When you think of clowns, what do you imagine? Recent clown sightings across Racine, Oak Creek, Sheboygan, and Milwaukee may change what you once perceived clowns to be.
The first clown sighting was by a little boy in Greenville, South Carolina. Claims were made of two clowns were trying to lure the boy into the woods. This was the beginning of the frightening clown outbreak that has spread across America and well throughout Wisconsin.
What started out as circus performers, fun pranksters and entertainment at children’s birthday parties slowly ventured into haunted house characters, Pennywise from the horror film It, and killers like John Wayne Gacy. The idea of balloon animals, squirting flowers and pies in the face has been replaced with chainsaws, sharp teeth and serial killers.
Little do people know, these copycat clowns who are trying to cause a spectacle, whether dangerous or not, bring a bad rap to the real working clowning and circus community, including myself.
I have always had a fascination with the circus and vaudeville. I have a hobo clown, or sad clown, collection in my home including, puppets, figures, dolls, painting, and music boxes. I do special effects make-up in my spare time. What I enjoy doing most is my sad clown makeup. I dress as a sad clown and have a sad clown based photography project currently in the works.
Professor Pinkerton Xyloma has been a professional variety performer for most of his adult life. You can find him hosting the Dead Man’s Carnival at the Miramar Theater every first Friday of the month. Dead Man’s Carnival is a live music, variety show where you can see aerial gymnastics, strip teases, skits, gags, magic, sword swallowing, fire juggling, and, you guessed it: clowns.
While Xyloma sometimes agrees with his fellow Circus purists who dislike the portrayal of clown in pop culture entirely, he does find it more important to allow people to express themselves however they want even if that means they use these arch-types.
“It is a beautiful and timeless art which has shaped our culture more than most ever realize; think cartoons, literature, film, etc,” said Xyloma.
Claira Bell has performed many times at Dead Man’s Carnival alongside Xyloma. For the past three years, Bell has been performing as a traditional clown for children, as well as a sexier adult version for her fire and sideshow performances.
“I enjoy the two alter egos because they let me come outside myself and become another person free of social anxiety and judgment,” said Bell.
Bell says that these clowns terrorizing our city, as well as the media covering them, are a problem. Along with using these creepy clown stories to sell more television ads and newspapers, they are putting the public into a fear frenzy for the sake of amusement or money.
“If the media didn’t make a big deal out of it, this would have dissipated long before now,” said Bell.
Bell doesn’t think these clowns are dangerous, but more pranksters. They are people who focus in on other’s irrational fears as a source of their own amusement.
Taylor Rayne is from Random Lake, WI, but Mini comes from Sheboygan. Mini is Rayne’s, often scary but sometimes cute, clown persona. She tones down the scary in public to entertain the kids while also advertising for her haunted house.
Rayne has been volunteering at the Dominion of Terror, a Jaycee-run haunted house in Sheboygan, for the past three years. The first year she was there they threw a big, clown-themed birthday party for the house’s 40th anniversary. Rayne enjoyed clowning so much that she was asked if she’d like to dress up and participate with them, and thus Mini was born.
Rayne finds it unacceptable to peep or chase people around with a weapon, no matter how they are dressed.
“If you want to be scary I’m sure there’s a haunted house in the area looking for actors, and you may even get paid for it,” said Rayne. “Don’t give a whole group of people a bad rap because you want to dress up and act like an idiot.”
Many people highly enjoyed getting spooked by movies and haunted houses, but the fear is different when it comes to facing it in real life. Ryan McNealy, a film student at UWM, says that while he loves the insanity of characters like the Joker, if they were real people he would stay away from them.
“The Dark Knight Rises shooter dressed as a clown…as a Joker…that’s scary,” said McNealy.
Others have expressed more curiosity despite their fear. UWM theater student Ryder Daniels says they went out looking for clowns after they heard of their presence on campus.
“I went looking because of my intense fear of clowns and the fact that I work 3rd shift on campus,” said Daniels. “I carry a knife around. That’d be a bad plan for someone to try and put me in fight mode.”
What makes people fear clowns is their fear of the reflection of their own humanity, according to Bell. They have never been historically good. They are unpredictable pranksters that dance on the edge of good and evil.
“Humans can be great and humans can be terrible,” said Bell. Clowns have always been the char that showed them that.”
By showing the audiences true humanity, they have come to dislike sad or dark clowns, yet embrace the happy, giddy version. Even with the happy ones, you never know when you’ll get a pie in the face.