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Clowning around is serious work

* A lighthearted performance conceals the tough task of making kids laugh

Debi Saylor Pierce of Albuquerque isn't clowning around when she says her primary goal as a performer is to "promote self-esteem."

As Twinkles the Clown, she says, she only selects gags and tricks that make people feel good about themselves because "there's too many examples out there of people making other people feel bad and I don't want to be a part of it."

Her character, Twinkles, is known in the clowning profession as a friendly clown "a clown in trouble." Pierce says the character allows her to engage her audiences in her acts without putting them on the spot.

"Like I don't know what I'm doing," she explains. "For the magic show the birthday child gets to be the helper ... and then when the magic works, they get all the credit."

Pierce, a former social worker with the state of New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department, has been entertaining kids and adults as a clown since 1981. She also works part time as a secretary.

Her clowning schedule includes some 500 performances and appearances a year. Most of her magic and balloon animal art shows, face-painting stints and balloon deliveries occur on weekends. They're usually targeted toward children between the ages of three and eight. Pierce does, however, often perform for adults at company parties and retirement homes.

Learning the ropes

She says anyone who wants to work as a clown must take the job seriously enough to attend some of the many clown camps and conventions that are held around the country.

She, for example, has attended three one-week clown camps at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse and five international clown conventions. She estimates training and seminars have cost thousands of dollars.

To learn how to run her own business, she also has attended two semesters of entrepreneur classes at the Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute. She says those classes taught her how to create a small-business plan and how to market her services.

Clown costs

Pierce, who works out of her Northeast Heights home, says she has invested more than $500 in balloon helium and air pumps and spends nearly as much per month on Yellow Pages ads and party favors.

At any one time she typically orders 25,000 business cards (which she jokingly calls Twinkles the Clown Credit Cards) that cost $500.

"I just felt like I needed more joy in my life. Social work is hard work, and you take it home with you. You have nightmares. You just wish a better result for (the families I worked with) ... I've had parties for people as old as 103 and I love it," Pierce says.

"I just feel I can bring a little joy to the world. I love dealing with kids and if you pay attention, they're so cute. They're so funny. I wish I had kept a notebook all these years of all the cute things that they've said."

Pierce says she got into clowning after she started helping her mother, Mary, who performed locally as Jingles the Clown.

Pierce estimates she works 10 to 20 hours per week as a clown 13 to 20 days per month and says she's only missed two parties in her 21-year career because of family emergencies.

When she's sick, she works anyway downing antihistamines during allergy season because "to have a runny nose and be a clown is not funny."

On the job

Debi Saylor Pierce

JOB: Clown

HOMETOWN: Independence, Mo.; moved to Albuquerque in 1961

EDUCATION: B.A. in sociology, University of Albuquerque, 1972; graduated from Highland High School, Albuquerque, 1968.

PAY: $25 to $150 per hour

SATISFACTION: "I just feel like I can bring a little joy to the world."

FRUSTRATION: "I find that some people will just slap on a little makeup and go out there and they say they're a clown without training, without education."

DREAM JOB: "I think I'm doing it."

INTERESTS: Travel, computers and Penny, her puppy.

Debi Saylor Pierce, who performs as Twinkles the Clown, was a social worker with the state's Children, Youth and Families Department.