Diary of a Clown/ An Elephant! By Susan Zwirn aka Polkadots the Clown

A good portion of the Birthday parties I clown at, are on overkill. These people (not always rich) spend more money on these Birthday Parties than the average person spends on a wedding. But what do you do when you have a 13 year old millionaire Bar mitzvah boy who already had 12 overkill Birthday Parties (not to mention the overkill Birthday Parties he's already been to), and is due for a change?....Give up?....You invite an Elephant to his Bar mitzvah!

I was hired to clown at a Bar Mitzvah in a Great Neck Long Island Country Club, along with a bevy of other Circus Performers, Fire Eaters, Sword Swallower's, Strolling Magicians, and the category I fell into....Strolling Clown Balloonists. Oh, and a Marching Band.

The Country Club Catering Hall was all decorated in a Circus Motif. The Centerpiece on the cocktail tables had little Merry Go Rounds that actually turned around, lit up, and played music.

Now, if all that wasn't enough, in the middle of the Cocktail Party, we were all instructed to go into the other room. We, being the performers, marched around the outside of the room with the guests in the middle. It was the closest I[ve ever come to being in a Circus. We all just kind of marched around and did our thing. I did my Plate Spinning and comedy antics. All of the other performers did there's as well along with the 10 piece marching band who serenaded everyone with Circus Music. After about 10 minutes of this, we and all of the spectators were told to clear the room and stand against the walls and to stay away from the door, except for the marching band who was instructed to go outside.

Within a few minutes, the door to the Catering hall is opened and the MC is making an anouncement "Ladies and Gentlemen...Children of all ages....Presenting the Bar Mitzvah Boy himself and Guest of Honor, Jeffrey Abramowitz!" With that said, the Bar Mitzvah Boy enters the room on an Elephant, both wearing circus styled sparkly headdresses. Yes, you heard right, an Elephant! They are followed by the marching band playing Circus Music.

The only people who seemed to know this was all going to take place was The Bar Mitzvah boy and his imediate familly as well as my boss who was also one of the performers. Jason, who was doing juggling, was the most shocked out of everyone. "An ELEPHANT!!... They brought in an ELEPHANT!!" He continued with "I've been doing overkill parties for 20 years and....An ELEPHANT!!" My boss came over and told us to get all of our belongings together and rap it up, but Jason just stood there dumbfounded going "An ELEPHANT!! They brought in an ELEPHANT!!" We eventually had to lead him out.

Looking back on the whole day, I thought it was great that a 13 year old boy was willing to go along with this in front of his spoiled brat millionaire friends. Now that's a Circus Enthusiest!