tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-378235082024-03-14T11:24:16.057-07:00The Coulrophobia BlogNews and commentary on coulrophobia (and other fearful, angry or hostile reactions to clowns), sinister clown characters, and the general anthropology of clowning.Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-67497698322493945212015-03-14T09:44:00.005-07:002015-03-14T09:44:55.340-07:00CLOWNHOUSE Director's Career Highlights Worst Aspects of Evil Clowns <div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<i><span style="color: #222222;">This post is the second part of a two part analysis of the subtle link between clowns and sexual predation in the life and work of Victor Salva. </span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2015/02/victor-salva-hollywoods-evil-clown.html"><span style="color: blue;">Read part one here</span></a>. </span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span></i></div>
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<b>Part 2: </b></div>
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After 15 months in prison, Clownhouse writer/director Victor Salva was paroled from a 3 year sentence on 5 different charges of child sexual abuse related to his victimization of Nathan Forrest Winters... a sentence totaling about 1/3 of the period of time he'd been molesting the child actor, beginning at age 8. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXnahdlbRfCV2hP3kn23sPd5GoS6-M4R0WUOlhzvFpOwmzlFjv4WuUzxwy-uxHGOj2Lk6rNNEBuBn2xT-mVyVcVrmdvCNuqNQq6gpgYEI00Ifr_uDVbkh4uRIaf37Gxs8jdo_E/s1600/salva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXnahdlbRfCV2hP3kn23sPd5GoS6-M4R0WUOlhzvFpOwmzlFjv4WuUzxwy-uxHGOj2Lk6rNNEBuBn2xT-mVyVcVrmdvCNuqNQq6gpgYEI00Ifr_uDVbkh4uRIaf37Gxs8jdo_E/s1600/salva.jpg" /></a>At this point, he might well have sunken into obscurity, a registered sex offender stripped of all respectability and career. This is often the case for convicted pedophiles. </div>
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But not so much in Hollywood, where seemingly any act short of the sin of losing money, can be forgiven. Upon his release, Francis Ford Coppola, whose company had produced Salva's first film Clownhouse, gave him $5,000 to get by on his first year out of prison. Coppola has continued to defend and work with Salva since then, producing a number of his films. </div>
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"I didn't know of anything improper going on, although I witnessed some things that caused me to raise an eyebrow," he says of Clownhouse, partially filmed in his home. "Only in retrospect did things really add up. You have to remember, while this was a tragedy, that the difference in age between Victor and the boy was very small — Victor was practically a child himself." (Salva was 29, Winters 12) </div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Salva had a directing hiatus of about four years, during which time he worked as a telemarketer and wrote scripts on the weekend, then went back to filming. In 1995, Disney released the film <i><b>Powder</b></i>, to lackluster reception by both critics and box office, along with</span><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Concord-Molest-Victim-Confronts-Powder-Director-3021176.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;"> </span><span style="color: blue;">protest activity launched by Winters</span></a><span style="color: #222222;"> and his family.</span></div>
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"He paid for his crime, he paid his debt to society," countered producer Robert Birnbaum. "What happened eight years ago has nothing to do with this movie."</div>
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"How deeply I regret my actions. I payed for my mistakes dearly," said Salva in a statement released around the film's debut, saying he wanted to move on and contribute positively to society as a film maker.</div>
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Yet it is especially difficult to forget, when his films themselves continue to exhibit these subtle reminders of his background and disturbing thought process.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoQ3WqJo247oi1ISUPqK_xrAAvEeYQva8AYsBj46ToedbfcoSpHn8OTGpbmDQmKMPwWL8y73RsJi_zUfBm_Z8jpF6KqzTHCS37Od5F7l-1AZ2xCZ_LEr6YE-SqT8Uxo49sJfF/s1600/powder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoQ3WqJo247oi1ISUPqK_xrAAvEeYQva8AYsBj46ToedbfcoSpHn8OTGpbmDQmKMPwWL8y73RsJi_zUfBm_Z8jpF6KqzTHCS37Od5F7l-1AZ2xCZ_LEr6YE-SqT8Uxo49sJfF/s1600/powder.jpg" /></a>In this film, curiously, the curiously pre-pubescent boy figure is also the Clown figure, in a sense, though of a different sort. Powder, an all-white, hairless high school youth gifted with special powers, stands in for a different kind of clown role, that of the "innocent primitive," or savant Fool. </div>
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This somewhat older, but even more childlike and innocent boy character, who just happens to lack the secondary sex characteristics of a normal high school youth of his age, also spends a goodly portion of the film shirtless, when he is not being stripped completely naked in a vicious hazing scene by other stronger youths.</div>
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In another scene that seems strange even for many who don't know the filmmaker's past history, a school teacher played by Jeff Goldblum discusses his sexual arousal and intimately strokes the pale young boy's face and bald head. Odd enough on its own, but in light of Salva's known predilections, the adult authority figure's overtures offering friendship and seemingly orgasmic facial expressions as the boy's touch "electrifies" him... take on something distinctly macabre.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Ufxx4cLD-SZKyp7D0uzHzYbVW5zrtqu4y1EIRUc2h1-dJzgu-dT_kBoEgeBMcP3VNNYP8o_FNzjwU8ngS-l9gjBqknnZZ5LeWaK5u7gzYgCkOU8pujeUj8_iB_pPrRvTg2ez/s1600/Jeepers-Creepers-2001-justin-long-31149166-1200-777-620x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Ufxx4cLD-SZKyp7D0uzHzYbVW5zrtqu4y1EIRUc2h1-dJzgu-dT_kBoEgeBMcP3VNNYP8o_FNzjwU8ngS-l9gjBqknnZZ5LeWaK5u7gzYgCkOU8pujeUj8_iB_pPrRvTg2ez/s1600/Jeepers-Creepers-2001-justin-long-31149166-1200-777-620x400.jpg" height="128" width="200" /></a>By far, Salva's largest commercial successes have been the two Jeepers Creepers films, released in 2001 and 2003. The appearance of such questionable hints into Salva's underlying interests are more toned down in these blockbusters, but palpable traces remain. In Jeepers, a demonic creature relentlessly stalks a boyish college youth (played by 23 year old Justin Long), in one scene even stopping to sniff his underwear. In the end, he hauls off Long, leaving his sister behind, to playfully mutilate his naked body, a lingering sweep of which concludes the film.</div>
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A sequel, more annoying and devoid of worthwhile cinematic attributes than the first, continues to play out Salva's obsession with the torment of young boys, starting off with the opening scene, where the creature hunts and flies off with an adolescent male. Throughout the rest of the film he proceeds with the successive slaughter of a group of high school athletes, consuming portions of their body while preserving others- all in between bizarrely long scenes of their urination, and lingering camera shots of their smooth bare chests. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Xxe1AUCD6bMko7jqw09f-fZD5zs5FA6mvAd0MpNzFX0T2Fm2fjTMa2gyjhYbIkLHq88dzMNzM7L04VQTP6KtSxLSBgouBlMDNSn3F2oshM6IbEZWQteMnHtJOwoXlswr_fFI/s1600/295050.1+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Xxe1AUCD6bMko7jqw09f-fZD5zs5FA6mvAd0MpNzFX0T2Fm2fjTMa2gyjhYbIkLHq88dzMNzM7L04VQTP6KtSxLSBgouBlMDNSn3F2oshM6IbEZWQteMnHtJOwoXlswr_fFI/s1600/295050.1+(1).jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a>In 2006, Salva released <b><i>Rosewood Lane</i></b>, wherein a psychotic paperboy terrorizes a radio talk show psychiatrist played by Rose McGowan. Since producers are not doubt reluctant to let Salva, who will spend the rest of his life as a registered sex offender, work with underage actors, he set about casting most youthful-looking prettyboy he could find as the villainous paperboy antagonist. Then-22-year old Daniel Ross Owens proceeds to spend the film buzzing about on his BMX being creepy, despite his clearly apparent adulthood, still being gratuitously referred to throughout the film as a "boy," a "kid," and "a minor." </div>
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And in a departure from previous films, the "boy" is no longer the protagonist, but the sociopathic evil driving the piece. I cannot help but wonder if this marks a certain psychological change in Salva, a vengeant bitterness toward the boy victim, from whose molestation he is finding it increasingly hard to distance himself with the continued growth and ultimate inescapability of the internet- a fact that has clearly contributed to his steadily shrinking film sales and progressively smaller budgets. </div>
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His next, even lower budget release, <i><b>Dark House</b></i> again returns the young male main character to the role of protagonist (albeit a thoroughly unlikable one)... but it's too hard to try to identify any clear pathology at work, because this film is such a godawful hodge-podge of mismatched nonsense that it seems the story was simply an attempt to stuff every possible type of horror movie cliche into one film without the slightest hint of irony or parody.</div>
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...Meanwhile, some horror fans have continued to wait anxiously (for some reason that completely eludes me) for the long delayed filming of <b><i>Jeepers Creepers 3</i></b>, which as rumors have it is creeping closer to production after more than a decade of inertia. Until that time, if it ever arrives, we will just have to wait and see what new and disturbing torments and mutilations Salva has dreamed up for a new batch of young boy victims at the hands of his ambiguously demonic and vaguely pervy monster.</div>
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<b>Evolution of a Latent Fear</b></div>
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Aside from the continuation of the film industry's long tradition of patronizing sex offenders, the saga of Victor Salva is interesting to me because it represents the convergence of a sexually predative child abuser with a keen understanding of what makes evil clowns scary to the modern American mind.</div>
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Over the years, I have long charted the curious connection between clowning and sexual taboo-breaking in multiple cultures, along with the repetition of sex crimes in the history of clowns-gone-bad in modern criminology. </div>
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In my 2004 paper, <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/TrixWay/current/Vol%203/Vol3_1/Durwin.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Coulrophobia and the Trickster</a>, I noted that a theme of wildly uninhibited sexuality, sexual deviance and intentional sex-taboo-breaking is a theme commonly shared in the clowning practices of many traditional societies, particularly among those studied in indigenous North American cultures, and also one of the defining characteristics of their thematic and spiritual parents among archetypal Trickster figures worldwide. </div>
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In modern times, clown rapists, child molesters, and child pornographers are a recurring reality- my file of news articles collected over the years contains at least a hundred such instances over the past thirty years or so. </div>
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Prominent exposes such as the documentary <i>Capturing the Friedmans</i> and coverage of the Fells Acre scandal in Massachusetts also underline this theme of a link, as do the the exploits of the two most prominent real life "killer clowns" - John Wayne Gacy and Emmett Kelly III. </div>
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In the case of the urban legend of clowns-in-vans or "Phantom Clowns" that has reappeared in dozens of cities since the early 1980s, fears of clowns become inescapably associated with the child predator "stranger danger" concept that plagued the same generation, and persists today. </div>
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Hence, while the connection between clowns and outlandish and even criminal sexual behavior dates back thousands of years, it has seemed to reach an apex in the modern era of coulrophobia, crystallizing into a more pronounced theme of direct victimization, particularly of children. </div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">It is therefore noteworthy that Salva's first film, for all its low budget and high camp flaws, is keenly perceptive with regards to the key aspects of what is found to be scary about clowns </span><span style="color: blue;">(<b><a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2015/02/victor-salva-hollywoods-evil-clown.html">see Part 1</a></b>)</span><span style="color: #222222;">, when his own personal life and film-making motifs so clearly underline his lustful desire to terrorize young boys, a miniaturized, semi-sublimated version of the very drives which characterized the brutal killing spree of Pogo the Clown (aka Gacy).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">His noteworthy 1980s addition to the evil clown genre of cinema, followed soon after by his highly publicized conviction, no doubt helped cement this very association in the evolving figure of the "evil clown."</span></div>
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Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-72632631201108923382015-02-26T08:43:00.002-08:002015-02-26T14:46:16.381-08:00Victor Salva: Hollywood's Evil Clown Molester<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">With questions about Victor Salva's planned </span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139592/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Jeepers Creepers III</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">, stuck in <a href="http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/05/02/jeepers-creepers-3-already-filming-1394171?lt_source=external,manual">development hell</a> for the past decade,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> having risen to a dim but noticeable uproar among some horror fans... it seemed as though it might be a good time to revisit the sordid saga of that filmmaker's relationship with evil clowns and the aura of sexual criminality that seems to repeatedly haunt that archetype.</span></span><br />
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<b>Clownhouse</b></div>
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<i>Clownhouse</i> (1989) was one of the classic early Evil Clown films, released the year after Killer Klowns from Outer Space and the year prior to Stephen King's IT. To summarize briefly for those who've not seen this somewhat obscure, currently out of print piece of 80s horror:</div>
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<i>Coulrophobic adolescent Casey (Nathan Forrest Winters) is dragged to the circus by his two older brothers, the semi-sympathetic Geoffrey (Brian McHugh) and the classic 80s dickhead older brother Randy (skillfully played by Sam Rockwell in his movie debut), where Casey is barraged with predictable clown and macabre circus imagery, then terrified and humiliated by overly aggressive clowns under the Big Top. </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBgH87HlCRAGLmWQfa2lqQhcAFq1TnJfrEGHYm3qvvfj4Z6JJha-CqjDWcRo7AWXzO5uUdeC9cZRKAcPXu7Y_NVWrH3jH9KccpUYIVM2J646-qMxV6GtJ6h9cniXgPaSsJ3Yo/s1600/pic09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBgH87HlCRAGLmWQfa2lqQhcAFq1TnJfrEGHYm3qvvfj4Z6JJha-CqjDWcRo7AWXzO5uUdeC9cZRKAcPXu7Y_NVWrH3jH9KccpUYIVM2J646-qMxV6GtJ6h9cniXgPaSsJ3Yo/s1600/pic09.jpg" height="220" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVuj3Xbvlg40P4mWPyuf4OWU52-bYoLhiVK4ho-NRhYZQhrcDPIbL83U405wl6MSJPr4zRiXS89Oexzrnw4eXS7wCnd8hlfkTP0wH4nCh2f90ne6iBydfYYU3wYXHbyc5Vu5T/s1600/clownhouse-three.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVuj3Xbvlg40P4mWPyuf4OWU52-bYoLhiVK4ho-NRhYZQhrcDPIbL83U405wl6MSJPr4zRiXS89Oexzrnw4eXS7wCnd8hlfkTP0wH4nCh2f90ne6iBydfYYU3wYXHbyc5Vu5T/s1600/clownhouse-three.jpg" /></a><i>After the show, some of the surly, dirty-talking circus clowns are brutally murdered by 3 violent psychotics who escape from a nearby mental hospital and end up at the circus. Taking up their costumes and makeup, the three killers prance across town in a giddily deranged fashion, stalking the boys back to their house, where a standoff akin to a more murderous version of Home Alone ensues. </i></div>
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Despite its cheesiness, for what it is, <i>Clownhouse</i> actually does a pretty good job of climbing inside the mindset of acute coulrophobia, successfully dramatizing the triggers to provide some decent scares throughout- ostensibly far moreso for anyone already afraid of clowns. Judged on its own terms, it is a solid horror flick, and arguably Salva's best work. Its contribution to the genre, and to the overall perception of clowns as objects of inherent creepiness, cannot be overlooked.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9sJGgb1u2TIGhlUamRLol37YLPJGs4z8GBWy-M94FTiXtZXWgDafAe9XOaYXuWtrJs77VI99rQ35dGIFa_PmPNBfzNgPs6t6RSe_3agy4di0_V_QYsW9EnjrMPE1OZPK4h3Y/s1600/clownhouse4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9sJGgb1u2TIGhlUamRLol37YLPJGs4z8GBWy-M94FTiXtZXWgDafAe9XOaYXuWtrJs77VI99rQ35dGIFa_PmPNBfzNgPs6t6RSe_3agy4di0_V_QYsW9EnjrMPE1OZPK4h3Y/s1600/clownhouse4.jpg" height="110" width="200" /></a></div>
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As protagonist Casey reflects, in a candid attempt to explain his phobia to one of his brothers:</div>
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<i><b>"That's what I don't like about clowns. Their faces are fake. Big happy eyes. Big painted smiles. It's not real. You never know what they really are."</b></i></div>
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<b>Real Life Predator</b><br />
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Sadly, what was going on off-camera was more horrifying than anything in the movie. </div>
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Writer/Director Victor Salva had actually met the film's star, Nathan Winters, several years prior, while working at a day care center (the filmmaker was also a writer of children's books, and a participant in the Big Brother program). After meeting Nathan's mother Rebecca, he became "a trusted family friend," and later cast Nathan in his first short film, <i>Something in the Basement</i> (1986). The following year, filming began for <i>Clownhouse</i>.</div>
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Given the family's years of association with Salva, at first no eyebrows were raised when he began asking the 12 year old star of the film to stay late for additional rehearsals. It was only later, after the completion of <i>Clownhouse</i>, that Nathan came forward to his mother with the admission that Victor Salva had been engaging in sexual conduct with him since he was 8 years old. </div>
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Throughout the filming of <i>Clownhouse</i>, the filmmaker had repeatedly forced him to perform and receive oral sex, acts which he videotaped to add to what would turn out to be a growing collection of child pornography. After Winters came forward, a police raid on Salva's home uncovered not only videos he'd made with the young actor, but a variety of other pornographic videos and still photos of underage boys.</div>
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In retrospect, <i>Clownhouse</i> is not without its clues to Salva's appalling predilections. </div>
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The full first five minutes of the film are almost completely taken up by underage boys shirtless, in their underwear and bare-assed, and within the first 30 minutes the boys are back in the bathroom in a state of undress. In a more general way, there is something disturbing about the way the film's direction seems to gleefully relish the terror inflicted on the adolescents. It's a subtle effect, and would most likely not stand out so much if not for the revelation of the molestation that was taking place behind the scenes. </div>
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Salva pleaded guilty to 5 felony counts of child sexual abuse in 1988, and was sentenced to three years in jail. He served 15 months in total, and was released on parole in 1989.</div>
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Nathan never acted again; however, it was far from the end of a Hollywood career for Victor Salva, who would return to film making a few years later with his largest budget ever.</div>
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<i>Stay tuned for Part II, where Salva returns to playing out his pedophilic fantasies in films, this time under the patronage of <b>Disney</b>, along with a more in depth discussion of the recurring connection between evil clowns and sexual deviance.</i></div>
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Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-41072236332278292452015-02-21T15:37:00.001-08:002015-02-21T16:22:38.426-08:00The Full Story of Joyland's Missing "Louie" Clown<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Social media was ablaze with coulrophobic sentiments this week, as an odd bit of <a href="http://ksn.com/2015/02/19/louie-the-joyland-clown-found-in-sex-offenders-home/"><span style="color: blue;">news from Kansas</span></a> quickly spread across numerous outlets: Louie, a long-missing iconic mechanical clown from an abandoned Wichita amusement park, turned up unexpectedly in the home of a convicted sex offender.</span></i></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjezjCA-zhiG92IsVNdNkcPRzNHlhU-keMo9mLlKoRu62L0B80ldL36oRsQV-GXUMutWStGVAiFVBDB7uOWTZzjPKOfbuJC_KuzEhsf7pHd9zI1i9T2RJX_TdmAYVXe-uorPvEw/s1600/B-OxBfWIEAAdzOx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjezjCA-zhiG92IsVNdNkcPRzNHlhU-keMo9mLlKoRu62L0B80ldL36oRsQV-GXUMutWStGVAiFVBDB7uOWTZzjPKOfbuJC_KuzEhsf7pHd9zI1i9T2RJX_TdmAYVXe-uorPvEw/s1600/B-OxBfWIEAAdzOx.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a>The sheer unsavory weirdness of the story, complete with absurdist press conferences photos of the clown sitting to the side of a Wichita PD detective, virtually guaranteed it would gain some fairly extensive viral reach. </div>
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"The word creepy popped up a lot," said KSN TV's Darren Dido to the public reaction seen in the wake of Thursday's news. "It is really just a surreal story."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFLoF4DaIdjbgzNA_HKp8kADXYy5LUuKcEE0FZwTApCquDF7j-83fzLoamLX_pkmjXiib31qlM8o_23o_QqOXYqjzz7Sy-zna_4m0XcXIj1g6fVu5OEGISAOeY8ADUHNJ4fHU/s1600/0106357001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFLoF4DaIdjbgzNA_HKp8kADXYy5LUuKcEE0FZwTApCquDF7j-83fzLoamLX_pkmjXiib31qlM8o_23o_QqOXYqjzz7Sy-zna_4m0XcXIj1g6fVu5OEGISAOeY8ADUHNJ4fHU/s1600/0106357001.JPG" height="200" width="160" /></a>While Louie was instantly recognized by Wichita natives, most people outside of Kansas had no real idea who "Louie the Clown" was, but were nonetheless caught up in the bizarre circumstances and perhaps not-so-subtle undertone of associations inherent in the story.</div>
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According to <a href="http://www.doc.ks.gov/kasper/offenders?RaceName=&GenderName=&SupervisionCountyName=&ConvictionCountyName=&LocationName=&lastname=Mayes&firstname=Damian&middlename=&includealias=0&kdoc=&box1=&box2=&box3=&kbi=&thumbnails=1&race=&gender=&BirthRangeStart=&AGErangestart=&AGErangeend=&convictionCounty=&supervisionCounty=&Location=&Facility=&searching=Please+Wait..."><span style="color: blue;">state records</span></a>, Damien Mayes, the former Joyland employee in whose home police found Louie following new tips on the case in recent weeks, has been serving time in Kansas Correctional facilities since his conviction in 2011 for fondling and aggravated criminal sodomy against an eleven year old child in 2008. He now joins the ranks of more than a hundred sex criminals in recent decades who are linked, in one way or another, to clowning. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAoKa5G3w1-ibn09Z8wc1PjPO7qdrC8O37tC6zuNbEN6vSh60iu8Wz5XcFc9-9IjuWBc4lK5E7LtxBEDeSdkP3UMIJWjN7-8mexNmZFs_yyC4W4vbXSGKNqE5x39gkn8TyLlRm/s1600/Louie+vintage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAoKa5G3w1-ibn09Z8wc1PjPO7qdrC8O37tC6zuNbEN6vSh60iu8Wz5XcFc9-9IjuWBc4lK5E7LtxBEDeSdkP3UMIJWjN7-8mexNmZFs_yyC4W4vbXSGKNqE5x39gkn8TyLlRm/s1600/Louie+vintage.jpg" height="320" width="304" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Now, for a bit of backstory... </b></span> Joyland opened in 1948 and took up residence at its permanent location in 1949, and operated continuously as a theme park for 55 years. <span style="background-color: white;"> <a href="http://ksn.com/2015/02/19/relative-of-joyland-founders-community-members-talk-about-louie-the-clown/"><span style="color: blue;">According to the son</span></a></span> of one of the original founders of Joyland, Louie, who greeted visitors near its entrance playing the park's Wurlitzer organ, was a staple there since nearly the beginning. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkGYgeTfi_xpTr2XVZOYms2_xeKWPTpJ68eA6kGBEmL-BSn-U5Vam6AuMhPqLUuUYIN5Kx060qd_V2hMFK0Mx3DILPUUmOCVzoCynAhurQH_UmMxo7w4UuozxTZY3eofO_9Ivj/s1600/252358_379015562176906_1846798360_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkGYgeTfi_xpTr2XVZOYms2_xeKWPTpJ68eA6kGBEmL-BSn-U5Vam6AuMhPqLUuUYIN5Kx060qd_V2hMFK0Mx3DILPUUmOCVzoCynAhurQH_UmMxo7w4UuozxTZY3eofO_9Ivj/s1600/252358_379015562176906_1846798360_n.png" /></a></div>
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Acquired at a trade show sometime in the early 1950s, Louie's association with Joyland is an inseparable part of its history.</div>
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“Louie was very important to the park and the whole atmosphere of going to Joyland, It just provided excitement instantly as you walked into this park,” Harold Ottaway told local newscasters.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Judging from the recollections of some Joyland visitors, Louie was as much a source of fright as it was amusement to many entering its gates. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Joyland closed in 2004</span></b>, just months after a girl sustained injuries falling 30 feet from a Ferris Wheel at the park. It was reopened briefly two seasons later, then forced to close permanently by its aging owners, who purchased the park in the 1970s after meeting and falling in love as employees there in the 1950s. It was during this period that Louie is believed to have gone missing, though it's disappearance was not public knowledge until 2010.</div>
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An attempt a a few years ago to restore and reopen the park is an inspiring but ultimately ill-fated story. In 2011, high school student Alex East went before the Wichita City Council to appeal for help with an ambitious $10 million plan to restore Joyland to its former glory. Rallying other volunteers to his Joyland Restoration Project, the following year East <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/print-edition/2012/02/03/high-school-students-dream-plan-to.html?page=all"><span style="color: blue;">filed to incorporate</span></a> the umbrella organization Project Hope as a 501 nonprofit.</div>
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In 2012, according to its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/joylandrestorationproject"><span style="color: blue;">Facebook page</span></a>, the Joyland Restoration Project was informed by a private collector that Louie and his organ were safely intact in his possession. However, it was known that several replicas had been made of the antique clown, and no further information materialized, leaving the disposition of Louie still shrouded in mystery.</div>
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In its first two years, the organization managed to raise only a little over $10,500 in private donations and appears to have enjoyed no real support, aside from enthusiastic lip service, from city government or other local revitalization and preservation organizations. Hopes of restoring the park were dealt a mortal blow in May 2014, when <a href="http://cjonline.com/news/2014-05-11/former-wichita-amusement-park-items-find-new-homes"><span style="color: blue;">news broke</span></a> that the owners had begun donating and selling key historic pieces from the crumbling theme park. It's <a href="http://www.kansas.com/news/article1142206.html"><span style="color: blue;">merry-go-round went</span> to</a> a local botanical gardens, and shortly thereafter the Historic Preservation Alliance of Wichita and Sedgwick County <a href="http://historic%20preservation%20alliance%20of%20wichita%20and%20sedgwick%20county/"><span style="color: blue;">removed several pieces</span></a> of ephemera, including an animated neon Louie the Clown sign. The society hopes to eventually exhibit these along with other items it's purchased from Wichita history at a yet-to-be-built museum. </div>
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A month later, Project Hope <a href="http://ksn.com/2014/06/17/group-looking-to-restore-joyland-amusement-park-disbands/" style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">announced it was disbanding</span></a>, splitting up its funds into donations to the HPAWS and Botanica, the new home of Joyland's carousel. </div>
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The salvage of some of the most historic items from the abandoned park only fueled further curiosity on the yet unanswered question:<i><b> "What happened to Louie?"</b></i></div>
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Renewed speculation may have triggered some revived interest in the case by Wichita police, as Detective Lang mentioned in Thursday's press conference he'd been assigned to the case only a month ago. Then came the first break, in the form of an anonymous phone call. According to <a href="http://www.kwch.com/news/local-news/joylands-louie-the-clown-found-in-sex-offenders-home/31358812"><span style="color: blue;">KWCH News</span></a>, this led the detective to a Facebook post in which a woman had commented,<b> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"the original Louie is in my brother's house." </span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvfttMkj74jMlkOC1DQE6dw9LIc_vaLcVGhQqnARJX1G1XrVMve-b4yYbY6SwsUGH1-UL5a-9p5BSwtNxzhCOMQopOC8FYF0Wth_cBPae0XLZShAYnqJmdcOMANru5fS4y31A/s1600/Screenshot+(434).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvfttMkj74jMlkOC1DQE6dw9LIc_vaLcVGhQqnARJX1G1XrVMve-b4yYbY6SwsUGH1-UL5a-9p5BSwtNxzhCOMQopOC8FYF0Wth_cBPae0XLZShAYnqJmdcOMANru5fS4y31A/s1600/Screenshot+(434).jpg" height="218" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google Street View of the Wichita house where Louie was found</td></tr>
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According to Det. Lang, charges will be filed against Mayes along with an accomplice, for the theft of the vintage clown, whose value is estimated at around $10,000. It is being returned to Joyland's owners, though the Historic Preservation Alliance, who had made efforts to locate Louie over the years, has voiced potential interest in acquiring it. </div>
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“This would be one of the very few marquee pieces of Joyland Amusement Park.” said director Gregory Kite.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzhhITmtYzoPhMXVPg4Gu_XExiamwTxrZ7139Kbj7zSFTQ6TSPpj7YrounJOqOuKzRPZ1iVaaCmx6G3aXDSAgqWlJfz1PgHILfa01Za0O3rzvQUBDKijsPvP8DlS-p-unD2cJC/s1600/Screenshot+(435).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzhhITmtYzoPhMXVPg4Gu_XExiamwTxrZ7139Kbj7zSFTQ6TSPpj7YrounJOqOuKzRPZ1iVaaCmx6G3aXDSAgqWlJfz1PgHILfa01Za0O3rzvQUBDKijsPvP8DlS-p-unD2cJC/s1600/Screenshot+(435).jpg" height="320" width="262" /></a><i><b>Given the circumstances of its reemergence and the identity of its thief, however, it is likely that perceptions of Louie have been altered permanently. After all, many found the clown pretty creepy to begin with, and that was before he gained national attention for having spent close to a decade in the basement of a child molester...</b></i></div>
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In fact, almost as soon as the news broke on Thursday, a new Twitter account for Louie was born, already gaining nearly 400 followers and serving up over 200 tweets in the past couple of days. The tone of Twitter's @JoylandLouie is predictably and decidedly... creepy.<br /><br />
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By the way, though, as far as I'm concerned, Louie the Clown was never the creepiest thing to be found at Joyland... this thing is:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pHxOQCwUVKs" width="420"></iframe>Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-78576491641847962762015-02-19T04:21:00.000-08:002015-02-19T04:21:09.585-08:00Fear of Clowns podcast- The Tom Gulley Show<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGwhh3-SZ0MAnGD4Ehjz2lQIon70wlO4ggiwXbJp2Kxrkxl6O6DO5sVnQdNHP32QhG7E32G_VZGxx2-OGyITDwgC7L1gtjq-cjDXtq1ukYTur1GILnc7ge860xw5-whfJAjCxj/s1600/ClownFear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGwhh3-SZ0MAnGD4Ehjz2lQIon70wlO4ggiwXbJp2Kxrkxl6O6DO5sVnQdNHP32QhG7E32G_VZGxx2-OGyITDwgC7L1gtjq-cjDXtq1ukYTur1GILnc7ge860xw5-whfJAjCxj/s1600/ClownFear.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Thanks to the Tom Gulley show for this great interview covering many aspects of the emergence of coulrophobia as a prevalent fear, the rise of evil clown themes, and how it all intersects with the history of clowns and modern clowning in the 21st century.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Listen to the <a href="http://thetomgulleyshow.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-fear-of-clowns-podcast.html">1 hour interview here</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://thetomgulleyshow.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-fear-of-clowns-podcast.html"></a>Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-88071879778844783232015-01-30T21:18:00.001-08:002015-01-31T06:19:36.615-08:00Criminal Clowning: This Month in Coulrophobic News<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfa3LNp9WSwMCh0jqk1uAgIyeWwyxqjotSYYb_xGAWwOLg6l99VLOd6Rta22XYkZxEz4Wh4UPeljncJjqA0j7UjcblpGWzzvR7t9KbIbncozwWOKCvyamiKKuqKMOyYa2AlxN/s1600/download+(60).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfa3LNp9WSwMCh0jqk1uAgIyeWwyxqjotSYYb_xGAWwOLg6l99VLOd6Rta22XYkZxEz4Wh4UPeljncJjqA0j7UjcblpGWzzvR7t9KbIbncozwWOKCvyamiKKuqKMOyYa2AlxN/s1600/download+(60).jpg" height="200" width="153" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtNcYiqXQc36_S5XOAL75o603camfFHRumMUueXmX-qyrIJD4HM56YjPGma-R2RNhN7cJD8rvSravHrU6tZ4dJtDReLDb2RcIu1diYvhA8FAjvn2CqfLATDF2YCmvW_Og4dYuN/s1600/hqdefault+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtNcYiqXQc36_S5XOAL75o603camfFHRumMUueXmX-qyrIJD4HM56YjPGma-R2RNhN7cJD8rvSravHrU6tZ4dJtDReLDb2RcIu1diYvhA8FAjvn2CqfLATDF2YCmvW_Og4dYuN/s1600/hqdefault+(2).jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>An<a href="http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Troy-punching-suspect-arrested-5982035.php"> arrest finally came</a> in the assault of a Troy, NY art gallery owner who was brutally assaulted while dressed as a clown on Halloween. Cody Santalucia, who perhaps ironically looks a bit clownish himself in some photos circulated through media in recent weeks, is being held in Rensellaer County Jail following his arraignment for the <a href="http://www.okcfox.com/story/27395800/man-dressed-as-scary-clown-assaulted">attack on Ray Felix</a> which left the gallerist with major head injuries.<br />
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In Florida, <a href="http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/7492935-74/police-state-black#axzz3NyYNoCnx">reports of a group of bikers </a>wearing clown masks "terrorizing" a 55 year old woman outside an Ovieda gas station on New Year's Eve had police on the alert. <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-clown-mask-biker-charge-oviedo-20150123-story.html">Later information</a> clarified that only one of them was wearing a clown mask, and is still being sought by local police, after two of the motorcyclists identified cooperated with investigators and admitted to "driving erratically."<br />
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On January 3, man in a clown mask <a href="http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/7492935-74/police-state-black#axzz3NyYNoCnx">robbed a Subway restaurant</a> at gunpoint in Hempfield, Pennsylvania, swiping the cash register before stealing $2 from a 17 year old customer who entered during the robbery to buy a soda, then took off in a white minivan.<br />
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“He had the scariest clown mask I’ve even seen,” the Subway worker<a href="http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/robber-wearing-clown-mask-robs-westmoreland-county/njgT7/"> told a local tv station</a>. “I haven’t slept. I haven’t eaten. It just keeps replaying in my mind. I keep hearing his voice over and over.”<br />
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Less than a week later, <a href="http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/7515712-74/goodwin-according-court#axzz3QMpwnp3b">police arrested </a> Matthew Goodwin, 36, who was found overdosed on drugs next to a broken cash register at a nearby trailer park. The clown mask and toy gun apparently used in the heist were also found in the trailer.<br />
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This is the second robbery of a Subway by a clown masked perpetrator in less than 3 months, after a <a href="http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/27148129/deputies-seek-clown-masked-suspect-after-subway-robbery">similar incident</a> in Greenville, North Carolina in late October, and at least the 5th such robbery of a Subway I have on file from recent years.<br />
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On January 13, Toronto police <a href="http://www.cp24.com/news/police-arrest-halloween-bandits-wanted-in-string-of-robberies-at-dollar-stores-and-fast-food-chains-1.2190705">collared two suspects</a> believed to have been behind eight robberies since October 31. Authorities allege that Daniel Crosby, 20, and Marek Adam, 19, knocked over a series of dollar stores and fast food joints while wearing scary clown masks and brandishing an axe and a replica assault rifle. <br />
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A McDonald's in Taylorsville, Utah was similarly hamburgled by<a href="http://fox13now.com/2015/01/23/clown-masked-suspects-on-run-after-alleged-hamburger-hold-up/"> two men on January 22</a>, one wearing a clown mask, and the other a plain black face mask, though in typical fashion, most <a href="http://fox13now.com/2015/01/26/raw-video-police-release-surveillance-video-after-clown-masked-suspects-rob-restaurant/">media headlines</a> opted to focus on the flashier, iconic image of the clown mask. <br />
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What clown crime round-up is complete without a Juggalo appearance? A Forth Smith, Arkansas man was <a href="http://5newsonline.com/2015/01/28/insane-clown-posse-masked-intruder-beats-fort-smith-man-with-baseball-bat/">hospitalized after an intruder</a> in an ICP mask beat him with a baseball bat about the arms and head, declaring "Consider this a warning."<br />
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...in other clownish news, an eastern Michigan man this month<a href="http://www.tuscolatoday.com/index.php/2015/01/15/clown-mask-suspect-rejects-plea-deal/"> rejected a plea deal</a> on charges that he obstructed police while trespassing in a clown mask during some sort of prank, the details of which remain murky...<br />
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...<span style="font-size: large;">and </span>an annual UK clown convention was in<a href="http://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/video_plenty_of_laughs_in_prospect_as_clown_convention_enters_second_day_1_3931571"> full swing this week</a> in Lowestoft, Suffolk... which coincidentally happens to be the same British town that the notorious "Northampton Clown" whored himself out to a <a href="http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/creepy_northampton_clown_set_to_scare_park_visitors_at_pleasurewood_hills_in_lowestoft_1_2847054">haunted house attraction last Halloween</a>, following his 15 minutes of internet fame traipsing about the Northants area. As with a recent clown convention this side of the pond, the Lowecraft convention <a href="http://www.lovelowestoft.co.uk/european-clown-convention-held-in-lowestoft/">saw some acknowledgement</a> of increased awareness of coulrophobic and evil clown motifs are on the rise, signalling once again that the professional clown community has finally ceased dismissing this and begun discussing it openly as a real issue facing their occupation....<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHIGaJzwhSYu99dK3CfxZ01alO-wqL1HvubqNuWzfQ0aKcsdO0t8_MesR502RNJmrNZRMODMQjCY9zq-KW-9RLakFt9ZKd9te5wb4azzUZZMJVvfCutsqTgzXsQmOPxWbztCzF/s1600/hqdefault+(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHIGaJzwhSYu99dK3CfxZ01alO-wqL1HvubqNuWzfQ0aKcsdO0t8_MesR502RNJmrNZRMODMQjCY9zq-KW-9RLakFt9ZKd9te5wb4azzUZZMJVvfCutsqTgzXsQmOPxWbztCzF/s1600/hqdefault+(3).jpg" height="320" width="294" /></a>... <b style="font-size: x-large;">and </b>I just <b><i>love</i></b> how much one of my all-time favorite DC characters, Harley Quinn, has been really blowing up recently. Her standalone comic book reboot, launched last January, is still selling well, 13 issues in, and attention to her character has further been boosted by trailers for the much-hyped <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsf78BS9VE0">Arkham Knight</a> game due out in June, along with publicity around the <a href="http://screenrant.com/suicide-squad-movie-harley-quinn-actress/">casting of Margot Robbie</a> to play the former psychiatrist in a first ever live action appearance in the upcoming Suicide Squad film. Now, there is even a <a href="http://comicbook.com/2015/01/29/hot-topic-launches-all-new-harley-quinn-collection-for-valentine/#Image12">new "Harleen" fashion line</a>, on sale at Hot Topic stores.<br />
<br />
I saw some of it at a Hot Topic the other day, and it's mostly quite hideous, but that's ok... it was never her look that most endeared me to her, anyway, but her tragic, frayed psyche. <br />
I can't help it, obsession and instability are just hot to me... they just are.<br />
<br />Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-20672189318422529572014-12-29T19:23:00.000-08:002014-12-29T19:28:15.010-08:00Ku Klux Klowns: A New Theory Of “Phantom Clown” Scares<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp__aqICLFq-3hGYlg4v-rZzocMqv-KbVwJtZcHS33-SzanVx0T7iXWVhdD8N3iR2YvuGfP_J4IiqYDduTpPGI81hwsU0dLRpF3OxFL1J0G6tMjpyq0OH8wNRmkzVwY1wmpZ3k/s1600/mrs-wakeman-vs-the-antichrist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp__aqICLFq-3hGYlg4v-rZzocMqv-KbVwJtZcHS33-SzanVx0T7iXWVhdD8N3iR2YvuGfP_J4IiqYDduTpPGI81hwsU0dLRpF3OxFL1J0G6tMjpyq0OH8wNRmkzVwY1wmpZ3k/s1600/mrs-wakeman-vs-the-antichrist.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A chapter in<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Wakeman-vs-Antichrist-Strange-but-True/dp/1585429449/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419909221&sr=1-1&keywords=mrs+wakeman"> a newly released anthology</a>
of historical curiosities by Robert Damon Schneck has reopened one of
the most perplexing facets of modern coulrophobia culture and
dissected it in a novel and innovative light, contributing
significantly to the study of some of the most bizarre and intriguing
territory in modern “urban legend.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Having corresponded here and there over
the past several years with Schneck about our shared interest in the
subject of reoccurring Phantom Clown scares (using here the term
coined by fortean anthropologist Loren Coleman, whose 1980s research
is principally responsible for bringing this phenomenon to popular
attention), I was particularly excited to dig in to this portion of
his new book, <a href="http://www.penguin.com/book/mrs-wakeman-vs-the-antichrist-by-robert-damon-schneck/9781585429448"><i><b>Mrs. Wakeman Vs. The Antichrist, And Other Strange But True Tales From American History.</b></i></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I was
not disappointed.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Since Coleman, the legendary legacy of
Phantom Clowns has been examined by a number of folklorists and other
researchers, including Jan Brunvand, Joseph Citro, Robert
Bartholomew, Peter Muise, Greg Jenkins, myself, and most recently
filmmaker Josh Zeman (in his new documentary <i>Killer Legends</i>),
and yet it has remained curiously obscure, given its relatively long
tenure and widespread geographical reoccurrence (by my count, more
than 30 regions on at least four continents have coped with these
panics from the late 1960s to 2014 -<i>that we know of.</i>) While
there has been some level of variation on its structure, Schneck does
a good job of first recapping its basic chronology and surprisingly
consistent elements, which I will summarize much more briefly and
cursorily here, for sake of space:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>Sudden,
sensational rumors which spread rapidly across a community of a clown
(or clowns), typically traveling in a van or similar vehicle,
attacking, attempting to abduct, or otherwise harassing children.
Generally, local police are quickly inundated with such reports,
passed on by terrified parents from accounts that almost always
originate with children under the age of 10. While first taken very
seriously, investigations persistently fail to locate any such
individuals, and eventually it is dismissed as pernicious rumor or
mass hysteria.</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Speaking
generally, Schneck assesses the broader context of sociological
factors associated with these types of rumor-panics, particularly
prevalent in the 1980s through mid '90s: </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Beyond
fears of child abduction, the clowns-in-vans should be considered in
relationship to the pedophilia, serial killing, and satanism panic
that beset Americans at the end of the twentieth century.”</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Having treated the already much-vetted
aspects of the phenomenon with admirable conciseness, he then turns
to the true meat of his exploration- a historical and psychological
connecting-the-dots that ranges from mid 19<sup>th</sup> century
origins of Klansmen and “Night Doctor” legends to the modern
media intersection of John Wayne Gacy and the Atlanta Child Murders,
ultimately arguing for a major racial component to its origins when
viewed against the backdrop of a national culture deeply scarred by a
history of wholesale abduction by white faces.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
history of clowns-in-vans,”</i></span> Schneck contends boldly,
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>“begins with the demand for
labor created by colonizing the New World.”</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Beginning this story in the antebellum
south, he recounts several means by which southern whites attempted
control African abductees and their descendants, both before and
after the Civil War, tactics which do seem to bear a certain uncanny
resemblance to attributes of the “Killer Clowns” that have
occupied the headlines of numerous American cities in recent decades.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
From pre-War “Patterollers,” who
worked to keep slaves from wandering or gathering at night often
impersonating ghosts in white sheets and masks, through the continued
evolution of this tradition by the KKK, Schneck follows these kind of
savage traditions to the obscure but relevant figure of the “Night
Doctors,” - legendary figures based on real horrors of racist
abduction and body-theft by the early medical community, who in
stories took on mythic and even supernatural qualities over time.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
From there, Schneck follows the trail
forward to the time frame immediately preceding the appearance of
clowns-in-vans, examining both the clown-tinged media sensation of
the Gacy killings, and more intriguingly the Atlanta child murders.
In these killings, we see a kind of convergence of the rising fear of
serial killers, child abduction (“Stranger Danger”, etc) with
reasonably deep seated underlying fears of kidnapping and murder of
African Americans by racially motivated Caucasian villains- as at the
time, the culprit for the growing number of slain black youths was
widely believed to be one or more rogue racists of the Klan or
similar varieties.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Additionally, it was publicly suggested
that the motivation behind the killings could be one of illegal
medical experimentation, in a manner that clearly hearkened back to
recollections of night doctors.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>If
rumors about Atlanta involving Klansmen/night doctors and children
were circulating through the black community nationwide,”</i></span>
speculates Schneck, <span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>“they
could have provided the basis for the clowns.”</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOsFTnSJbQasPTLCTQYb-N4x3Hlv1aAu5fYf4cGFK_yMZH1l5Lw9g9nhr_IVBmE83Q09ljudf7TZC6SxpyhjVCYTeTTcxCBtD-glis0-oESnVx-nQjpaffguL4JJdrIeWtFbr/s1600/atlanta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOsFTnSJbQasPTLCTQYb-N4x3Hlv1aAu5fYf4cGFK_yMZH1l5Lw9g9nhr_IVBmE83Q09ljudf7TZC6SxpyhjVCYTeTTcxCBtD-glis0-oESnVx-nQjpaffguL4JJdrIeWtFbr/s1600/atlanta.jpg" height="126" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I won't go into full detail of the
intricacies of his argument, because you really should <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Wakeman-vs-Antichrist-Strange-but-True/dp/1585429449/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419909441&sr=1-1&keywords=mrs+wakeman">buy the book</a>,
of which this chapter is but one of twelve fascinating subjects from
the fringes of U.S. History. However, it presents a fairly
convincing theory for how the convergence of events at this juncture
of late 70s and early 80s could have synthesized a set of seemingly
disparate subjects and lore into something that combined both age old
archetypal fears and the news of the day into a new kind of terror,
one that might have had particularly striking impact in black
communities.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In doing so, Schneck provides a
compelling possible answer to one component of the Phantom Clown
mythos that has always puzzled me- namely, why it is that in so many
American cities, these rumor-panics when traced back to their first
emergence in said cities, seem to first crop up in predominantly
African American neighborhoods.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It does not, however, address instances
of virtually identical rumor-panics prior to Atlanta, which date back
at least to 1969, or some of those which occurred later in isolated
rural areas of other countries unlikely to have been exposed to these
instances in American media. However, his emphasis on the possible
underlying fear of medical experimentation as motive for the Phantom
Clowns' attempted abductions is especially provocative, in light of
the fact that when these scares occurred later in Latin American
countries in the mid-1990s, pre-existing cultural fears of organ
theft were very explicitly associated with alleged abductions by
clowns-in-vans.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So while Schneck's examination does not
address or explain every aspect of the Phantom Clown phenomenon -nor,
I believe, does it intend to – it does present a very solid and
well crafted case for the role of these earlier American boogeymen in
influencing this modern folkloric re-occurrence.</div>
Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-86221347009591092772014-08-27T10:30:00.000-07:002014-08-27T10:44:50.895-07:00Who was that masked man? Clown robbers abound...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_dQjM0rD1B5Zxsk9P0bw0w0iZQlXgkIqRLA2ljMbdmVj9lWNWR9r8xXnR9zhDTglk4WiDbMLDwklE-GkKzoFHDLTuC2cJWK6_6Xyj8wh-0FQkyQwIthxurP_PyachfJyOVtv/s1600/RAW_VIDEO__Armed_robber_wearing_clown_ma_1926370000_7456235_ver1.0_640_480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_dQjM0rD1B5Zxsk9P0bw0w0iZQlXgkIqRLA2ljMbdmVj9lWNWR9r8xXnR9zhDTglk4WiDbMLDwklE-GkKzoFHDLTuC2cJWK6_6Xyj8wh-0FQkyQwIthxurP_PyachfJyOVtv/s1600/RAW_VIDEO__Armed_robber_wearing_clown_ma_1926370000_7456235_ver1.0_640_480.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><b>A
bandit is on a rampage</b></i> in the San Diego area, where a man has
robbed </span></span><a href="http://www.10news.com/news/clown-bandit-strikes-again"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: arial;">three
convenience stores this month</span></span></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">.
The mask, shown in surveillance footage released by local
police, is a typical type of rubber "evil clown" mask
popular in costume stores.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Coincidentally</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;">,
these three strikes by the San Diego area clown robber have occurred
even as in Sacramento, </span></span><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/13/6627131/sacramento-county-jury-convicts.html"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: arial;">another
individual was being tried</span></span></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> for
a trio of break ins in January 2012 in which a similar evil clown
mask was used.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Meanwhile</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;">
in Sheridan, Indiana, a group of home invaders burglarized a house
around 3AM . One wore a clown mask, the other wore a devil mask, but
the ultimate headline focused on the former "</span></span><a href="http://wishtv.com/2014/08/21/police-robber-wore-clown-mask-in-home-invasion/"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Robber
wore clown mask in home invasion</span></span></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Police are still seeking another clown masked <a href="http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/welcome_page/?shf=/2014/08/03/3230166_columbus-police-investigate-armed.html">armed robber in Columbus</a>, and Merseyside, UK authorities have no new leads on a suspect who <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/watch-robber-disguised-clown-walks-3933194">robbed a currency exchange</a> in full clown attire. In Winnipeg, Canada, however, the clown-masked, hostage-taking robber <a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2014/08/theres-something-funny-about-clown-in.html">mentioned in our previous blog post</a>, has <a href="http://metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/1111653/winnipeg-police-need-help-tracking-last-scary-clown-suspect/">turned himself in</a>.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStVkdUcScc1_IONlxkts5odycKiEquNNTY85fS1UrVDHaaIk3fu_72UaiHZjdJ28pJ6nlTaXMI6MT-Pk6iWA3EBDKQ6WceXEu7I2k3tdZ0vfM7Xi9AEjn16Hj5kc0LHUKL-G2/s1600/Clown-Robber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStVkdUcScc1_IONlxkts5odycKiEquNNTY85fS1UrVDHaaIk3fu_72UaiHZjdJ28pJ6nlTaXMI6MT-Pk6iWA3EBDKQ6WceXEu7I2k3tdZ0vfM7Xi9AEjn16Hj5kc0LHUKL-G2/s1600/Clown-Robber.jpg" height="184" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Use
of a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b>clown mask</b></i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> to shield one's identity during a robbery`is nothing
new, with instances as far back as at least 1898, though there has
been a very definite uptick <a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2013/10/commerce-copycats-creepy-clown-craze.html">again
with the emergence </a>of the Northampton Clown, and really since the
release of The Dark Knight. Joker, of course, the ingeniously
psychotic early evil clown brain child of Bob Kane and Jerry
Robinson, excelled at the art of the heist. His garish greasepaint
and painted gleeful grin has always seemed to strike some disabling
combination of fear and dangerous underestimation into his victims. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh56irPFLeZeglbMEyoVMWjFJ8Qm_4dLGTGjQ7n4qAqKcSPYClUNfJLQN0QP4kMUihHoZwG8FuGwZUPquTMZspzRbbYleVofXLCcmEF0KLROyPvJ2FoVeRpjnreLl08-aFqCAi-/s1600/dark+knight+robbery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh56irPFLeZeglbMEyoVMWjFJ8Qm_4dLGTGjQ7n4qAqKcSPYClUNfJLQN0QP4kMUihHoZwG8FuGwZUPquTMZspzRbbYleVofXLCcmEF0KLROyPvJ2FoVeRpjnreLl08-aFqCAi-/s1600/dark+knight+robbery.jpg" height="165" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;">In other
news...</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Elsewhere
in the world of dubious fringe clowning, said Northampton Clown, that
brief but significant viral sensation on which this blog has
offered </span></span><a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2014/01/one-friday-13th-clown-appeared-on.html"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: arial;">much
analysis</span></span></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">,
has been hacked, and his Facebook</span></span><a href="http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/Northampton-Clown-s-Facebook-page-loses-10-000/story-22734996-detail/story.html"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> has
been in a downward spiral</span></span></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> of
lost fans since it began posting porn links a couple of weeks ago...</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">...and
in Florida, where such a large percentage of clown controversy and
nefarity is generated like a regional export, the city council in
Fort Meyers </span></span><a href="http://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/fort-myers/2014/08/18/fort-myers-council-concerned-insane-clown-posse/14258835/"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: arial;">had
some heated debate </span></span></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">over
whether to allow Insane Clown Posse to perform at an upcoming
horrorfest of some kind this October...</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
<br /></div>
Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-53153662184453155042014-08-03T17:50:00.000-07:002014-08-04T09:59:00.358-07:00There's Something "Funny" About A Clown In the Spotlight: National Clown Week, 2014"There's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight." - Lon Chaney Sr<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLIbeBcMx7Yh4AaoRbM5JiRq2F00mllP0CEnC3-zjd68i7UmS43YmyKytiVaKIgmGiLSdT-oKtXXaKrpPNkzI_PEfcM4Kr3SOTVwWh1SazI9Ud5h0ENbdEW0Z70WF3R_djc3JI/s1600/download+(28).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLIbeBcMx7Yh4AaoRbM5JiRq2F00mllP0CEnC3-zjd68i7UmS43YmyKytiVaKIgmGiLSdT-oKtXXaKrpPNkzI_PEfcM4Kr3SOTVwWh1SazI9Ud5h0ENbdEW0Z70WF3R_djc3JI/s1600/download+(28).jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">It's <a href="http://nationalclownweek.org/">National Clown Week</a>, also known as International Clown Week. Celebrated the first week of August, National Clown Week was first proclaimed by President Richard Nixon in 1971 (you cannot <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=76042">make this stuff up</a>).</span><br />
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A worthwhile time to stop and take a look at the state of clowns and coulrophobia as their awkward interrelationship continues to fascinate the western world, as it's been a particularly busy period in the news.<br />
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In Guatemala, where in 1994 clowns gathered to burn their uniforms in protest of widespread "phantom clown" rumor-panics which had begun to crop up in South and Central America (after decades of rumbling about in spontaneous unexplained waves in the U.S.), 200 clowns from a dozen countries gathered this past week at the <a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/07/30/clowns-gather-in-guatemala-to-talk-shop/">6th Congress of Latin American Clowns</a>. More AP photos available via <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-from-clown-congress-in-guatemala-2014-7?op=1">Business Insider</a> and <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/clown-conference-guatemala-gallery-1.1888827">NY Daily News</a> (worth it).<br />
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As seen in the annual World Clown Association convention <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/voraciousbrain/a-journey-into-a-clown-conventions-novelty-sized-heart-of-da">in Chicago a few months ago</a>, filtering into the schedules amidst juggling workshops and panels on crowd pleasing magic tricks is the increasing emphasis on, well, "How Not To Be Scary." The Chicago convention even offered a seminar on Posing for Pictures and Working with the Media,” that journalist Leigh Cowart described as "a simmering rally for strategy and solidarity in the face of the current clown PR crisis."<br />
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The full-time, professional clowns have been hyper-aware of their changing social dynamic for years, but it seems only recently has it become acceptable to openly acknowledge it in greasepainted circles, and even enter into discussion of how to mitigate the problem, which they can no longer continue to chalk up to Rodney Blackwell and his "I Hate Clowns" merchandising.<br />
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Still, while the media may have helped sow panic<a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2014/02/clowns-arent-going-away-theyre-coming.html"> earlier this year with "revelations" of a shortage</a> of actual card-carrying newcomers to the ranks of traditional clown unions, just take a look at any theatre programs this season from virtually anywhere in the country, and you will find clowns haunting the stages in all manner of artful contexts.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Any rumors of the demise of clowning are as exaggerated as our big shoes," says Norm Barnhart, of the WCA (Clown of the Year 2007)</span>.<br />
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Nonetheless, the clown rank and file know they are on the defensive side of a publicity battle that is raging constantly even if rarely noticed, in disparate headlines stretched around the western world. Just in the last ten days, police blotters are colored with reports of clown-costumed robberies in <a href="http://www.wtvq.com/content/localnews/story/Police-Man-Wore-Clown-Mask-During-Robbery/CkW-tVh_lk6fTKGl0KpVOQ.cspx">Georgetown</a>, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-police-arrest-2-teens-in-violent-clown-mask-robbery-1.2710016">Winnipeg</a>, and <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-28562503">Liverpool</a>, along with a <a href="http://www.issaquahpress.com/2014/07/08/police-fire-116/">knife-wielding clown that evaded responding officers in Issaquah, Washington</a>. Tensions against clowns are high elsewhere as well, judging from recent incidents- Natrona County Sheriffs had to ban a man from the fair grounds after he <a href="http://trib.com/news/local/casper/natrona-county-sheriffs-ban-man-from-fairgrounds-for-chasing-clown/article_c346ef68-992c-5ef2-9716-0892367c8b98.html?comment_form=true">would not stop chasing a rodeo clown</a>, and <a href="http://t.co/C9aYhxWfEz">vandals struck twice in one week</a> at the American Clown Museum and School in Lake Placid.<br />
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[The Media is not without its occasional positive clown story, such as the clowns who rushed to the aid of a fellow clown after a car accident<a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/offbeat/articles/2014/07/29/clowns-help-fellow-clown-who-crashed-car-into-pole"> in New Jersey</a> a few days ago.]<br />
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Meanwhile, any shortage there may be in circus tents and birthday parties is also appropriately inverse to their prevalence in horror films, which shows no sign of slacking a quarter century after such classics as Clownhouse and Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Not only is New Line continuing work on a biggish-budget two-picture <a href="http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/05/22/it-remake-shifts-to-new-line-cinema-1442837?lt_source=external,manual#!buMOqw">remake of Stephen King's IT</a>, but word came out this week that a <a href="http://www.technologytell.com/entertainment/48772/rob-zombie-crowdfund-day-glo-vomit-killer-clown-epic-thing/">major crowdfunding scheme is being launched</a> for a "gritty, disgusting and violent" new film involving "murderous clowns" by Rob Zombie (shocking, yes, I know). Included in the donor rewards for supporting "31," is a clown painting by Zombie, for $2500.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_2MJyxcZNPmFSYheB8UPawzSU8eitD0TPjxYjefXslq0oEO8D5fQxRDU0YP28ARuC2mdwMACO_2_z57E1CwEH37bk-YurwCcMVNTPRVUI88n99C0Atytp0dM2gYOJ22Vi56aY/s1600/640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_2MJyxcZNPmFSYheB8UPawzSU8eitD0TPjxYjefXslq0oEO8D5fQxRDU0YP28ARuC2mdwMACO_2_z57E1CwEH37bk-YurwCcMVNTPRVUI88n99C0Atytp0dM2gYOJ22Vi56aY/s1600/640.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Miller Headline', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"> <i><b>"I've never had a fear of clowns," Zombie opened up on the subject to <a href="https://www.blogger.com/:%20http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rob-zombie-talks-insane-clowns-and-crowdfunding-his-new-film-31-20140731#ixzz39N69jD4A">Rolling Stone</a>. "I find clowns fascinating. On one level, they're very entertaining and on another, they're incredibly repulsive.</b></i></span><br />
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Speaking of repulsive...and seemingly at the apex of everything that has gone wrong for clowns at this point in the 21st century, there are the Juggalos... and it has also been an interesting couple of weeks for the Dark Carnival anti-heroes of Insane Clown Posse and their estimated 1 million devoted fans. <br />
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Just over week ago, a junta of <a href="http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/07/are_insane_clown_posse_fans_in.html">Massachusetts law enforcement officials declared </a>that despite their "gang" designation at the federal level, Juggalos as a group are not considered a criminal organization regionally. <br />
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This good press was just in time for the annual Gathering of the Juggalos, which was held for the first time in Thornville, Ohio this year after being ousted from its former site in Illinois. While <a href="http://www.buckeyelakebeacon.net/news/2014-08-02/News/Juggalos_Law_enforcement_pleased_neighbors_upset.html">local law enforcement called</a> the event "better than expected," with few significant arrests from the crowd of over 4,500, it was nonetheless the scene of tragedy this year. Kristal Tsosie, 27, was found unresponsive in her tent and died a short time thereafter at Licking Memorial Hospital. No cause of death has yet been established.<br />
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The Gathering was not without its upbeat moments, I suppose, and the grueling details of a juggalo/juggalette wedding during the festival <a href="http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/rftmusic/2014/07/wedding_at_the_gathering_of_the_juggalos.php">are recounted by reporter Drew Ailes </a>in the RiverFront Times, the sickly sweet tale of nuptial rituals sure to make any parent want to commit suicide immediately, if it were their daughter in question.<br />
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However off-putting, and generally laughable, one might instinctively find this micro-culture, it cannot be ignored that it contains many of the core attributes of behavioral inversion of The Fool... the deification of profanity, the studied marginality and rigorously self-enforced ostracism, and even scatalogical elements, that have all been a part of clowning traditions since the Zuni first gathered for skits on the Pueblo. [See also: <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/trixway/current/Vol%203/Vol3_1/Durwin.htm/">Coulrophobia & The Trickster</a>]<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">... for Clowns are the contorted mirrors of the normative state of societal madness, a boisterous parade of canaries to its inherent sickness in every age. We should not expect the ornery, alcoholic hobo clowns that once signaled the fears of a Depression-era generation; our Great Depression is a cultural one, its symbolic Devils the perversions that breed of the gutters of apathy and extremism. Today's Evil Clowns are a garish, blood-spattered troupe touring the garish, blood-spattered landscape of our plugged-in Burned Over District....</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Don't forget to like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DarkClownsBlog">Dark Clowns on Facebook</a> to keep up to date on the weird world of clowns & coulrophobia...</b></span><br />
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Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-58831721645741980232014-02-18T11:05:00.001-08:002014-08-04T10:02:34.901-07:00Clowning Isn't Dying Off, It's Just Changing Shape <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBFud6NBvNx0Oyf3ypYRIdKhMw4jO7jl4jg_vrU4F2fnsJOv1FxWBUNTPr48qClOnvSkNEx3P3LDfwAKNkxba9cAcKRXN9Nu627PfErQrsvyR8vAzivu8VU6E_QBztg1YCt4gj/s1600/clown_painting29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBFud6NBvNx0Oyf3ypYRIdKhMw4jO7jl4jg_vrU4F2fnsJOv1FxWBUNTPr48qClOnvSkNEx3P3LDfwAKNkxba9cAcKRXN9Nu627PfErQrsvyR8vAzivu8VU6E_QBztg1YCt4gj/s1600/clown_painting29.jpg" height="320" width="256" /></a></div>
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There's been some considerable commotion in clown and coulrophobe circles, following a <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/exclusive-national-clown-shortage-approaching-article-1.1616801">story yesterday in the NY Daily News</a> on a so-called<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b> "clown shortage"</b></span> that has had many casual observers proclaiming that the fix is in and the End of Days for clowning is near at hand.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQD2wRpZ9WshccR4mxcnkEwiKYndwC6YMQUjksKpdEZw451Jc_4FnNulOIaY7AJkU_vghexh5z_SHwawokGOrUdEEmegSFKCJB9lvjVu-DG3WCCzdK8-_tEOKBqp3z_VS53YO/s1600/clown_painting21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQD2wRpZ9WshccR4mxcnkEwiKYndwC6YMQUjksKpdEZw451Jc_4FnNulOIaY7AJkU_vghexh5z_SHwawokGOrUdEEmegSFKCJB9lvjVu-DG3WCCzdK8-_tEOKBqp3z_VS53YO/s1600/clown_painting21.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9CnQNZfdsvuk6ZTkWlD9qfJ2mlbSNOhtHRKQ9xfEfc7AZUDK0RJWFCbua0U0hI3NOQmzKo3fUt_KwHFooavA6sptsjCeJVctKLP7xQTGo4Na2A-D_-qDWrdSDqqvLJ7gD47c/s1600/clownpaintingparty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9CnQNZfdsvuk6ZTkWlD9qfJ2mlbSNOhtHRKQ9xfEfc7AZUDK0RJWFCbua0U0hI3NOQmzKo3fUt_KwHFooavA6sptsjCeJVctKLP7xQTGo4Na2A-D_-qDWrdSDqqvLJ7gD47c/s1600/clownpaintingparty.jpg" height="153" width="200" /></a>Quite the contrary, I propose that the presence of clowns and clown motifs is actually on the rise throughout the arts and media, albeit rewriting itself through a transition into the next chapter of a centuries-old evolutionary history. Clowning isn't dying off, but like so much of western culture, it's in the process of re-envisioning into in a more layered, faux-intellectualized, winkingly ironic version of itself.<br />
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In its report, the Daily News cites concerns from various U.S. based trade unions like the World Clown Association and Clowns of American International on the fierce membership spiral they have experienced over the past decade. WCA, for instance, has shrunk about 1000 members since 2004, bringing their number to around 2,500. These associations attribute much of this to the retirement and "dying off" of their older membership, and a scarce base of new recruits under forty or so.<br />
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A good number of mainstream papers picked up on the clown drought story, mostly sticking to tired puns while trying to keep a straight face, though some like The Independent expand on the subject enough to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/us-facing-national-clown-shortage-9135575.html">note the possible influence </a> of modern evil clown depictions in the generational decline reported. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0NeAOm0ZxeGaN1mpamePuiNKjkehc7wjZBoaoragWZIMFvNNmweql4_zNtdwvGwUEM1qwnUNo1HmL1N5lJ5Dosx7k_0lE6WLsIYsoClmK-FtqKQUZrMB-dXTr0OPCiEe1eVz/s1600/clownparty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0NeAOm0ZxeGaN1mpamePuiNKjkehc7wjZBoaoragWZIMFvNNmweql4_zNtdwvGwUEM1qwnUNo1HmL1N5lJ5Dosx7k_0lE6WLsIYsoClmK-FtqKQUZrMB-dXTr0OPCiEe1eVz/s1600/clownparty.jpg" /></a>Popular online media went further into gratuity, of course, mostly a lot of smirking Hmm-I'm-Shocked reiterations extolling the vague creepiness of clowns and concluding with a sort of smug relief. After all, not all people afraid of clowns become hipsters, and not all hipsters adopt a fear of clowns, but there's certainly quite a bit of overlap there.<br />
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"And so the art of clowning rides its sad, wobbly novelty jalopy into the sunset, sad honking growing gradually fainter as it recedes in the distance," <a href="http://jezebel.com/clowns-advocates-fear-america-faces-a-dire-clown-shorta-1524449312"> proclaims Kelly Faircloth</a>, with all the sledgehammer subtlety of pop culture insight one expects from a Jezebel blogger. <br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"America's clowns are dying," <a href="http://gawker.com/americas-clowns-are-dying-1524632402">agreed the ever-nuanced</a> Gawker.</span></b><br />
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While traditional clowning trade associations like these are understandably concerned about their hemorraging membership, though, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the recession of these old guard clown unions may no longer be an accurate gauge of clown populations in the western world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGlwSDOVuunU00Kv7HQ_2XFt2gPkGUyNaJ1tGMiI3wxRMcPBzrLkBBxbFzTf_xKkxK0GLbHEE7RdILTO00MBcgHpBrXty43Rr-4bE-B74HEBWbFabg244jLU0-U5ii2MwSKuBQ/s1600/clown+protester.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGlwSDOVuunU00Kv7HQ_2XFt2gPkGUyNaJ1tGMiI3wxRMcPBzrLkBBxbFzTf_xKkxK0GLbHEE7RdILTO00MBcgHpBrXty43Rr-4bE-B74HEBWbFabg244jLU0-U5ii2MwSKuBQ/s1600/clown+protester.jpg" /></a>Organizations like the WCA and CAI asking themselves "where are all the younger clowns?" need only look to the growth of newer operations like Clowns Without Borders. There's your 20-30 something clowns, they're in the <a href="http://globalnation.inquirer.net/98730/clowns-without-borders-healing-with-laughter">Phillipines right now</a>, entertaining in post-typhoon refuges. <a href="http://www.clownarmy.org/rebelclowning/rebel.html">CIRCA</a>, the politically satirical Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, has also grown significantly, by all accounts. And while outside of Patch Adams & friends, medical clowning never really took off in America, it's bloomed tremendously in some other developed nations, such as Israel.<br />
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Aside from the booming niche of the socially or politically active clown, there is an ever burgeoning market for the more adult-oriented clown entertainer, a model that either partly or explicitly acknowledges and incorporates the fog of unsavory associations that has crept in all around the Clown in the post 1980s popular culture.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I go to a healthy number of festivals, arts and social events of various kinds, and I still see a lot of clowns out there. I'm prone to notice them, I guess, and I tend to stop and watch whatever they're doing. Mostly, these days, they're not juggling or making balloon animals- what I've seen is clowns reciting William Burroughs, clowns break dancing, clowns faking tourettes syndrome. </span><br />
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Clown burlesque in fact is already quite passé... but the scene is ripe for ripoffs of the fabulous Puddles and his Pity Party act:<br />
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Full on <b>Evil-Clowning</b> is an increasingly viable commercial prospect as well, from eccentric party services like <a href="http://www.evilclownsforhire.com/">Evil Clowns For Hire</a>, Dominic Deville's Evil Clown <a href="http://www.evilbirthdayclown.com/">stalking-for-hire</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Evil-Clown-For-Hire/118535474827987"> a profusion of others</a>, to TV show jobs and <a href="http://21bookseries.com/the-northampton-clown-book-coming-december-27/">book deals</a>, to a seemingly endless profusion of awful bands to be found all over the interwebs, bastard godchildren not only of ICP but of their earlier horrible-evil-clown-band ancestors, K.I.S.S....<br />
<br />
For these kind of performers, the traditional circus camp to clown school trajectory just doesn't have that much relevance to their career path, and expensive memberships in old fashioned clown unions is not only not advantageous, it's probably not even an option.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6eWMIb5OdXqIb1RVP9BlbJihHVGukGma0mOayFBZoIOdg639WEOoxTZtZeDvMoOnQrHkBpR9QTvHd1zfIqbUYwrDDeqEi1iAeze2uJutFnumoiwiXX1tdNHYsw1eQHS8gOWV/s1600/scary+clown+chick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6eWMIb5OdXqIb1RVP9BlbJihHVGukGma0mOayFBZoIOdg639WEOoxTZtZeDvMoOnQrHkBpR9QTvHd1zfIqbUYwrDDeqEi1iAeze2uJutFnumoiwiXX1tdNHYsw1eQHS8gOWV/s1600/scary+clown+chick.jpg" /></a></div>
Clowns-as-entertainment are maybe not even primarily for "the kids" anymore, and this should come as no surprise in a wider economic view. The decade that the birthday clown unions shriveled is the same one that saw Halloween spending for adults first exceed and then begin to vastly outstrip that for children - just one concrete example of an accelerated engagement of grown up demographics in entertainment areas that once catered more solely to youth bases. Really, when was the last time anyone made a cartoon or a children's movie that wasn't also trying to appeal to older customers?<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">The wider re-calibration of all "children's" entertainment to appease an older, more jaded audience has helped mold the changing iconography of the clown, augmented by a constellation of other social and media influences, and admittedly awkward publicity in the past few decades.</span></i><br />
<br />
Perhaps the only thing that is actually surprising about any of this, given the historical scope of changes occurring in the evolution of the archetype of the clown over the past few centuries<b>*</b>, is that many commentators are so quick to predict the approaching "end of the clown."<br />
<br />
Quite the opposite, it seems to me the figure of the clown is alive, thriving, and perhaps more self aware than ever.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3jWltOgp2QBHxC5nlwrSvkYq25o7anZIRvmqG38bwxIuc8I99QPsPUIBwTWsuzd8kWhvRFwvsyrrCzzDiw0-eniIL2CADnrfBeSmZNYALjajCODOgK4MD2I7YTrpb6ALb7RNV/s1600/clownholocaust.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3jWltOgp2QBHxC5nlwrSvkYq25o7anZIRvmqG38bwxIuc8I99QPsPUIBwTWsuzd8kWhvRFwvsyrrCzzDiw0-eniIL2CADnrfBeSmZNYALjajCODOgK4MD2I7YTrpb6ALb7RNV/s1600/clownholocaust.jpg" height="329" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>*</b>See<a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2014/01/one-friday-13th-clown-appeared-on.html"> previous blog on how the coming of the Northampton Clown</a> helped herald in the next phase in the era-specific development of a trickster-based archetype.<br />
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<br />Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-70342554519616611312014-01-25T17:19:00.001-08:002014-01-26T08:44:52.367-08:00One Friday the 13th A Clown Appeared on the Streets of England. What Has Followed Will Seem Like a Long Cough Syrup Induced NightmareEverything You Need To Know About the Evil Clown Apocalypse<br />
By Joe Durwin<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc1lCSoEr08KmWgxX1WMbZ1_1iwibDGtVwjfLWL2NDqThBbe52WfiBDvAygaIlJHY3jUrR07Zl9AMOPf4mFSOnlE3WKyQvzOQxb9UvxS0rxwe4oLZHTUO0ummVEmkLabB9nhE5/s1600/noho+clown+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc1lCSoEr08KmWgxX1WMbZ1_1iwibDGtVwjfLWL2NDqThBbe52WfiBDvAygaIlJHY3jUrR07Zl9AMOPf4mFSOnlE3WKyQvzOQxb9UvxS0rxwe4oLZHTUO0ummVEmkLabB9nhE5/s1600/noho+clown+book.jpg" height="320" width="200" /></a><span style="color: #222222;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>You
see, as kids get angrier, the clowns they produce will become more
wicked.. Yes, eventually all clowns will be evil zombie clowns. The
disintegration of society will eventually bring clown terror to the
entire world...”</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">-The
Northampton Clown, in </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>21
Insights to the </i></span><span style="color: #222222;"><strike><i>Psychotic</i></strike></span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>Happy
Life of the Northampton Clown</i></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">And
thus our celebrity antagonist predicts the coming “Zombie Clown
Apocalypse,” in his new book out last month, an impending era of
“evil zombie clowns lurking on every street corner in the world.”</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">And
sitting at my desk on a cold Saturday morning, browser tabs open to
the kind of increasingly bizarre types of news stories coming in the
last four months here at the Coulrophobia Desk of the Institute of
Weirdness, the </span><span style="color: #222222;"><strike>psychotic</strike></span><span style="color: #222222;"> happy
analysis of TNC, the new self-proclaimed future “king of the evil
zombie clowns” starts to sound like the sanest analysis I've
heard...not only of the broiling postmodern pop culture phenomenon in
front of me, but just maybe something much bigger, and more germane
to this </span><span style="color: #222222;">psychotic</span><span style="color: #222222;">/happy
era we now occupy circa 2014 A.D.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Yesterday,
Santa Fe, New Mexico elementary school was locked down when <a href="http://krqe.com/2014/01/24/police-man-wanted-to-scare-kids-with-costume-2/">reports came in to the principal </a> of a 23 year old man's plans to invade the
school dressed as a clown to take pictures of the kids' scared
reactions.</span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/j6SQVUbTf5E?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Now, there
was a time when rumors going around elementary schools about clowns
bothering children were more playground legend than real danger (see: <a href="http://thespiritseekers.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/return-of-the-phantom-clowns-weird-but-true/">Phantom Clown Scares</a>), but clown harassers have stepped out of the sewers of
folklore ostenstion and taken to the streets of real madmen and
tricksters.<br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">News
also broke yesterday of a<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25888992"> newly released document </a>from London police
that shows 117 reports that relate to clowns in one form or another
in the last year, most in the wake of TNC's appearance in September,
including about a dozen burglaries and assaults in which someone
dressed as a clown was either a perpetrator or
victim. </span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> Less
populous areas have seen more police reports of specific copycat
clown terror...29 in Derbyshire, <a href="http://www.ripleyandheanornews.co.uk/news/local/clown-scares-were-no-joke-say-police-1-6377525">where in Ripley</a> a clown chased two
teenage
girls</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> ;
In<a href="http://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/clown_craze_hits_the_fens_1_3174303"> Cambridgshire several sightings</a> of a TNC copycat had some
residents calling police every time they saw anyone wearing or
possessing a clown
suit.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">BLUEBOTTLE,
himself (sometimes also known as Tony Eldridge, secretary of Clowns
International, which represents costumed entertainers throughout the
UK), has recently <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/26/uk-clowns-copycat-crime-wave">spoken out against</a> the madness there, denouncing these TNC
copycat antics as doing real harm to society.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Already
long come and gone are the spin offs of Fall 2013, <a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2013/09/trickster-20-how-fool-from-northampton.html">Boris the ClownCatcher,</a>
</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">the<a href="http://www.nottinghampost.com/Mansfield-Clown-sightings-Nottingham/story-20094985-detail/story.html">MansfieldClown</a>, </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">the
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1431573993727851/?ref=ts&fref=ts">DoncasterClown</a>,</span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> the Fenton Clown or<a href="http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Letter-warning-chilling-Slender-man-stalker/story-20330087-detail/story.html"> 'Silent Man'</a>
, the<a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2013/10/copycat-clowns-costumed-crime-spikes-in.html"> Carrickfergus Clown</a> and the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carrick-Clown-Killers/194380354079202?fref=ts"> Carrick ClownCatchers</a>.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=473095836143236&set=a.472115026241317.1073741829.470565773062909&type=1">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/themansfieldclown">The Mansfield Clown</a>.<br />
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</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>But In
the U.S. and elsewhere</b><span style="font-size: 9pt;">, strange new threads in the history of the
Clown are also being written. In addition to the incident in New Mexico yesterday, recent clown-masked robberies in
<a href="http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/crime/article_558d52ea-76f7-11e3-af75-001a4bcf887a.html">Montana </a>and<a href="http://www.northjersey.com/littleferry/2_North_Arlington_brothers_arrested_in_Little_Ferry_clown-mask_bank_robbery.html"> New Jersey</a>
and a<a href="http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/gold-coast/canungra-locals-were-fuming-at-losing-thousands-in-business-after-a-bomb-threat-shut-the-town-down-on-thursday/story-fnj94idh-1226803773037"> bomb threat from a travelling circus clown</a> at an Australian bank
have all helped to fuel the coulrophobic crime coverage that has
been surging since October.</span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26ZvBytZxbXPgui54d37KJ9-HWMoTCy4zJfbh3HFcjITfk8fGofmEjdAEXK0ozzxrB8_66c4FW7wMY0KK2uUEsd-tdGE-8FmUwMLp_R7R4HxbgpGJBB7bRXQA8edE75xlUavX/s1600/elkhart-+shawn-bair-axe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26ZvBytZxbXPgui54d37KJ9-HWMoTCy4zJfbh3HFcjITfk8fGofmEjdAEXK0ozzxrB8_66c4FW7wMY0KK2uUEsd-tdGE-8FmUwMLp_R7R4HxbgpGJBB7bRXQA8edE75xlUavX/s1600/elkhart-+shawn-bair-axe.jpg" height="200" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elkhart Killer in Juggalo attire</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Insane
Clown Posse</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">
<a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/01/09/64389.htm,">announced this month that it </a>will sue the FBI for its controversial
designation of Juggalos as gang members just a week
before widely reported “revelations” from Facebook that Elkhart,
Indiana spree shooter Shawn Walter Blair <a href="https://www.blogger.com/.http://www.inquisitr.com/1097619/elkhart-shooting-killer-obsessed-with-serial-killers-and-insane-clown-posse-on-facebook/">was a Juggalo ICP</a> enthusiast. Elsewhere, Tuffy the Clown, the longtime rodeo clown who sparked
nationwide controversy with an Obama-mask wearing routine, was first
condemned, then lauded, and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/16/rodeo-clown-heart-obama-mask-flap-winning-person-y/">eventually nominated </a>“Person of the
Year”... in Sedalia, Missouri, anyway. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Even
in Florida, a longtime club hub of circus, carnivalesque and clownish
characters, a clown convention in Largo is being quietly <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/01/24/3890084/dispute-between-city-group-means.html">edged out bylocal government. </a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>The Contextual Clown</u></b><br />
<br />
<b style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;">“</b><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b>The madman is not always regarded as an object of commiseration. On the contrary, there is a widespread notion which is not quite extinct that the lunatic is an awe-inspiring figure whose reason has ceased to function normally because he has become the mouthpiece of a spirit, or powers external to himself, and so he has access to hidden knowledge.” - Enid Welsford, <i>The Fool:His Social and Literary History</i> (1935)</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">The
clown is the public face of the Trickster in western civilization,
and it's persona has changed with the arc of our culture's history.
From shamans of the pre-Christian era to medieval jester to
renaissance revolutionary to artist-rebel against the post-Enlightenment
rationalization of the world, glittering performers of the fin de siecle </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">through the catastrophic roaring 20s, only to be replaced by the
ragged Weary Willie bums of the Great Depression. After that, society kept adding
water to the Fool until they'd been all but relegated to the goofy
confines of children's parties and corporate family picnics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">However, long before they began to be brought into the fold, to be controlled, before they
became the playthings of Kings and were given the first day of April
on which to celebrate their topsy-turvy world of inverted
polarities... before that time these figures were known to be dangerous, to be
uncontrolled, licentious, blashphemous and terrifying to all the we
hold to be norms. All of that was just pushed down, hiding, waiting
out the TV Land, Cold War white-washing of western culture, and in
the gritty beginnings of the next age the darker beastial side of the
archetype began to loose itself once more.... and Spielberg noticed,
and King noticed and Simpsons ran with the ball, and back before any
of them Gacy sensed it and so did hundreds of parents clogging the
police lines in Boston, Providence, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and a
few other cities in the Spring of 1981. (See again:<a href="http://thespiritseekers.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/return-of-the-phantom-clowns-weird-but-true/"> Phantom Clowns</a>)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span></span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0SMsZnB2TzRppHnPg97uOa-v0KiVKF7z989fDORLpxSeq7UTvAKWlN7pYPKqZ2pl_-dTFoxZthqeNgAzYnmSpCseq-B9OYwtejPZyyoPH28FMKWUZKb1GskHgiKR4u4W7SItb/s1600/jokermemeblank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0SMsZnB2TzRppHnPg97uOa-v0KiVKF7z989fDORLpxSeq7UTvAKWlN7pYPKqZ2pl_-dTFoxZthqeNgAzYnmSpCseq-B9OYwtejPZyyoPH28FMKWUZKb1GskHgiKR4u4W7SItb/s1600/jokermemeblank.jpg" height="221" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">And
maybe Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson figured it out before any of us,
and nearly 7 decades later the psychopathic clown they unleashed on
Gotham, who was originally never supposed to survive his first issue,
reached its peak incarnation thus far with the posthumous debut of
Heath Ledger's 2008 performance. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span></span>
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And
when an angry, deranged student walked into an Aurora Colordado
theatre a year and a half ago and slaughtered 12 people,</span><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/aurora-dark-knight-suspect-joker-cops/story?id=16822251" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> claiming that character as his inspiration</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">,
even the mainstream media began to nervously take stock of the
misshapen memetic beast that was emerging... and are now struggling to wryly chronicle
individual instances without stepping too far back to talk about the
growing patterns, to launch an inquiry devoid of questions and
somehow find a </span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">way to cover this thing</b><b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </b></i><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>without revealing their
own obvious, bloody thumbprint smeared across the whole crime scene
in thirty years of lurid headlines.</i></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglAUu4IwCSDFrn_SUr6k6oi-Zu9M7gvbnLqqrzg2QHag5DNkJ4geZfi26WN5qU1NfeonJDTVldbw1G2Tse-U0TjncGH1KC2RJl8RechVu447x6gugGGf62hW4nSl0wjwOq5rn2/s1600/demon+clown-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglAUu4IwCSDFrn_SUr6k6oi-Zu9M7gvbnLqqrzg2QHag5DNkJ4geZfi26WN5qU1NfeonJDTVldbw1G2Tse-U0TjncGH1KC2RJl8RechVu447x6gugGGf62hW4nSl0wjwOq5rn2/s1600/demon+clown-crop.jpg" height="166" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Associated Press, June 11, 1981</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Enter
<b><a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2013/09/trickster-20-how-fool-from-northampton.html">The Northampton Clown</a></b>... in the form of film student/viral trickster
figure Alex Powell, on Sep. 13, 2013.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNzYWhZyIffene8tnr1JrKq-KBnez3kjscLHD-BGpIXTT1kgIJT_NwuAP6CWh8frHxeamcYD5-AlhT-UBloRev7ENYYjII5emjQr0rUwJcMmTgNeGfz6l3eGdzojP3xrAT-3Lf/s1600/noho+clown+stonehenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNzYWhZyIffene8tnr1JrKq-KBnez3kjscLHD-BGpIXTT1kgIJT_NwuAP6CWh8frHxeamcYD5-AlhT-UBloRev7ENYYjII5emjQr0rUwJcMmTgNeGfz6l3eGdzojP3xrAT-3Lf/s1600/noho+clown+stonehenge.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">For
make no mistake, Powell is The Northampton Clown: speculated,
exposed, confirmed- and at times I find it reassuring to remind
myself of this, that this is merely a horror-book ripoff, fictional
character impersonation, and not some semi-occult schizoid thought
projection of cultural archetype intruding into the halls of psyche
on the verge of bodily possession... not like whatever weirdness
consumed <a href="http://thesilentfilms.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/weary-willie-and-the-three-kellys/">three generations of the Kelly family</a> in the guise of
America's favorite clown... this was clear and obvious parody.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">It
is, isn't it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.222222328186035px;">Or, as The Northampton Clown explains in his book, clowns are born from children blowing bubbles, while just in the right magical state of mind. Cheerful, lighthearted wishes become fun, playful clowns. The nihilistic thoughts of angry, disturbed children bring to life Evil Zombie Clowns </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br />And while the Phantom Clowns that a generation ago were still amorphous,
hysterical manifestations of urban legend that could not be pinned
down, these symbolic Evil Zombie Clowns are now are popping up on street corners like some kind of
twisted, year round Santa Clauses... and the question for many has been,
when will it end?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">Ten
years after I published my first paper on coulrophobia & evil
clowns in the <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/trixway/current/vol%203/vol3_1/Durwin.htm">Journal of Trickster Studies</a>, I now believe the reality
is that it never will, that you can only have so many confluences of
legend, pop culture and performance before an icon reaches some
critical mass, and like of vampires, and werewolves and zombies
before them, the clown-as-monster is now here to stay.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">On
many levels this prophesied arrival of the Evil Zombie Clown
Apocalypse should come as no surprise, for we are already knee deep
in the age of Loki and Coyote, the era of the Trickster. 2013 was truly the
Year of the Clown, the year Kanye was dubbed our most interesting
person, the “year we broke the internet” (<a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/news/we-broke-the-internet?src=soc_twtr">according to Esquire </a></span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">) from the collective weight of our bullshit. This was the year we
took in more fake news than we did “real” news, the year
<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/24/study-finds-that-we-still-believe-untruths-even-after-instant-online-corrections/">scientists announced</a> that we are more likely to believe false
information presented first even when immediate corrected with
neutral factual information. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">We
cannot now feign too much shock as scary painted hobos crop up
increasingly along the piled up breakdown lanes of the Misinformation
Superhighway.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">Every
day has become April Fool's Day As this culture enters into its most
overloaded, post-post-postmodern cycle, the lines of the ironic and
moronic so hopelessly blurred that we can scarcely delineate.
Perhaps history had no other answer to this riddle than to Send in
the Clowns.</span></span></span>Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-82298220904038123632013-10-05T18:52:00.001-07:002013-10-05T19:09:45.547-07:00Commerce & Copycats: Creepy Clown Craze Continues...<i><b><span style="color: purple;">[Note: Sorry, but I'm not gonna write about ghoulishly goofy characters with red noses and <span style="font-size: large;">not </span>use some ridiculous alliteration]</span></b></i><br />
<br />
Three weeks after a sinister grinning clown began to stage photo ops on the streets of a metropolitan town in East Midlands, low level coulro-madness and the ensuing commercial cash-in continues to rage in the UK, and beyond. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Good to see everybody getting into the spirit. Or, is the spirit getting into you? <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23beepBeep&src=hash">#beepBeep</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23northamptonclown&src=hash">#northamptonclown</a><br />
— Northampton Clown (@NthHamptonClown) <a href="https://twitter.com/NthHamptonClown/statuses/385934241600532480">October 4, 2013</a></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCZg3-Cv3rCBSgoeap2l0uXy_rSgH_QxsPH4XjwlhmoLhDcaC2wjzm551LKEadG7zDjUT8deS0DLQIi5CWhfFdFqKiJjQ0PWxZVu8jRIdyIwI8ktXv73F7Nvl2QFTON4jQuSt/s1600/noho+clown+oct+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCZg3-Cv3rCBSgoeap2l0uXy_rSgH_QxsPH4XjwlhmoLhDcaC2wjzm551LKEadG7zDjUT8deS0DLQIi5CWhfFdFqKiJjQ0PWxZVu8jRIdyIwI8ktXv73F7Nvl2QFTON4jQuSt/s1600/noho+clown+oct+4.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">October 4</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
The now-minorly-famed Northampton Clown is <a href="http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/News/Northampton-clown-prepares-to-travel-20130930165600.htm">pushing a line of merchandise</a> to finance wider appearances, and will soon be travelling 150 miles to become a <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/northampton-clown-accused-selling-out-2326068">temporary Halloween attraction </a>at the Pleasure Hills theme park in Suffolk.<br />
<br />
UK <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/northampton-clown-odds-on-creepy-clown-2323714">bookies are now placing odds</a> on what locations he will next be seen, and predicting his identity will be soon be revealed as the Pennywise impersonator seems to be in the process of T-shirting his way into kitsch mascot status. <br />
<br />
Over in Ireland, however, <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/community-telegraph/north-belfast/scary-pair-just-clowning-around-29626100.html">some concerns have continued </a>in the wake of the even more sinister looking copycat<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Carrickfergus Killer Clown</span></b>. And while <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Northampton-Clown-Catcher/513145698773018?fref=ts">Boris the Clown Catcher</a> has not been heard from since the day of NHClown's last <a href="http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/News/Northampton-News/Northamptonclown-appears-near-iconic-lift-tower-landmark-20130926231222.htm">daytime appearance near the National Lift Tower</a> over a week ago, this copycat has already spawned his own vigilante pursuers, The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carrick-Clown-Killers/194380354079202">Carrick Clown Killers</a>, with a far more faux-militant (gosh I hope those are toy guns) bent Northampton's new blue superhero.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=195019154015322&set=a.194384410745463.1073741828.194380354079202&type=1">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carrick-Clown-Killers/194380354079202">Carrick Clown Killers</a>.</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2g9qSBTnwDiu9kOHVQ2Lp0DiUiVjuN47vIrtR9kpvj2F6ZEbh0m-ejw9McXw3h5ivr88V7Pv300a2RIiFEbR7XWJh4wuNN6mhFVlknl6IOGwlD8cm40Fs2ULn8Tp-4iY0xdAM/s1600/mask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2g9qSBTnwDiu9kOHVQ2Lp0DiUiVjuN47vIrtR9kpvj2F6ZEbh0m-ejw9McXw3h5ivr88V7Pv300a2RIiFEbR7XWJh4wuNN6mhFVlknl6IOGwlD8cm40Fs2ULn8Tp-4iY0xdAM/s200/mask.jpg" width="133" /></a>Meanwhile, in Harlow (UK), police <a href="http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/News/Harlow-news/E-fit-and-clown-mask-released-by-police-investigating-Town-Park-knifepoint-robbery-20131002100556.htm">released an image</a> of what they called a "clown mask" used in knifepoint robbery during <a href="http://darkclowns.blogspot.com/2013/10/copycat-clowns-costumed-crime-spikes-in.html">last week's wave of clown-masked crime</a>, but is actually a balaclava version of the Guy Fawkes mask, made famous in V is For Vendetta (whose writer <i><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>Alan Moore</b></span></i> is coincidentally collaborating on a sinister clown project set in Northampton, and was <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/959506/v-for-vendetta-author-alan-moore-i-am-not-the-northampton-clown/">early on pointed to as a possible </a>Clown suspect).<br />
<br />
Across the pond in Pennsylvania, some 200 miles from where <a href="http://www.hauntmastersclub.com/editorials/clowns.html">unsubstantiatable rumors of clowns abducting youth</a> in vans ran rampant in 1981, a girl is now being accused with having made up a story of being <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/10/13-year-old_charged_after_lyin.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">abducted by a man in a clown mask</a> driving a black SUV... perhaps inspired by the worldwide social media phenomenon surrounding this real life creepy clown?<br />
<br />
And now a rumor just tonight has the #NorthamptonClown possibly sighted in a whole other county...<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“<a href="https://twitter.com/Tarahealy_">@Tarahealy_</a>: Ok so I've just been told Northampton clown has been seen in Bromham. I have been dreading this day”where?! When?!?!<br />
— ◼️◻️ (@ElijahHukin) <a href="https://twitter.com/ElijahHukin/statuses/386601425763303424">October 5, 2013</a></blockquote>
<br />
Whether NorthamptonClown(TM) is profiting or simply covering expenses and giving to charity as he claims, the commercialization of the Killer Clown is certainly nothing new. This progression has been growing in spurts since the late 70s and now you'd be hard pressed to find a costume shop at least in the U.S. that doesn't have at least one Evil Clown mask. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://cdn.fearnet.com/sites/default/files/images/News/GSB/clown_mask1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://cdn.fearnet.com/sites/default/files/images/News/GSB/clown_mask1.jpg" width="212" /></a>And if the <a href="https://www.google.com/#psj=1&q=clown+masks&tbm=shop">hundreds of styles already available</a> weren't enough to make this Halloween season uncomfortable for you coulrophobes out there, Slipknot member <a href="http://www.fearnet.com/news/news-article/slipknots-clown-launches-terrifying-clown-mask-series">M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan has now</a> taken some of the most unsettling aesthetics of the clown and basically combined them with the creepiest Cenobite from the Hellraiser movies. </div>
<br />
With all this hype and publicity around the world going into October snowballing from a cryptic clown, that just happened to start walking the streets on a September Friday the 13th when stores, theaters and TV markets throughout the world were starting to lay out some of their more seasonal Horror genre wares, sales of creepy clown crap may reach new records this Halloween season...<br />
<br />
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Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-2118792378716382112013-10-01T16:21:00.000-07:002013-10-01T16:33:14.642-07:00Copycat Clowns: Costumed Crime Spikes in Wake of Northampton Clown<div>
The furor of worldwide media activity surrounding the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/spotnorthamptonsclown?fref=ts">Northampton Clown</a> has subsided somewhat over the past week and a half following his first exclusive interviews, and while continues to make occasional choreographed appearances rigorously pursued by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Northampton-Clown-Catcher/513145698773018?fref=ts">The Clown Catcher</a>, Northampton journalist<a href="https://twitter.com/AnnabelHowardhp"> Annabel Howard</a> and others, his viral fan growth seems to have slowed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3_wz7uOF7SgzR33IDc1c6WgYDf-O9NxmcPEaj0GnS3F3S41ix59UfGJvP5OFA38vZbJj-hPr9lLaCD1sS45EY8_IJEdyVdEcsKRPHaU3sSexlzWA_NRTEOIxWqKg6OyDuvOa/s1600/nohoclown+elm+st.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3_wz7uOF7SgzR33IDc1c6WgYDf-O9NxmcPEaj0GnS3F3S41ix59UfGJvP5OFA38vZbJj-hPr9lLaCD1sS45EY8_IJEdyVdEcsKRPHaU3sSexlzWA_NRTEOIxWqKg6OyDuvOa/s320/nohoclown+elm+st.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
Meanwhile, in the wake of his global explosion, a rash of clown-costumed crime broke out in the U.S. and U.K. over a ten day period.<br />
<br />
Four days after the first appearance of Northampton's Extreme Tim Curry Fan, three men in <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/dressed-clowns-rob-brooklyn-electronics-store-article-1.1458654">clown masks robbed a Brooklyn electronics store</a>.</div>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl25Ho2JvouG1S73E6nez4A3c8HIHCwpDLBm-N3ccZo5NoXnT3vBp7S0URN7wnn-5NVH3k2wdy_6npZYNKFqUblKzCXSRHSA0t-11ksuJyMV1763K2A5wGQTJyzSQcmLflQooQ/s1600/clown+robbery+batman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl25Ho2JvouG1S73E6nez4A3c8HIHCwpDLBm-N3ccZo5NoXnT3vBp7S0URN7wnn-5NVH3k2wdy_6npZYNKFqUblKzCXSRHSA0t-11ksuJyMV1763K2A5wGQTJyzSQcmLflQooQ/s1600/clown+robbery+batman.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holy Clown Capers, Batman!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Over the next week, 6 people were robbed at knife-point by a clown in Harlow (UK), followed by more clown masked robberies <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/22797168-418/story.html">throughout Chicago</a>, another <a href="http://www.kirklandreporter.com/news/225108062.html">bank holdup in Kirkland Key, Washington</a>, and even a GameStop in<a href="http://www.mydesert.com/viewart/20130921/NEWS0801/309210011/Police-Masked-thieves-make-off-GameStop-goods"> Palm Desert, California</a>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is not merely selective attention- I have maintained Google Alerts for news and blog stories involving clown crime for years, and five such incidents in such a period is definitely up from the average of two media-reported clown-masked larcenies in the world per month.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Perhaps the most obvious direct copycat of the Northampton Clown was the emergence four days ago of another <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/10/01/carrickfergus-killer-clown-police-pictures_n_4021391.html?utm_hp_ref=uk&ir=UK">Killer Clown impersonator in Northern Ireland</a>. Authorities in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, issued an alert after an even more menacing looking clown began having pictures of himself around local playgrounds. </div>
<div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/PSNI.Newtownabbey.Carrickfergus/posts/414376941997074">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PSNI.Newtownabbey.Carrickfergus">PSNI Newtownabbey & Carrickfergus</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9yl2dC6JeFq5LI-BBYzD0XLYah8X8lrDKoi9R1QMT8JABIb25ydB9aVb-S3B1paEmTeAslRah7wqDj46yb5WdmoGUSj0K3eqI5w1bO6h9-UX0aj_DKrCXK4MPWCE4kvyT5hmz/s1600/CARRICKFERGUS-KILLER-CLOWN-570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9yl2dC6JeFq5LI-BBYzD0XLYah8X8lrDKoi9R1QMT8JABIb25ydB9aVb-S3B1paEmTeAslRah7wqDj46yb5WdmoGUSj0K3eqI5w1bO6h9-UX0aj_DKrCXK4MPWCE4kvyT5hmz/s320/CARRICKFERGUS-KILLER-CLOWN-570.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Responding with surprise to immediate public backlash from the community (has he not been paying attention?), the Carrickfergus Clown "turned himself in" and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24295046">apologized to anyone</a> who was frightened.</div>
<div>
<br />
"That wasn't the aim. The aim was for a bit of fun. I'm a parent myself," said the un-named prankster.<br />
<br />
We've seen past mini-spikes and patterns in upticks of clown-costumed crimes or pranks before, perhaps correlated with mass airings or new releases of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/list/N26rsZgWAow/">films with EVIL CLOWNS</a>.<br />
<br />
We have also seen, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html">most horrifically in Aurora, Colorado last summer</a>, how depictions of such figures can exercise a powerful hold over the imagination of an unbalanced and violent mind.<br />
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Meanwhile, the still slightly mysterious Northampton Clown<a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/northampton-clown-sells-merchandise-raise-2322891"> is gentrifying and commercializing as he prepares to take his show on the road</a>... but as he becomes more of an ironic T-shirt mascot, the current waning wave of interest is likely to continue its decline, and this current photogenic "phantom clown" sensation is likely to settle into its place as a brief, but significant, footnote in an evolution of a social symbol that predates Tim Curry, Stephen King, John Wayne Gacy and The Joker...<br />
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Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-27852916543855326712013-09-20T21:34:00.000-07:002013-09-20T22:21:51.216-07:00Trickster 2.0 : How a Fool from Northampton Sped Up the Culture of Coulrophobia in A Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On Friday the 13th, a clown appeared on the streets of the semi-metropolitan town of Northampton, Northamptonshire UK (pop: 212,100).<br />
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He wasn't performing, per se, wasn't juggling or riding a unicycle or advertising for a pizza place or any of the everyday things that a clown might be seen doing out in public at any given time. He wasn't really doing anything. Just standing around. Holding balloons. And later a disheveled teddy bear.<br />
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It started pretty quickly
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
What's going on with all the random <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23clowns&src=hash">#clowns</a> appearing in <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Northampton&src=hash">#Northampton</a>? *shudders*<br />
— Joe (@jogo78) <a href="https://twitter.com/jogo78/statuses/378619949700632576">September 13, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here he is <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NorthamptonClown&src=hash">#NorthamptonClown</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Terrifying&src=hash">#Terrifying</a> <a href="http://t.co/5zdlInvY1r">pic.twitter.com/5zdlInvY1r</a><br />
— Joe (@jogo78) <a href="https://twitter.com/jogo78/statuses/378621337797165056">September 13, 2013</a></blockquote>
From Twitter to Facebook, the first few hundred discovered that the unnamed but disturbingly familiar clown had his own <a href="https://www.facebook.com/spotnorthamptonsclown"><span style="color: magenta; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Spot the Northampton Clown</b></span></a> page, where a brief glance at his chosen cover photo made clear what "exclusive" news stories would confirm days later: the costume act bore an intentional resemblance to that most fearsome of all clown-a-phobic icons: Tim Curry as Pennywise. (#NorthamptonClown even used Tim Curry's birth date as his own when starting the page.)<br />
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<a href="http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/webimage/1.5494240!/image/1397909309.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_215/1397909309.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/webimage/1.5494240!/image/1397909309.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_215/1397909309.jpg" width="212" /></a>Later that evening, the faux-Pennywise posted another shot of himself, one which with its limply dangling teddy bear, over the next few days would confirm for millions Lon Chaney's words that "there's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight."<br />
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Two more "sighting" photos of went up rapidly over Saturday and Sunday, and as the social media frenzy grew (already running about 100 #northamptonclown tweets per hour by late Saturday [EST]) the Clown became increasingly interactive.<br />
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Interestingly, right at the outset area police did issue a warning to beware of clowns acting suspiciously, after <a href="http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/police-warning-after-clowns-spotted-acting-suspiciously-in-northampton-1-5489909">a shady encounter a woman in Kingsley</a> had two youths with clown-like makeup in jeans, activity that sounds more characteristically <a href="http://juggaloholocaust.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/the-anti-juggalo-agenda/">Juggalo </a> in nature (yes, yes, we're always stereotyping and casting aspersions on you, feel free to leave an atrociously spelled rant in the comments). <br />
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The Northampton reacted quickly to <a href="http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/northampton-s-mysterious-clown-i-don-t-knock-on-people-s-doors-and-it-s-not-me-in-the-youtube-video-1-5492914">discount any association with</a> the Kingsley incident, along with early speculation about his possible identity ( see the still open question of <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/has-mystery-of-the-northampton-clown-been-solved">Has the Mystery of the Northampton Clown Been Solved? </a> )<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/epZt-spAGC8" width="560"></iframe>
<a href="https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/524061_339568119521904_668675427_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/524061_339568119521904_668675427_n.jpg" width="320" /></a>For someone who has been covering <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/trixway/current/vol%203/vol3_1/Durwin.htm">this "creepy clown" beat</a> for the better part of a decade now, the initial wave of reactions- in all it's bitter, hostile, exaggeratedly outraged, intensely coulrophobic splendor- did not surprise me in the least.<br />
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After all, I have seen the clippings of major community panics and police manhunts as<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <span style="color: #990000;">"Phantom Clown" syndrome</span></span></b> has cropped up in some 25 or more cities around the world over the past few decades, the kind of anger and fear just rumors of a clown going about town (usually in a van) has generated in the past, and that's when there isn't even actually a flesh and blood clown (I think)... in fact, I have hypothesized in the past that it may actually have been some awareness of widespread media coverage of these<b> <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/trixway/current/vol%203/vol3_1/Durwin.htm">"phantom clown" scares from Boston to the west coast in the Spring of 1981 that may have partly inspired Stephen King's It</a></b>, completed in '85 and made a film five years later.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gLo0JLfvJdXxu7j_9_939OP8I9HRhTCgQnN0FL-dk1lcxjZFyZjm3nGYZRlqFdJNhG4qHctgTPKgc1Lv9w_-egdDeXa2gxrkdstwiBmKw82-FAszH4sUAWIXOpd6gxDvcFDe/s1600/demon+clown-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gLo0JLfvJdXxu7j_9_939OP8I9HRhTCgQnN0FL-dk1lcxjZFyZjm3nGYZRlqFdJNhG4qHctgTPKgc1Lv9w_-egdDeXa2gxrkdstwiBmKw82-FAszH4sUAWIXOpd6gxDvcFDe/s400/demon+clown-crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rumors of a malevolent clown in a van plagued Kansas City, Boston, Providence, Denver, Pittsburgh and other cities in the Spring and Summer of 1981.</td></tr>
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A clear majority of early comments across the electronic mediasphere were of a<b> decidedly</b> <b><span style="font-size: large;">"WTF" </span>tone</b>. <b> "WHY WOULD YOU INTENTIONALLY GIVE ME NIGHTMARES FOR A WEEK?"</b> read one early response that seemed to sum up a key block of sentiment. Others attributed more sinister motives, and hundreds were quick to shout "Pedophile!" in one form or another over the first couple of days.<br />
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A significant proportion were openly violent, like this Facebook comment from young Korey B.<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b> :<span style="background-color: #edeff4; color: #333333; line-height: 11.199999809265137px;">I would probably mug you or seriously hurt you, no hard feelings bro, but I've always wanted to hurt a clown ;D</span></b></span><br />
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<i>Well yeah, kid. A lot of people kind of have that feeling. You're probably too young to remember a day when toys meant exercise but they used to make inflatable clowns specifically for punching.</i><br />
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But<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I maybe hadn't realized just how many people really want to punch a clown</span></b> until it just kept spreading through media in every direction. Between the full on throwdown between the <a href="http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/northampton-clown-spotted-down-a-drain-on-stage-with-miley-cyrus-and-getting-warnings-from-ronald-mcdonald-as-story-goes-worldwide-1-5495415">Northampton Chronicle & Echo</a> and the <a href="http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/News/Northampton-News/OPINION-A-week-of-madness-with-the-Northampton-Clown-20130920162050.htm">N. Post & Herald</a> to outcover each other on the local phenom and pick-ups by virtually every major news engine from HuffingtonPost to your <a href="http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=91585&sitesection=unitedpress&VID=25180862">local tv news affiliate</a> in a viral publicity swell that in one week would have regurgitated more than 50,000 online news articles and half a million total Google hits. <br />
Given the opportunity for weigh-in on the UK's Creepy Clown on individualized local sites all over the world, the sheer volume of comments and discussion produced in a matter of days is colossal. It will take me months to sort through all of the threads I copy/pasted en masse this week.<br />
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So I'm all like,<b> "<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ok, world</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>....</b></span> Ten years after I originally twisted arms to get questionnaire responses in for my first college survey paper on coulrophobia, <b>NOW</b>, by all means, feel free to share what it is that personally creeps you out about clowns. <span style="font-size: large;"><b>All At Once."</b></span><br />
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The Northampton Clown is in no way unaware of these sentiments, and despite his cheeky protestations that he just wants to amuse and doesn't understand the haters, (wink wink, BEEP BEEP) his appearances and "exclusive" interviews with the <a href="http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/world-exclusive-northampton-clown-talks-to-the-chron-about-his-appearances-1-5504392">Chronicle</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10321508/Ill-carry-on-my-reign-of-terror-says-Northampton-clown.html">Telegraph</a> , this clown is well aware of the archetype he's wearing about on dark city streets... and the potentially very real risks involved, judging by the increasingly remote looking locations of some recent photos<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NorthamptonClown&src=hash">#NorthamptonClown</a> <a href="http://t.co/0eiOe0tfLy">pic.twitter.com/0eiOe0tfLy</a><br />
— Northampton Clown (@OfficialClown) <a href="https://twitter.com/OfficialClown/statuses/379983567083667457">September 17, 2013</a> </blockquote>
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Nor is the new character entering the drama mid-week, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/18/northampton-clown-superhero-clown-catcher_n_3946845.html">Northampton's newest (only?) Real-Life Superhero</a>, <span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Boris,</span> </b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The Clown Catcher,</b></span></span> who of course also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Northampton-Clown-Catcher/513145698773018">has a Facebook page</a>. <br />
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Boris The Clown Catcher has been even more prolific in his photo posts, though not terribly vocal about his motives. It has also been noted that there may be some resemblance between this new superhero and his greasepainted quarry, particularly in the shoes worn by the Pennywise-impersonator in at least one photo-- a change from his usual clown shoes that he in fact makes a point to mention in a subsequent post that just happened to be right before the <b><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clown Catcher </span></i></b>emerged. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvd4qZL_F2rdWeDwQHAAaU3anhGQyOhlvuNHDuaO0nIhDKe6nFOMAOxLqs7tZevKRTiv2a796JWPbv5XFYQXh9xtgLg7Lqnsw6UpTEVJO-BXGLzTLXyDYk3EqWsihGkG4XPd3O/s1600/clown+shoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvd4qZL_F2rdWeDwQHAAaU3anhGQyOhlvuNHDuaO0nIhDKe6nFOMAOxLqs7tZevKRTiv2a796JWPbv5XFYQXh9xtgLg7Lqnsw6UpTEVJO-BXGLzTLXyDYk3EqWsihGkG4XPd3O/s1600/clown+shoes.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clown Shoes 9-15-13 </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clown Catcher Shoes 9-16-13</td></tr>
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For his part the <i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Clown Catcher</b></span></i><a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/northampton-clown-mystery-circus-man-2279225"><b> has sought the elusive </b></a><span style="color: lime; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Northampton Clown</b></span> from the parks to the bingo parlors to the Chronicle on the night of his interview, though he claims to have no harmful intent, and at various times has said he would like to simply find the clown for a photo, and alternately invited the clown to join forces with him in keeping the streets safe. <br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both #NorthamptonClown and #theClownCatcher have publicly denied they are the same person</span></b>, but, you know how that goes... until we see them in the same room...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then something truly odd started to happen. </span><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Why are people afraid of the Northampton clown?? He's just having fun messing with people. Hats off to the guy he's awesome for that<br />
— ⚡Danny G⚡ (@DannyGflash20) <a href="https://twitter.com/DannyGflash20/statuses/380679281220648960">September 19, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
obsessed with the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23northamptonclown&src=hash">#northamptonclown</a> I LOVE him!<br />
— Christina (@P0PR0CKSTAR) <a href="https://twitter.com/P0PR0CKSTAR/statuses/381239771898458112">September 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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By mid-week, the tide of sentiment in the ongoing deluge of comments began to change, with more and more overwhelmingly positive messages flooding in from all over the world as the media sensation reached global proportions. More enthusiasts started posting how much they loved the idea, inviting the clown to their town, and increasingly chastising those commenters still leaving angry or threatening messages either on his page or the sprawling thicket of online stories.<br />
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The timing has been auspicious, and a seemingly re-encouraged Northampton Clown, having laid out his more-or-less simplistic alleged motive of <b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just Wanting To Amuse People Impersonating A Fictional Clown Who Murders Children, </b><span style="font-family: inherit;">having talked with the press and moved on from it with an ambiguous promise to continue his appearances unannounced and sporadically "for as long as people are interested in it."</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUAi_H2A1seyu7F-7hpZqiQfEWOUPxVNpPqN4h-r3fUF-BVPupud0DJGOa3QqKDdG0t3sNidNXyDMAlEaKNS29xcy5dPHKyblYYt2GhLM9FNtTt2E15BROM7EvItjzS_Bl6Yzu/s1600/chronicle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUAi_H2A1seyu7F-7hpZqiQfEWOUPxVNpPqN4h-r3fUF-BVPupud0DJGOa3QqKDdG0t3sNidNXyDMAlEaKNS29xcy5dPHKyblYYt2GhLM9FNtTt2E15BROM7EvItjzS_Bl6Yzu/s400/chronicle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The question now, I suppose, is how long will that be... and if anything this new Trickster 2.0 can do now will be capable of re-igniting the kind of media interest garnered in unexpectedly massive debut week? </span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That, and <b><i>what it now means for the already near fever-pitched popular culture web growing around the ancient, ever shape-shifting archetype of The Fool</i></b>, now that so very many of us have now cleaned out our closets and put in our two cents on what it means to be "a clown in the moonlight" in present day western civilization...</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and what it will mean the next time someone within the range of this viral explosion sees the next, real story of "clown" crime... ?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Northampton Chronicle's Round-up of photos, e-cards, memes etc dedicated to Pennywise the The Northampton Clown:</span><br />
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Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-91193775161197009922012-11-26T12:32:00.004-08:002012-11-26T12:33:21.482-08:00"Clown" Crimes Rampant This Fall: More than a dozen masked culprits arrested or sought by police in past two monthsThere've been a maelstrom of nefarious clown activities featured prominently in the media recently, so much so that I should really be updating this blog more often than every six or eight weeks. It helps that, as noted in past research on coulrophobia, media outlets are instinctively drawn to prominently featuring "clown" in headlines whenever there is any kind of criminal activity by anyone who at any time worked as a clown. The underlying meme of the "evil clown" has become so culturally pervasive that the very idea of anyone associated with clowning engaging in questionable or bizarre activity is alluring in ways not seen with most occupations.<br />
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In fact, sometimes the media cannot resist even when the clown isn't even really a clown, as in this incident from Massachusetts last month, where CBS and several other sources blared <a href="http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/10/25/police-naked-clown-jumps-into-truck-at-rowley-rest-stop-asks-for-sex/">about a "Naked Clown" leaping into a truck</a> at a rest stop to proposition the trucker for sex, then go on to acknowledge that the acccused in fact just works as a delivery person for a party supply company. Upon further investigation, <a href="http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1133190604/More-charges-added-in-nude-clown-case">sources disclose that </a>the man had occasionally appeared at past functions as costumed characters, such as Elvis and Uncle Sam, then cling anew to the clown label based on the discovery that he dressed as a clown once in a parade.<br />
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The same week, four young men more clearly intending to appear clownish <a href="http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121024/NEWS/210240345/-1/NEWS">robbed and assaulted a 19 year old in Stroudsberg, Maine</a>. The four, dressed in clown makeup, took the stranger's wallet and then pummeled him, after which he escaped to a nearby McDonald's to call police.<br />
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That last week of October saw the beginning of an overall spike in clown crime coverage. Take, for example,<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/dick-petarius-former-clown-shooting-police_n_2009795.html"> this incident from Wisconsin</a> where a former Director of Clowns formerly with the Tripoli Shrine Center fired on police during a one hour standoff at his Waukeesha residence.<br />
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The late October/early November period saw even more clown-masked banditry, from a <a href="http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/police-3-men-wearing-clown-wigs-break-butler-co-ho/nStZP/">home invasion in Pittsburgh</a> to a <a href="http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1592594_armed-robbers-wearing-halloween-clown-masks-caught-on-cctv-as-they-threaten-pregnant-shop-worker-at-jewellers-in-wigan">robbery in Manchester, UK</a> by three clown garbed rogues caught on video. Meanwhile, Toronto police continue to hunt a robber they have dubbed <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2012/10/30/krusty-the-clown-bandit-strikes-in-to">Krusty the Clown Bandit</a>. On Nov. 3, a man in a particularly creepy clown mask <a href="http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_west_valley/surprise/surprise-police-need-help-locating-clown-mask-robber">robbed a Carl Jr.'s fast food restaurant</a> in Surprise, AZ. The torrent of costumed crime has continued throughout this month, from a misguided Boulder college student who was <a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-11-12/news/35053567_1_batman-movie-juvenile-detention-boulder-police">arrested while wearing a Joker mask to a movie theatre</a> in a state still traumatized by the brutal theatre shooting during the release of the most recent Batman film, a clown bandit who<a href="http://muskogeephoenix.com/local/x2139893524/Police-search-for-clown-bandit"> robbed a gas station in Oklahoma</a> while another heisted a laundromat in Springfield, Mass. the same day... and then, a <a href="http://gothamist.com/2012/11/15/man_in_it_mask_forced_woman_to_give.php">putrid fiend in a Pennywise mask</a> who sexually assaulted a woman in Brooklyn at knife point. <br />
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The most serious of coulrophobia-inducing news lately, though, was an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/martin-vlad-evanick-clown-child-pornography_n_2004928.html">evil-clown metal performer in Illinois</a> arrested on child pornography charges. "Police say Martin "Vlad" Evanick -- who regularly dons a creepy clown outfit and plays drums in an Illinois metal band -- was charged for allegedly <a href="http://www.kmov.com/news/crime/Metro-East-man-behind-bars-after-allegedly-producing-child-porn--175341361.html" target="_hplink">producing and sharing child pornography for more than two years</a>." </div>
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Amidst the glut of clown crime stories this fall, one story of particular interest nearly slipped through the cracks: the inexplicable w<a href="http://siouxcityjournal.com/blogs/crime_watch/crime-watch-kingsley-clown-rumors-untrue-police-say/article_00163016-434c-51dc-905b-12fccbd2f534.htm">ave of rumors of a clown committing crimes which swept Kingsley, Iowa</a> in mid-September. Curiously, Police Chief Dave Kremer said that while these rumors, attributed in part to Facebook, had been running rampant for days there, no actual sighting or report of a clown doing anything untoward had come in to police, only vague rumors. This occurrence is enough to raise an eyebrow with anyone aware of the <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/trixway/current/vol%203/vol3_1/Durwin.htm">Phantom Clown phenomenon</a>, a rampant but strangely obscure trend which has plagued cities and towns across the world for several decades. In phantom clown "flaps" (as termed to denote a sudden wave), rumors about a dangerous clown or clowns run rampant in a community for days, spreading inexplicably and often without media coverage to aid their circulation. While some 20 known cities have experienced one of these bizarre waves or flaps, no individual has ever been arrested in connection with the rumored incidents, and the <a href="http://www.hauntmastersclub.com/editorials/clowns.html">apparent mass hysteria has never been properly explained</a>. </div>
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Finally, just for laughs, this video of a police officer wrestling down an errant activist clown who had been blasting passing cars with a squirt gun in Milwaukee, Wisconsin last week has gone mildly viral. Says the young man who captured it on his iPhone: "What's going through my head is 'A cop is beating up a clown. Like, how could I not capture this on video and show it to all my friends?' "<br />
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Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-65334769603819483602012-09-02T11:48:00.023-07:002012-09-03T08:14:43.333-07:00Summer Makes the Greasepaint Curdle: What's New in Evil Clowning<div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">This August was a big one for Insane Clown Posse and its acolyte swarm of juggalos and juggalettes. Of course, there were the usual antics at their annual "Gathering of the Juggalos," arguably the country's oddest and most ridiculed yearly music festival. <a href="http://chicagoist.com/2012/08/08/ten_arrested_at_gathering_of_the_ju.php">Ten of the painted face ones were arrested</a> before the Faygo-sodden festivities began this year, followed by the usual tomfoolery, toothless public sex acts, geriatric teens, self-styled rappers, eye-damaging nudity, and drug retail blatant even for a festival. <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/strange-times-at-the-2012-gathering-of-the-juggalo,83814/">Journalist Nathan Rabin produced an excellent account</a> of the madness for AV Club.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDhUnEDBlytGs-_oA5Oh1xhPAximJDBn1s-aSCdeCymga_2fIsuyNB1zRcIMXPbQ1uGWu3epORPqkXvxbPHUwHcOf5l4vBMzwS1EKV5HVgayrUKH_yfSGda9p1tc6MRFASIMH5/s200/JUGGALOS-500x400.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5783747946042962834" border="0" /><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">The real story for the Dark Carnivalites this year, though, was the <a href="http://www.fuse.tv/2012/08/insane-clown-posse-suing-fbi">group's recent announcement that they have launched a lawsuit against the FBI</a> for its pseudo-gang classification of their fans. Despite the fact that album sales suggest the juggalo fan base is shrinking, in a report on gang activity last year, the <a href="http://wgrd.com/fbi-consider-insane-clown-posse-fans-a-criminal-threat/">Bureau labeled them as "a concern to law enforcement"</a> due to their "general destructive and violent nature." This is preposterous, say the magnet-questioning Detroit dropouts, who have vowed to pursue the suit <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 21px; ">"no matter what it costs or what it takes."</span></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 21px; font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size:85%;" >Meanwhile, in Florida, where coulrophobia-inducing shenanigans seem<span style="color:#333333;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> to be fai</span></span></span><span style="line-height: normal; font-size:85%;" ><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 21px; ">rly frequent, a man in a "killer clown" mask<a href="http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2012/08/31/Police-arrest-clown-mask-robbery-suspect/UPI-36061346433116/?spt=hs&or=on"> pulled a brutal home invasion against a couple in Boca Raton</a>. The clown-mask wearing bandit, along with two other men, told the woman to leave the house and zipper tied the man while they unbolted and ran with a safe containing various valuables, including </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(41, 39, 39); ">120</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(41, 39, 39); "> Klonopin prescription pills, 6 Movado watches worth $5,000 and a brown, leather wallet holding $240 cash and credit cards.</span></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></span></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLEkqhZLR9P74w-yFYNOlyEqsaT3AZw_SAzgAU08uzxLCsoH4cCH0VRvddEo-Ge8TbDRBirt5vn5lnNona4eAPOnBjniqkNQgJyRQ0RXuMKSUqNq-YP3U7809GlX3_liNOX6Nw/s200/mr+snuggles.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5783727932414651698" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 144px; height: 200px; " border="0" /><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#292727;">Another scary clown made a more overtly public <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Snuggles-The-Big-Brother-Clown/142799485756233">appearance this past month</a>, on the reality TV show Big Brother. Housemates were su</span><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#292727;">bjected to disgusting beauty treatments by the show's own recurring evil clown, Mr Snuggles. One ran in terror twice before taking the challenge.</span></div><div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#292727;">Mr. Snuggles, who can be <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Snuggles-The-Big-Brother-Clown/142799485756233">found on Facebook</a>, has appeared sporadically on Big Brother since 2010, first scaring the bejesus out of housemate Nikki Makosi <a href="http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s161/ultimate-big-brother/news/a268855/clown-gives-housemates-a-scare.html">during his own first home invasion</a>.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#292727;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;color:#292727;">"I ripped my dress. I just didn't ant it anywhere near me- I just didn't want it to touch me," said Makosi at the time, proving once again that coulrophobia is either extremely widespread, or at least very fashionable.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style=" line-height: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">Elsewhere in the world,<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57497500/medical-clowns-employed-in-israeli-hospitals-to-boost-kids-recovery/"> a CBS new report on medical clowning in Israeli hospitals</a> (think Patch Adams as an institutional practice) revealed an interesting insight into the cultural variance of the coulro-phenomenon, with even the head of Behavioral Sciences at L.A. Children's hospital noting the especially American influences and concentration of the thing, this peculiarly loaded relationship our local culture has with the figure of the clown. This is not to say that "evil clown" motifs are unique to it, though, or that these anxieties are in any way limited to the United States, as this <a href="http://www.punemirror.in/article/56/2012082620120826080759432e13946d4/The-curious-case-of-panic-buttons.html">article on phobias from India last week</a> proves. </span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">In fictional realms, Cleaver Patterson <a href="http://www.cine-vue.com/2012/08/film4-frightfest-2012-stitches-review.html" style="font-style: normal; ">reviews one of this year's crop of indie <b>killer clown</b> horror flicks</a>, Connor McMahon's UK-filmed <i style="font-weight: normal; ">Stitches </i>(2012), though I much prefer lead actor Ross Noble's own description in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1XcacEPssE&feature=player_embedded#%21">behind the scenes teaser</a>: "It's like Freddy Krueger has taken the month off and he's said to his daft mate, 'These kids need killing. Do you think you could just turn up, and do a bit of killing for me?' "<br /><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">As in a majority of the Killer Clown subgenre, it's not just straight humanistic murder, but has a major supernatural factor in that the Stitches is returned from the dead. In my <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/org/tricksters/trixway/current/Vol%203/Vol3_1/Durwin.htm">2004 paper on the subject in the Journal of Trickster Studies</a>, I maintained that linkages of the evil clown to the paranormal are endemic to the subject, and tied to ancient cultural histories and understandings of the archetype of the clown itself.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">Finally, as a special treat off the You Tubes this month... I'm sure there was nothing terrifying intended about this by its original creators, but for anyone who cringes at the sight of one of our big-grinned bigtop friends is likely to lose at least an hour's sleep over watching this commercial (aka NSFC).</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FDWXGcsMTHw" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe></span></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style=" line-height: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style=" line-height: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div></div>Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-23253529826987980832012-07-07T15:54:00.017-07:002012-07-07T20:28:32.277-07:00The Evil Clown is Alive and Well in American Culture<div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><b>Return of the Dark Clowns Blog! </b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style="color: rgb(78, 40, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:14px;">I first became interested in this subject nearly a decade ago, and after much research, published a study of the subject in <a href="http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=trickstersway">Trickster's Way: The Journal of Trickster Studies</a>. To date, it appears to still be the only peer-reviewed academic literature devoted to the subject, so I continue to receive many questions as interest in this subject seems to continue to grow yearly. It is for this reason which, after abandoning the Dark Clowns blog five years ago, I have decided to return to efforts to chronicle the weird world of evil clown motifs. Periodic entries from now on will roundup interesting information, news stories and curious odds and ends in a manner much like what follows.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><b>Coulrophobia News in Brief</b></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;">In wrestling, Doink the Clown </span><a href="http://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/7/3/3134354/video-doink-the-clown-and-diamond-dallas-page-return-to-wwe-raw" style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; ">returned to the WWE ring</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"> in this week's episode of Monday Night Raw. Doink, an evil clown gimmick character, was first played by Matt Osborne from 1992 to 1996 and has been popping up sporadically ever since. I believe this week marks his first appearance in the WWE world since 2010.</span><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">If you were wondering how to make yourself up as an evil clown, a pretty good make up tutorial was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbIPBJLWh70">posted on youtube this week</a>. Also new on the tubes this week is this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy2gY_WQUTk&feature=relmfu">odd little video of some kids simulating an evil clown attack</a> (is that like Cowboys vs Indians for the new generation?), though the tables get turned on said clown in this<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMKCjUr1YIo&feature=relmfu"> followup clip</a>.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; "><div style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; text-align: center; "><br /></div><span style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglAbQAiJXTkiX3T-gOiGcxcVHeL6bClHUaslbEydRjeuv892xXx1J3PSC4RJ0vbICiWkYPsHeVDhMdd9G07roOT32-GMgoqLKkRj81W4W2VJDhiXeJrZzZ5LqGttOWTsTDZ8cz/s200/pennywise.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5762594493124757042" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 112px; " /></span><div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style=" ;font-size:100%;">In coulrophobic cinema, the much-discussed remake of the grand-daddy of all evil clown flicks, </span><span style="font-size: 100%; font-size:100%;">Stephen King's IT, continues to take shape. Two relatively unknown screenwriters, </span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396484/" style="font-size: 100%; ">David Kajganich and Chase Palmer will assist young director Cary Fukunaga</a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-size:100%;"> in drafting the script for </span><span style=" ;font-size:100%;">the new adaptation, which is planned to be released as two films. The original 1990 television mini-series treatment of King's 1987 novel, with its chilling portrayal of Pennywise the Dancing Clown by Tim Curry, was massively influential in pushing the then-fringe fears of greasepainted villains to the forefront of pop culture.</span><span style="font-size: 100%; font-size:100%;"> </span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style=" ;font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div>Looking from another end of the entertainment sphere, Grand Junction Free Press music columnist examines the <a href="http://www.gjfreepress.com/article/20120706/ENTERTAINMENT/120709999/1061&parentprofile=1061">evolving role of clowns in music</a> coinciding with the change in popular connotation of this figure, from Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown" and Genesis's "Harlequin" to ICP and British 70s band The Klowns (fronted by Rocky Horror star Barry Bostwick!). Worth a read.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style=" ;font-size:100%;">--------</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-size:100%;"><span style=" ;font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; "><div><h1 class="header" itemprop="name" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 21px; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; border-bottom-width: medium; border-bottom-style: none; padding: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQI5OJg94v2PTNO-Fkavh0hbd9QRQaWUUShiXtUWOksd3gs8LZyNlFSaSFzk6hJs6NBJYi3FaVZ5x_ueQrYQr6kezFcjzCzFZmBR-Z37UIprTfihQH2gLPIe7-p_XYk13YB4yg/s200/policeblotter.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5762592314788914962" style="text-align: center; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 134px; " /><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; "></div><br /></h1><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><div><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Authorities in </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/07/06/montreal-clown-robbery_n_1655011.html">Montreal are looking to find the source</a></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> of two clown costumes used in a robbery in </span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">May. Stumped investigators are asking the public for any information about where clown</span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> costumery can be obtained in order to find two men who</span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> stole a large amount of cash during a </span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">break-in. Both were dressed in colorful wigs and clown suits, complete with decorative balloons.</span></div></span></span><div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div><div face="Georgia, serif" size="3" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zNvUtGWvHG6kmabRLTvkOBusYyHEMQhywND5mdpVJv98EcOx0bw_bU5wmwEf-7dOkg6iJO-th5cKagzrqW278iTTH1XTMQo81Gl6oISj2LYA1RWWBZCgK99HZCbCB4NC7Oua/s200/628x471.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5762592978822631074" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px; " /></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:100%;">A branch of CIRCA, the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, a worldwide group of</span><span style="font-size: 100%; font-size:100%;"> activists, have been active in Seattle recently. CIRCA </span><a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/local/slideshow/Capitol-Hill-protest-of-police-pepper-spraying-45304.php" style="font-size: 100%; ">clowns were seen at a recent protest of police brutality</a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-size:100%;"> last week in Seattle,</span><a href="http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2012/07/clandestine_insurgent_rebel_cl.php" style="font-size: 100%; "> then added their own demonstration to a chorus </a><span style="font-size: 100%; font-size:100%;">of Seattle residents who've been protesting</span></div></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:100%;"> controversial treatment of elephants at the Woodland Park Zoo.</span></div><div style=" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;"><br /></div><div face="Georgia, serif" size="3" style=" font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fjbu_yzx1qo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br /></div><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJnT_diKZW8CfMnlaPP7MpKUgb42mkZqNMAN0I9qdOt3drIAJHAOiAyVNFM5Fmw5umV5mCbQL4lzqgkddXrRux2AHYtynC_vACDmxsmgoITSNpCyBuyCMtqj_dTnItWeZ7UbZ/s200/sondance1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5762575679991169890" style="font-size: medium; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 126px; height: 200px; " /></span><div><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">In Arkansas, professional entertainer "Sondance the Clown," aka </span><a href="http://5newsonline.com/2012/07/05/clown-arrested-on-child-porn-charges-to-be-arraigned/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">Thomas Henry Morgan, 47, plead not guilty to four child pornography charges</a><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"> on Thursday. My files are packed full of features in anti-clown and coulrophobic discussion, a perception of sexual similar cases, highlighting one of the most frequently cited deviance and pedophilia in particular. In fact, it's only been about a week since semi-retired clown </span><a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/aloha/index.ssf/2012/06/aloha_clown_pleads_guilty_to_s.html" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">William Mayo Dunlop plead guilty to sexually molesting</a><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"> a pre-adolescent girl in Oregon. Despite the apparent deluge of such incidents, it remains hard to get any real statistical sense of the issue- as I pointed out in my </span><a href="http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=trickstersway" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">2004 paper on the subject in the Journal of Trickster Studies</a><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">, media sources are substantially more likely to mention the occupation of an offender in such a case if it is a profession directly involved with children. In particular, the sensationalism of the image of the sex offender clown is so attractive to the press that it is virtually unheard of to have the word clown not appear in the headline in such a story, as opposed to if the offender was an accountant, toll booth operator, mechanic, etc. In that research, I suggested that serial killer John Wayne Gacy helped coalesce this, perhaps the darkest coulrophobic association: </span></div><div><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><i>"The image of a killer hiding in a clown suit has become </i></span><i><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;">permanently etched into the mass conception of the Gacy </span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;">killings, through a tabloid images and made-for-TV movies. </span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;">One of the key books on Gacy, as mentioned above, is called </span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;">Killer Clown. Almost any short bio that can be found on John </span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;">Wayne Gacy (and there are hundreds on the internet) mention </span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;">something about him working as a clown, while only a rare few </span><span style="font-family:Georgia, serif;">mention his main occupation, as a contractor. "</span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"> </span></i></div></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size: 100%; "><br /></div></div></div></div></div>Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-79666509666060652872007-05-31T15:36:00.000-07:002007-05-31T15:43:22.370-07:00Recent Mischief<a href="http://www.nbc4.com/news/13365473/detail.html">http://www.nbc4.com/news/13365473/detail.html</a><br /><br />Police: Man Dressed As Clown Robs Pharmacy<br />May 22, 2007<br /><br />FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Fredericksburg police said a man in a clown outfit robbed a pharmacy Sunday night.<br /><br />Police said the man went into the CVS store in the 500 block of the Jefferson Davis Highway wearing a black top hat, fake hair and clown face paint. They said he walked to the pharmacy counter and gave the clerk a note demanding prescription narcotics from the safe.<br />The man told the clerk he had a gun, police said, but the gun was never displayed.<br /><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/ibs.dc.news/national;kw=news+square;ad=true;tile=1;pgtype=detail;sz=300x250;ord=123456789?"></a><br />Authorities said the man also demanded cash from the register.<br /><br />The clown-dressed man took the money and the drugs and fled, police said.<br /><br />The robber was described as a white man about 18 to 20 years old and standing 5 feet 8 inches tall and 150 pounds. He wore blue jeans, a black T-shirt and white tennis shoes and was carrying a white shirt.<br /><br /><br />AND, FROM THE WEEK BEFORE:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=606313">http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=606313</a><br /><br /><strong>Clown had child porn, police say<br /></strong>He's jailed on sex assault, domestic abuse charges<br />By DAVID DOEGE<a href="mailto:ddoege@journalsentinel.com">ddoege@journalsentinel.com</a><br />May 15, 2007<br /><br />Waukesha - A professional clown jailed on sexual assault and domestic violence charges had child pornography on a computer seized from his home in Brookfield, according to an affidavit police filed Tuesday in Waukesha County Circuit Court.<br />Ronald E. Schroeder<br /><a href="http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/graphic.asp?graphic=http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/may07/schroeder051007.jpg"></a><br />Ronald E. Schroeder, who entertains as Silly the Clown and Mr. Silly, had "numerous" images of child pornography on the computer, according to the affidavit and a search warrant, prompting Brookfield police to seek a new court order expanding their investigation of Schroeder's activities.<br /><br />The initial investigation concerned allegations that Schroeder beat a girlfriend, illegally accessed her e-mail and text messages, and took nude photographs of her after she passed out in his home after a night out. But a preliminary examination of a computer seized after those allegations were made turned up images indicating that Schroeder sexually assaulted the woman while she was unconscious, according to a criminal complaint.<br /><br />A continuing examination of the computer over the weekend revealed child pornography, according to the affidavit and search warrant filed in court Tuesday. That prompted police to seek a court order authorizing an examination of a wide array of items seized from Schroeder's home this month to see if they contain images of child pornography.<br /><br />The new items being examined include two laptop computers, several cameras, external hard drives and two safes.<br /><br />Schroeder, 37, is being held in the Waukesha County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail on two counts of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious victim; 27 counts of capturing an image of nudity; and one count each of illegally accessing computer data, battery and possession of a switchblade. He is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on those charges Friday.<br />Schroeder, who was a suspect in the unresolved 1991 death of his infant daughter and was questioned about injuries to another daughter in 2005, has been performing in southeastern Wisconsin as a clown since 1989, according to his Web site. Court records indicate that he also earned a living in recent years in the mortgage industry.<br /><br />Roommates alerted police<br /><br />He is separated from his second wife and had been living until recently with two male roommates, according to court records. Those men moved out of Schroeder's home "after they witnessed a domestic battery committed by Schroeder . . . in the early morning hours of April 30," according to a police affidavit filed in Circuit Court this month.<br /><br />When police went to Schroeder's home to investigate those allegations, according to an affidavit, they noticed blood drops on a floor.<br /><br />Schroeder "claimed that his nose has a tendency to bleed and he picked his nose earlier that morning," the complaint says. "He then started to pick his nose profusely in order to try to make it bleed, but the officer told him to stop immediately."<br /><br />The domestic violence charge filed last week accuses Schroeder of accessing a woman's e-mail account to keep track of her Internet communications and physically abusing her by throwing her against a wall and "jamming" his fingers up the woman's nostrils "until her nose started to bleed."<br /><br />The sex charges accuse him of sexually assaulting the woman after she passed out in his bed and taking numerous pictures of her while she was nude and passed out.Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-64546049121331180142007-04-09T09:44:00.000-07:002007-04-09T09:49:44.985-07:00Evil Clowns and Sex Crimes<span style="font-family:lucida grande;">It absolutely SHOCKS me to see the owner of something called "Evil Clown Animation" involved in a sex crime. After all, it's not like there is some fundamental connection between clowns (particularly 'evil' ones) and abberrant sexuality.</span><br /><br />Oh yeah, that's right, there totally is.<br /><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Animator had sex with girl, 13</strong><br /><a href="http://www.thestar.com/News/article/194833">http://www.thestar.com/News/article/194833</a><br /><br />A Toronto animator who had frequent sexual encounters with a "precocious" 13-year-old neighbourhood girl has been convicted of sexual interference.<br /><br />Mike Dobson, 37, who has worked on such TV shows as Pippi Longstocking and Little Bear, engaged in kissing, oral sex and intercourse with a willing participant of "13 years going on 19," Superior Court Justice Arthur Gans said yesterday.<br /><br />But there can be no legal consent between an adult and a 13-year-old, Gans added.<br />Yesterday the judge convicted the tall, casually dressed owner of Evil Clown Animation of four counts of having sex with a girl under 14 between December 2001 and April 2002.Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-59136777751391830132007-03-06T09:35:00.000-08:002007-03-06T09:40:27.488-08:00This Week in Juggalos<a href="http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070301/NEWS/103010115/0/FRONTPAGE">http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070301/NEWS/103010115/0/FRONTPAGE</a><br /><br /><strong>Murder suspect threatened others with knife<br /></strong>Mike Peters, <a href="javascript:NewWindow(500,500," id="PETMIK');"">(Bio)</a><br /><a href="mailto:mpeters@greeleytribune.com">mpeters@greeleytribune.com</a><br />March 1, 2007<br /><br />Days before he was arrested for the stabbing murder of a 17-year-old boy, Weld County court records show Brodie Clayton threatened two women with a 12-inch butcher knife and said, "I am the Grim Reaper and I am doing my work."<br /><br />Also, Clayton's tattoos indicate he was an avid fan of the band, Insane Clown Posse, a band that is quickly being identified with gang violence among police circles on both coasts.<br /><br />In court affidavits released this week, police said Clayton, 18, threatened two women in Lochbuie with the knife last week. Early Saturday morning in Frederick, police believe he stabbed and killed Kyle McCune, 17, the son of a Dacono city councilman.<br /><br />Police say McCune was stabbed in the chest with a large knife about 2:30 a.m. Saturday. He was pronounced dead an hour later at a hospital.<br /><br />Court records indicate the suspect, Clayton, he had "ICP" tattooed on his left hand and "Hatchet Man" tattooed on his right arm. The "Hatchet Man" symbol is the logo for Insane Clown Posse's record label, Psychopathic Records. Many Insane Clown Posse fans have adopted the "Hatchet Man" symbol with tattoos.<br /><br />Clayton is in the Weld County Jail on two bonds: $500,000 for a charge of second-degree murder, and $250,000 for the assault charges earlier in the week.Lochbuie police took the report from two women who said Clayton was apparently angry at one of them because she left Clayton's home where he lived with his mother in Lochbuie.<br /><br />The girlfriend told police Clayton told her, "How about a bullet in the head? How about that?"<br /><br />He also sat on one woman's car and told her he would puncture a tire with the knife every time she "broke a deal" with him. When the woman walked away, Clayton stabbed one tire with the knife, the report stated.<br /><br />Earlier in the week, the woman said they'd accused Clayton of using illegal drugs and he became angry. The report stated he hit one of the women and cut the other on the neck with the 12-inch knife. Clayton allegedly told the woman, "I hit an artery, and you are going to bleed to death; the job is not done. I am the Grim Reaper, and I am doing my work."Police have not said whether the knife used to threaten the women was the same knife they believe was used to kill Kyle.<br /><br />Lochbuie police did not learn of the assaults on the women until Feb. 23, when the women called the station. Officers were unable to locate Clayton at that time, but just 12 hours after the women reported the incident, Kyle was stabbed in a house in Frederick.<br /><br />Clayton was arrested by Frederick police, who found him hiding in the back yard of the house. Because he allegedly held the women against their will during the confrontation, Lochbuie police arrested Clayton on charges of false imprisonment, assault, criminal mischief, felony menacing and attempted murder.<br /><br />Clayton's criminal record dates back to menacing and assaults incident from the time he was 14 years old.<br /><br />Memorial serviceKyle McCune's memorial service is set for 3:30 p.m. today in the Dacono Lion's Club building<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>AND :</strong></span><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong><br /><a href="http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070303/NEWS01/703030332/1004/NEWS">http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070303/NEWS01/703030332/1004/NEWS</a><br /><br />Man to serve at least 20 years in prison for rape<br /><a href="mailto:jomalley@rgj.com%20">JACLYN O'MALLEY </a>RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Posted: 3/3/2007<br /><br />A 21-year-old man who identifies himself as an Insane Clown Posse "juggalo" must serve at least 20 years in prison for raping a 13-year-old girl he met at a Sparks skate boarding park, a judge ruled Friday.<br /><br />Judge Connie Steinheimer of Washoe District Court sentenced Bryson Tyler Lokken to two life sentences for two counts of sexual assault of a child and lewdness with a child.<br /><br />Jurors in January found Lokken guilty of the charges that stemmed from the May 2 attack in his bedroom in Sparks. Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Druckman said the injuries the girl received related to the rape were the worst she has seen in quite some time.<br /><br />"Bryson Lokken raped me and took something from me I will never get back, something that was just mine," the now 14-year-old girl said during Friday's sentencing hearing. "I took pride in my virginity.<br /><br />"...I have felt as if I lost the whole last year of my life," she said. "I can't say what punishment he deserves, but my feeling more than anything is he needs therapy.<br /><br />"I will never be able to forget it," the girl said. "I pray he gets the help he needs and does not do it to anyone again."<br /><br />Druckman said the girl had been with some friends at a Sparks skate park when Lokken asked the girl if she wanted to come over to his home and watch a movie.<br /><br />Once in his bedroom, Lokken raped her. He then followed her home and threatened to harm her if she told anyone what happened. A few days later, she told her parents, who called police.<br />Druckman said that during a Hot August Nights event, the girl said one of Lokken's friends battered her for "putting my homie in jail for a rape he didn't do." Evidence presented in court also showed that soon after the girl's sexual assault, a relative of the girl became involved in a fist fight with Lokken.<br /><br />"...Not only was I dealing with the rape but mountains of threats and windows in my home broken," the girl said. "There were rumors from his friends that I wanted it, and I was a liar. Most disappointing of all was losing many friends and my freedom. I wasn't able to go out or attend school because I feared for my safety."<br /><br />Lokken, who had been working occasional landscaping and janitorial jobs when he was arrested, told authorities he identified himself as a "juggalo" which is a male fan of the rap group Insane Clown Posse.<br /><br />At the time of the girl's rape, Lokken was on probation for a gross misdemeanor of attempted grand larceny.Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-77905541142096495372007-03-06T09:31:00.000-08:002007-03-06T09:34:39.096-08:00Police charge man in theft of beheaded Ronald McDonald statue<a href="http://www.centredaily.com/129/story/31972.html">http://www.centredaily.com/129/story/31972.html</a><br /><br />Tuesday, Mar 6, 2007<br />Posted on Mon, Mar. 05, 2007<br /><br />State police have charged a 22-year-old man with theft, alleging he took a family's Ronald McDonald statue that was later found beheaded in a wood patch.<br /><br />Jason Anthony Nocar, of Hopewell Township, has been charged with theft, conspiracy and related counts, state police said Saturday. Troopers are looking for a second suspect.<br /><br />The iconic fast-food clown disappeared from the Grieger home on Jan. 15. About two weeks later, Joy Grieger found its severed head on her family's Stewartstown property with X's drawn over its eyes. The rest of the 300-pound statue turned up elsewhere a few days later.<br /><br />Grieger, who once worked for McDonald's, adopted the statue decades ago.<br /><br />Nocar declined to comment Sunday.Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-53329501587726984372007-02-28T09:16:00.000-08:002007-03-06T08:24:05.465-08:00Columbia's Alleged Clown Slayer Arrested<a href="http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_15964-Colombias-Alleged-Clown-Slayer-Arrested.html">http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_15964-Colombias-Alleged-Clown-Slayer-Arrested.html</a><br /><br />A man allegedly connected to the shooting deaths of two circus clowns during a performance in Colombia has been arrested, El Tiempo reported Saturday.<br /><br />Police said Walter Bautista, 21, was being held on charges of murder and the trafficking of arms, though it is not certain whether police consider him the killer.<br /><br />The two clowns were gunned down during a Tuesday night performance. Police said they are not certain why the performers were killed.© 2007 UPI<br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">ALSO:</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/24/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Clowns-Killed.php">http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/24/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Clowns-Killed.php</a><br /><br />Colombian police arrest man in clown deaths<br />The Associated Press<br />Friday, February 23, 2007<br /><br />BOGOTA, Colombia: Police said they arrested a man Friday in connection with the killing of two clowns in front of dozens of children during a performance, in a case that has convulsed even this violence-hardened South American country.<br /><br />Walter Bautista, 21, who goes by the alias "My Fish," was being held on charges of murder and trafficking in arms, a police statement said.<br /><br />Clowns Willington Villamizar, 18, known as "Rony," and Nelson Nunez, 24, known as "Andres," were gunned down Tuesday night in the middle of their circus act in the town of Cucuta, about 400 miles (650 kilometers) northeast of Bogota near the border with Venezuela.<br /><br />Acrobats, harlequins, animal trainers and other circus performers staged protests in different parts of the country following the killings, chanting "Justice for the assassins of laughter."<br />Other circuses held moments of silence for the dead clowns.<br /><br />A spokeswoman for the Cucuta police said authorities were investigating the cause of the double slayings, but said they had discounted the reason being the men's jobs.Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-32129424673553961382007-02-03T15:25:00.000-08:002007-02-03T15:28:24.006-08:00Clown-masked thief breaks into condo<a href="http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=bd302c7f-b7a4-4159-acdb-4b6408cf0771&k=49621">http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=bd302c7f-b7a4-4159-acdb-4b6408cf0771&k=49621</a><br /><br />Rob Shaw<br />Times Colonist<br />Thursday, February 01, 2007<br /><br />It wasn’t Ronald McDonald or Krusty, but some Bozo in a clown outfit broke into a Cordova Bay Road condo last night.<br /><br />The costumed criminal climbed up construction scaffolding to find an unlocked sliding glass door on the fourth floor, said Saanich police Sgt. John Price.<br /><br />The clown started rummaging through drawers and cupboards before accidentally opening a door to the bedroom, where a man was just settling down for a night’s sleep.<br /><br />Not surprisingly, the man was shocked to be confronted with the worst fear of almost any child and the plot of a gripping Stephen King novel — a menacing clown in your bedroom.<br /><br />“It’s one thing to have a suspect break into your room, but it’s quite another thing to have a clown break into your room,” said Price.<br /><br />The clown made a grab for the man’s watch, which was sitting on a nightstand table. But the condo resident told him to get lost, and the clown fled down the scaffolding, said Price.<br />A police dog was unable to catch the clown scent. However, there were muddy footprints in the apartment, said Price.<br /><br />It doesn’t appear the clown prince of crime got away with any actual items — that is, assuming the intruder was a man. Price said that’s unclear.<br /><br />“There’s no indication on gender because the clown didn’t say a word.”<br /><br />Anyone who saw something “unusual” in the 5100 block of Cordova Bay Road around 10:30 p.m. is asked to phone Saanich police at 475-4321.Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-11199091676040145092007-01-30T09:37:00.000-08:002007-01-30T09:40:35.242-08:00Clown-masked gunman robs store in Eldon<a href="http://www.lakesunleader.com/articles/2007/01/29/news/02.txt">http://www.lakesunleader.com/articles/2007/01/29/news/02.txt</a><br /><br />Clown-masked gunman robs store in Eldon<br />By Lake Sun staff<br />MILLER COUNTY ' The Eldon Police Department was searching for a suspect wanted for questioning in connection with an armed robbery at a convenience store late last week.<br /><br />The robbery was reported late Thursday evening after a clerk at the Casey's convenience store was held up at gunpoint by a male suspect wearing a clown mask.<br /><br />According to police chief Rodney Fair, the suspect allegedly walked into the store and demanded the clerk hand over money out of the register. The suspect brandished a handgun at the clerk, Fair said.<br /><br />The suspect is believed to have fled on foot into a nearby residential area, pitching the handgun used in the robbery.<br /><br />A handgun matching the description given by the clerk was found by the Eldon Police Department's canine a short distance from the entrance of the store.<br /><br />Police did not release how much money was taken in the robbery, nor did they provide a detailed description of the suspect. The store is located at the intersection of 4th St. and Grand Ave.<br /><br />Last week's hold up is the second time in the last several months the store has been the target of a robber. In November, a clerk refused to turn over the cash register receipts to a would-be thief demanding money.<br /><br />When the clerk refused to cooperate, the suspect fled from the store on foot. Police arrested him within hours of the attempt.<br />Contact this reporter at <a href="mailto:joycem@lakesunleader.com">joycem@lakesunleader.com</a>Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-53258353620219342902007-01-16T09:51:00.000-08:002007-01-16T09:56:43.534-08:00Clown Academics<strong>Israeli degree in 'medical clowning' a prescription for health</strong><br /><strong>By Asher Goldstein January 14, 2007</strong><br /><br />Laughter is the best medicine - an old saying, but one that the University of Haifa is taking seriously by introducing Israel's first degree program - and perhaps the only degree in the world - in medical clowning. "It's a kind of start-up actually," said Herzel Ziyoni about the pilot program being offered by the university's Department. of Theater.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1523&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Health">http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1523&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Health</a><br /><br />and:<br /><br /><strong>New graduates await clowning glory<br />Toaster and Shuffles learn you are never too old to be a clown</strong><br />By Tanya Rose, MEDIANEWS STAFF<br />Article Last Updated: 01/10/2007 06:54:13 AM PST<br /><br />Joe Silva, CEO of the Concord Senior Citizens Club and a retired mortgage banker, groans in fake pain inside Fuddruckers restaurant while children point and laugh.<br /><br />He has a pretend toothache and needs a dentist, pronto. Albert Zais, 65, rushes in with a pair of giant pliers and readies for surgery. He adjusts the red, fuzzy clown wig hes wearing, pauses for theatrical effect, then pretends to plunge his hand into Silvas moaning mouth.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_4983425">http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_4983425</a>Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37823508.post-64598511839195079752007-01-13T08:30:00.000-08:002007-01-13T08:31:57.360-08:00Pilo Family Circus: Review<a href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1988909,00.html">http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1988909,00.html</a><br /><br />Big-top bogey men<br />Will Elliott's horror story The Pilo Family Circus does nothing to help the image of clowns, says Elena Seymenliyska<br /><br />Elena Seymenliyska<br />Saturday January 13, 2007<br /><br />Pilo Family Circusby Will Elliott 314pp, Quercus, £10.99<br /><br />Jamie is a modern everyman, an Australian twentysomething arts graduate killing time in a McJob and living in a tip of a houseshare in Brisbane. Late one night, driving home from work, he is forced to a sudden stop. A man is standing in the middle of the road, as though hatched out of a giant egg. Dressed in a flowery shirt, striped pants and oversized red shoes, his eyes bulge out of a white-painted face. He opens and shuts his mouth but no sound comes out. Then he simply walks off into the night.<br /><br />As the silent-film star Lon Chaney is supposed to have said, there's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight. The next day it happens again, but this time there are three of them: one on the roof of a house, one on the ground and one who's just a mean old bastard, despite the cute kittens printed on his shirt. The day after that, they wreak havoc in Jamie's house. Amid the wreckage, Jamie finds a card addressed "For a Special Guy", and inside it the message: "You have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it, feller. You're joining the circus. Ain't that the best news you ever got?" It's signed Gonko, Doopy and Goshy, on behalf of the Pilo Family Circus.<br /><br />Will Elliott's first novel taps into an established tradition born out of coulrophobia, or fear of clowns. From the murderous jester of commedia dell' arte to the sadistic Pennywise in Stephen King's It, the masked man with the false grin is both a reliable bogey man and a subversive social critic. Elliott's clowns are as unnerving as they come, but their weirdness is more than just an act: this particular circus has pitched its tent in the underworld. Reached via a Portaloo portal, it floats in a dark cellar of the universe, right next door to hell. From there, it lures unsuspecting "tricks" - "regular types who eat pies, watch football and breed" - before milking them of their souls.<br /><br />In charge of this operation is Kurt Pilo, a seven-foot giant with talons who likes to snack on teeth as if they were popcorn. (It was Mr Pilo who helped a certain failed Austrian painter make his name in political history.) Once Jamie is dragged into this underworld, he is shown what he would have become in real life: an alcoholic in a dead-end government job, with a disabled son whose mother is squeezing him for child support. Only wearing the white facepaint will save him from this living death. But as soon as the facepaint goes on, Jamie becomes JJ, a sadistic psychopath. Can Jamie manage to kill off JJ without destroying himself?<br /><br />Elliott is stronger on the carnivalesque imagery than he is on the cod-philosophy. Like Chuck Palahniuk in Fight Club, his gripe seems to be with "ordinary" life, as lived by regular pie-munching breeders, but his critique gets lost in complex confabulations of alternate universes, mind-altering substances and shape-shifting characters. While The Pilo Family Circus won a first novel award in its native Australia, it might have made a better horror movie or violent computer game.Joe Durwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02615968206338389847noreply@blogger.com0