WASHINGTON — If you can’t get a clown for your child’s birthday party, blame the economy.
“The economy has affected everybody,” says Glen Kohlberger, President of Clowns at America International.
“If people do not have money to hire clowns to do a birthday party, then the birthday party clowns are not going to get the jobs they used to get.”
COAI is an educational organization, according to Kohlberger, that teaches people how to be professional clowns.
While their membership is down, Kohlberger says he is not worried. ” Yea, our numbers from 10 years ago are lower than they were but it’s not significantly lower, and it’s not any crisis.”
So, while birthday clowns may be looking for work, there are plenty of circus clowns on the job.
But according to David Kiser, Director of Talent for Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey, the problem is “We need some funny female clowns out there.”
Kiser says, “The biggest decline in the last couple of years has been girls who are interested in the fine art of clowning.”
Kiser stresses that clowning is an age old art form and is more than just putting on a rubber nose and big floppy shoes.
“People who have an inner child inside of them that is just bursting at the seams to get out, that’s what we are looking for.”
For more information, visit coai.org
Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.
