No true clown wants to scare a child. However, some children can and do grow up with a Fear Of Clowns— the clinical name for this is coulrophobia. The question is, how can we, as clowns, prevent children from being scared?
Avoiding fear of clowns – putting yourself in a child’s shoes
Before even discussing make-up, let’s look at some basics. Remember when dealing with children, all adults are “giant-sized” from their perspective. When interacting with children, come to their level physically. Get down on one knee, or sit on the floor. Remember what it felt like to be that age.
Avoiding fear of clowns – how to encourage, not force, children to come by the clown
In a related note, never force a frightened child to come by the clown. Parents will very often try to push an obviously frightened child to go by the clown, often for a photograph. Something I do in this situation is to act frightened myself, greatly exaggerating my “fear” while explaining to the parents that I get really scared by little kids when they’re frightened.
This serves several purposes — it makes the clown the scaredy cat and lets the child off the hook, it reflects the fear to the child and allows him to be brave in comparison to the clown, and it allows the clown to “lower himself” and raise the child up. Of course, it also gets the message across to Mom & Dad — when the child is ready, he or she will willingly come by the clown, and the experience will be the happy one the parents wanted in the first place.
Avoiding fear of clowns – clown make-up
Finally, think about your clown makeup. Remember that the purpose of clown makeup is to amplify your own natural features. Do not overdo your makeup — remember, less is more. You want to entertain children, not frighten them. In fact, something my wife and I do is to have a second, minimal face design for working with young children (or for nursing homes, for that matter)