A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to BINGO (or how I became a clown)

                 Way back in ancient times, I think it was the late 80’s, I had a part time job calling bingo (still have it by the way).   I made friends with some of the bingo players.  One of them was especially outgoing and I was intrigued by some of the stories she told.  It turned out she was a CLOWN!!  Over the course of several months we started trading magic tricks, juggling tips, & balloon animals that we each knew how to make.  One evening this woman suggested I become a clown as I already had a lot of the skills required, and as luck would have it she was trying to get enough people for a class she wanted to teach.  I didn’t think I would make a very good clown, but as a favor to her I thought I would give it a try.

Class started with seven students and our teacher “Lollybells the Clown or to the non-clowns, Jacki Garner.  It was the summer of 1991 and none of us really knew where this was going to take us; we were all kind of shy and not very outgoing.  Some couldn’t handle the pressure and dropped out, but at the end of our classes those of us left were thrilled and excited to perform at the graduation show.  Not everything went as planned during that show, (it’s hard to juggle scarves under a ceiling fan that’s turned on high).  Everyone there had fun that day, audience and clowns.  It was the start of something I never thought I could do; get up in front of a crowd and act silly on purpose.  I guess I was hooked.

I have done many shows and events over the years, each one taught me something.  I do believe learning to be a clown is something you can not learn overnight, to be good at it you must constantly try to improve, experiment, try new and better ways to entertain your audience (just in the last year I started walking on stilts, for example).  I don’t specialize in any one area, I’m just a clown out for a good time and I’d like to take everyone with me.

Clowning has taken me places I never dreamt of going.  It has taken me to events I doubt Ed would be given admittance to, nor would he dare attend.  I have been in TV commercials, nationally broadcast TV programs, I have clowned at 35,000 feet entertaining a plane load of media and make-a-wish bigwigs along with Dubble bubble: and a bunch of make-a-wish kids.

 I have clowned in the fanciest hotels and homes in Dallas, and also in houses of much lesser means, I am welcomed and accepted in all.  Clowning is truly a universal entertainment medium.

I would be remiss if I did not publicly thank “Lolli” for recognizing something in me that no one else saw or took the time to try and bring out.