By Susan D. Harris
The big top encompassing the creepy clown craze seems to be getting bigger and bigger. From Washington to Maine, down to Texas, and even into Canada, creepy clown sightings have been making local and national news.
Even the NYPD Deputy Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism was forced to address the issue recently, telling people: “Don’t believe the hype and don’t be afraid of the clowns…”
Recent clown incidents include a woman being chased by a clown into her apartment in Cincinnati before safely locking herself inside. In Sparks, Nevada, men were chased by a clown wielding (what appeared to be) a machete. Some clowns reportedly offered candy to lure children into the woods.
To those of us who have had the honor of being clowns; bringing laughter and joy to people — it’s particularly disturbing.
I played my first clown at 17, and continued clowning on the side for years. I volunteered for fund raisers, was paid for private parties, and employed by stores and even a restaurant.
The restaurant was trying to draw in families at dinner time, and paid for me to attend workshops with trainers from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Florida. They taught me a lot of things: Never eat or drink in front of your patrons, never be seen using the restroom, never remove any part of your costume in public, and most importantly – never get out of character as long the costume is on. A type of method acting I’d already been trained in, I thought and acted like my character until the greasepaint came off.
The only glitch came when, at times, I had to prepare at home and drive to an event in full costume. Obviously this caused some commotion on the road…laughter, pointing, shock, and rarely fright…thanks to Stephen King’s horror movie and subsequent mini-series. King’s novel portrayed an evil clown that preyed on its victims.
It didn’t help that previous to King’s clown demonizing, serial killer John Wayne Gacy had been nicknamed the “Killer Clown.” Inevitably, a string of killer clown movies emerged.
To those of us who have watched a sad child’s face transform into eager happiness thanks to our efforts, stories like this are hard to bear. One of my most poignant memories was a carnival at a home for mentally disturbed children. A stern faced little boy came up and pointed at a rainbow picture then to his cheek. We continued to communicate with his private sign language until I held up a mirror to show him his brightly painted face. He smiled. I was told later that he had been removed from an abusive home and had not communicated with anyone for weeks… until me.
Clowns used to bring smiles. These days however, everything is topsy-turvy.
Captain John Cartledge of the Northampton, MA police department warned people: “With all the incidents related to clowns that have been going on…it’s not a good idea to dress up as a clown…” (He added, “Especially if you have a fake weapon.”)
Most recently, hundreds to possibly thousands of students formed a kind of posse to search out clowns that were reported on their Penn State University campus.
So it seems that today’s society thinks it’s “fun” to become blood-soaked zombies, to be chased by a man recreating “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”; but somehow we are being moved to get the pitchforks and torches to chase down…clowns?
Here’s something we should really be scared about: Many Americans are acting crazy and committing crimes while on methamphetamine or heroin; others are having seizures in our streets after smoking synthetic marijuana. People with severe mental illness are not receiving adequate treatment. And of course ISIS is calling for, “random knife attacks in alleys, forests, beaches, and ‘quiet neighborhoods.’ Could any one of these put on a clown costume? Of course; that is why it is sadly advisable to be wary of wandering clowns.
Maybe that’s the point though. Maybe we’re afraid of the clowns because they are obvious, visible threats in a world of invisible dangers that fester in our own self-denial of an increasingly evil world.
Many people aren’t aware that the original 1941 movie, “The Wolfman” was in many ways a symbolic representation of the Jewish screenwriter’s flight out of Nazi, Germany in the 1930’s.
Constantine Nasr, who produced documentaries on “The Wolf Man,” commented on the screenwriters’ hidden motivation for the plot:
“The original title was ‘Destiny’ because he believed it was the story of an outsider whose destiny was cursed by forces he could not control…There was going to be no way out for him.” (Read the full article here.)
Government corruption seems to be at an all-time high. Our written and spoken words are being monitored; we’re being scanned, chipped — heck we’ve even lost our bathroom privacy. And random, violent crime is becoming a real fear tucked in the back of everyone’s mind. In short, we have every reason to be a very nervous and justifiably paranoid people who feel cursed by forces we can’t control – just like the Wolf Man. But then again… the creepy clowns already know that or they wouldn’t be lurking in the weeds.
It just makes me sad. Picture me as Marcel Marceau’s “Bip the Clown,” with a very sad face.
Originally published in The Daily Caller
