I find great joy in the work of hospital clowning, especially because of the wonderful support we receive from the hospital staff, including the doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. It's heartwarming to see the smiles on their faces when we arrive, and it's even more fulfilling when they join us in our activities, such as singing and playing music. In a previous post (link here), I shared about the time Dr. Levine joined us in singing a lullaby to the patients in the NICU.

During my recent visit to the hospital, I was delighted to encounter Dr. Levine once again, this time wearing a bowtie similar to mine. We both looked rather dapper. dr. tiny and I  took a moment to capture the memory with a photo by dr. tiny in the NICU.

On the same day, we also had the pleasure of interacting with a group of young interns who were training to become doctors.

Celebrating 25 Years as a Hospital Clown

This fall, I will begin my 25th year of working as a hospital clown.

 It's hard to believe that 25 years have passed since I first started doing this work as Squeeze the Clown. As I mark the beginning of my 25th year, I want to take a moment to think about my history as a hospital clown. 

I was excited to be hired by the Big Apple Circus and to be one of the original members of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit in Atlanta. Michael Christensen of the Big Apple Circus created the modern idea of hospital clowning. I’m proud to have that connection to Michael and the BIg Apple Circus. As a new hire, I was one of eight members who traveled from Atlanta to New York for weeks of training in hospitals and studio rehearsals. These rehearsals were artistically inspiring, and the hospital work was emotionally challenging. I was drawn to using humor to lift spirits, and children's hospitals were new to me. At the time, I didn't realize the impact a clown could have in a setting like a hospital.  But I did know that I wanted to make people laugh. 

This Summer, I’m Inspired by the Great Ones

Over the past few weeks, I've enjoyed entertaining audiences at various libraries and camps. I really enjoy doing these shows. I'm eagerly anticipating my upcoming hospital clowning performances in Columbus this autumn. In the meantime, I've been keeping busy with shows at camps and libraries this summer.

I do some comedy, music, and juggling during my summer show. It's the skills I've learned mixed with some basic performing skills.  While I'm doing all of this, I also take time to talk about some of the artists who have inspired me. While the list of those who have inspired me is long, for these shows, I focus on three artists:  Bert Williams, the Mills Brothers, and Josephine Baker. These performers were all Black artists who were internationally renowned when they were in their prime…

The topic for the panel was  "How is a clowning agent of social change? Should that be the role of the clown? How can clowns help society? 

I thought about this topic a lot, and I felt some extra pressure because I was expected to comment on it. Clowns can be agents of social change, and our organizations should play a role in that. That said, during the panel, I focused on how difficult change can be. 

We walked past where we were supposed to go.

We had the address, but somehow, we misread the signs on the street. After walking through the streets of Montreal, we finally found the right address. We had missed it once or twice before. We walked right by without recognizing that this was the address where the show was. That said, after we found the right address. We opened the door and saw a narrow staircase. Just as we reached the top of the stairs, I looked around the room.  There were a few sofas, a ticket booth, and several people milling around before the show started. Then, I gazed across the room and caught the eyes of a woman sitting at a table; she looked at me and loudly said, "Meredith!"  The woman was Vanessa Rigaux from the Montreal Clown Festival. After that, we knew we were in the right place. Gina and I made ourselves at home before the show.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a  three day workshops, a clown festival, and a clown conference in Montreal. The experience was nothing short of exhilarating and eye-opening. I am always looking for ways to enhance my skills, connect with fellow performers, and stay updated on the latest with what's happening in the industry. I will mention more about the clown festival, conference, and other posts. Here, I will focus on the workshop I took the first three days of my week in Montreal.

This past week, I've enjoyed attending and teaching at the Cool Fool School in Atlanta, Hosted by the Laughter League. It's been an artistic highlight for me. I'm particularly grateful for the artistic challenge. The

I've done this trick many times before. This time, however, I'm doing it in front of about 100 full-ride scholarship college students from Emory University. I asked them to count from 10 to 1 in a language they chose. As the students count down, I balance a chair on my face for their entertainment. 

Someone smashed my car window. Broken glass was everywhere!

My car was parked in a public lot, and someone decided to break my window after I parked it. I don't know who did this. I was only away from my car for a few hours. It happened in a public car lot. Now, I had to spend the rest of my day addressing this problem. I had to clean up the mess to make the car drivable, and then I had to drive somewhere where I could vacuum the rest of the glass out of the vehicle.

Breaking something can be easy; repairing it will take work….

I walked from the parking deck across the university campus and approached the medical school building.  The destination is familiar. We've met in this building several times over the semester. I open the door and walk into the halls of the Emory Medical School. I am at the university to co-teach students at medical school as part of Emory’s Arts and Social Justice Fellows Program.

Over the past few months, I've enjoyed playing in a different playground. I got the clown around with the Atlanta Opera. Doing this work was a special treat for me. It was my second opportunity to work with the Atlanta Opera.

As I played the music, there was a line of performers singing and dancing along. They all replied, "It's Alright "!. This started as my version of the Curtis Mayfield song "It's Alright." It's one of my favorite tunes to play in the hospital. At home in Georgia, people sing along. For them, it is a gospel refrain from the black church, and they are eager to join me in singing….

I was a plainclothes clown, not knowing what to do. Should I buy the avocado? Should I put the avocado down and walk away?

At first glance, she looked like she is in her 60s. She was lying in her bed with a look of stoic unease. I often see this look on the faces of adults in a way that I don't see in children. A sense of fatigue and weariness is unique to adults. dr. tiny, and I carefully approached

At this point, I stopped everything again and said. "Why am I singing? You should be singing all the lyrics to this song."

After another show today, a group of young girls began to crowd around me. Music was playing, so I took out my spoons and started playing them on my hand and leg. As the girls saw this, they began to step closer to me.

The older folks sat on the sidelines and laughed and smiled. The young adults sat closer to the children to tend to their needs. The children paid close attention to the show and quickly interacted with us.

The site of young children and adults joining us in the parade warms my heart. In one of the parades today, a woman saw a clown balancing a juggling club. After seeing this, she decided to play with us.

Later, it began to rain when we arrived at our next camp. We paused, wondering if we would be able to do our performance in the rain. We decided to continue the performance. Halfway into the show, the sun came from behind the clouds, and a rainbow appeared in the distance.

Today, we finished our first day of clowning here in Turkey for earthquake survivors. I woke up in Istanbul at 4 o’clock this morning to meet the rest of the team for our flight to Gaziantep. We performed in five different locations from the morning into the early evening.

It was an evening of Black love. Six black men on stage expressed love, joy, intimacy, masculinity, frustration, anger, longing, pride, and even juggling, yes, juggling.

Clowns are known for not following the rules. It's one of the things we expect from clowns. Following this tradition is something we do in the hospital constantly. As medical clowns, we take the medical aspects of our work seriously. We are trained to function in the hospital as we do our work. That said, we are still clowns. We still find some norms to break as we follow medical regulations.

Vincenzo Tortorici, a friend, and clown, passed away 10 years ago this August. He was an actor, musician, clown, and overall wonderful artist. Looking back on his passing, I can't help but ponder how so many things are different now compared to how they were when he died. I'm also aware of what remains the same.

I'm always looking for new material to perform in the hospital. Usually, some of the better musical material are things right under my nose, everyday things, or songs I grew up with. It's just a matter of finding the right piece and seeing the opportunity to use it.

As I look around the room, I notice that I am the only person of color here. And I am the only man in the room. The place is full of white women and…me…

We've been in Freeport for a week. Since we've been here, we were able to make some connections in this community. One day we were riding to a show in the back of a truck. As we traveled down the road, we passed a woman who saw us perform in a medical clinic a few days ago. She waved at us and said," Thank you for making me laugh," as we drove away….

The principal of the school asked for a volunteer. Many hands shot up in the air, eager to be chosen. After a brief survey of the eager hands in the air, the principal picked one. It was a young girl…

"This is a bumpy road," the girl said. "Yes, it is," I said. "There's also a lot of traffic. Hold on tight". Our taxi made a sharp turn to the left, then turn to the right with more bumps in the road. Then we went up a steep mountain and down that mountain as if it was a roller coaster…

“She’s crying because you are leaving.” We just finished our show at Mary Star of the Sea Catholic School in Freeport, Bahama. Most of the students were making their way back to the classroom; however, there was one girl who didn’t want the show to end. Her teacher told us that she was upset because it was over…

The audience arrived minutes after we got to the theater. We set up the space and did the show. We performed the show outside, in front of the theater, because the inside is flooded.

The show Sunday morning was at a Baptist church. The church is in a rather remote area on the island. It took about fourth five minutes by car to get there. This is a small church with a beautiful view of the ocean outside their front door.

We finished our week in Nassau Bahamas today. We taught several workshops this week, plus we ended our time here with a show on Thursday afternoon…

Tuesday, Leora, Clay, and I worked on our show in the morning. We put pieces of our different acts into one cohesive structure. We still have some work to do to finish the final show order, that said we made significant progress working on the show…

Monday, we went to the facility where we will be doing our shows and workshops. When we arrived, we were quickly greeted by the staff there. She took us on a tour of the shelter. It’s in a basketball gymnasium next to a bigger athletic facility.

Yesterday I clowned in a new hospital. It was Piedmont Columbus Regional in Colombus, Georgia. While I was there, I came across this painting. I was sure that the man in this frame was Tom Hanks…

I am going on a tour of the Bahamas with Clowns Without Borders this December. As I read one of the emails about the tour, a specific sentence got my attention. They made it clear that this is a tour involving a lot of work. It is not a vacation trip…

Today my partner and I walked into the emergency department. The ED was not busy. There was silence in the room. The unit secretary had just taken a phone call, a nurse was typing at her computer, a maintenance worker had just repaired some equipment.