The Jokes On You -- Who Should be the Butt of Your Jokes?

This article was prompted by something I heard (second hand) about the performance of a local magician at a child's birthday party. Now, granted, this wasn't done by a clown, but I've seen clowns doing similar things. As one of his tricks, he has a child (a young girl approximately 9 years old) holding two handkerchiefs knotted together. He pulls her hands apart, and instead of a third handkerchief appearing (or a flag, or whatever else) he has a pair of ladies' panties appear. The magician received the reaction he wanted: the audience laughed loud and long at the discomfiture of the young girl. She, however, was on the verge of tears, having been publicly humiliated, for having done nothing more than helping on stage when asked.

As I say, this prompted some thought on my part. The first thought I honestly had was about the insensitivity of this particular magician. My next thought was empathy and sympathy for the little girl. And my third thought was about how differently a clown would (or should) have handled that entire routine.

People think that a clown is someone who dresses foolishly, and does foolish things. This is correct, as far as it goes. It's also been said that a clown is a living cartoon, a Looney Tunes come to life, who sees and thinks differently than the 'normal' people. This, too, is true as far as it goes. But there's something deeper about being a clown.

As Floyd Schaffer puts it in his wonderful book, "If I Were a Clown", a clown is someone who lowers himself, in order to lift someone else up. This is not limited to any sort of theological context. David Ginn, one of my favorite authors, and a wonderful kid's magician, uses the same premise over and over in his book "Clown Magic" with his 'clown-in-trouble' routine. In short, when a trick doesn't work, it's never the fault of the child -- it's the clown who looks foolish. The child is the one who makes the rabbit appear, makes the ropes repair themselves, etc. We performers are the foolish ones, who should have pie in our faces, who are the ones humiliated, who are 'brought low.' It is our audience, children or adult, who should be empowered, triumphant, lifted up.

For example, when I perform at birthday parties, I'll typically do a very old routine, making spring flowers appear inside a chick pan. As part of that, I'll have several assistants from the audience at various stage, including one where I use a breakaway wand. For the uninitiated, that's a wand that, unless it's held the proper way, seemingly breaks in your hand. Since we performers are the ones who should bear the blame for this, I take the blame myself, handing a normal wand to the child, and holding the breaking wand myself. Who broke the prop? Me! Who looks foolish? Me, not the volunteer. He's there to enjoy the birthday party, not to be a scapegoat.

In short, if only that magician had pulled the 'underwear out of thin air' when he was holding the scarfs, what would have been different? The child volunteer would have laughed as well (assuming that he'd previously had the trick work in her hands), the audience would have laughed as well, and the magician would have been remembered a little bit fonder than he was.

As Benjamin Franklin said, we have to learn from the mistakes of others; we won't live long enough to make them all ourselves. So, let's learn to make ourselves the butt of the joke, not our audience. After all, we're being paid to be foolish; the audience's job is to enjoy it. Remember, the joke's on you -- as it should be.

Tom Raymond, aka. Raynbow the magic clown, is a professional clown and underempoyed computer geek, who runs the world's largest clowning web site, http://www.clown-ministry.com/ His personal site can be found at http://www.clown-ministry.com/raynbow/ Tom is available for both secular and sacred events, and is available for conferences, conventions and ministry events.

Paterson speech mixes humor, hardships Utica Observer Dispatch, NY - 31 minutes ago "I enjoyed his sense of humor," she said. "He didn't just fill us with boring facts; he made it entertaining." And, she added, it was nice to get some ...

Brookside Golf Course: 'Good Humor' and great Pasadena golf WorldGolf.com, AZ - 8 hours ago On my outing yesterday, I was paired along with Greg McCollum, an assistant director who has worked on such films as the cult fave “The Good Humor Man. ...

ALS can’t stop Moline man's sense of humor Quad City Times, IA - 9 hours ago By Deirdre Cox Baker | Tuesday, May 13, 2008 | 1 comment(s) Jeff Cook/QUAD-CITY TIMES Dave Emmert, who has ALS, enjoys spending time in his home art studio, ...

Some comics' alt humor is little to laugh about Boston Globe, United States - May 11, 2008 Some of the comedians pushed their musings to the edge of acceptability, which I guess is a form of alternative humor, but there was nothing redeeming about ...

Minot bar combines art, humor, history Jamestown Sun, ND - 12 hours ago MINOT — In the shadow of downtown Minot’s hulking former YMCA and across the street from a non-descript garage, sits a hole-in-the-wall bar like no other. ...

Thou shalt not eat in the living room Los Angeles Times, CA - 2 hours ago By Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer THOUGH our era is awash in comedy, literary humor has dwindled in recent years. Comedy Central now updates our ...

Humor by Argus Hamilton Tucson Citizen, AZ - 15 hours ago Justice Clarence Thomas gave a commencement speech at Georgia. The same thing happens at all these exercises. The commencement speaker tells thousands of ...

Campaign bursts with pop culture humor Chicago Maroon, IL - 18 hours ago She is definitely one of the better comedians in the troupe, and her physical humor is very impressive. Without words or props she managed to convey the ...

New York Times

Strains of Humor in a Classical Vein New York Times, United States - May 11, 2008 Haydn’s humor came from games of his own: a “Fooled you, didn’t I?” manipulation of silence and phrase length that leaves listeners laughing at themselves. ...

ONE MORE HUMOR AND I'M OUT OF HERE Nascar - 17 hours ago Subject: why did the chicken cross the road? You can totally hear them saying this… Its great! BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was ...