Hello, I need some clown help.

[Miss Petunia]

I'd rather be half-baked than Over-done.
Carrie

[Bonkers #361]

I dont like this Idea. I feel like there to much stuff out there with bad clowns. I think this could help more people fear clowns or even dislike us. I had a problem at our local parade when a haunted house had clowns that were running up to young kids and screaming at them. This haunted house has been around for at least the past 30 years. I contacted the Parade Committee because they scared my daughter and she ran from me while I was in makeup. Clowns are friendly, Happy, and they love kids. The Haunted house has been in the Parade since they were opened. The Comittee has ban them from the parade. For scaring children.

[clowning_around]

I also don't like the fact that people like the evil clown more...

I have found some nice articles on the web and posted them in my article section
Clown Articles | Clown News | Information on Clowns

I think most people misunderstand clowns from all those crazy movies so I put the articles on my site to try and calm the nerves and get the word out that
"Clowning is, and ought to be, inclusive and not restrictive."

[Snugglesnort]

Bonkers and Clowning_Around: you are preaching to the choir. Better yet you are preaching at a preachers convention.

I am for supporting, helping and educating this guy as much as he will let us. Clowning is a pretty esoteric art. Until you study and/or practice it you won't really know much about it. The easy to find information on clowning is mostly superficial and unhelpful. The good stuff you really have to dig for. The easiest way is to find a clown or two and just ask (if there are any around)... and that is exactly what Johnny has done. Most of the writers out there don't even bother... and he has already shifted his idea twice! I think that is pretty cool.

Fear of clowns mostly stems from a ignorance of clowning. The solution of ignorance is education. If he gets the right information from real clowns here and other places, his book could actually be quite educational when it comes to the art of clowning and the people who do it. Honestly, I don't think it is going to work if he has a mere clown mafia. The characters would be flat... it is a single gag, and the results would be annoyingly predictable.

But if you have clowns and the mafia, then you have a difference in world view, and something interesting. Then if you have a character going from one world view to the other it is even more interesting. Since it is a comedy, a clown going to the mafia (from a positive to negative world view) wouldn't work, but the other way around would. It would still sound like Sister Act, but since one is a movie, and the other a book, it should be okay.

So lighten up. We have nothing to loose by helping him and everything to gain. He could have just written the whole thing and never asked.