CYPRESS : Clowns Get Serious at College Camp

It was a veritable clown jam at Cypress College’s Clown Camp over the weekend.

About 140 clowns, dressed in costumes and makeup and portraying babies, hobos, little girls, mischievous boys and princesses, came to the camp to refine their art form and learn about the responsibility of being a clown.

They practiced the “Flash Five” juggle. They traded philosophies on the finer points of clowning. They rehearsed their solo acts for clown colleagues.

Pretty serious business for a bunch of clowns.

But then, clowning is a learned skill that requires much practice and development, said camp director Richard Snowberg, a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and author of four books on clowning.

“A person who was a ‘class clown’ in school usually does not make a good clown,” said Snowberg, who conducted the three-day workshop decked out in his “Snowflake” outfit, replete with red honking nose, big bow tie, red hair, black-checked pants with overalls and, of course, huge clown shoes. “A good clown has a standard act and reacts to the audience.”

Among the clowns at camp was Sharon Newberg, 47, who has been clowning for 20 years and owns the House of Humor store in Costa Mesa. Her character is “Molly Malone,” who can be either an Irish clown or a playful girl clown.

As Molly, she conducts a stress-management seminar at local businesses. She said that last week she had insurance agents deal with stress by sitting on the floor in their socks, and when Molly touched them with her magic wand, they would crawl like a baby or act like a child with their favorite toy.

Indeed, most of those who are clowns say they believe that clowning has a therapeutic effect on stress as well as disease. Snowberg said about 80% of clowns spend much of their time clowning at nursing homes and hospitals.

Kathy Burnette, 29, alias “Confetti,” said she got into clowning when she was found to have cervical cancer two years ago. Given the choice of attending a cancer therapy group at the hospital or a clown class at a junior college, she opted for the latter. She said her doctor thought she had lost her faculties for rational thought.

“Clowning comes from the heart. I give credit of my recovery to it,” Burnette said. “There were times when I couldn’t laugh, but I put on makeup and I am Confetti, not Kathy with cancer.”

Burnette, a math teacher at a middle school in Marina Valley and mother of two, now incorporates clowning into her math curriculum.

The clowns have their clown identity. Though clowns at camp share ideas and techniques, they are also careful to protect their clown domain.

Bobbi Bourbannais, 34, a Sunday-school teacher in Riverside, developed her character, “Glow-Blo,” to explain the Bible to children. “These days kids are into videos and TV. We have to compete with that,” said Bourbannais, who also does “secular clowning” for parties and festivals.

Bourbannais, who refers to herself in the third person--either as “Bobbi” or “Glow-Blo,” depending on whether she has her makeup and costume on, said she often goes out in her Glow-Blo get-up because it is too time consuming to get in and out of the costume.

“I drive with my clown shoes on,” she said.

Which leads to unusual problems--Bourbannais said men find her Glow-Blo character attractive. “The men do hit on you when you are a clown,” she said.