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.

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...

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!

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!

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.