[et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_header admin_label=”Fullwidth Header” title=”Scary Clowns Are No Joke To Real Clowns” background_layout=”dark” text_orientation=”center” header_fullscreen=”on” header_scroll_down=”off” background_url=”https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2016\/10\/clown.png” parallax=”on” parallax_method=”on” content_orientation=”bottom” image_orientation=”center” custom_button_one=”off” button_one_letter_spacing=”0″ button_one_use_icon=”default” button_one_icon_placement=”right” button_one_on_hover=”on” button_one_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ custom_button_two=”off” button_two_letter_spacing=”0″ button_two_use_icon=”default” button_two_icon_placement=”right” button_two_on_hover=”on” button_two_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ title_font_size=”45px” subhead_font_size=”28px” custom_css_title=”text-shadow: 2px 2px 4px #000000;”] [\/et_pb_fullwidth_header][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_audio admin_label=”Audio” audio=”https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2016\/10\/Anjali_FinalPiece_Master.mp3″ artist_name=”Anjali Bhat” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” title=”Clowning Around” custom_css_audio_content=”background-color: #F1F0EF;||border-left: 20px solid #B32317;”] [\/et_pb_audio][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
The headlines scream about \u201cThe Great Clown Scare of 2016.\u201d News reports of creepy clown sightings started to appear in late summer and were followed by copycat scary clowns around the country. \u00a0School officials have banned clown masks, some even going as far as to prohibit the mention of clowns. \u00a0Stores have pulled masks from their Halloween sections. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese creepy clowns give us regular clowns a bad name because they\u2019re just causing problems,\u201d says Leif in Motion, the stage name of Thomas Sterling. \u201c<\/span>Clowns are really about bringing a little bit of levity to these challenging, tense, overwrought world situations and terribleness. Clowns are about healing and helping the people to understand themselves a little bit deeper.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOutside of my clown persona, I\u2019m a therapist, a mental health therapist, and always looking for new strategies to help people heal,\u201d says Sterling. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cPart of the healing is acceptance, learning to spotlight and uncover those aspects of ourselves that we don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It was the concept of healing that attracted Sterling to clowning in the first place. Ten years ago, a friend of Sterling had attended clown classes and discovered that clowns were not just about being funny. \u00a0That\u2019s not true, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be funny, you can just be yourself\u2026 you can be your most genuine self. \u00a0And in that moment where you are connected to yourself, to some core emotion and you can share that with the audience and they can see themselves in you! \u00a0That\u2019s the magic moment when you and the audience are connected and one.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Sterling says he really is a bit introverted and reserved. Being around people, he says, can make him uncomfortable and he incorporates that when in character as Leif in Motion. \u00a0He hides sheepishly behind the door and cowers as he shyly greets visitors to his space.<\/p>\n \u201cMy character wants so desperately to connect to other people, and he really wants to reach out and get to know people. But he\u2019s sometimes fearful that he might get rejected or that people won\u2019t like him, or that he might be warty in some way so that people would be disgusted if they were around me.\u201d<\/p>\n Leif in Motion is far more scared than he is scary. \u00a0He keeps his costume simple — a red-and-white striped sailor shirt, pinstriped slacks and a Kangol beret. He calls himself more of a tramp clown. \u00a0He prefers to keep a fresh face — wearing a classic red nose \u2014 or what he calls the \u201ctiniest mask in the world\u201d. \u00a0He forgoes the white make-up and painted big red lips. He occasionally wears a little eyeliner or some blush.<\/p>\n The whitefaced creepy clowns, Sterling says, come from the tradition of an Auguste clown, the kind that became commonly associated with horror after Stephen King\u2019s 1986 novel It<\/b>. <\/i>But Sterling doesn\u2019t believe that a costume makes a clown. \u00a0\u201cI clown all the time without a costume, and so do many people we don\u2019t even think of clowns, like Jon Stewart,\u201d Sterling said. \u201cClowning is just breaking the seriousness of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n His act is also low-key. \u00a0One of his favorites is Soundball, a game in which he \u201ctosses\u201d a sound and a gesture to a member of the audience so they can mirror the gesture and throw the sound back to him. In another routine, he woos Mrs. Moppy and dances with a mop to a melodic whistle.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2016\/10\/anjali-smallestmask-sm.gif” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [\/et_pb_image][et_pb_audio admin_label=”Audio” audio=”https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2016\/10\/clownweb2mp3.mp3″ title=”Clowns Across Cultures” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_css_audio_content=”background-color: #F1F0EF;||border-left: 20px solid #B32317;”] [\/et_pb_audio][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I\u2019m still kind of closeted as a clown,\u201d Sterling said, echoing Leif-in-Motion\u2019s shyness. \u201cI haven\u2019t really come out to the larger community as a clown. I\u2019m sure as I grow into my clown character there will be much more opportunities to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n That is if the creepy clowns don\u2019t scare everyone away first.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The headlines scream about \u201cThe Great Clown Scare of 2016.\u201d News reports of creepy clown sightings started to appear in late summer and were followed by copycat scary clowns around the country. \u00a0School officials have banned clown masks, some even going as far as to prohibit the mention of clowns. \u00a0Stores have pulled masks from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capradio2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}