I’m not a worker I’m a clown! I can juggle, I can ride a unicycle and I’ve been doing shows for years. But how do I go about being a clown? I stuck at TV antennas for a while and got called out to a job where I saw fairy wings and other similar props and costumes. The woman there called her self Chantel The Fairy, she diagnosed me with repressed clown syndrome – how did she know? She told me a bit about the trade, gave me a tin of face paint and got me my first clown gig.
Darwin was a really happening place for bohemian arts stuff. But clowning is a hard trade and while I had some talent and skills it takes time to get an act together. I was trying out all sorts of stuff, this balloon man was a statue act I tried out in Smith Street Mall. We only made enough money to develop the photos, but it was a fun afternoon.
As much as I loved Darwin poverty, insecure accomodation and tropical heat took its toll on me. So I was skipping between Darwin and the ease, safety and boredom of my parents place in Hervey Bay for a few years. I got involved with allot of festivals around South East Queensland. This juggling stilt clown was a great roving character for festivals and parades.
In Hervey Bay I got involved with Yagubi Festival. They were really keen on workshops and community involvement. So I put together a Clown Ally where I would get a whole bunch of clowns together to do a Clown Stomp around the festival site. I ran these workshops for five years.
In many ways clowning is a hard trade, it can be a long time between gigs and there are a lot of calls from people wanting free work, it is a meagre living. But gosh you get to go to a lot of cool parties. One year I took my Clown Ally to Woodford Festival, it was an awesome, though exhausting, event to be involved in.
Clown Artist Philosopher 