Albuquerque Journal
Article
Clowning
around is serious work
September
22, 2002,
Section:
Career Marketplace, Page: I1
Franchesca
Stevens For the Albuquerque Journal
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.
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-if she can't find a
replacement, 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 [Human Services
Department] - now Children, Youth and Families Department.