Seniors Send in Clowns and Brighten Others’ Lives

The ushers wore green felt handmade smocks and had green feathers sticking out of their caps. They were elves for a day, guiding toddlers and seniors to a holiday breakfast at the Carson Community Center on Wednesday.

It was a different act for the Carson Clowners, who prefer dressing in bright wigs, greasepaint, oversize shoes and multicolored, baggy clothes.

But even if they had to shed their disguises, the Clowners did not let that interfere with what has become for them a tradition of helping others. One of them did say: “I feel silly. It’s more fun being a clown. I can be silly and anonymous.”

From a group of four senior citizens in 1985 with a handful of skits, the clown club has grown to 12 active members with a repertoire of a dozen skits and a barrelful of magic tricks and jokes.

The club originated with Norma Hernandez, senior citizens coordinator at the community center. When she joined the center as a volunteer in 1980, she wanted to get the seniors more active and to use the many who came there as a resource to help others.

“At most senior centers, you have people just sitting around playing bingo,” she said at the center this week. “I felt that seniors entertaining and motivating seniors was better. If you have a group of people just sitting around, then someone comes along who is all happy and jolly, the whole group brightens up.”

Hernandez, who studied theater arts at Harbor College and has done some clowning at parties, taught them the basics of clowning--everything from how to apply makeup to how to move. They applied those skills, learned some skits, and the next stop was at convalescent homes in Torrance and Carson and the Veterans Hospital in Long Beach.

“I was nervous at first,” said Ruth Torres, otherwise known as Cookie the Clown and one of the first four clowners. “But it was fun.”

There were a few skeptics.

“Some seniors said, ‘They are makin’ fools of themselves,’ ” said Marvin (Marvina the Clown) Brown, also an original clowner.

But others wanted to learn. And Hernandez arranged workshops with professional clowns, who helped them develop more skits and taught them how to do balloon sculptures.

Demand grew.

The clowns were asked to perform at city celebrations, in nursery schools, and they even kept children entertained while awaiting fingerprinting for the Sheriff’s Department child identification program at the Carson Mall.

With names like Dandy, Bonkers, Jolly, Jelly Bean and Popcorn, their reason for being has never changed.

“Our primary purpose is to give joy,” said Ruben DeLa Rosa, who clowns as Corney.

In hospitals, their effect on patients is immediate.

“People were down.. . . The minute they saw a clown come in, it was like going from room to room and turning on the lights. They all started smiling,” said Richard Newman, who goes by the name Smiley.

The pleasure for Hernandez has been in seeing the blossoming of the new clowns.

“The biggest reward is seeing the fulfillment the clowns receive. Watching the excitement in their eyes when they are performing,” she said.

“I’ve seen very shy, reserved people become our best clowns.”