Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and awesome to stuff
Speaker 1: I've never told to your protection of I heart Radiocasta words.
Speaker 1: Every time we do these intros, I have to think
Speaker 1: about it because the other show I do, we do
Speaker 1: the intro differently, and it just trips me up every
Speaker 1: single time. And from me, I start, I don't know why.
Speaker 1: That silence for me brings in random thoughts, and then
Speaker 1: I started laughing at my random thoughts. I was singing
Speaker 1: a song on my head as you were saying it,
Speaker 1: and I really just wanted to sing it, and I'm
Speaker 1: like this, there's no reason for me to do this.
Speaker 1: There there are plenty. There are plenty of but this
Speaker 1: one just doesn't fit at all. Okay, it's just the
Speaker 1: last song I heard as I was coming, you know,
Speaker 1: into record. So the last song I heard before I
Speaker 1: came into record was Come as you are Barton Fauna. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was on shuffle and that's what I got. Yes,
Speaker 1: but we're not talking about Nirvana today. We are following
Speaker 1: up on an episode we did a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago about the history of female clowns, and for that episode,
Speaker 1: we really wanted to get actual clowns to come in
Speaker 1: and speak about their experiences, but due to scheduling, we
Speaker 1: weren't able to for that episode. But we did find
Speaker 1: two female clowns who are willing to speak with us,
Speaker 1: and they were wonderful. It was a delight. They were wonderful.
Speaker 1: I um was so inspired just about their commitment and
Speaker 1: their love for it. It kind of had one of
Speaker 1: those moments of like, h you scare me in makeup,
Speaker 1: but I love what you do. Well. You even said
Speaker 1: that in the in the interview and you're they were like,
Speaker 1: but look, how cute and they were super cute. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I was like, look, no, some
Speaker 1: things now they were amazing and they were are so
Speaker 1: passionate and they just they're so loving the empathy they
Speaker 1: had to have and just the things that they had
Speaker 1: to handle. And I'm not even really trained as in
Speaker 1: like the profession as counselor would you know, doctor, any
Speaker 1: of that to be in that world and they just
Speaker 1: sacrifice and because they're there. How they were like they're
Speaker 1: there often four times a week or something, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, wow, that's a lot to be and
Speaker 1: that and again, they told so many amazing stories because
Speaker 1: kids are amazing yes, um, and it was one of
Speaker 1: those interviews. Right after we stopped recording, they told like
Speaker 1: another amazing story. Were kind of bummed we stop recording
Speaker 1: such a good story. They also did magic tricks and
Speaker 1: they were bubbles and I filmed it. I know it
Speaker 1: was coming good. Perfect. There was a tutor just just
Speaker 1: too weird. Every time I hear tutor, though I hear
Speaker 1: I think t U d o R. So I was
Speaker 1: really confused the entire time. T U t o R
Speaker 1: We're not talking about of it's literally t O O
Speaker 1: t e R. Very important tool. Um. So you're going
Speaker 1: to hear all of this and more. Uh yeah, so
Speaker 1: let's get into the interview. Okay. So I like to
Speaker 1: start these with a very basic Hi, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1: Could you tell us a bit about yourselves, who you are,
Speaker 1: what you do while you're here? Yeah? Um, I'm Maya
Speaker 1: and um I'm the program director for UH an organization
Speaker 1: called Humorology Atlanta Ha, and I'm also health care clown.
Speaker 1: Our organization is a health care clown organization and we
Speaker 1: put um professional performers in children's hospitals to bring joy
Speaker 1: to people in need of joy. So that's what that's
Speaker 1: what I do in the hospital. I'm dctor Mimi, very
Speaker 1: serious and professional. Yes, clown and um, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I'm here because I think I was asked to be
Speaker 1: here because you're doing a thing on lady clowns, and
Speaker 1: I am also a lady. For the record, just wander
Speaker 1: in here. She was invited. Yeah, I'm actually busted into
Speaker 1: your I was gonna say, I just met Gina in
Speaker 1: the bathroom. I was like, hey, you want to come
Speaker 1: hang out? Yeah? Essentially that did see absolutely it was
Speaker 1: a weird moment. Not the first time for me, though.
Speaker 1: It literally was like, oh, won't be the last. She's
Speaker 1: coming to see me. Turn back around those weird pathroom
Speaker 1: moments anyway, and you hi. I am January Kicky, and
Speaker 1: I am one of the healthcare clowns with humorology Atlanta.
Speaker 1: My doctor name is Dr TBD to be determined, m
Speaker 1: forty years old. She still doesn't know what. You don't
Speaker 1: tell people how old I am. Please stop this. She's
Speaker 1: clearly not a day over twenty two. Everyone listening at home,
Speaker 1: I have listening dewey skin and very young. Um, and
Speaker 1: I'm also uh an improviser and an actress and a
Speaker 1: writer and uh but this is kind of my main
Speaker 1: gig and definitely the one that I love the most. Oh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were so glad to have you here because we
Speaker 1: did recently do an episode on the history of female
Speaker 1: clowns and the present of female clowns and the future
Speaker 1: of female clowns, and of course we wanted people to
Speaker 1: come in with actual experience, not just as to researching
Speaker 1: in our computer, to give it more depth. Um, could
Speaker 1: you go into a little bit more about humroology Atlanta
Speaker 1: or had you call it? Yeah? Sure, So our organization
Speaker 1: is just about three years old. However, many of our
Speaker 1: clowns have been doing this work for up to twenty
Speaker 1: years here. So we were originally under the umbrella of
Speaker 1: the Big actual Circus. We were part of a community
Speaker 1: outreach program that they ran called um clown Care, which
Speaker 1: existed in several cities in the United States. But when
Speaker 1: the circus went bankrupt and we had to figure out
Speaker 1: how to keep ourselves alive, so we started our own
Speaker 1: nonprofit organization here in Atlanta and worked our butts off
Speaker 1: to keep the program alive and to keep the clowns
Speaker 1: in the hospital serving the kids and the families. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's what we've been doing for the past three years.
Speaker 1: Many of the same awesome clowns, but we like to
Speaker 1: say newer, awesomer company. And now we've hired some new
Speaker 1: clowns as well, so our team is changing. We've got
Speaker 1: a team of twelve, twelve amazing clowns, amazing performers. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's awesome that we work in three different locations, uh
Speaker 1: through through show through Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, who are
Speaker 1: we are very very lucky to be working with. They
Speaker 1: decided to continue the relationship after Big Apple one unitor
Speaker 1: and we always work in pairs, so there's always two
Speaker 1: clowns working each shift. Um, we have eight shifts a
Speaker 1: week and uh we have we alternate Saturdays between two
Speaker 1: of the hospitals, and so we have specific rounds that
Speaker 1: we go on when we're in the hospital, you know,
Speaker 1: like Okay, so today we're going to go to the
Speaker 1: pick you and the emergency room, and we're going to
Speaker 1: go to Affleck, which is where a lot of where
Speaker 1: it's just where the cancer research and treatment is or
Speaker 1: we're gonna go to infusion or that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And it changes from hospital to hospital, and from day
Speaker 1: to day it's really cool. One of the reasons that
Speaker 1: both of you are here is because a coworker of
Speaker 1: mine and I think a mutual acquaintance of bars, Lauren Vogelbaumb.
Speaker 1: She told me when I said, oh, I'm researching this
Speaker 1: episode on clowns, and She's like, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: have some people you should talk to, and I kind
Speaker 1: of forgot. But there's this whole aspect of clowning, and
Speaker 1: I think that is a big problem or at least
Speaker 1: like a misconception when people think of this one particular
Speaker 1: type of clowns. Sure, but there's all of this other
Speaker 1: stuff and this like really beautiful work you're doing UM.
Speaker 1: And I read that you're also expanding into UM senior
Speaker 1: care facilities. Is that correct, Yes, so we are. We're
Speaker 1: developing and have just done a pilot for our new program,
Speaker 1: which is called the Exquisite Visit, and it's different take
Speaker 1: on it's it's still clown but it's specifically geared towards
Speaker 1: seniors and even more specifically towards memory care residents, and
Speaker 1: it's all about trying to reach the client wherever they
Speaker 1: are and to bring them out into whatever space they
Speaker 1: exist in together with the clown. So it uses a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, image like costume wise image from
Speaker 1: the thirties, forties, fifties, and music from that time period
Speaker 1: as well. It's a lot about the imagination and being
Speaker 1: able to try level with the client wherever they want
Speaker 1: to go and make things come to life for them
Speaker 1: imagistically so that you can have adventures together and have
Speaker 1: an emotional experience together. So are each patient or the
Speaker 1: patients who are part of the program assigned a specific
Speaker 1: person clown. No, the way that we have done it
Speaker 1: so far, we've done it. We've done a pilot, a
Speaker 1: six week pilot at Wesley Woods and we had five
Speaker 1: so it was amazing. Yeah, it was great. And our
Speaker 1: our senior clowns are a bit different. They're very elegant
Speaker 1: and polite and manner full and really give attention to
Speaker 1: specifically to each person and we go room to room
Speaker 1: just like we do in the pediatric hospital. So we'll
Speaker 1: go to the residence door and knock and ask if
Speaker 1: we could come in for a visit, and then we
Speaker 1: come in and try to provide them with an exquisite
Speaker 1: visit where they are the star. Maybe they help us
Speaker 1: in some way. Um, we asked them for advice. You know, like,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if this hat goes with this dress.
Speaker 1: You know, what do you think should I put a
Speaker 1: veil on it? Or uh, you know, asking them for
Speaker 1: There was this one couple that is just stunning, amazing
Speaker 1: and they've been married for over sixty years and it's
Speaker 1: one of One thing that's different about going into the
Speaker 1: senior facilities is that you're literally walking into someone's home.
Speaker 1: So for the children, even though we have children who
Speaker 1: are what we call frequent flyers, so kids who have
Speaker 1: treatment that requires them to come back or perhaps requires
Speaker 1: them to stay for longer periods of time, so they
Speaker 1: get to know us and we develop a longer term
Speaker 1: relationship with them. You're really going into this this room
Speaker 1: where they have their most precious objects and everything they own.
Speaker 1: Everyone they pictures of their whole history. And yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's lovely to to meet them and get some smiles
Speaker 1: and get some laughs, and you're helping reduced isolation and
Speaker 1: help create a sense of community, which is really important. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Um do you I know before we started recording, we
Speaker 1: were talking about, um, the other kind of task that
Speaker 1: you've had to learn our our abilities or skill set.
Speaker 1: You've had to get like to go into hospitals. You're
Speaker 1: talking about hygiene, Yes, did you go into some of
Speaker 1: that STUFFE Well, first question is how do you get
Speaker 1: involved to become a clown? Excellent questions? This is yes, yeah. Um, well,
Speaker 1: so I guess it's sort of a combination between a
Speaker 1: traditional job and a theater job or or you know,
Speaker 1: an acting role. Um where you come in for an
Speaker 1: audition and people who are interested in the work and
Speaker 1: feel that they have an appropriate skill set can send
Speaker 1: us a letter of interest and a headshot and when
Speaker 1: auditions come around, which is very very rare because this
Speaker 1: job is so awesome that nobody leaves because it's the
Speaker 1: best job ever consistent. Um, So adding people to the
Speaker 1: team is a rarity, but everybody that we've added is amazing.
Speaker 1: So UM. Then there's an audition process where you come
Speaker 1: in and you do a couple of minutes of your
Speaker 1: best material, and um, we'll put you through some exercises
Speaker 1: and see if we can find this sort of person
Speaker 1: who's the right fit for the rest of the team
Speaker 1: and who has the artistic skills necessary and where we
Speaker 1: can see a level of um heart and love and
Speaker 1: vulnerability that we think would um be an appropriate match
Speaker 1: for the emotional content of the work as well, because
Speaker 1: I can imagine it's very stressful and very taxing. It is,
Speaker 1: but it's also it's also very joyful and in that
Speaker 1: you are allowing a child to be a child. You know,
Speaker 1: you're not in there talking about what what next medication
Speaker 1: they're going to get, or if they feel nauseous, or
Speaker 1: what pain level and that they're at or something. We're
Speaker 1: going in there and creating chaos and inviting them to play,
Speaker 1: or sometimes we're going in there and we're soothing and
Speaker 1: we're singing lullabys or you know, if you know, there
Speaker 1: was one child that I was working with that just
Speaker 1: had possibly a form of CP or something, but she
Speaker 1: had a lot of spasms, and so the way to
Speaker 1: go in there was to go in there with a
Speaker 1: low energy and you uh, you make a connection, and
Speaker 1: then she was able to calm them a little bit
Speaker 1: and then start popping bubbles and she was delighted, you know,
Speaker 1: she was laughing, and her caretaker was shocked, you know. UM.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the other wonderful things says when
Speaker 1: we go in there and we surprise the parents or
Speaker 1: the caretakers because maybe this is the first time that
Speaker 1: the child has smiled in weeks or or or left
Speaker 1: or gotten saucy, or even moved or responded or tracked something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's awesome, it's it's it takes when you're so when
Speaker 1: you're coming into this, we have all of our clowns
Speaker 1: have very different training backgrounds. Um. They are all professional
Speaker 1: performers and they are professionally trained. UM. But when you
Speaker 1: come to this, it's one of the biggest components is
Speaker 1: having a heart of service and having a comfort with
Speaker 1: every type of medical situation. And so it's not for everybody, UM,
Speaker 1: and it's it's tough for us sometimes. And you have
Speaker 1: to be able to stay in a state of being
Speaker 1: hyper aware all the time because you're constantly re analyzing
Speaker 1: every audience. I mean, your audience changes as every two minutes,
Speaker 1: you know, and you're going into a completely different stress level,
Speaker 1: completely different age, different gender. Um, maybe the kid is alone,
Speaker 1: maybe families there, I mean, everything can be completely different
Speaker 1: room to room. So you have to be able to
Speaker 1: take in all of that information instantly so that you
Speaker 1: can make the appropriate choice for the child. What do
Speaker 1: they need in that moment and that's what we want
Speaker 1: to be able to provide for them. Uh we uh,
Speaker 1: we have essentially two hours on in the morning, and
Speaker 1: then we have a lunch break for an hour, and
Speaker 1: then we have two hours on in the afternoon for
Speaker 1: the pediatric program. And so I like to consider that
Speaker 1: to two hour sets essentially if you're doing like a
Speaker 1: show or an improv set or something like that, because
Speaker 1: as soon as we leave the room, we are in
Speaker 1: clown and everyone we interact with it's not the human Gina,
Speaker 1: it's Dr TVD, it's Dr Mimi. We're still able to
Speaker 1: have adult conversations when we check in with the nurses,
Speaker 1: because we do perform check ins every time we go
Speaker 1: to a new unit, uh, so that we can get
Speaker 1: kind of a temperature for the floor or places we
Speaker 1: definitely should not go or um maybe perhaps information that
Speaker 1: will help inform how we approach the child. So if
Speaker 1: the child has any delays or sensory issues, we like
Speaker 1: to just know about those. We don't need to know
Speaker 1: a diagnosis, We just need to know where the kid
Speaker 1: is at. So if you know, if the kid perhaps
Speaker 1: has a visual impairment, let's go in there with a
Speaker 1: lot of sound, you know, let's and let's engage them
Speaker 1: with music or you know, fart noises, Yeah, which Dr
Speaker 1: Mimi brought her. That's one of my specialty. Yeah. You
Speaker 1: had a couple of things and I was like, what
Speaker 1: are these things? Oh yeah, these are I mean this
Speaker 1: was for work, This is for my work stuff. This
Speaker 1: isn't ye we all are and he's not listening to okay,
Speaker 1: m oh yeah that well man, that one slipped out.
Speaker 1: That one just slipped. There's variety. It's like a conversation. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: that's very impressive. Thank you. You might have like I
Speaker 1: feel like I have a really weird job, but like
Speaker 1: the stuff I have to buy in search, but you
Speaker 1: might have to. You might have meat. You know. It's
Speaker 1: not a competition. We're all weird here. It's I'm holding
Speaker 1: out my camera. Was like, why am I not taking
Speaker 1: pictures of this stuffy keep going, keep tooting great. I
Speaker 1: don't think it might be the first props we've ever
Speaker 1: She can't prepare, man, Yeah, I got some more stuff
Speaker 1: in my bad guys. We need to get crazy out here.
Speaker 1: Well we can. I didn't bring my role of t P,
Speaker 1: which I'm regretting. You did. You bring TP good. I
Speaker 1: feel like, this is just like always prepared clowns, right,
Speaker 1: you gotta be prepared. I always carry TP and kids,
Speaker 1: we have to TP somebody's room. Yeah, that's fair. Like
Speaker 1: so if we go into a room, and especially if
Speaker 1: the kid isn't there and we know them, uh, then
Speaker 1: we like to t P their bed, TP the room
Speaker 1: so that when they come back from maybe having X
Speaker 1: ray or having a procedure or something, they know the
Speaker 1: clowns were in there messing things or like a teenager
Speaker 1: who's on their laptop or some then we're just like
Speaker 1: to just pretend we're not even here in the role keeping.
Speaker 1: I did that with one kid the other day, and
Speaker 1: he was just because it's there's this beautiful, this beautiful
Speaker 1: time in a person's life where they are so over
Speaker 1: everything around them because they're preteens or they're teenagers. A
Speaker 1: lot of times the teenagers think that they're too old
Speaker 1: for us. A lot of times the preteens are just
Speaker 1: so embarrassed that we're even in there. So we TPED
Speaker 1: this kid and he did not look up from his
Speaker 1: phone the entire time. The mom was losing it, she
Speaker 1: was laughing so hard, and then we were just like, okay, thanks,
Speaker 1: all right, cool, see you later, buddy close to her.
Speaker 1: That's valuable too for them. Yeah, I have a moment
Speaker 1: and you know that kid cracked up the second part exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, my mom was able to go over and
Speaker 1: maybe pokem and just being come on, this is funny.
Speaker 1: At least a couple of good pictures weren't had to
Speaker 1: be made right there. So out of curiosity, how did
Speaker 1: each of you personally get into this position, this type
Speaker 1: of this is what I want to do. Obviously, you
Speaker 1: guys love it and you have a lot of empathy
Speaker 1: for this job. How did you get here? Um my
Speaker 1: story is much shorter than her, so my ego first.
Speaker 1: Um So, I'm also a founder of the amazing theater
Speaker 1: company here in Atlanta called Out of Hand, And one
Speaker 1: of the things that we did with this company was
Speaker 1: a lot of on tomble training, and so we brought
Speaker 1: trainings in from all different places and this was like
Speaker 1: my thing, Like I loved training ontoble, training on tumble
Speaker 1: creation group, physical work, physical theater is my jam. Uh.
Speaker 1: She's a big nerd guy. I'm I'm a little girlfriend.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful at home here there. We thank you nerds.
Speaker 1: Um So, you know, we had had to learn a
Speaker 1: little bit about clown in college and undergrad and stuff,
Speaker 1: and I was like, it was fine, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: something that I really thought of as something I needed
Speaker 1: or wanted or you know, I was wanted to do
Speaker 1: on some of Creation or maybe Shakespeare that I loved.
Speaker 1: But then we did some clown work with some of
Speaker 1: my colleagues that I've been working with for a really
Speaker 1: long time, and just seeing them in some of the
Speaker 1: basic exercises that it's all about working on vulnerability and
Speaker 1: allowing people to see uh into you and to have
Speaker 1: an emotional conversation with the audience. This was something that
Speaker 1: I hadn't really seen in that way and wasn't necessary
Speaker 1: really the way I've been introduced to clown And I
Speaker 1: saw something new in performers that I thought I knew
Speaker 1: their whole bag of tricks and like exactly how they
Speaker 1: would do everything, which I found fascinating and I thought, well,
Speaker 1: they're really there is something to this. So then I
Speaker 1: nerded out and read a whole bunch of stuff about
Speaker 1: clowning and tried to go find trainings and you know,
Speaker 1: look into all that sort of stuff, and I got
Speaker 1: a little bit not obsessed, but I got excited about
Speaker 1: it and I started to really see the great value
Speaker 1: of it for me as an actor and how it's
Speaker 1: foundational really for an actor um to be believable on stage.
Speaker 1: UM and I heard about this gig, this healthcare clown thing,
Speaker 1: because a couple of my friends were doing it. It
Speaker 1: had just started in Atlanta, I guess they were a
Speaker 1: year or two in and UM. Eventually auditions came around
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm totally going to audition for that.
Speaker 1: It just purely because I wanted to learn more about clowning.
Speaker 1: I didn't I had It's not that I didn't care
Speaker 1: about the kids at that time, but I kind of
Speaker 1: had blinders onto that part, like the service element of
Speaker 1: the job, and I just wanted to learn about the
Speaker 1: artistic element of the job. But then I started doing it,
Speaker 1: and then she discovered that she has feelings. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: my mind kind of exploded because I've always thought that
Speaker 1: um art was good for people and that by being
Speaker 1: a performer I could I was giving something, but not
Speaker 1: like this. You know, this is just totally different, and
Speaker 1: it's it's a whole new kind of challenge and it's
Speaker 1: the perfect intersection of um art and service and heart
Speaker 1: and that just it kind of blew my mind, and
Speaker 1: so I didn't Uh. I wanted to get better and
Speaker 1: better at it, and I got so frustrated about it
Speaker 1: because I just wanted to be really great at it.
Speaker 1: And I had a great mentor on the team, Vincenzo Tortici,
Speaker 1: who was our leader at the time. He was really
Speaker 1: inspiring as well and really helped me on that journey.
Speaker 1: And then I left the team for a while to
Speaker 1: go get my graduate degree in England and uh, she's smart, yell,
Speaker 1: and and have a baby because they have a deal
Speaker 1: over there where you can get to graduate degrees and
Speaker 1: get a free baby. I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: know about this, So I will not be going. That's
Speaker 1: what me and my husband did, So we came back
Speaker 1: with a baby and to graduate degrees. Um. But luckily
Speaker 1: I was able to study clown and stuff with some
Speaker 1: over there too, and I got to come back on
Speaker 1: the team and I was just um ready in a
Speaker 1: whole new way as an artist and as a mom,
Speaker 1: and um, yeah, I just can't imagine being without it now.
Speaker 1: I just I love it and I'll do anything I
Speaker 1: can to keep it going and keep it growing and
Speaker 1: keep it getting better, and to try to get us
Speaker 1: serving as many more people as we can with anybody
Speaker 1: who's in need of joy, you know. So that's awesome,
Speaker 1: that's lovely. Yeah, all right. So I've been uh and
Speaker 1: training and acting since I was about thirteen years old. UM.
Speaker 1: But you know, we were talking a little bit before
Speaker 1: about how I lived in New York. So I went
Speaker 1: to school in New York, and I lived in New
Speaker 1: York and it just burned me out, man, and so
Speaker 1: I eventually, UM, my parents, who I'm super close with, uh,
Speaker 1: they were down in Atlanta. So I reached a point
Speaker 1: in my twenties where I was just like, you know what,
Speaker 1: thanks New York. It's been real by so I moved
Speaker 1: down here. But I have been uh for most of
Speaker 1: my adult life. I was always working some sort of
Speaker 1: day job. When I lived in New York, A worked
Speaker 1: at a giant financial institution, which was not fun for
Speaker 1: five years, um, credit suites. Uh. And then when I
Speaker 1: moved down here, I've had I've always had very sensible
Speaker 1: day jobs, and then I've chased my dreams on nights
Speaker 1: and weekends. And then it kind of I hit this
Speaker 1: one point where kind of everything that I was I
Speaker 1: thought I was moving towards like kind of fell apart,
Speaker 1: right And then I was like, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to freelance. I'm going to be a freelance person.
Speaker 1: And so I was freelancing for a while and doing
Speaker 1: you know, essentially like freelance acting gigs and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff and trying to pick up work. Then
Speaker 1: one of my buddies who was on the team, it
Speaker 1: was like, you should really come on audition for this.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, sure, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have my I have my b f A. I love.
Speaker 1: I love acting so much. It is it is if
Speaker 1: I'm not creating something, then I don't feel right. Everything
Speaker 1: feels off in my life. Um. And so I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like I've children loved me, but I've
Speaker 1: never wanted to have any myself, and I've always been
Speaker 1: like I enjoyed children with a time limit. And you know,
Speaker 1: so I was like, you know, if there was a
Speaker 1: child crying in public, I'd be like, oh my gosh, um,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of that insolent, petulant type of reaction.
Speaker 1: So I was just like, you know what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try this. Let's just see. Um. I love
Speaker 1: serving people, I love helping, I love serving, so let's
Speaker 1: just see if it works somehow. So I got it.
Speaker 1: I got an audition and I did a partially improvised
Speaker 1: monologue based on a communic character that I had done,
Speaker 1: uh in a in a show. And that's that's my thing.
Speaker 1: Is I love comedy. I love doing comedy, physical comedy. Uh.
Speaker 1: I've done some clown training, but I just love outrageous
Speaker 1: physical comedy. It was so funny. I laughed my face off,
Speaker 1: so funny, and it was about botox, which made it
Speaker 1: even funnier. Yes, Um, I was lucky enough to one
Speaker 1: of my buddies to for Pain, who was a local playwright,
Speaker 1: wrote this one role that I did, and it was
Speaker 1: a woman who had had a botox accident and she
Speaker 1: could no longer move her face. And so the entire
Speaker 1: you can't see this at home, but I'm doing ventriloquism,
Speaker 1: the entire monologue, how to the delivered without moving my face. Um.
Speaker 1: So thankfully it worked. And then I got to go
Speaker 1: into the hospital and it was I was so nervous
Speaker 1: because you have people there who are They're experts at mine,
Speaker 1: they're experts at juggling, they're experts at magic. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm a great improviser and I can make a joke
Speaker 1: out of just about anything. Uh. And so I was
Speaker 1: very lucky that I got to go in there and
Speaker 1: audition and somehow I made it onto the team. The
Speaker 1: callbacks were in the hospital, so we did bring people
Speaker 1: into the hospital environment before. Yeah, so I was kind
Speaker 1: of walking around and I was like, all right, okay, cool, cool,
Speaker 1: um it's it's a My grandmother was in a nursing
Speaker 1: home for like sixteen years, so I'm very comfortable with
Speaker 1: medical environments and with long term care environments and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Um. So I went in there and
Speaker 1: I loved it. And I had I learned about handwashing. Guys,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that in a second. I
Speaker 1: really need it, but I uh one of the things
Speaker 1: that I discovered. So you know, I made it through
Speaker 1: that and then they were like, all right, come onto
Speaker 1: the team for a probationary period. We had a clown
Speaker 1: come down from New York City and she was working
Speaker 1: with us as sort of like a training week, and
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And I remember sitting at lunch
Speaker 1: in our then dressing room at one of the hospitals,
Speaker 1: and I started crying because I mean, number one, I'm
Speaker 1: a soft touch, but number two, it was the first
Speaker 1: time that I understood that there was a reason that
Speaker 1: I had been given the gifts that I have, and
Speaker 1: that there was actually a place for them to be used.
Speaker 1: Two make people's lives appreciably better. Like I sang a
Speaker 1: hungry infant to sleep, like she couldn't be fed because
Speaker 1: she was going to have to have surgery or something.
Speaker 1: You know, who knows what Their grandmother was holding her
Speaker 1: and I saying that baby to sleep and I was like,
Speaker 1: whoa what what? That is the thing I can do?
Speaker 1: Are you crazy? And the person that I was UM
Speaker 1: with at the time, Dctor not right When we walked
Speaker 1: out of the room, he looked at me and he
Speaker 1: said he's like, you got to touch buddy. He's like,
Speaker 1: this is this is for you? And it was just
Speaker 1: one of those things where I was like, oh, of
Speaker 1: course this is what this is what I'm sure I
Speaker 1: thought I should be doing. This guy's UM. So it's
Speaker 1: been a real learning experience UM. And there are highs
Speaker 1: and there are lows, um and they are really tough days,
Speaker 1: and they're really just ridiculously fun days. But any day
Speaker 1: that I get to do it, I'm so grateful. Um
Speaker 1: so about that hand hygiene, that was beautiful, that was
Speaker 1: that's amazing. This is stories that I would have never
Speaker 1: thought of when we were doing the clown special or
Speaker 1: the Colm episode special. Clown episode. I did say, please
Speaker 1: don't let them dress up, because I do. I'm one
Speaker 1: of those people who does have a few of the
Speaker 1: clown You have a little bit cloud, yes, probably pretty
Speaker 1: a good bit. Also told the story that with any
Speaker 1: there's a very big backstory to that. That was a
Speaker 1: negative experience on top of my experience at the sarcas
Speaker 1: with a guy coming after just different things. But the
Speaker 1: Joe question back story that was too negative that I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm the negative Nelly of the group between the
Speaker 1: two of m like, I'm not gonna add this one,
Speaker 1: but no. So in general, I'm just like a little
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely petrified, to the point that even today someone
Speaker 1: in full garb was like, shrink away cost you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: these make up they are adorable. You guys are not
Speaker 1: on that level. But are the things that we were
Speaker 1: talking about, was it. Yeah, I know, I'm we're about
Speaker 1: to We're about to start dealing with that once we
Speaker 1: go into the hospital. But let's remember, guys, it is
Speaker 1: not a clown the monsters, that's true. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: thinking about that other day. It's like, we really should
Speaker 1: be spiders should be the ones. A lot more people
Speaker 1: are scared of spiders. I'm not as scared of spiders
Speaker 1: in that letter because I can actually stop one to death.
Speaker 1: That's the Yeah. I like spiders. They chase me. I
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go after you. Yeah, I mean, if there's
Speaker 1: a saucy one, yeah, if they're hanging out in the
Speaker 1: corner too leaving them be. But if it's coming at
Speaker 1: me or was hanging above me where I know it's
Speaker 1: about to drop on me, We're gonna have a fight,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna I'm gonna freaking win. We have a
Speaker 1: lot more to discuss with our wonderful interviewees, but first
Speaker 1: we're going to pause for a quick break for word
Speaker 1: from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored. Let's
Speaker 1: get back into the interview. Yeah, so this is a
Speaker 1: really beautiful day because I think any you know, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about that these are the things that I haven't
Speaker 1: thought about in a long time, and I knew it existed.
Speaker 1: That people come into entertain to give a distraction and
Speaker 1: a lot and this is really beautiful to hear your
Speaker 1: stories and um, how you're going into it. But with that, yes,
Speaker 1: tell us the things that we need to know that
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have thought about once you go into So
Speaker 1: one of the things to keep in mind any time
Speaker 1: you are in a medical surrounding, you need to hygiene
Speaker 1: is super important. It's very important for us because we
Speaker 1: are moving across all levels of the hospital. We are
Speaker 1: entertaining kids with compromised immune systems UM. Some of them
Speaker 1: have no immune systems, you know, like where we're dealing
Speaker 1: with kids who are maybe they're okay normally, but anything
Speaker 1: extract you know what, the chemo, chemotherapy UM is really tough.
Speaker 1: Chemo and radiation really tough on kids, and it really
Speaker 1: knocks down their natural defenses. So the last thing that
Speaker 1: we want to do is bring anything into them. So
Speaker 1: anytime we're on a new unit, we wash our hands
Speaker 1: UM and the way that you wash your hands, my friends,
Speaker 1: all right, so you take it for real? Is there
Speaker 1: a song for because if there is, I want you
Speaker 1: to sing it, we have it's usually that you can
Speaker 1: do the alphabet or happy Pappy Birthday. Well that's how
Speaker 1: long you need to have on you. So the important
Speaker 1: one of the most important things with handwashing is friction. Okay.
Speaker 1: So first the thing you're going to do is you're
Speaker 1: going to wet your hands. Okay, and yeah, you want
Speaker 1: to take a video and Samantha needs this information. So
Speaker 1: um so your hands are now wet. So now you
Speaker 1: put the soap on it. And so this is how
Speaker 1: you go. You put your palms together. So happy birthday
Speaker 1: to you, Happy birthday, and especially if it's our for
Speaker 1: swash of the day, Gina would be no rings, no
Speaker 1: watch yeah, no rings those any piss for bacterias to
Speaker 1: any time you have a chef that has rings on,
Speaker 1: don't eat their food because that's where bacteria hides. Um.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna hook your fingers around each other. Now
Speaker 1: this area right here, the pad at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the thumb and the thumb are often the most neglected areas.
Speaker 1: And what you do that is you just coind of
Speaker 1: twistt twist toists twist right, So now you've gotten between
Speaker 1: your fingers you've got in the palms, you're gonna rub
Speaker 1: the backs of your hands. And also if this is
Speaker 1: the first wash of the day, then I'm also going
Speaker 1: to be rinsing under my nails. So you scrape your
Speaker 1: nails right, and then you're gonna you're still foamy, and
Speaker 1: you're going to do your wrists right. And now you
Speaker 1: you rinse from wrist to hand. Wrist so wrist to
Speaker 1: fingertip like that. Okay, shake it and then draw your
Speaker 1: hands and you're good to go. And then we make
Speaker 1: sure we also foam in and fomat of rooms or
Speaker 1: gel in and gel out of rooms. Don't hand sanitizer,
Speaker 1: so hand sanitizer, they're awesome antimicrobial hand sanitizer, which has
Speaker 1: made my hands look like Baba Yaga's. I only have
Speaker 1: chicken faith for hands now, terrible old lady hands. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be like Madonna and start wearing finger at gloves. UM.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's very very important. UM. Over nine of
Speaker 1: infections are spread through touching your eyes. It's the mucous
Speaker 1: membrane in your eye. So your eyes, your nose, and
Speaker 1: your mouth, you don't touch them unless your hands are clean. UM.
Speaker 1: Super super important, and then you washed immediately after you
Speaker 1: do exactly, and so for us also, we also wash
Speaker 1: after any time we get to give a kid a
Speaker 1: high five, or you know, any kind any of that
Speaker 1: sort of interaction. Everywhere we go there will be UM
Speaker 1: signs that say if kids are on contact or contact droplet,
Speaker 1: if there's any reason why touching might be passing infection
Speaker 1: from them to you, in which case we gout and
Speaker 1: glove and put on masks to go into the room.
Speaker 1: But we also try to treat anybody that we encounter
Speaker 1: as the potential. You don't know what they have, and
Speaker 1: the last thing we want is for the clowns to
Speaker 1: or anybody to bring something to somebody who's has a
Speaker 1: compromised immune system or happens to be allergic to whatever
Speaker 1: that thing is. UM. And I remember, I think, was
Speaker 1: that working with you that time where we were in
Speaker 1: a waiting room. Kids are playing and stuff, and I
Speaker 1: was watching this kid and playing the ukulele, and my
Speaker 1: partner's over here was that you blowing bubbles or something,
Speaker 1: and this kid UM just like pulled the biggest booker
Speaker 1: out of his mass. He was clearly one of those
Speaker 1: booger kids. You know how they are, and you know,
Speaker 1: and then it went straight in his mouth. And then
Speaker 1: and and Gina's going to give kids high fives. I'm like,
Speaker 1: not this one. I'm not gonna hi five this guy.
Speaker 1: She gave me the look again. We have of we
Speaker 1: have looks that are just like we're still in clown
Speaker 1: and she'll just give me the no shaky Oh boy.
Speaker 1: We're having fun, aren't we. We gotta go. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: there there are some um gooey children. There are children,
Speaker 1: and that the great descriptor gooey children. You know, they've
Speaker 1: got the sticky hands and they got sticky faces. They
Speaker 1: still want to have fun, though, and sometimes they come
Speaker 1: up and they touch you and you can't stop them.
Speaker 1: And then we have something called ox of Ear, which
Speaker 1: is a fantastic um antimicrobial uh spray that we use
Speaker 1: medical grade and we can spray our costumes. We also
Speaker 1: have another cloth crop a bunch of different things. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I might need you all around for the dragon car.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you. One of the biggest things with
Speaker 1: dragon con that I always tell my friends the way
Speaker 1: to avoid the con crud. Okay, you need to remember
Speaker 1: that any high touch surface is essentially pat tree dish.
Speaker 1: So when you get into the elevator, which makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. Yes, So when you get into the elevator,
Speaker 1: any door handles that you're dealing with, any chairs that
Speaker 1: you're sitting on, if you're touching the edges of the
Speaker 1: chairs in order to kind of scoot into them, Um,
Speaker 1: anything like that. That is just nerms and cover everything,
Speaker 1: cover all of you and don't breathe. Yeah, just use
Speaker 1: that as matt suit as your cute outfits. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in my head, I'm just a pick like you know,
Speaker 1: how you see the germ sequences and different shows. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all I see is darkness coming at me. That's what
Speaker 1: is any You did not do a good job preparing
Speaker 1: me on that level. I would like to say we
Speaker 1: just much it. So the big key, guys is you
Speaker 1: just need to wash your hands. You do not need
Speaker 1: antibacterial soap. Regular soap and water is just easily the
Speaker 1: best defense. Purell is great, um, but it is not
Speaker 1: as good as hand washing. So kill everything. Priorle is
Speaker 1: great as a as an intermediary type of thing. But
Speaker 1: you know, you should think about this with things like
Speaker 1: gas pumps um, you know, and being in this job.
Speaker 1: I'm constantly just like so, anytime I need to touch
Speaker 1: my nose, I will take a fabric and I try
Speaker 1: not to touch my face at all anymore, which also
Speaker 1: helps with breakouts. Yes, I was gonna say, your skin
Speaker 1: is listening. Thank you don't what you're talking about. It's jewie.
Speaker 1: I'm young, but it's not oily like it's wonderfully done.
Speaker 1: Oh you know, there's just say it. Um So, we
Speaker 1: got the handwashing part. What other parts of clowning should
Speaker 1: you see? Talents, what activities that you do? Whatever? What
Speaker 1: is something we may not know? Um? Well, we have
Speaker 1: rehearsal with the whole team, all twelve clowns, about once
Speaker 1: a month, and we also have an annual conference that
Speaker 1: we go to where we do skills exchange with clowns
Speaker 1: from other cities, more like clown friends. What wait? Where
Speaker 1: is it? Usually is it in one location or doesn't
Speaker 1: move move around? Last year it was in Atlanta at
Speaker 1: the Center for Puppets and Faboo, and conference will be
Speaker 1: in Dallas. One of our conferences is similar to podcast
Speaker 1: conference in the clown conference together the end, it's just
Speaker 1: going to the end. That would be when the party
Speaker 1: goes down clowns actually know how to party. I believe
Speaker 1: that complicated strange individuals. And I say that as a
Speaker 1: complicated strange individual So yeah, I think we are all
Speaker 1: on that page here lots of the day. But I
Speaker 1: feel like that's a lot of actors in general. They're
Speaker 1: just so vibrant and personality and just the way they think.
Speaker 1: It's different from probably who is very analytical. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: what is hell? And that's okay, and like actors find opportunities.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, okay, that made sense. I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: seen that a punchline scramble. You have your Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: she's got bags of crops. Wait, you have a whole
Speaker 1: bag and no, but you know I have love call
Speaker 1: it my bag of props. Scott at least a tutor
Speaker 1: and a squeaker and tutor and a squeaker here, So
Speaker 1: fist bump me. So this is one of our this
Speaker 1: is one of our big things. Cute. It will blow
Speaker 1: a child's mind, I guarantee you. And so we can
Speaker 1: take this and we can fist bump it, or we
Speaker 1: can through the magic of clown we can get a
Speaker 1: little off our nose and then put it in different places,
Speaker 1: and so then like the kid's elbow will be squeaky,
Speaker 1: or the kids stuffed animal will be squeaky. And the
Speaker 1: best is when they start trying to like kids don't
Speaker 1: have especially young kids don't really know their own strength,
Speaker 1: or you don't know about, um gently touching things unless
Speaker 1: you're like gentle gentle. So if you put the squeak
Speaker 1: on their nose and you their nose, quite often they
Speaker 1: will mash their nose so hard, and I'm just like baby, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no oh. And I should also say, as an addendum,
Speaker 1: I used to when I used to hear children crying,
Speaker 1: it would I would be like, oh my gosh, let
Speaker 1: me go. Now, anytime I hear a child in distress,
Speaker 1: I'm immediately drawn to it and I want to figure
Speaker 1: out how I can help. Um, it's really it's a
Speaker 1: sea change, and it's one eight. I'm just like, I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: let me just dap bears for you, But don't do.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say so when you see like kids
Speaker 1: that are staring at you at the airport, you're actually
Speaker 1: putting on a whole show. Everybody else is a little
Speaker 1: like trying not to look at a kid sometimes we
Speaker 1: have a thing called check your shoes, um, which is
Speaker 1: essentially looked down or you're wearing your clown shoes. So
Speaker 1: if we're not on our shift, we're just normal humans,
Speaker 1: which means well, okay, normal, but this is just some
Speaker 1: strange middle aged lady who's making googoo faces at your
Speaker 1: baby and trying to fist bump your two year old.
Speaker 1: And it's so there. There's sometimes where I and then
Speaker 1: if you try to explain to them after words, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: like like, oh no, I'm I'm a hospital clown. That
Speaker 1: it just gets weird. That's not the it's not the
Speaker 1: right in like self you okay, yeah, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: and it's right. You know. I am a big fan
Speaker 1: of parents, you know, guarding the right from strange. But
Speaker 1: I just I mean, kids zero in on our faces though.
Speaker 1: It's like they know that we're people are elves to
Speaker 1: play with kids at restaurants, so they try to make
Speaker 1: eye contact. I just know this is a person will
Speaker 1: play with me. Yeah. So we have squeakers, we have bubbles,
Speaker 1: we have magic tricks. We have uh so I do
Speaker 1: a bunch of different bubble tricks and uh we also
Speaker 1: have jugglers. I love jokes. I love terrible jokes. They're
Speaker 1: my favorite. Good puns, Oh lovely, we'll play a pun
Speaker 1: game once these mics are off, because it's not it's
Speaker 1: not entirely family friendly. Um, but yeah, we'll do things
Speaker 1: like it's something called a French pass with these these
Speaker 1: noses where you know, you put it on your finger
Speaker 1: and then you're getting the kid to look at it,
Speaker 1: and then you're making it disappear, right, And then I
Speaker 1: tossed it over to her and then oh, she's got
Speaker 1: it in her pocket, you know, and then then I
Speaker 1: caught it back out and you know, I had a moment,
Speaker 1: what does happen? What does happen? Exactly where to go?
Speaker 1: So it's about learning how to palm things or put
Speaker 1: things in your pockets and uh, and then of course
Speaker 1: just having these stupid funny things like I have these
Speaker 1: tiny hands and I love to put on these things.
Speaker 1: But then you give tiny half haf you go tana
Speaker 1: half five, tiny half a small round of applause. Or
Speaker 1: we have ukuleles and I can strom the ukulele with
Speaker 1: one entire hand, and I say that that's classical. We
Speaker 1: do a lot of music, a lot of some of
Speaker 1: the people on our team are really amazing musicians, and
Speaker 1: everybody on our team can really sang. Yeah, really sang.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you've been doing some good singing,
Speaker 1: which I appreciate because I do that often just on
Speaker 1: our podcast. I'll just randomly sing things out and everybody
Speaker 1: looks at me funny and then tells me to stop
Speaker 1: because of copyright stuff. You know what, I don't let
Speaker 1: them demm your shine. Thank you say that it's it's
Speaker 1: say that it's covered under parody. Yeah, don't hide your
Speaker 1: light under a busch. Know the words of these songs,
Speaker 1: I'm just humming it. Just keep it under thirty seconds,
Speaker 1: and you're right, And I'm making up words to it
Speaker 1: because I forgot the actual lyrics exactly that parody. Guys,
Speaker 1: are these things that you knew or that you picked
Speaker 1: up when you got into this, like palming and magic
Speaker 1: tricks exchange. Yeah, And it all depends on the on
Speaker 1: the clown and what your background is. I mean, some
Speaker 1: of our clowns primary backgrounds are mime or juggling or
Speaker 1: puppetry or improv or acting. But I mean not everybody
Speaker 1: as a comes from an acting background. It's really quite
Speaker 1: a variety. So some people came in with you know,
Speaker 1: magic out the wazoo, and then that was great for
Speaker 1: everybody because uh you know Bill Smith, um doctor not right,
Speaker 1: who's um not on our team anymore. Unfortunately he lives
Speaker 1: in Tennessee also and was making the drive and extrem
Speaker 1: from I mean from Gatlin perk Uh yeah, but he's
Speaker 1: an amazing magician and was very generous about sharing his
Speaker 1: skills and taught us all uh French drop um and
Speaker 1: if there was anything else you wanted to learn, can
Speaker 1: teach you a card force or uh you know, help
Speaker 1: you improve whatever whatever your dumb magic you were working on.
Speaker 1: And u uh Tom Pierce is h a brilliant mime
Speaker 1: and him and Tim Satimi, who's another one of our clowns,
Speaker 1: they're both wonderful mimes, and so they've helped work us,
Speaker 1: you know, when we have are rehearsals and stuff, they'll
Speaker 1: help teach us how to do certain mind things. Because
Speaker 1: one of the great things about this is that you
Speaker 1: are working with someone who has a skill set that
Speaker 1: you don't have, and you are finding ways to create
Speaker 1: bits with them, and you're finding ways to make yourself
Speaker 1: look stupid and make them look wonderful, or making them
Speaker 1: look stupid and make you look wonderful, or get the
Speaker 1: kid on their side, or get the kid on your side,
Speaker 1: or get the kid to hate both of you have
Speaker 1: fun continually kicking you out of the room. You know.
Speaker 1: There there's just there's a million different ways to try
Speaker 1: to find ways to blend all of these different skill sets.
Speaker 1: Um Ron Anglin is like a master. There's just Chinese
Speaker 1: yo yo, which is also called the diablo. He it's
Speaker 1: it's insane because it looks like it's going to hit you,
Speaker 1: and it's it's all swinging this thing around and then
Speaker 1: he can make it bounce on it and do all
Speaker 1: those crazy things and and this this is a huge
Speaker 1: you know, it takes up a lot of space, but
Speaker 1: he'll go into a kid's room and do and do
Speaker 1: it because he's got such great control. So it's quite
Speaker 1: impressor yeah, he's just like and that adds an element
Speaker 1: of danger to a room, which is also exciting, you know,
Speaker 1: but he's a professional, so it's it's been one of
Speaker 1: those uh wonderful joys too. You're you're getting to know
Speaker 1: all of these different partners and uh share jokes and
Speaker 1: share tricks and come up with different things. One of
Speaker 1: my things lately has been, UM, I really love to
Speaker 1: to draw um on the paper towels um, and then
Speaker 1: maybe I'll tear it up and then then they have
Speaker 1: a puzzle. Or I'll make a list that keeps getting
Speaker 1: longer because the paper to spend, paper towel dispense or
Speaker 1: keeps getting longer. So we have to keep writing a list, like,
Speaker 1: you know, advice on how to be a cool teenager,
Speaker 1: or things I'm going to do once I leave here,
Speaker 1: or ways I could improve my outfit. I got that
Speaker 1: from one kid. My kid was like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: you don't really look like a clown. And I was like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: So what do I need to do? And they essentially
Speaker 1: described Ronald, but it was like bit by bit, like
Speaker 1: red hair, I need to be a man. I love
Speaker 1: using the elements that are in the hospital room like
Speaker 1: that though, like using the paper towels or the gloves
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, And that's part of we try
Speaker 1: to keep that in the back of our minds also
Speaker 1: because it's part of demystifying the hospital environment for the kids.
Speaker 1: So if we can turn this thing like the glove
Speaker 1: that they're used to having just be put on for
Speaker 1: something scary to happen, or for something uncomfortable to happen.
Speaker 1: If we can turn that into a fish and blow
Speaker 1: bubbles and if the fish went through, then maybe that'll
Speaker 1: be more fun. I was working with Um, one of
Speaker 1: our new clowns, uh Dr Googy, the other day, and
Speaker 1: we were on oncology and there was a woman, Um,
Speaker 1: she was crying. It was a mom or grandmother. She
Speaker 1: was crying really hard and talking very quickly into her
Speaker 1: phone in the hall, and she was speaking Spanish, so
Speaker 1: we didn't know exactly what she was saying, which just
Speaker 1: had a little bit of an idea of what she
Speaker 1: was saying. And in oncology, you know, you guys have
Speaker 1: a little bit of an idea, right Um, So uh
Speaker 1: Googy went and took a paper towel and folded it
Speaker 1: very beautifully into a paper rose, and we didn't say
Speaker 1: anything to her or anything. He just walked by and
Speaker 1: handed her this rose and and we walked on. And
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes that's the right kind of moment to
Speaker 1: provide for somebody. And then the next room we encountered
Speaker 1: was this boy about four or five years old, and
Speaker 1: we knocked on the door and he opened it, and
Speaker 1: then he hid behind the door and we looked for
Speaker 1: him a little bit, and then he popped out and
Speaker 1: was like ah, and we were like, oh, goad and
Speaker 1: and then we just played this for like a while,
Speaker 1: and he kept hiding behind the door and then popping
Speaker 1: out and we would get scared, and eventually he scared
Speaker 1: us enough that we ran off all the way down
Speaker 1: the hall and into a whole another area of the hospital,
Speaker 1: and a few minutes later, a nurse came running to
Speaker 1: us and she was like, Hey, did you go see
Speaker 1: room whatever it was? And we're like, um, I think
Speaker 1: we did. And she's like, I think maybe he wasn't
Speaker 1: in the room or something, because they just asked for
Speaker 1: you guys to come come there. And we were like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: maybe we had the wrong room or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1: So we went back there and we're about to knock
Speaker 1: on the door and we looked at each other. We're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is this is the kid that chased us all
Speaker 1: the way down the hall. So and he opens the
Speaker 1: door and he says, you'll get y'all what's in here?
Speaker 1: So we looked at each other. We went okay, we
Speaker 1: walked to the doorway, we lifted up our coats and
Speaker 1: we just stuck our butts into the room and then
Speaker 1: we ran off. And I'm like, I just like, how
Speaker 1: did we go from like this beautiful rose to stick
Speaker 1: in our butts kids? From what is this job? It's
Speaker 1: so amazing, that's fantastic. We have just a little bit
Speaker 1: more for you listeners, but first one more quick break
Speaker 1: for word from our sponsor. Then we're back. Thank you sponsor.
Speaker 1: Let's get back to the interview. Kids are honest and
Speaker 1: literal and strange in ways that I never really knew.
Speaker 1: Really did this job, man, there are some My kids
Speaker 1: are the weirdest, really cute. The weird kids are my favorites. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's I mean, and there's there are times where you have, uh,
Speaker 1: you have times where you've got to just kind of
Speaker 1: step out and because of maybe things that are going
Speaker 1: on in our personal lives, like uh, like my father
Speaker 1: was really sick at one point, and you know, I
Speaker 1: was still working in the hospital while he was in
Speaker 1: the hospital and that kind of thing, and so every
Speaker 1: now and then I just had to be like, just
Speaker 1: need a second, okay, And then you keep going um,
Speaker 1: because you're there for the kids, UM, and that allows
Speaker 1: you to have even more empathy and compassion for what
Speaker 1: these families are going through sleeping in these hospital rooms,
Speaker 1: you know, UM living there essentially uh. And there are
Speaker 1: kids that come to Choa from all over the world,
Speaker 1: so you're dealing with different customs. There are some people
Speaker 1: that don't know that they're allowed to use the bathroom
Speaker 1: inside the room. You know. It's just like there's different culture.
Speaker 1: Cultural differences, are different cultures from within Georgia. You know,
Speaker 1: you have people coming down uh in and they're getting
Speaker 1: all settled in, you know, and there's a whole family,
Speaker 1: like there's mom, dad, multiple kids, Grandma, grandpa, and everybody's
Speaker 1: posting up for this kid. Then there are some kids
Speaker 1: who don't have anyone right or their parents are working
Speaker 1: so that they can pay these bills. And we're the
Speaker 1: ones who are able to go in there and break
Speaker 1: it up a little bit, just break up the time
Speaker 1: for kids who get checked in and then are left there. Yep,
Speaker 1: I mean it happened. Had no idea that that happened
Speaker 1: until like, yeah, I mean what Yeah, It's usually kids
Speaker 1: who have a lot of UM technological dependence on things
Speaker 1: like tracks or um complex medical stuff, and the family
Speaker 1: is just like I can't handle it. They can't handle it,
Speaker 1: and they're like, well, here at a place where people
Speaker 1: will take care of you. And then the children are
Speaker 1: there for months and months and months and the nurses
Speaker 1: are trying to help them get into foster care. And
Speaker 1: it's a you learn about a lot of different realities.
Speaker 1: So with that, because I'm actually a social worker, and
Speaker 1: one of the things that I always ask, because obviously
Speaker 1: this field is very, very emotionally taxing and impacting, how
Speaker 1: do you care for yourselves like you were saying you
Speaker 1: were having a moment because of the close relation with
Speaker 1: the father, how do you actually take time and care
Speaker 1: for yourself? Well, um, I think we should all be
Speaker 1: better at it than we are, but we do as
Speaker 1: an organization and as a team, we do work on that.
Speaker 1: We work with UH with a therapist, with a psychiatrist
Speaker 1: at each of our rehearsals, and we have a group therapy.
Speaker 1: Should we call emotional hygiene. It's another type of hygiene,
Speaker 1: another type. Don't just wash your hands, wash your brain. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's another one of the many, many reasons that
Speaker 1: we work in pairs always a lot of that is
Speaker 1: about artistry and safety as well, but it's also about
Speaker 1: um having a shared experience with somebody if you need
Speaker 1: to be able to talk about it later. We also
Speaker 1: spend thirty minutes at the beginning of each day while
Speaker 1: we're getting in costume and mentally preparing for performance, checking
Speaker 1: in with a partner about where they are emotionally and
Speaker 1: the most recent experiences they've had in the hospital. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day there's another thirty minutes
Speaker 1: to um d clown and debrief emotionally about the day.
Speaker 1: And everybody's always also open to receiving calls from each
Speaker 1: other if you feel like you need to call somebody
Speaker 1: to talk about something weird, because I know, like my spouse,
Speaker 1: my husband doesn't want to hear about about it, you know.
Speaker 1: So some spouses are great about it, but it's it's like,
Speaker 1: it's very weird to talk to somebody about it who
Speaker 1: doesn't have this, you know, if they don't want to share, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we try to help each other. It's a strange thing,
Speaker 1: and theoretically we all do yoga and meditated and chicken
Speaker 1: wings and drink beer to do it. Yes, were and
Speaker 1: why I like that. I think we're all very we're
Speaker 1: very lucky, um, and that we because of the type
Speaker 1: of work we do, we're all okay with being vulnerable
Speaker 1: with each other. And that's a whole essence of Clown's vulnerability.
Speaker 1: We're able to look at something, you know, look at
Speaker 1: this and be like, you know, this really messed me up, UM,
Speaker 1: and I need I need to just say these words
Speaker 1: out loud about what this is, you know. And you know,
Speaker 1: we do develop relationships with kids long term, UM, who
Speaker 1: are waiting for transplants, or or who are waiting to
Speaker 1: be put into foster care, or who are going through
Speaker 1: cancer treatments, and sometimes we lose them, right, and that
Speaker 1: is very hard, UM, because I mean, you know, we're
Speaker 1: there to be silly and goofy, but you also know
Speaker 1: that if you're walking into a hospital, you're also going
Speaker 1: to be dealing with mortality. UM. So you just try
Speaker 1: to do the best that you can and remember those
Speaker 1: kids who have moved on. And some two kids are
Speaker 1: so inspiring, like they are so resilient, and it's just
Speaker 1: they're ridiculouting, They're ridiculous, They're wonderful. They're just like this kid,
Speaker 1: there's one little spitfire of a girl who like, um,
Speaker 1: like English is in her first language. But she's been
Speaker 1: like in and out of all of these uh different
Speaker 1: treatments and stuff. And I see her in one hospital,
Speaker 1: then I see her in another hospital, then I see
Speaker 1: her in day surgery and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And she will let you know what she will wants.
Speaker 1: She wants, they get to know you. They learned that
Speaker 1: they can boss you around, and that's awesome. She'll look
Speaker 1: at you and she'll go show me a trick and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what about this one. I've already seen that one,
Speaker 1: Just like you go over here, you go over there,
Speaker 1: you go over here, what's in your pocket? And she
Speaker 1: comes up and she's like, face first into your indier jacket.
Speaker 1: I carry a Fannie pack now, and she's like, what's
Speaker 1: in this? Open it? Open it. She'll start on sipping
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what you know, But of course it's
Speaker 1: full of really stupid stuff. So that's perfectly everything that
Speaker 1: she wants. Yeah, but she's you know, like the last
Speaker 1: time that I saw her. One of my gags that
Speaker 1: I like to do is they have these big it's
Speaker 1: it's like marketing material that Shoa has that look like
Speaker 1: giant phones, and so I always carry them with me
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hey, what's up, and so so or
Speaker 1: I pretend to I can't unlock the screen because it's paper,
Speaker 1: and so I have to give it to a teenager. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's paper thin, unbreakable. Uh, So I gave this. Uh.
Speaker 1: I gave one to her, and then I had one
Speaker 1: and we were talking to each other and like, hey,
Speaker 1: how you doing. I'm fine, doing all right, And she
Speaker 1: grabs my hand and while her mother is talking to
Speaker 1: a social worker, she and I walk up and down
Speaker 1: the hall, just having a conversation, not looking at each other,
Speaker 1: but holding each other's hand. And her hand is so tiny,
Speaker 1: and she's been through so much crap, but she still
Speaker 1: is going to boss me around, and she still wants
Speaker 1: to have this imagination thing. So I say, you take
Speaker 1: that one home with you and then you can call
Speaker 1: me on the phone when you want, you know. So
Speaker 1: it's I don't know, it's awesome, Like I don't want
Speaker 1: to I still don't want to have kids, but I
Speaker 1: consider all the kids at the hospital to be my kids.
Speaker 1: I understand you completely. Yeah, they're so awesome. We had
Speaker 1: there was this time, um, when Gina and I we
Speaker 1: were going to uh into a waiting area or the playroom.
Speaker 1: I guess in rehab. Rehab is one of the places
Speaker 1: that I feel like we can really do a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of good. It's really tough, but it's
Speaker 1: we're very grateful to be there. Yeah. Uh. And we
Speaker 1: were going in there and there was a girl who
Speaker 1: was on a stand up um wheelchair and she was
Speaker 1: painting at this table. She was probably about three, and
Speaker 1: another girl sitting on the floor who was also probably
Speaker 1: about three, and she was playing with something. She had
Speaker 1: something between uh flight between her legs. She was playing
Speaker 1: with it and Uh. I looked at her sleeve, like
Speaker 1: her right sleeve, and it was empty. And I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't know if she was if it was she
Speaker 1: had her arms strapped in for healing purposes or something,
Speaker 1: or if she didn't have an arm. Um. And I
Speaker 1: saw Gina getting ready to blow some bubbles, which is
Speaker 1: a lot of times our first entree for some for kids,
Speaker 1: and uh, and I looked more closely at this little
Speaker 1: girl on the floor and she had shifted a little bit,
Speaker 1: and uh, she didn't have an arm on the left
Speaker 1: side either, and her arms weren't weren't strapped to hers,
Speaker 1: She wasn't didn't of any braces or anything like that.
Speaker 1: She just didn't have arms. And I had this moment
Speaker 1: where I was like, oh, man, are we about to
Speaker 1: blow some bubbles for a little girl with no arms
Speaker 1: who wasn't gonna be able to, you know, fingerpop. But
Speaker 1: I was like, well, here we go. So I kept
Speaker 1: playing ukulele and Gina got out her bubbles and um.
Speaker 1: The little girl who was painting threw down her brushes
Speaker 1: and she lit up. She had both a finger on
Speaker 1: each hand point her fingers just pud popping those bubbles.
Speaker 1: She couldn't be happier. And the little girl on the
Speaker 1: floor she looked up, big smile on her face and
Speaker 1: just took her foot and went you and just kicked
Speaker 1: the shout of those bos, you know. And it was
Speaker 1: just this amazing moment. And we walked out of there
Speaker 1: and Gina was like, adaptability, man, it's just like wow.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the kind of thing where those kids
Speaker 1: just you're like, you are inspiring. She had like one
Speaker 1: of those little fake car consoles in front of her
Speaker 1: with like the wheel, and I saw that she was
Speaker 1: hitting the buttons and kind of turn her the wheel
Speaker 1: a little bit. As an she was amazing, she was flexible,
Speaker 1: she was accurate, and she blew my as mine and
Speaker 1: it was wonderful already she had those and like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's you know, if if you meet people where
Speaker 1: they are, uh, and you go in there ready to
Speaker 1: not judge and not make anything weird and don't assume.
Speaker 1: I'm glad we didn't assume. So coming back, obviously we
Speaker 1: are stuff. I'll never told you very female focus or
Speaker 1: those who identify as female. And one of the ideas
Speaker 1: behind the clowns was we don't hear too many about
Speaker 1: female clowns in history, as in fact, we were talking
Speaker 1: about one list only listed off like maybe six out
Speaker 1: of one as that's famous. How does as women in clowning,
Speaker 1: what do you see some of the difficulties that you
Speaker 1: might have run into non to Colti is that you
Speaker 1: may have been into roadblocks that you are past or
Speaker 1: getting past or any of those situations. Um, well, I
Speaker 1: think we're fortunate on our team that we have several
Speaker 1: women now, which is great. It didn't always used to
Speaker 1: be that way, but um, we've got strong women. But
Speaker 1: I think you're always there's always a little bit in
Speaker 1: the back of your mind. Is because clowning is has
Speaker 1: such a relationship to comedy that you have to get
Speaker 1: over that hump of women aren't as funny as men,
Speaker 1: or like chicks aren't funny or whatever, which is so
Speaker 1: Gina is so funny. I'm hilarious, guys. I make myself
Speaker 1: least that's enough, right. Um. I not to uh put
Speaker 1: too much energy into the tutor, but one thing that
Speaker 1: I found when I first started my clown was really different.
Speaker 1: When I started, I was a lot younger guys, and uh,
Speaker 1: and I was a little bit more feminine and cute
Speaker 1: and um, you know, some of the stuff we could
Speaker 1: do back many many years ago, we don't do now.
Speaker 1: Like I would never flirt with anybody at the hospital,
Speaker 1: but back you know, back then it was the clowns
Speaker 1: could flirt and it was cute and funny. Anyway, I digress. Uh,
Speaker 1: But I carried a tutor because some of the guy
Speaker 1: clowns had tutors, and I thought toots were funny because
Speaker 1: they are because they're um. But the general gag for
Speaker 1: the mail clowns would be, you know, they dropped something
Speaker 1: on the floor and then um, they go to pick
Speaker 1: it up, and they too as they're picking it up,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I could do that, um, And
Speaker 1: you know, I tried it, but it wasn't It wasn't funny,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know what. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was the fluffy skirt or the piggy tails or what
Speaker 1: it was. But it was almost like my audience was
Speaker 1: just two concerned that maybe that really happened, and they
Speaker 1: felt you were worried and embarrassed for the for the
Speaker 1: cute little girl clown who maybe just too did um.
Speaker 1: And I was like, come on, gods, was funny. So
Speaker 1: you know, I kept trying to figure it out and
Speaker 1: but it wasn't really working for me. And then I
Speaker 1: was walking with my partner back to the dressing room
Speaker 1: one day and there were some um uh some staff
Speaker 1: folks standing around and I went up to this guy
Speaker 1: and I was like, um, hey, man, ah, does does
Speaker 1: this sound real? H And there was this silence and
Speaker 1: then they all just cracked up laughing, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: because there are other ways to use I don't have
Speaker 1: to toote like my partner toots like right, and so
Speaker 1: then I found a whole bunch of different ways to
Speaker 1: use a tutor for various contests and even just like
Speaker 1: interrupting my partner constantly, And if I do it enough,
Speaker 1: then people are very clear that it was a joke.
Speaker 1: Got yeah, yeah yeah. So, uh, you know, for me,
Speaker 1: that's one one thing I guess I had to realize
Speaker 1: is that there are things that are that are socially
Speaker 1: constructed to be more inappropriate for women in general than
Speaker 1: for men in general, and that finding ways to overcome that,
Speaker 1: uh the way a female can is really fun. And
Speaker 1: that in trying to learn how to be a clown,
Speaker 1: I don't have to learn how to be a guy clown.
Speaker 1: I have to learn how to be my clown. Oh, guys,
Speaker 1: that rhymes I gotta write that downs the tagline for
Speaker 1: your life, right, that clown? I gotta be me. I
Speaker 1: come from the improv world, which is traditionally been very
Speaker 1: male dominated. Um and uh, you know improv in theater. Um.
Speaker 1: I work at Dad's Garage theater in town, um, and
Speaker 1: that has also gone through kind of major change with
Speaker 1: bringing more women and more diversity and that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff into the fold. But you do still run up
Speaker 1: against these societal buffers. And one thing that I've really
Speaker 1: enjoyed with my clown is that I make her she
Speaker 1: is so dumb, and she's so energetic, and she's so
Speaker 1: ready to party and like kick up her foot and
Speaker 1: be ridiculous. Um. So it's kind of I'm playing at
Speaker 1: the child's level in a lot of ways. Um. But
Speaker 1: I also, you know, I like to do like little
Speaker 1: stand up routines, you know, uh, and say terrible, terrible jokes. Um.
Speaker 1: But I there there is that dichotomy of like, you know,
Speaker 1: being feminine because I have my one of my dresses
Speaker 1: I have is as my new one. I love. It
Speaker 1: is all pink and it has angry cat faces on it. Man,
Speaker 1: it's so great. Um. But that you can be feminine
Speaker 1: and wild and rambunctious and looking to get into trouble. Um.
Speaker 1: But it's it's a you know, there's also you know,
Speaker 1: talking about like how culture progresses, right, so things that
Speaker 1: were once appropriate in comedy are no longer really appropriate
Speaker 1: in comedy. Um. That also sort of goes for clowns
Speaker 1: in the sense that people of my parents generation, they
Speaker 1: knew clowns as like a safe and adorable and they'd
Speaker 1: be like, oh, the clowns. Clowns signifies having fun. So
Speaker 1: sometimes the parents are the grandparents will look at us
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, hooray, but kids, because clowns are
Speaker 1: not you know, circuses aren't as prevalent anymore. Um, clowning
Speaker 1: isn't as prevalent anymore in our culture, it isn't other cultures. Um.
Speaker 1: We're also kind of introducing a foreign concept. Um. We
Speaker 1: are quite often the children's first clowns. They've never met
Speaker 1: a clown before. UM. I do believe that in a sense, Um,
Speaker 1: our femininity can work for us. Uh if you have
Speaker 1: a particularly high stressed room or high stressed child, um,
Speaker 1: and we're able to come in with a different type
Speaker 1: of energy. We're not as physically intimidating necessarily, um because
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes our dudes are big, um and uh
Speaker 1: so we're able to kind of go in there and
Speaker 1: um possibly have a uh maybe from that child's perspective,
Speaker 1: this is a safe a safer person. That's not always true.
Speaker 1: I mean we have we have lovely, gentle, wonderful men
Speaker 1: on our team. UM, and they all are trained and
Speaker 1: really knowledgeable about making themselves a smaller, smaller, or more
Speaker 1: approachable or more gentle and yeah, so I mean they're wonderful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're they're really wonderful guys. So if you're able to
Speaker 1: kind of build on that image. Um, but I don't know,
Speaker 1: like a Punky Brewster is one of my heroes, um.
Speaker 1: For you know, I know they're people out there who
Speaker 1: don't know who that is. That is that is the
Speaker 1: crime that people don't know. So nam Fry as Puckey Pruster. Um, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: it's been a hot minute, but she was kind of
Speaker 1: this awesome I try to take that energy where she
Speaker 1: is spunky and you know, she wears mismatched things and
Speaker 1: she's it's the joy of clowning. Um. And we are
Speaker 1: lucky that, you know, we're not only respected as clowns,
Speaker 1: but we're respected as uh women in a profession as
Speaker 1: we go through choa when we're doing checkens. You know. Uh.
Speaker 1: Also the nursing force, which which is what we interact
Speaker 1: with the most, is also prevalently women. So we're seeing, uh,
Speaker 1: we're speaking with a lot of women who are in
Speaker 1: very tough professional positions. And let me just tell you, guys,
Speaker 1: anyone who's listening, if you ever have a nurse, you
Speaker 1: better be nice to that person. They do so much work,
Speaker 1: they carry so much on their shoulders. They are their heroes.
Speaker 1: They are literal heroes. I see some of the things
Speaker 1: that they've had to deal with and they go through
Speaker 1: it with grace and humor, and I just I look
Speaker 1: up to them. I idolize them. So don't you be mean, groos,
Speaker 1: be nice. I agreed, Gene is gonna come get you
Speaker 1: for real. I won't show up in clown makeup because
Speaker 1: I don't want to add to any sigma. Please don't
Speaker 1: do that to me. I'll just be tough. Um. Before
Speaker 1: we get to like closing out final shoutouts and stuff,
Speaker 1: do you have any perhaps advice for listeners who might
Speaker 1: be interested in clowning, or any anything you want to
Speaker 1: add that we haven't touched on that you think it's
Speaker 1: really important? Um here the wheels clicking in our head. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel I could give a whole dissertation,
Speaker 1: probably because she's a nerd, but I really think that
Speaker 1: one of the things that's challenging for us, that I
Speaker 1: think we could ask of everybody is just to keep
Speaker 1: an open mind, um about the idea of clown because
Speaker 1: for most people, I think it's not what you initially assume,
Speaker 1: at least here in the United States. Um, the idea
Speaker 1: of of clowning is really different than it is in
Speaker 1: Europe and in other places. And the the clown is
Speaker 1: so um is still a healer and uh and a
Speaker 1: new way to look at yourself through somebody else and
Speaker 1: a way for um, somebody to make mistakes for you
Speaker 1: instead of you having to do it. And it and
Speaker 1: is the opportunity for uh an emotional conversation and and
Speaker 1: for play and fun and whatever it is that somebody
Speaker 1: needs in any of a moment. And I think that
Speaker 1: that's really beautiful and that that's the essence of clown
Speaker 1: And I hope that people will think about that and
Speaker 1: give that idea a chance. UM. And I think that
Speaker 1: we're helping to do that and what we do because
Speaker 1: I hope so too, UM, because it's so it's so special.
Speaker 1: So and remember that we're just people. I think. You know,
Speaker 1: we've had these conversations with some adults who are, uh,
Speaker 1: like I'm afraid of clowns, or some kids who hear
Speaker 1: that because they've heard their adults say that. You know, um,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes we'll do like noses off or something
Speaker 1: like that and just say I'm just I'm just a
Speaker 1: person who likes to make you laugh, um or who
Speaker 1: likes to be there if you're interested in it. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's so many wonderful resources now to to study um
Speaker 1: clowning and different places check out, you know, like there,
Speaker 1: what does clowning look like in other cultures? Looking at
Speaker 1: some of our physical comedy grades like Buster Keaton, I'm
Speaker 1: going and watching some of his old stuff because that
Speaker 1: stuff is still hilarious today. And Chaplin and Bill Irwin
Speaker 1: and then such a dream about women. You know, if
Speaker 1: you look at Annie fred Alini and um Karenda Santos,
Speaker 1: you know there's some great even Carol Burnett. I mean
Speaker 1: she has a lot of clown in Lucille Ball, but
Speaker 1: I mean physical comedy and clowning. I would consider those
Speaker 1: ladies absolutely, So, you know, go out and do your
Speaker 1: research and see and go train in the studio, Go
Speaker 1: to New York and take a watkshop with one of
Speaker 1: the great. Come. I don't don't go to Los Angeles
Speaker 1: to Florida. I don't know there was Florida, Florida in
Speaker 1: the story. Go to see Florida. Man Florida man will
Speaker 1: always help you. I don't know. I think that the
Speaker 1: idea is to the more well rounded you can be
Speaker 1: as a performer and as a person, the better a
Speaker 1: clown you'll be. So immerse yourself in books and in history,
Speaker 1: and uh, learn a couple of fart jokes. Um, you
Speaker 1: know what advice that's gonna and then they go, maybe
Speaker 1: learn a couple of couples, learn a couple of songs.
Speaker 1: My mom is not proud of him. Um, yes she is.
Speaker 1: You're wonderful, but got to different places. Like you know,
Speaker 1: there are still things that exist, like Eddie's Trick Shop.
Speaker 1: You know these awesome like little magic stores, you know.
Speaker 1: Or I love costumes, et cetera. As another great resource
Speaker 1: in Atlanta where you can go in and like when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, I used to go into Spencer's
Speaker 1: Gift and buy like like the snapping gum, or like
Speaker 1: the can of peanuts with the snake in it. I've
Speaker 1: always been a goofy weirdo. I taught myself in triloquism
Speaker 1: as a child because I thought it might make me popular.
Speaker 1: Uh it didn't. It was Montgomery, Alabama, and I was
Speaker 1: already weird enough and then I buried that memory until
Speaker 1: I needed it as a professional twenty years later and monologue.
Speaker 1: Absolutely so, I mean it's I would say, building on
Speaker 1: what Maya said, the thing that will make you a wonderful,
Speaker 1: bankable performer is the thing about you. It's that, it's you,
Speaker 1: It's what you're bringing to the table. You know. So,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't want to work in a hospital, but
Speaker 1: there are innumerable other ways that you can use the
Speaker 1: art of clown to engage people and to bring joy.
Speaker 1: Because guys, I don't know if you notice, but the
Speaker 1: world is a little bit of a garbage fire right now.
Speaker 1: Things are really scary. So anyway that we can bring joy,
Speaker 1: uh and comfort and connection to other people is just
Speaker 1: it's the best. That's lovely. I'm so glad we we've
Speaker 1: got to have you both on here because I feel
Speaker 1: like I have learned a lot, and I hope that
Speaker 1: listeners will We'll learn a lot and appreciate this perspective.
Speaker 1: Yes for sure. Yes, So um, how can people find you, Maya? Yes? Um,
Speaker 1: so you can good to our website, which is Humology
Speaker 1: Atlanta dot org. We fancy y'all dot org, and you
Speaker 1: can feel free to contact us there, but I think
Speaker 1: probably especially for more of you younger folks. If you
Speaker 1: want to get us on the facebooks, um or Instagrams
Speaker 1: or instagrams, say this right. So on Facebook we are
Speaker 1: Humorology Atlanta. Ha, so come check us out there. On
Speaker 1: Instagrams we are Humorology Atlanta. All one word chase chases
Speaker 1: don't matter. Um. And we have some videos not on
Speaker 1: our YouTube channel as well if you want to check out. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: totally go check that out. I will definitely link it
Speaker 1: to the episode when we published this for sure. And
Speaker 1: I don't know when you guys are publishing this, but
Speaker 1: if if you're publishing it before September twenty one, we
Speaker 1: are having a huge performance. All of our clowns are
Speaker 1: performing on Yeah, you guys want to come, You're invited. UM.
Speaker 1: There's going to be everything from Diablo to some hilarious dancing,
Speaker 1: traditional clown bits, um less traditional clown bits, juggling, singing, singing, um,
Speaker 1: you name it, just plouting around. And it's proud of
Speaker 1: you for saying that. It's our annual fundraiser and all
Speaker 1: all proceeds go to help bring more joy to people
Speaker 1: in need of joy. Where's it at? It is at
Speaker 1: Holy Innocence Episcopal School in their Performing Arts center. It's
Speaker 1: in Sandy Brinks. Yeah, it's actually like super nice guys,
Speaker 1: it's really cool. Yeah, someone somewhat fancy. Yeah all right,
Speaker 1: and there's free parking, it's totally air conditioned. That great
Speaker 1: place adult beverages. You can't church place. I just realized
Speaker 1: that I need to go home. You need to com Catholic.
Speaker 1: I mean, they drink a lot of while totally recommend
Speaker 1: that you that you pre party, but we got a
Speaker 1: pre game. I kind of forgot. There's also kids clown Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, so everybody's mocktails for all the class. Oh cool, perfect,
Speaker 1: It'll be super fun, I promise. So that brings us
Speaker 1: to the end of this episode, this interview. We hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed it as much as we did. And I
Speaker 1: just found it, like we said, really inspiring. And also
Speaker 1: I just I hadn't thought about it in that way.
Speaker 1: And as they said, they actually do have an event
Speaker 1: Saturday if you happened to be in Atlanta, and that
Speaker 1: sounds like an amazing, amazing event September twenty one, twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: So of course you have depend but if you're listening
Speaker 1: as it's coming out and you're around Atlanta and you
Speaker 1: have you know, you want to support something amazing. They're
Speaker 1: doing a great benefit. Um will definitely put a link
Speaker 1: to that or at least linked to their website to
Speaker 1: do that. Yes, yes, um yeah, definitely check that out.
Speaker 1: And uh, we would love to hear from you listeners.
Speaker 1: If you have any clowning stories of your own, you
Speaker 1: can email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. You can find us on Twitter
Speaker 1: at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram at Stuff I've
Speaker 1: Never Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer
Speaker 1: Andrew Howard, and thanks to you for listening Stuff I've
Speaker 1: Never Told You the protection of I Heart Radio's How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.