I certainly never expected to be the inspiration for a clown group! Let alone being a clown.
Very brief background. — In 1989 I had a realization that when I was with sparkly people, a sparkly Barbara showed up. When I was alone, or with my husband, although we were very good at being deep and meaningful, I wasn’t all that sparkly.
How to bring forth the sparkly Barbara? I read Dr Patch Adam’s book, Gasundeit! in which he shared how every year he takes a group of “hospital clowns”—no experience necessary–to a country needing laughter. I wrote him. He rang me. I signed up.
My 2-part article To Russia with Laughter, (published in Living Now Magazine 1998-possibly remove) shares that adventure. (I can forward or mail if you’d care to read.)
Back in Oz people kept wanting to learn about hospital clowning, and I began teaching “Clowning for Cowards” clown-shops—which birthed the MCG (Melbourne Clown Group) and then, here on the Sunshine Coast, the CCC – “Coastal Caring Clowns.”
Neither I nor the any of those 30 participants at my 2-day clown-shop, in 2000 anticipated creating a clown group. But we were so excited upon emerging from the big finale—2 hours at the Sunshine Coast Private Hospital every single one of them said, “We’ve got to meet again!” And they did. And they took it from there and are still going strong in 2024 .
Note: Caring clowning is NOT typical clowning. It requires being very present. Very attuned to the need of the person/people—hospital staff, patients, elderly, children. This is summed up in the objective of CCC:
“To promote and encourage the arts of clowning to bring caring, happiness and inspiration to the community, particularly through visits to hospitals, respite centres, nursing homes and similar, and by partaking in other events.”
by Barbara Brewster
