Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 18:33:34 -0700
To: balloon@balloonhq.com
From: Sondance <sondance@sondance.com>
Subject: Re: Proffessional vrs Amateur

At 05:41 AM 5/19/01 -0700, Peter aka Paddy the Clown wrote:
>OK, Question.  How do you fight against the lipstick
>clown or the face painter who uses acrylics.  We had a
>situation here where a parent who occasionally dresses
>as a clown did a school show (and underbid us by
>coming in at 25% of usual charges BTW.)  We heard
>about this the next day.  Some of the NICE comments
>were; "it was obvious she (the clown) just dressed up
>for this."  "The clown did a lousy job of handling
>children, the kids controlled the show."

Peter, I didn't mention this in my reply to you on the clowns list, but 
since this part is balloon related, I'll put it here.  I'm writing this 
today after just having returned home from a balloon twisting job today at 
a vegetable festival not far away.  There was another twister there.  He 
calls himself a clown.  Here's how he looks:  Grateful dead tye-dyed 
T-shirt.  Grey, frizzy, unkempt hair (his own- NOT a wig) with an old 
ballcap.  Cut-off jean shorts.  Red and white striped socks, and a pair of 
Spears clown shoes.  (I think they were Spears.  Anyhow, they were the real 
big leather kind.)  And, last but not least- he wears a bulbous "squeaky 
clown nose" on a string, the kind you buy at Wal-Mart at Halloween.

And oh yeah, I forgot...  His "patter" was telling people how much Jesus 
loves them, and encouraging them to "Praise the Lord".  I wonder how many 
Jewish people, how many Muslims, how many followers of Buddha, etc... felt 
compelled to convert to Christianity because this crummy looking clown told 
them to?  In short, this guy was a pathetic example of both balloon 
twisting and clowning, not to mention the representation of a follower of 
Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, THIS is the kind of guy that MOST commonly gets hired for 
these kinds of events all over the country.  The event organizers hear one 
thing- a low price- and completely FORGET that there are little things like 
"quality" and "professionalism" to take into consideration.

Meanwhile, I showed up wearing one of my regular clown outfits, and did 
what I usually do.  I had been hired by one of the larger vendors at a base 
rate, and did balloons for a buck each on top of that.  Meanwhile, Jerry 
Garcia the Clown was giving balloons away for "tips only".  Guess whose 
line was longer?

And guess who the festival organizers will call next year to come 
back?  You guessed it, they'll call him, because he doesn't charge, and I do.