CLIPBOARD : DISCOVERY : UNDER THE BIG TOP
They burst on the scene peddling a foot-high unicycle, squirting themselves with water from a fake lapel flower, or smashing cream pies in one another’s face, all the while darting about in shoes the size of Rhode Island. Their faces are painted in colorful, expressive guises, and they sport four-sizes-too-big costumes that are so loud and funky it sends people scrambling to their pockets for a pair of sunglasses and to their hearts for a smile.
It’s no wonder all the world loves a clown.
“Clowns do silly stuff. It’s preforming--it’s comedy,” said Dena Piraino, who has been involved in clowning for more than a decade and is co-owner with her parents of Under the Big Top in Placentia.
And if clowns do silly stuff, Under the Big Top is their main source in Orange County to arm themselves with the tricks of the trade, and the only source of circus music. Piraino, a member of the World Clown Assn., affectionately calls her shop “a department store for clowns.” And is it ever.
Under the Big Top is a peacock explosion of color, the ultimate in clown couture. There are brightly-hued bibs, ties, bloomers, suspenders, synthetic wigs, red rubber noses, socks and neon shoelaces; there is an assortment of clown gags including noisemakers, whistles, oversized combs, balloons, mooing milk cartons, giant foam hot dogs and even the requisite rubber chickens.
The store also stocks top-of-the-line greasepaint specific to clowns and water-based colors for clowns to paint their little fans. And to complete the perfect clown look from head to toe, Under the Big Top will custom order dyed yak-hair wigs and the big floppy clown shoes. The store’s two seamstresses (one of whom is Piraino’s mother, Margaret) will customize clown costumes.
But it doesn’t stop there. At least twice a year Under the Big Top turns into a clown college--the only one in the county. Although the classes are a lot of fun, the school is for people who are serious about clowning.
“Anyone can put on a wig and dress in funny clothes. But the clowns who take our class want to do it right and take the formal training,” Piraino said. “We don’t train clowns for the circus. Our classes are for people who want to do parades, birthday parties, hospital and nursing home work, or who want to have a part-time job they can do out of their home.”
And so closet clowns who work by day in post offices, the medical profession and businesses arrive from as far as Fresno and San Diego just to take the eight-week course taught by Piraino and four associates, two of whom were formerly with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. For $175, students learn techniques of costuming, makeup, balloon animals, magic, props, improvisation and are exposed to circus clowning.
At the end of the course the students get to strut their stuff as they dress up in full clown regalia and take their show on the road. Usually Piraino takes her class to entertain the patients at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, but this year they have been invited to preform “walk-arounds” on opening night at a concert in Fullerton. Following the performances, the newly-minted masters of mirth will participate in a graduation exercise where, according to Piraino, they will “play Pomp and Circumstance on their kazoos and will be presented with a Certificate of Graduation.”
Piraino also teaches individual one-night classes on a variety of subjects such as face painting, how to put together a birthday party and how to make props. The classes average $25 each, and especially appeal to people who have been clowning for a time and want to sharpen their skills.
So for anyone who has ever considered putting on a big red nose and funny hair and donning loud, silly clothes just to make a child smile, Under the Big Top may be the first step toward the addiction of being a clown.
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Address: 1525-A N. Placentia Ave., Placentia
Telephone: (714) 579-1144
Miscellaneous Information: Frequency of classes depends on interest and instructor schedule; for individual classes, call the store to make an appointment.