It's all in the Family
By Susan Zwirn aka Polkadots the Clown

When I first started clowning at children events, I was so set on doing my skills that I had recently learned, like magic tricks, face painting and balloon twisting, that comedy never really figured into things. I guess I figured that as long as I looked funny, the kids were happy, provided they got there show, balloons and faces painted.

Frustration really started getting the best of me that first year, when I not only felt like a clown factory painting face after face and twisting balloon after balloon with a line full of pushy impatient kids fighting for there turn. To make matters worse I was getting complaints from kids saying I wasn’t funny enough. The parents were complaining that the kids were impatient and out of control, and worse yet, some even wanted there money back. Repeat customers and tips were something that I only heard of from other clowns. The last straw was at my niece’s second birthday party which I did for free. When volunteering to do her third birthday party, I was out right told by my brother he didn’t want me back. My own brother!
I was just getting ready to hang up my big clown shoes (so to speak), when while in the middle of one of my parties, this weird laugh emerged out of my mouth. It wasn’t even planned. It just kind of happened. I stopped questioning it when the kids and adults were so into my laugh that they not only laughed back, but started imitating me as well! From then on, my Clown personality started taking on a whole new turn. I started initiating comedy into just about every movement I made and all of the jokes started spurting out naturally. I also started outsmarting the kids’ comments, which were no longer negative ones. It was just a matter of time that I started getting repeat customers, and the tips came about around the time of the change. Since I was now making twice the amount of money as I was before, my former $10.00 “Woolworth costume”, turned into a $400.00 “Pricilla Moose burger” costume, the lady that makes the clown costumes for “The Big Apple Circus”. I also invested in custom made clown shoes by a company that also designs shoes for the circuses. My scary green wig was replaced by a red cutesy “Shirley Temple” wig. This change of attire which fit in perfectly with my new personality caused me to make even more tips as well as obtain repeat customers.That same year, my mom suffered a stroke, causing her her speech as well as paralyzing the left side of her body. It wasn’t until her funeral when the origin of my laugh made sense. Sitting behind me was a group of my mom’s friends. While waiting for the services to start, one of them commented…”you know, the thing I remember most about Claire, was her crazy laugh”. The rest of her friends all agreed and I think I even recall one of them imitating it. I heard the laugh so much over the years, that it never quite registered with me as being something out of the ordinary.Suddenly some of my sadness had taken a break and turned into wonder and amazement! I mean, what had happened here? Did my mom’s laugh leave her own mouth and somehow make it to mine? My father, who had died a year and a half before my mom, had an incredible sense of humor as well, winning him a number of awards for stand up comedy at the “Toastmasters Club”, a speech club for government workers.I’ve often heard that when people die, parts of there souls are passed onto there loved ones. I think I figured out which parts those parts were!