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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
>>>Sounds like a real cliched clown.
Most clowns are though. The point of the make-up is to appear over-big, over-large and extreme. Sometimes, their colours are garish, other times, monochromatic, but always extreme. Their movements are also overly emotive and extreme. I think it is that extremity that frightens children.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
i don't think all children are frightened of clowns.. (i don't remember being so..)
kids also like scary things (that are safe) adults do too, which is why we read mystery novels, and go to scary movies. (horror scary, or thriller type scary movies.)
clowns act silly and non threatening (even if they look strange and threatening!)
I have this very strange hat. Its made of card stock weight paper, in the pleated style used for those tissue paper orniments (wedding bells, etc) that fold flat, and then open up to be 3 D objects. so its very elastic, but its made of pleated heavy weight paper.
because of the style, the hat (not on) looks sort of like a birds head and neck (narrow neck, wider head) and its its decorated with 'feathers' eyes, and beak.
but you can pull the hat not just onto the crown,(as a strange green hat) but over your face like a mask. so you look sort of parrot like.. the eye of the mask are about where human eyes are, the beak is close to the nose.. (you can see through the pleates when you wear it)
2 years ago, (age 2 years, 3months) my granddaughter was very frightened when i did that.
last month, (age 4 years 3months) she was delighted..
but--she wanted to see me put the mask on, and take it off, and put it on, and take it off.. it frightened her a bit, but it also intrigued her.. eventually she wanted to wear it too. and after a it was off, she didn't want to see it.. so she hid it.. (and i am still looking for it!)
clowns are scary, (and not) and scary (and not) and most of us like that (a bit)
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
I liked clowns, and got a chance to play the clown in an orphanage in Mexico. I spoke no Spanish then so it took a few minutes to break the shy barrier. Then suddenly I was on the ground covered in laughing children trying to tickle me. (4 year olds are painful ticklers). I think I was one of the few adults who played with them on their level and they loved it.
So did I.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Maybe it is an age thing. I know that, over the years, I've seen plenty of very young children frightened of clowns at birthday parties, or shopping centres - and their parents are invariably forcing them to sit through it.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
When I was about 7, my father took the three of us boys to the big circus (I guess it was downtown NY, that would be the Garden perhaps).
Anyway we had seats right on the runway and Pop leaned over and said really loudly, "Emmett, it's me, Rem." And the next thing you know I am sitting in Emmett Kelly's lap while he chatted with my father. No one believed me in school until I was able to take in the pictures (which are long since lost).
TEd
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Funny, I hadn't thought of those hobo/tramp characters as clowns.
It's a shame about those photos. Mr Kelly was a real friend, I'd say. For a few minutes of his time, he made a dad look important in the eyes of his sons.
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 176 |
Velvet paintings and figurines of clowns are scary, especially “sad” clowns. The personality of anyone I’ve met who proudly owns either one, or both, is also scary.
mime n. a person silently crying for help
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 96
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 96 |
Since age 18, I have been a clown...and a bunny rabbit at Easter-time...my boss always asks why I'm NOT wearing a costume when I'm a witch at Halloween...and Mrs Santa. Anyway, I've found that kids who are, or have been, in hospitals are afraid of anyone with the face even partially covered or concealed. Visiting hospitals, I often avoid pediatrics (or check with parents first)...but the geriatrics LOVE all the above! For some, I may be the only visitor in a long time. Isn't that a sad thing!?
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Patch Adams takes his crew of clowns to children in hospitals in war zones. If you ever get to catch one of his lectures, do. The footage of his work in such zones is unforgettable.
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