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.....