Clowns come to town

East is east and jest is jest and sometimes the twain do meet. The International Clown Festival in the city featuring professional clowns from overseas, is all about breaking stereotypes and proving that spreading happiness is serious business

Mumbai's weather is getting more unpredictable by the day. After the sporadic rain showers in November now, of all things, it is raining clowns in the city. A host of clowns have descended into Mumbai for The International Clown Festival 2010, running till November 14, to do what they do bestu00a0-- spread happiness.

u00a0Air Borne: A clown shows off his skill at a workshop in St Xavier's College

The clowns from the USA, Europe, Canada, South Africa and Malaysia have been holding shows, workshops and going to hospitals, malls and colleges in the city, 'to spread the word that clowning is an art form, it is not just some slapstick nonsense done by dwarfs or people pulling funny faces, like they are often portrayed in our Hindi movies," says Martin D'Souza whose clown name is 'Flubber' (he is a professional clown himself) and organiser in chief of the International Clown Fest.

u00a0Says Martin, a St Xavier's College, Mumbai graduate, "I have been performing as a clown for 20 years now. A few years ago, I realised there was so much more to learn than dressing up, putting face paint, doing pantomime, juggling. I started reading, researching and collating information on the Internet."

The world of clowning opened up for Martin as it dawned on him that clowning was serious and academic business. "Not too many people know there are clown schools, clown colleges and clown camps in the world. I won a Clown Scholarship to the University of Wisconsin in the US, six years ago.

I attended a clown camp there where I met more than 300 clowns from all over the world. I learnt that clowning is a systematic, organised art form. It has moved on from the funny side act at a circus from being the domain of dwarfs and midgets. While one can expect clowns at a circus, clowning is now part of parties, has moved into houses. It has gone beyond what we know."

Martin says the fest, in its own way, is an attempt to tell the city, "That this is a respectable career option not just an avenue to earn some extra pocket money. You do not need a special attribute to be a clown. You must want to be a clown. Then, you need to practise the skills necessary, learn more and stick by it."

Cheer: A caring clown at the KEM Hospital

To shore up his argument that, "anybody can be a clown," Martin says, "We have a clown at the fest who was with the Chicago police for 40 years. Today, he is a full-time 65-year-old clown."

The fest, says Martin has a three-pronged purpose, "To give clowning a cloak of respectability, to make people aware that clowns are not uneducated persons who cannot get another job and finally to prove that anybody can be a clown."

He adds, "one needs to be internally happy to be a clown, one can be an introvert and be a fantastic clown too. There is a myth that in real life, clowns are very sad and depressed people, again one that needs to be smashed," laughs Martin.

There is no 'gender' in clowning. The clown fest has a smattering of women clowns. There is Deanna Hartmier also called Dee Dee the clown who is the Canadian Central Director of the World Clown Association. Dee Dee has been clowning since 1995. In fact, Deanna along with another clown called Valerie Meiners co-owns Laughter Without Borders an entertainment agency in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.u00a0

Clowning has moved into community service and even in schools where messages of safety and awareness are spread through the medium of clowning. Both Deanna and Valerie, also known as Puff, the clown, share an award from SMILE (Safety Messages in Life Education) for Best Clown Safety Routine.

Smileu00a0canu00a0go miles: Clowns doing what else but clowning around

There is also Molly 'Skiddles' Kleeman, who has been performing as Skiddles the clown for over 14 years, riding a unicycle for several decades and also a stilt walker. While Debbie Fowler from the USA, with the clown name La Ditzy the clown has been clowning since 2003, when she attended her first Clown Jam in Branson, Missouri.

Currently, the Northwest Regional Director for the World Clown Association, La Ditzy clowns at nursing homes, town festivals, parades, parties and the local park district.u00a0u00a0u00a0

u00a0 Martin also says there is a difference between being called a, 'joker' and a 'clown'. A joker which is often used in India, "has a derogatory slant to it, when somebody does something ridiculous or when one wants to mock somebody they are called jokers," says Martin's, "a joker might make you laugh momentarily, a clown makes you happy."

As if to buttress Martin's statement one can go back to 1988 when cricketer Mohinder Amarnath made what is one of the most quoted lines in Indian cricket. Amarnath had said, 'The national selectors are a bunch of jokers!' after he was omitted from the Indian side for the first Test against John Wright's New Zealanders. Amarnath certainly used jokers in mocking, derogatory vein.

Clowns overseas are not just relegated to circus acts. They work in colleges spreading the word about safety, they participate in different outreach programs and also spread cheer in hospitals. The last bunch is known as caring clowns or hospital clowns. On Tuesday afternoon, these caring clowns burst into the KEM Hospitals ward for hemophilia patients like a ray of sunshine on a drab, cloudy day.

Children in the ward, were bewildered at first but then, soon broke into peals of laughter and wide smiles. Laughter has no divide, it scaled boundaries of countries and language. The clowns who spoke English, communicated through their happy medium to many children who did not know the language. Their antics had the young patients sporting megawatt smiles and Indira Nair, president of the Hemophilia Society said, "It is great that these kids are smiling. They need cheering up because they are always in pain."

Hemophilia is a fairly rare (1 in 10,000 persons are affected) bleeding disorder in which blood does not clot normally. It is usually (though not in all cases) passed on from mother to son and is very expensive to treat in India. It is a lifelong disorder and can be fatal.

All those dark thoughts were swept aside as the clowns -- pink wigs, red noses, face paint and big shoes with their typical clown attire swept through ward no 42, on the tenth floor. Said Dr Sanjay Oak, Dean KEM, "it is important that patients have recourse to support groups while battling this disease."

He also stressed the importance of such activities for these children, "so that they look forward to their next hospital visit because they would always be thinking: aaj clown aayega?" (will the clowns come in today?) Dr Oak appealed to corporates to adopt the hemophilia csause and help generously with funding, taking it on as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.u00a0

It was not just kids but their parents too who were smiling along with the clowns in the ward on Tuesday. This too was important, because Dr Farah J says, "hemophilia is usually passed from mother to son. Once diagnosed we do not stress the role of the mother because she is constantly blamed, she feels the guilt and there is tremendous tension in the family."

All these factors fell away as mirth lit up that evening for a brief while. Hemophilia drugs are so expensive can burn a hole in your pocket, but these evolved, caring clowns brought to life the adageu00a0-- laughter is the best medicine and what is better it doesn't make your wallet lighter like all those overseas manufactured drugs do.u00a0

These clowns plan to wrap up the festival and exit Mumbai after having a show and interacting with 800 street children in Mumbai on November 14u00a0-- Children's Day. One can bet the BEST will not need to put on street lights that day, the kids smiles will be enough to brighten everything around.