" by Mark Stolzenberg  Thursday and in briefly skimming it I found some great ideas for what to do on Tuesday.
       I'm planning on utilizing my shoes to make my walk look as funny as possible and waggle my knees around. I think they would find it funny if I came in pretending I didn't know where I was, acting very lost and then started interacting with them from there. I can take on and off my hat and pretend to have a difficult time putting it back on, and of course, the classic trip and fall, or almost trip and fall in this case because I wouldn't want to crush any small children during my visit. I've also decided that balloon animals are my strongest clown trait, so for most of the time I'm hoping to entertain them with sounds each of my balloon animals make and goofy stories to go along with each one. I have more than enough balloons to make an animal for each kid in the class, with a few to spare in case I pop them.
      I packed my bags tonight so I'll have everything I need ready to go Tuesday morning. These items include: My nose, an extra nose just in case, my nose stickers, my flower hairs ties and some extras, balloons, balloon pump, juggling balls, stickers, flower shirt, clown pants, suspenders, my hat, shoes to wear in my clown shoes and lastly, my clown shoes. A new addition to my outfit is my penguin purse. Given to me by a relative a while ago, this is the perfect opportunity to use it! I'm storing all of my balls, balloons and stickers in the bag which I can conveniently sling over my shoulder and walk in.
      While I'm very nervous about this presentation, I can't call myself a clown if I'm not actually entertaining kids. This will be a big step in my project and hopefully a lot of new learning will come out of the experience. Expect quite the long blog post Tuesday night!

Clowning at Cayuga Heights Elementary School

My lacrosse coach, Heather Murphy is a special education teacher in the school district as works at Cayuga Heights Elementary School with K-2 grades. I approached her a few days ago about clowning in her classroom and she said absolutely! We haven't set a firm date but we agreed on sometime in May, after all of the AP testing is over. Today on our bus ride home from our away game we talked about what her kids find funny. She is a great resource on how humor develops in children and what they find funny, since part of her job is to teach the kids she works with  how to interact socially and understand humor and sarcasm (because apparently they don't right now) From her descriptions, these kids are probably funnier than I ever will be without even knowing it. They have a hard time understanding the flow of conversations and plays on words go completely over their heads. They laugh when they think they're supposed to, not because they understood what was funny. So basically I could get up there and start laughing and they would laugh to because they think something must have been funny so nows the time to laugh. (this will be a great confidence boost!) Coach suggested that I bring in props and use those because visual humor is easier for them to understand. Knock-knock jokes are definitely out of the picture, but any funny sounds or questions I want to ask them are good things to do. Before this event I have to figure out how to use props and what I am going to do with them! I'm excited to go in and work with the kids in her classroom though because I've been hearing hilarious stories about their antics for years and have only met one or two of them.

What's Your Favorite Joke?

     As a part of my pledge to be better at journaling promptly in the last quarter, I will now reflect on the research I conducted this afternoon in the IHS library. With my research journal I approached almost every table in the library and introduced myself as a WISE student and then asked if they'd heard any good knock knock jokes recently. To my disappointment, alot of people just couldn't remember any good jokes, or they were just too shy to share them with me. Of the 30 or so people I approached, I only collected 7 appropriate, kid friendly, jokes. However most people said, well I'm not funny, but my friend so and so is hilarious, you should ask them. So now I have a bunch of people to track down and ask about knock knock jokes.
      Why not just get these jokes from a book? I could, and sometimes I do. But the best part about asking other people, is that they only tell you a joke that they find really funny. Chances are if they find it really funny, other people will too. It's also great to interact with the people you've never met before, and I try to tell them all a new joke I've learned if they can't tell me one. Spreading laughter one knock knock joke at a time...

balloon swords

I've finally perfected my balloon sword, up next: swans!

my afternoon on youtube

This afternoon I spent some time on my computer watching youtube videos. The first thing I did was watch an episode of The Big Comfy Couch. This was one of my favorite tv shows when I was a little kid, it caters to 5 and 6 year olds and I was definitely Loonette the Clown one year for halloween. The basic idea of the show is that Loonette is a clown and she lives in a world of clowns, with Grandma Garbonzo and Molly the Dolly on her big comfy couch. She does goofy tings with toys all day and was my inspiration for the type of clown I want to be. She has pigtails and a colorful outfit and is just goofy. She doesn't do alot of tricks but speaks to kids on a personal level, falls down alot and makes silly noises. She uses alot of illiteration in her speech and dance moves/body motions to go with everything she says. By watching these videos I see that younger kids are entertained by her silliness, the random element of the things she says. Everything is very visual, she throws toys and shows pictures  of everything she and her doll molly are thinking of. Lastly, She's always a positive role model, picking up her toys and exercising everyday so that kids will follow suit. If you'd like to get a glimpse this was a good episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jFDah-uTXY&feature=related

I've also been signed up for an e-course, The Ultimate Secrets of Being a Professional Clown, (more on what I've learned on that later) but one of the suggestions was to look up videos of Bob Newhart and his telephone acts. By observing him, clowns can learn to use props to be funny and have conversations with, while being the only person on stage. My particular favorite was the air traffic controller skit... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1MW-nyhxg&feature=related  While watching him in a few other acts I saw him use pauses and facial expressions to really emphasize what he was saying. The fact that he was keeping an incredibly serious face while he was saying hilarious things was just as funny as the thigns he was saying. His acts have made me consider the use of props in my own clowning "act" and what I would say if I had them. Honestly, I have no idea what I would use or say if I had them, so I should probably start thinking!

Mentor Meeting and Monday Successes!

    Today I met with Mr Holl in activities for our weekly mentor meeting. We talked about my recent juggling endevours (see video below) and the people I've been trying to contact in the community. Many people in my WISE class (thanks jimmy and jordan!) have suggested that I clown for those adorable kids we see everyday in the Tots and Teens program. Since their door is always closed I was really hesitant to walk up and just knock; I didn't want to interrupt anything important or come at a bad time. A few have you many have seen me lurking around D-building earlier today, trying to decide what the best course of action would be. Fortunately, Mr. Holl suggested that I knock quietly and ask if it was a good time, using my most polite manners of course.
     Emboldened by our conversation, I left activties and went right to their door, only to find it open and the kids gone! I timidly walked in and was greeted by a really kind, enthusaistic woman who was so excited about my project! We scheduled my clowning for April 12th, 2nd period. When I introduced my name, she was even more excited because apparently she was a close friend of my aunts and knew my entire dads family. Who knew she worked right at the high school! Overall it was a great success and I shouldn't have been nervous about asking. We agreed that I would stop by the week before and make sure it was still a good day.
     Mr. Holl also suggested that I start finding schools and classrooms I can clown in during may and june and make contacts with teachers because the last months of school will be upon us before we know it.

juggling videos

columns and two ball juggling

Jokes!

What's big and grey and flys straight up?
An elecopter!

Why were the elephants thrown out of the swimming pool?
Because they couldn't hold their trunks up!

http://www.jokesnjokes.net/funny.jokes.amusing.humor.laughs/Kids/kideleph001.htm

Community Contacts

Over the past week I've been trying to get some help from the community on my project. The first thing I tried was looking up when the Cornell juggling clubs meets, because I've been having trouble moving past my simple three ball cascade and on to more difficult things. I emailed the listed president of the club who emailed back very quickly with some disappointing news. Their club has dissolved and no longer meets regularly, to my sadness and frustration. I really need someone who knows good tricks to show me how to do them. While learning from The Juggling Book has been extremely helpful, having someone who went through the same learning problems is what I needed. Fortunately Jared Dominguez was super helpful and gave me a whole list of sources that I could learn from

http://www.kingscascade.com/JugglingTricks.html

http://homepage.mac.com/abramr/juggling/tutorial/difficulty/index.html

http://www.twjc.co.uk/tutorials.html  as well as great advice with what to learn next. He said work on more three ball tricks such as columns and then practice two balls in each hand going continually until you're very comfortable and then I should start with four. He also said I could contact him with any questions I had later in the project! I've been working on my columns and my right hand with two balls and slowly but surely each day I've been getting a bit better.

    I also emailed Hilby the German Juggling Boy on tuesday, with no repsonse. I'm planning on calling this coming week because I think he would really help me develop a routine with a few pointers after seeing the videos on his website http://www.hilby.net/who.html. And after all this project is all about interactions with others. I'm assuming my best resources will be other clowns.

    Lastly, I've been searching the Cornell and Ithaca College websites for the past hour trying to find a professor in the physcology or sociology departments who specializes in humor development or sociaal interactions through jokes but as it turns out, no one specializes in that directly. So I'm trying to search through people who's backgrounds look close to those topics and email them with my project idea and ask for their thoughts on what people find funny.

Check list

I <3 To-Do lists! But seriously they're great for keeping myself organized. This upcoming week I will...
Perfect my sword balloon
Contact someone from the Tot and Teens Program-clown for them in april?
Keep researching humor development
Contact someone at either IC or Cornell from a physcology dept who can talk to me about humor

Research Week

      So this past week has been pretty research heavy, but I think I really needed to take the time to sit down and figure some things out. I started learning about how humor develops in children and what people think is funny. As it turns out, theres no good way to define what people think is funny, it varies from culture to culture, between languages, it depends on your upbringing and simply your taste. However a recognition of humor is something that every person is born with. Within one week of being born, babies smile for the first time and by four months of age we all were laughing. Laughter is unconscience, and forced laughter is often difficult to produce, as we all know.
      From my experience at the carnival I learned that the age of the child you're talking to matter so much! Any one under 10 didn't think my riddles were funny at all but when I hit myself with my juggling balls, now that was just hilarious. As it turns out, preschoolers to middle elementary aged kids are still learning to process words and double meanings, so riddles really mean nothing to them. They will be more amused by physical humor and rhymes, twisting of sounds and goofy words repeated over and over. By later elementary age to middle school the play on words in riddles becomes more amusing and as children as learning to create jokes themselves and expanding their vocabulary, riddles become more natural to them. By high school, people are entertained by situational humor. People tell stories and often laugh at the surprising outcome or the unexpected twist.While riddles still can be funny, they are often met with groans.
      When trying to be funny you have to understand the time and the place to employ the humor as well as have good timing. You can't be afraid to laugh at yourself and trust your innate sense of humor, after all we are born with the ability to laugh. You should draw from what you already know to be funny, but also broaden your horizons and test out different types of humor that you aren't always comfortable with. Think silly and focus on the benfits of being a goofball.
      This research helps me get a better of idea of how to be entertaining to all different age groups, although my primary focus is on younger children. I want to keep persuing this line of research because I think it is a key piece to my project, I won't be a very good clown if I'm not funny.  This week I also researched some different sites with videos and written out instructions on how to make sword balloons because I popped so many of them at the carnival and I need to practice before my next event!

Mentor Meeting

Mr Holl and I met 7th period today and discussed how my project has been progressing so far. I went over all of the details of the carnival, most of them positive. I mentioned that I kept popping my swords and Mr Holl mentioned his friend who was a balloon animal whiz said when you keep popping it means you're overfilling. Next time I'm practicing those swords I will try being less generous with my pumping. I explained how I wanted to focus my research, with my macro topics encompassing interactions with people; what they find funny, why do they find it funny, how does the recognition of humor develop as you get older? and my micro topics of research being the fundamental skills of being a clown; juggling, balloons and jokes. Mr Holl suggested I contact a professor at Syracuse, Robert Thompson who specializes in popular culture, tv and basically the science behind entertainment. Thanks Mr Holl!

Why Marigold?

As some of you may have gathered from the last rather lengthy post about my carnival, I have chosen my clown name to be Marigold. Part of my research two weeks ago was to research how a clown picks their name, because besides their costume, thats how they're remembered. Most sources say pick a name that means something to you. Crossroads also advised this, he got his name from the high school year book he started advertising for as a clown way back in his early clowning years. I looked through long lists of names that clowns have had registered with the clown associations of the world and all of them are pretty goofy, some catchy and some just plain weird. I even typed my name into a clown name generator, which are more common on the web these days than you would think. My results were along the lines of His Highness Maryibo Johnihini and the like. So I decided to ask my family for help and my mom came up with Marigold. How perfect! It combines my name and also incorporates the bright, sunny attitude I am hoping to exude as a clown. The name is now on my shoes and every piece of my costume has a different type of flower on it. When I clowned at the carnival it felt very natural to introduce myself as Marigold and I'm confident that the name will stick.

Carnival Pictures

Carnival Reflections

       Heads up, this is going to be a long post, I have so much to share! As you may know, this weekend was the IHS Camp Good Days Carnival that my advisors and I organized. Thank you to everyone who came, this event was more successful than I ever could have hoped. Although the carnival wasn't a part of my wise project, I am more excited than ever after planning it to keep forging ahead on my project. Thinking about what kids would enjoy at a carnival and what activities people have fun is an integral part of being a clown. My experiences at the carnival (to be shared later in the post) have helped me put a focus on my project.
      My focus? How to interact with other people. I've always been a social person, I've been called a chatterbox on more than one occasion and after my experience clowning for kids this weekend I realized that the interaction you have with people is by far the best part of being a clown. I want my macro research questions to focus on my communication with the people I'm clowning for -what do people find funny? How does the understanding of humor evolve as you grow? (most of my jokes were compltely lost on kids younger than 10) What do you do when kids are shy, won't talk to you or are just not interested? How do you separate your personal character from your clown character? The micro research really includes the things I've been learning up until now. How to juggle, most popular balloon animals, my clown costume, those types of aspects.
     The night before the carnival I found all of the necessary components for my costume and all the supplies I needed and put it all on, shoes, hat, the nose, the pants, everything, to make sure I was completely ready. The final touch were a few hair ties with flowers on them and it rounded out the whole costume (thanks mom). I'll include some pictures in a separate post. I didn't see any problems with the costume, I got all my balloons together, my stickers, my pump, and packed my bags for the next morning.
     Set up for the carnival lasted from 9 to 11:45, I then went into the locker room to put on my costume. A few swimmers from the swim meet next door walked by as I was adjusting in the mirror and gave me the most confused looks I have ever seen. One literally stopped and had her mouth open btu I calmly suggested that they stop by our school carnival when they were done with their races and didn't let their confusion phase me.
    At noon I stepped out into the carnival and barely breathed for the next 4 hours. I made over 75 balloon animals. After the 4th time I was asked to make a dolphin I decided not to ask them what they wanted me to make but instead suggested the few animals I knew (dog, horse, giraffe, elephant, flying mouse, cat) and they were rarely disappointed when I explained how cool my giraffe was. I had a few kids come back to me in tears when their balloon animals broke and I was more than happy to fix them up new ones quickly. I had practiced making swords before I went and they went smoothly at home but when I tried to make them at the carnival I broke 5 in front of two kids and it was so embarrassing. The worst thing ever was seeing them disappointed after the second and third balloon popped and finally after the 5th one I had to ask if they'd rather have a giraffe instead. All in all though my balloon animals were such a hit!
    Because my balloon animals were so popular I had very little time to juggle. I'd juggle for a few seconds in front of a table and then I'd feel a tug on my pants and look down to see a little boy or girl with a sheepish parent in tow and they'd ask me to make them a balloon. Alot of little kids (3 or 4) would bring older siblings along to ask (9 or 10) and I would be sure to ask the older sibling if they wanted one too because you could tell they wanted a dog so badly but they didn't want to ask. If I asked and they said no thank you, I'd always offer stickers to both kids, just as an extra fun thing that they got out of the carnival.
     My favorite part about the carnival was the chit chat I had with the little kids. I would start by approaching them and introducing myself as Marigold the clown and then ask them what their name was. When I interviewed Crossroads the Clown one of my biggest questions was "what do you say to the kids?" I was so worried I would run out of things to ask. But once I started asking questions and telling jokes sometimes I had to politely excuse myself from one child to make a balloon for a kid who had been waiting ten minutes.  I would ask their name, where they went to school, if they liked school, did they have pets, sibblings, had they been doing fun thigsn at the carnival, had they been on the bounce house? I would suggest things for them to do and see and I would always address them by their name in the conversation so there was a connection between the two of us.
     It was so rewarding to see how happy kids were to see me and talk to me. Kids I had met earlier in the carnvial would wave to me every time I walked by or drag their friends over to see if I would make them a balloon too. On occasion I would dig quarters out of my pockets and give them to kids and tell them to go play games that I knew they were garunteed to win (these games also happened to benefit the senior class but hey there wasn't really a hidden motive here...)  I talked to their parents too and thanked them for coming to the carnival.
      I have to admit I was sweating for the first half an hour. I was so nervous. Every time I approached a little kid I was so nervous I would pop their balloon or they would be afraid of me or I would trip over my shoes and crush them. But after a while I got my confidence and had a blast! There were only two children that were very shy but eventually they came around and took a sticker, I don't think anyone I talked to was truly afraid of me. That was my main goal though when I planned my costume, don't be scary!! I think it worked very well.
    All in all, I LOVED my first clown experience. It taught me what I still need to work on (making those gosh darn swords) and what I want my project to focus more on so I can become an even better clown. I'll post pictures next and in the next week I'll work on explaining how I picked my name and more research.

3 days until the carnival!

This post is mostly for my own organizational benefit but I'll try to throw in the occasional joke for every one else's enjoyment. We are currently three days from the IHS Camp Good Days Carnival. Since I'm organizing the entire thing I've been eating, sleeping and breathing carnival for the past 3 weeks. While the planning of the event has been stressing me out, I'm looking forward to relaxing and doing a bit of clowning around at the actual event. By Saturday morning I need to have my entire costume finalized. This includes deciding on a shirt, finish decorating my shoes, find the hair ties I've been looking for in my sisters room for a week, make sure my nose stays on, and find a practical way to store my balloons and balloon pump on my person for the entire day. I am still practicing my juggling a little bit every day and the improvements keep on coming! The day before I am going to run through my joke list, and practice a few times on my delivery. I am going to take one last test run through the balloon animals I know how to make and most importantly I have to get myself into the clowning mood! Jokes galore folks, get ready for laughs.

balloon animals

I'd like to share some of my practice balloon animals with you! I've been practicing my orange elephants, black swords, purple giraffes and blue dogs.
Why didn't they invite the giraffe to the party? He was such a pain in the neck!
What do you get when two giraffes collide?  A giraffic jam!  source http://www.sekoj.com/animaljokes/giraffejokes.html
Hey why do dogs wag their tails? Because no one else will do it for them!

Research

Instead of boring my loyal blog followers with my research and citations, I've decided to keep a separate research journal. This week I've been researching the most popular balloon animals so I'm ready at my carnival next weekend. (bring all your friends! March 5, IHS gym, 12-4!!!) To my delight there are many expert opinions on this subject. Dogs, giraffes, flowers, swords and elephants are the most requested balloon creations. Thankfully the first thing I learned to make out of balloons was a dog, followed by a flower. Even cooler, a giraffe is simply a variation on a dog balloon animal. So before the carnival I need to perfect my sword and elephant which shouldn't be a problem.
The coolest thing I discovered however was the flying mouse. What in the world could that be?! Well my friends, it is by far the coolest balloon animal I could make you but it is only used in the msot desperate of circumstances. Imagine a child comes up to me and says "I want a balloon platapus." My worst clown fear would be to disappoint this kid, but I have no idea how to make a platapus out of balloons. So I say, "Well, a platapus would take me 3 years and 1200 balloons...but I'd be happy to make you a flying mouse!" And then i whip out my pump and create the most magical creature and I've made another kid happy. Stay tuned for pictures of my balloon creations. Coming soon!

Juggling

As we all know one of the most important aspects of a clowns routine is juggling and I apologize for not addressing this part of my routine sooner. I have been working very hard for the past three weeks learning to three ball juggle and let me tell you the learning process has not been easy. However after hitting myself in the face countless times, dropping ball after ball and some reeeeeally close calls with a few picture frames...I can juggle! I would like to share a few videos, a before and after glimpse of my juggling abilities. Please enjoy. (ps. thank you Julia for being my camera man.)

The key to learning was practice, practice, practice! My tendancy at first was to throw the ball forward, as you can see in the first video where I nearly clocked my sister a couple times. So to break this habit I stood in front of my bed to practice so I couldn't run forward. Ten minutes a day was all it took!

Elephant Jokes....Enjoy!

What time is is when ten elephants are chasing after you?......ten after one!

What cheers you up when you are sick? ......A get wellephant card!

What weighs 5000 pounds and wears glass slippers?....Cinderelephant!

How do you stop a charging elephant?...take away its credit card

http://www.azkidsnet.com/elephant.htm

Joke of the Week

Since clowns are supposed to be funny, and I since I can only remember one joke thats really gross (I'm sure I've told you all the one about the frog in a blender...) I've decided to start keeping a list of jokes, hopefully more frequently than once a week but I will promise you at least one fantastically funny joke every week. So here it goes....

What do you call an elephant that flies...a jumbo jet!

Teheheheh!

Costume!

Since I was so eager to start my project, I began putting together my clown costume a few weeks ago. During my interview with Crossroads the Clown, he gave me some great websites to order clown gear from. My first shipment came from La Rock's Fun and Magic and I made sure to get some pictures of the first time I wore my clown gear. I ordered a properller cap, nose and the sticky tabs needed to keep the nose on your face (clowns either use stickers or gum/latex glue to keep their noses on) as well as 100 of your classic balloon animal balloons. For my pants I took a trip to the local salvation army and found the most perfect pair of clown pants. My sister helped me put elastic in the bottom, but we decided they needed a little spicing up so I have sewn about 6 of 400 flower buttons in all sizes and colors on the pants. If you'd like to help sew buttons, please feel free to volunteer! I still need to find my clown shirt to go under my bright red suspenders but I'm not too worried about that. Shout out to Safira Amsili who is lending me some clown shoes, thanks! The whole costume has to be perfected by March 5th for our school carnival. I'm still trying to decide what I would like my makeup to look like, or if I would like to wear any at all. Your input would be appreciated!

Two Week Plan

    Over the next two weeks, my goal is to put together my clown costume. A clown is a very visual thing and your costume is probably the first and last thing people remember about you (so says my clown e-course). I have a great image in mind, I just have to put the whole thing together to perfect my clown character. I am also planning on learning my basic three ball juggling and becoming confident in that skill. My dad says 20 minutes every day will make a big change, it'll get your muscle memory to kick in, we'll see! I am also going to find instructions for 2 or 3 of your basic balloon animals.
     All of this is in preparation for our school carnival on Saturday, March 5th  at which I am going to be clowning. Let me take this moment to do some shameless promotion. I am organizing the IHS/Camp Good Days Carnival with the other senior class officers at our school and we would love people to run carnival booths! We ask that you come up with a super fun carnival game, complete with prizes and charge people to play your game. The money you make goes to a club or charity of your choice, however we ask you to donate 20% of your profits to Camp Good Days, which is a camp for children who have been effected by cancer. Please contact me if you are interested. If you don't want to run a booth at least come and see me clown!
      Along with juggling, balloon animals and my costume, I am also going to start collecting kid friendly jokes to use in my routine. Get ready for a joke of the week!

Dear Reader

      My fellow WISE classmates have convinced me that the most fufilling way to document my WISE project would be to blog alll about it, so here we are. For those of you that don't know, WISE projects are for seniors in their second semester to learn about anything of their choosing. We spend 16 weeks engrossing ourselves in the project and journal (or in this case, blog) about the experience and what you've learned about yourself and the world.
     For the next semester, I am learning to become a clown. Excuse me? That's really weird. Why in the world would I choose that as my project? Because I want to spend a semester doing something fun. I want to get up every day and be really excited to do my WISE project. I love to work with people, interact with them on all levels, and being a clown is another way to do this in a very positive way.
     When I interviewed Frank Towner, also known as Crossroads the Clown, he said "My mission in life is to spread joy and laughter to others." This idea really struck me. My WISE project isn't just for my benefit. If I am going to spend a semester working on a project, it should benefit others as well. And what better way to benefit them, then to make them laugh?
     My project will consist of learning to juggle, tell jokes, make balloon animals, creating my clown persona, magic tricks and much more. I want to learn to become a good performer. I've always been able to get up and talk in front of alot of people, no sweat, but I think it takes alot more to get up in front of people and be able to make them laugh. My goal is to learn to be entirely confident in myself, no be afraid to put myself out there and entertain people. I want to learn to handle my frustration when I can't figure out a new trick right away or if people don't find me funny (god forbid).
     My interest in this project came from my dad. He's been taking my family to every magic, juggling and joke show in the Ithaca area for as long as I can remember. He suggested for my project that I learn to juggle. But since I have 16 weeks to learn I decided to broaden my project from just juggling to the whole range of entertainement, and become a clown.
     By the end of the project I hope to be able to visit local elementary schools, the hosptial and local carnivals and perform there. I want to clown as much as possible and entertain people to the best of my ability. If I'm putting in the effort to research and learn I want to be able to showcase my new abilties as often as possible. I'm very excited to start the second semester, and I'm thrilled you've decided to follow my journey! Keep on the look out for future updates.....