Tips From Hickory's Clown Alley

Clowns are a caring - sharing group of people. We share our time and talents with those in need of laughter, and we share our routines and experiences with each other. This page is a compilation of Hickory's Tip of the Week, and is a series of contribution from people like you, and from my own experiences. Please read through this and other "tip" pages. You are welcome to use any of the ideas or routines that may be presented here, however, there is no guarantees that what you read here will work as described. Also, any make-up or other tips are presented as-is at face value, and I cannot be held liable for anything that might result from their use. Enough legality. Please read, enjoy and grow in your clown....

Making a 1999 New Year's resolution? Resolve to be the most knowledgeable clown you can be. Attend a regional, national or international convention this year. Attend seminars, read books, watch videos, but make yourself smarter. Click on tbe Books or the Events Icon or check the alleys for one near you.

Looking for another good clowning site on the WWW? Visit the "Clown Message Board". Based in Norway, there are many threaded messages with useful information. The address is http://klovn.no/message.htm
and I'm sure you'll find the trip worth while.

Clowns International is the oldest established clowns' organisation in the world. It is Non-Political, Non-Sectarian and Non-Sexist.

Clowns can join as Full Members, under 16's are encouraged to join as Junior Clowns and the general public can also join as Friends Of Clowns. Clowns International holds regular conventions where clowns, old and new can learn more about the art of Clowning with ongoing lectures and workshops. As a new member you will receive 4 copies a year of our official magazine The Joey (produced by our editor Flossie) which is full of tips, information, pictures, letters from fellow clowns plus a whole lot

more. The Treasurer of Clowns International (R-Jay) is currently setting up Credit Card Transactions for our Oversea Members. Membership fees are as follows.

If you do clown ministry, hospital or nursing home visits, make sure everything is arranged and approved before your arrival. In a religious environment, introduce your clowning in a neutral situation - at a dinner or during youth programs. If your clown becomes part of the traditional worship - let the people know well in advance. Clowns are not always welcomed in a worship environment.

Doing hospitals? Know the rules. Contaminating a patient with someone else's disease is not good clowning.

If you have time to setup and permission from your sponsor, make video tape of your show. This tape will allow you to see yourself in action - the way your audience does. Do your movements come across the way they should? Do you project your voice? Is your back to the audience? Seeing yourself as others see you can be a real eye opener. This works well for rehearsals too.

If you're looking for a great place to visit on the WWW, then I suggest going to the web site of Freckles and Company. While you're there, visit "Balloons by John", Clown Town or visit Freckles' home page. This is a great site you won't want to pass up!

The best way I know to be funny is to watch other good performers. Notice what they do and say and how they handle an audience. I am not suggesting you copy everything they do! Read books on clowning and any related fields like juggling, magic, unicycling, stilt-walking, balloon twisting, etc. Now, take the skills you have and work on how to make them funny. In my shows, for example, I use a great deal of magic, and yet I am not a great magician. I use juggling, but I am not a great juggler. I make balloon animals, but I am not...okay, I AM a great balloon sculptor. The point is to take what you know and add humor and bits of silliness and try to relate to your audience. You are not there to impress them with great magical skills or feats of juggling dexterity. You are there to provide them with some light-hearted fun, to give them a chance to laugh and maybe just forget about reality for a bit by putting smiles on their faces.

I have seen so many parades where the clowns just walk and wave. Nothing funny goes on. Clowns are suppose to be funny, so be funny! Even if it is just a sight gag, be funny. Please do not throw candy, toys, etc. Why? Because children can get hurt when things are tossed at them (they cannot catch well), and they run onto the parade route and endanger themselves (never bring children onto the parade route--they are there to watch, not walk). Those who do not get any candy or toys feel disappointed, fights break out over who gets the item being tossed, it leaves a mess, and you are not Santa Claus! You are clown, so be funny!

Another parade bit I love is done while riding a unicycle. As I wave at someone, I fall off the bike and rush over and yell, "MOM!" and run up to give a lady a hug. Usually, she will yell back, "Son!" I often grab her, put my face close to hers, quickly put a sponge nose on her nose and say, "See the resemblance?" People will take snapshots of this, and, again, it involves the audience without doing a big routine.

Try visiting Snappy and Chad's website at http://www.fun101.com/. Not only do they sell balloons and magic tricks, but if you click on the "Hey Kids" button you see magic tricks, party games and jokes from kids. They also have a joke of the month contest. Check it out - there's alot to be learned there.

I am Wheeler the Clown. I face children with two fears. One fear of clowns;
two fear of wheelchairs. I can honestly say that in the 18 years I have been
clowning, I have only left a party once with a child still afraid of me, and
that is mostly do to the fact that the adults whisked her downstairs the
moment she started to cry, and returned to the basement every time they
brought her up because she was still crying.

My technique: First, I don't go out of my way to scare kids (exaggerated, big
movements, etc.) Secondly, I tell the adults present to let the frightened
child to determine his/her own space from me. Third, I find out the child's
name and repeatedly speak to the child throughout my show. The child always
warms up to this, and will usually answer questions, and in the end comes up
to me to get a balloon. The last time this happened the formerly frightened
child came up and hugged me as I was leaving.

I use all the colors of the Wordless Bible.
Black: sin or spiritual death. (Romans 3:23)
Red: the Blood of Jesus shed to pay for our sin. (Romans 5:8)
White: forgiveness and cleansing of sin to those who trust in Jesus. (Acts 3:19)
Blue: public profession of Jesus by baptism in water (Acts 2:41)
Green: spiritual growth which occurs as we pray,
worship, read the Bible, etc. (2 Peter 3:18)
Yellow: heaven and glory with Jesus. (Rev. 2:1-3.)

I have worked each color somewhere into my costume.
My sleeves are yellow, my dress is blue and green, my apron is red,
white and black. I wear "WWJD" bloomers under it.

I tell the story with all the colors and then I tell them
that when I'm not sure of what to do
at this point I lift up the hem of my dress a little bit and show the
"WWJD", and I ask myself "What Would Jesus Do?" When they ask about my
RED NOSE, I tell them it reminds me that God Nose everything I do.

PRE-SCHOOL AGE GROUP: (3-5 year olds)

Remember you will be entering a classroom of people less than three feet
tall and it can be extremely unnerving. They are small people with open
hearts and minds. They are eager to learn new things and want to please.
Have fun with them.

Let the children know your expectations such as raise their hands and
wait to be call on etc. Most classrooms that you will visit the
children will be wearing their name tags and you can request this also.

Apr 11 - Apr 18
PLANNING YOUR VISIT (BEFORE YOUR VISIT)

Ask the teacher if she or he wants you to cover any special topic.

Ask if there any special situations

Inquire about what the class has been learning lately.

Ask that the teacher (an aide) stay in the room while you are visiting
the children.

Know how many students will be in the class.

Know key referrals, polices and resources for problems you might
encounter.

Apr 18 - Apr 25
YOUR VISIT-THINGS TO REMEMBER

Introduce yourself

Be sure your visit with them is not a simply a lecture

Establish and enforce the "one person talk at a time" rule.

Make your presentations fun and interesting:

Ask questions and let the children respond

Talk at the children's level

Use visual aids

Keep it short and simple and your visit brief

Work with the whole audience.

Relax and sit down.

Here Are Some Things To Do
(A 2 part series)

1) Keep Icon Graphics small, less than 4,000 bytes (2k) is better.

2) Always spell check and proofread your pages before publishing. Poor grammar and carelessness is a direct reflection on your ability to deliver a quality product.

3) Test your page to make sure your links work, your graphics are placed correctly and all of your features work as designed.

4) Test your page with multiple browsers, different computers and preferably with different connections. Not all browsers work the same.

5) Keep It Simple Silly - Overly complicated pages are hard to follow and often lose the reader.Looking to Put Your Clown on the WWW?

Things To Avoid

1) Several large photos on one page. Remember, each 100,000 byte photo takes almost 5 minutes to
download at 28,000 baud.

2) Using other peoples artwork without giving them credit.

3) Linking to other people's sites and giving the impression it is your work.

4) Making a page too busy with multiple colors, swirly artwork and disarrayed text. Besides giving people
headaches, you lose their interest and drive them away.

5) Profanity and sexually explicit or hateful phrases. This amounts to cyber graffiti which clogs bandwidth
while broadcasting the designer's immaturity and social irresponsibility.

I went to some shoe stores and sports shoe stores and asked if they
had any large or extra large -extra-extra large shoes on hand, or shoes of
that size had been orderd and not picked up.

Surprise of all surprises one store had a size #16 tennis shoe
on hand. They cost me $50.00. I stuffed the front toe area with newspaper
and then left room to put a shoe my size in side the shoe, so I had a
comfortable fit. I get a lot of "OOOHS" and "AAAHS".

(Hickory Note - My first pair of clown shoes were oversized sneakers which I painted with fabric paint. Kids loved them, and I've actually gotten more comments on those sneakers than I have on my "official" clown shoes)

Looking for a Fun Site on the WWW?

A regular contributor of the "Inspiration of the Week" is Yaa Yaa the Clown. She also has a wonderful
web site on the WWW at http://members.aol.com/kechew/ where you can find jokes, games, some
wonderful stories and links to other kid sites. I highly recommend this site to anyone wanting to learn a
few jokes or stories, or just want to make their day a little bit brighter. Therefore, I have awarded
Hickory's Red Nose Award to Yaa Yaa's World, a magnificent Internet Site.

What to say when your Balloon Pops
(A 2 part Series)

1. Well that one's definitely been fired!
2. You just can't get good help anymore!
3. Hmm... some balloons are just sooo lazy, they'll do anything to get out of working!
4. Gosh that sure was a lot of wind beneath my wings... ooppss... did I say wings?! Sometimes I can be such a silly bird!
5. I never could blow these little critters up right, but I sure can twist 'em up right!
6. (sing this to the tune of "Another one bites the dust") Another one bites the air and another ones gone and another ones gone and another one bites the air!

7. Gee.... sometimes I get so full from my own meal, I feel like I could burst just like that too. Yes indeedy, I know that too full feeling very well!
8. Wasn't that somethin'.... thank you, thank you and now ladies & jellyspoons for my next trick.... I will attempt to create a balloon that doesn't explode!
9. Some days are diamonds & some days explode & some days the exploding days just won't leave me alone!
10. Golly gee, if that balloon didn't like me, it could've just told me so!
11. That balloon was close to retirement anyway, it just took a little earlier retirement than "WE" expected.
12. That one sure knew how to have a good time... it went out with a bang!

Contributed by Ellen aka "Chess-Z" The Clown. Click here e-mail "Chess-Z"
or you may visit her on the WWW at http://www.tricountyi.net/~thepartyhelper/page10.htm

Origami Web Site

Want to do something fun and different at your next party? How about turning a piece of paper into a crane with wings that can flap - or into boxes that fit inside of each other.

"What's Origami?

"Origami is one of the arts of the paperfolding. I think, however, origami is not same as paperfolding.

"In my opinion, origami is bringing out by folding the or

ganic shapes which was hidden in the mechanical-shaped paper. You can make some complex shapes with square or simple-shaped paper. But remember all the shapes are prepared in square paper. Square paper has infinite possibility. "
Hatori Koshiro

Visit Koshiro's Animated Origami Website at http://www.jade.dti.ne.jp/~hatori/index.html and you will see animated pictures that teach you Origami. Many links and useful information will introduce you to this amazing - magical art form.

Generally speaking, "A virus is a piece of software designed and written to adversely affect your
computer by altering the way it works without your knowledge or permission" (Symantec Antivirus Research Center http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html). More and more, computer viruses are released that do considerable damage to home and business computers. The threat is real and the effects can be devastating.

Typically, viruses are spread as e-mail attachments, but they can also be transmitted through programs shared on diskettes or even purchased from your local computer store. Be especially careful with programs purchased from computer fairs or through discount software dealers. Often, these are bootleg copies which may contain virus programs.

There are several things you can do to protect your computer against infection, or minimize the effect of a virus attach:

1) Never open e-mail attachments from people you do not know. In order for the virus to spread, the host program must be run. Be especially careful of .exe files because these are executable programs.

2) Buy an anti-virus software program and get frequent updates to the virus definitions. These programs are inexpensive and well worth the investment.

3) Backup your computer system onto diskettes, tapes, zip disk or CD ROM. Keep your original diskettes save (with passwords and serial numbers) in case they need to be reloaded. A current backup is your computer's best friend.

For the sake of simplicity, there are currently 3 types of unwanted programs (viruses) that are infecting computers today. The most important thing to remember is that none of these can be spread unless you run an infected program on your computer. If you receive an e-mail attachment that contains a virus, you will not be infected unless you open the attachment and the program is executed. The recent happy99 virus was sent as a .exe file. I received it as an attachment and did not get infected - coworkers opened the file and did. Also, MSWord® and other word processing documents can contain macros that have the ability to spread virus programs. Bottom line, don't run anything unless you know who gave it to you.

Viruses - Causes immediate and sometimes devastating effects on your computer. Can be as malicious as destroying your operating system to as amusing as showing funny cartoons.

Worm - These programs attach themselves to other programs on your computer or may actually modify the program itself. They too can be quite destructive.

Trojan Horse - These programs are designed to run undetected and perform such stealth activities as sending your userid and password to a malicious hacker.

Hoaxes - These are not viruses, but e-mails claiming to warn you about viruses. They are all designed to scare you, warning of impending doom if you encounter this e-mail attachment. There is a great deal of worry and concern for your safety and that of others. Usually there is a very obvious trail of forwards after forwards. If you receive a hoax - or think is a hoax - check out some of the links below. Most contain hoax info.

A hoax is an e-mail which claims to warn you about a terrible virus which is headed your way. These are normally forwarded by very well meaning individuals who are trying to do you a favor. They are your cyber-friends trying to protect you from impending doom.

There really is no harm in the Hoax itself, but some of the negative things that result from spreading those hoax e-mails are:

1) Clog up e-mails of the users who get them
2) Unauthorized / unwanted distribution of private e-mail addresses. I am convinced that many of those annoying spam lists I'm on are because of well meaning hoax distribution. Typically, my name is included with 10 other names and I am on the 4th or 5th forward, with each group having 10 or more names. By the time this one e-mail gets around there could be several hundred e-mail addresses on there, that a SPAM list builder could work off of.
3) Begin ignoring real virus alerts, because you figure every e-mail that says "Virus Alert" is a hoax, you won't bother opening the one that really is for real.

Some Current Hoaxes:
AOL4FREE Hoax or What?
BUDDYLST.ZIP EMAIL VIRUS HOAX
Guts to Say Jesus

If you receive an e-mail warning you of a virus, please validate against some of the virus informational sites listed below. If you cannot verify that this is a hoax, send it on to your friends. It is better to be too careful than ignore something that is important. If you are not sure, send me you e-mail. I will check it out. Remember, a current backup is the best way to protect against the effects of a virus infection. BACK UP / SAVE your computer files OFTEN.

For more information on virus protection, check out one of these sites. This list was compiled by CIAC, Computer Incident Advisory Capability, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy

If you find this site useful, please consider making a donation. It's not tax deductible. You don't get any prizes. Just the satisfaction of knowing that you have helped to make the web a better place to play.

This website is not in existence to ask for money

This website asks for money to stay in existence

Thank you for anything you can offer.
Geoff "Hickory" Turner

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