I just had a friend in Puyallup make some calls for me from the 6 names that came up as clowns in Reference USA for her county. I told her to say that she was booking a one hour party for 10 kids in October.
Two were actually the same guy under two different biz names. Unfortunately the NAICS/ yellow page listing puts magicians and balloon twisters who don't use 'the C word' in the same category.
So illusionist #1 (& #3) talked a long time and offered an hour and a half show (he'd discount it though) for $250. It would include birds and a hamster. He'd levitate the birthday child.
The second guy cut to the chase. He was NOT a clown. He would twist balloons for $100/hr.
The two next calls were taken by unimpressive personal answering machines.
THEN she called
Merry Makers (a clown syndicate). They'd charge $125/hr. I'm not sure what the clowns get out of that. They have comprehensive packages.
I double checked with the two versions of the yellow pages and got two other results as well.
I checked the website of the first, and it seemed like they'd moved away from clowns into the temporary party architecture market [bouncy houses, etc]. The English was atrocious on every page.
Welcome to It's Party Time Web Site
The last website AND phone answer machine were great, and I'd met the clowns before. They came from the alley to the North of us but were not listed on the reference USA page (I wonder why not).
Clown Buggie Entertainment
I would fully expect them to charge as much as the levitating hamster guy. After all, they have to pay the insurance on their buggy.