Disneyland Face Painter Hopes to Make a Quantum Pratfall All the Way to Clown

Lisa Fay wants to be a clown and run away with the circus. Maybe.

“I love performing with children,” said the 21-year-old Fountain Valley woman who has been accepted for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus 10-week clown school in Florida. “When you play with children, they take everything at face value. They are so innocent.”

She should know. Fay has been a character at Disneyland and a face painter for the theme park’s Circus Fantasy since her graduation from Fountain Valley High School.

Even if Ringling Bros. offers her a contract to travel with the circus following clown school, “I’m still not sure I would take it,” said Fay, who prefers to work toward one goal at a time.

“The school is a goal and after that, whatever I see that I like will be my other goals,” she said.

Fay said she is “living life for the enjoyment of living it.”

Disneyland gave her a leave of absence to attend the school “and it would be nice to get back to Disneyland with what I learn at clown school.”

But Fay said it would also be nice to run away with the circus. “I don’t think there’s a person alive that sometime in their life didn’t want to run away and join the circus.”

The “greatest high” she has had was performing in a Christmas show at Disneyland where everyone was in the spirit and the cast was happy and the children were sitting up close.

“You could see everyone was enjoying themselves,” she said. “You could look into their eyes and see how happy they were. It was a really great feeling.”

Fay, who attended both Orange Coast and Golden West colleges and took dance and theater classes at both, said performing is fun when “an audience is with you and you take them into a fantasy land and make them happy.”

A one-time field hockey player at high school, Fay said she will be able to handle the arduous role of a clown despite her slight build--she weighs 103 pounds and stands 5 feet tall.

“I’m in really terrific condition,” she said.

And her dance background may help her fit in with other circus acts. “Circuses are changing and presenting more production numbers using dancers,” she said. “When I’m not doing clown work, there might be other things I could do as a dancer.”

Her father, Richard Fay, 56, “is excited for me, but I also know he is sad I won’t be home with him.”

She added, “I think he’d like to run away and join the circus too.”

When James Howat of Huntington Beach and Mary Clare Christiane of Costa Mesa talk about getting a “holiday high” during the Labor Day weekend, it means a climb up Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the 48 contiguous states.

It’s not just for fun. They and 16 other climbers have to raise at least $100 in pledges to participate. The money will go to the March of Dimes.

Last year, a team of climbers raised $3,500. This year’s goal is $5,000.

But survival itself may be more important for the group that expects to reach the top.

Last year, according to Richard Rioux, who is heading the group, the trek was punctuated by snow and hail at high altitudes. Two injured climbers had to be rescued by helicopter and horseback.

“It’s interesting to raise money this way,” said Howat, director of an outpatient drug and alcohol clinic. “They have walk-a-thons, jog-a-thons and bike-a-thons, and now I’m going to experience a mountain-a-thon.”

Marie Knight, supervisor of the Garden Grove Community Meeting Center on Stanford Avenue, thinks she has hit on an idea to draw more people there.

On Sept. 11, the center will sponsor a Bridal Fair that she hopes will attract upward of 300 brides-to-be and their parents. “To my knowledge, this will be the first time a city facility has sponsored something like this,” she said.

Miss Garden Grove and her court will also model bridal gowns for Knight in a fashion show. Professional photographers, florists, caterers, travel agencies, formal wear, bridal stores, bakers and entertainers will rent booths.

“Sometimes we have three weddings on weekends at the center,” Knight said, “so it looks like we have a waiting audience.”

Admission will be $3.

Acknowledgments--Amy Katherine Watt, a Dana Hills High School junior, has been awarded the prestigious Rensselaer Medal for outstanding work in mathematics and science from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., which makes the annual presentation to one junior from each of about 1,700 U.S. high schools. Watt is the daughter of Deanna and William R. Watt of San Juan Capistrano.