Gothamist: Yesterday the Daily News published an alarming exclusive report warning America that there's a "national clown shortage approaching." They spoke with Clowns of America International President Glenn Kohlberger, and quoted him as saying, “What’s happening is attrition. The older clowns are passing away. What happens is they go on to high school and college and clowning isn’t cool anymore.
4 comments:
It is interesting how outraged the Clowns of America International was at the NY Daily News article. While the reporter may have been misinformed, I still see the point she was making. Last year when I went on a field trip to the circus, I definitely recognized the family atmosphere. Most of the clowns either had children who were also clowns or came from families with a long history of clowning. While those histories may still be strong, I can definitely also see how less and less young people today would aspire to be a clown. Today, it is expected of most young people to go to college and work office jobs. People are not really thinking of going into live entertainment. While I am glad the Clowns of America International made known the true facts, I do see the general point the NY Daily News article was making.
I feel like clowning in America is not something many people think about when thinking about the live entertainment industry. The reality is that they are actually an important part of it. I didn't realize this either nor did I realize that clowning was a family business. I can see how older clowns can be concerning since there are things that the body should not do at age 50 and up. However, I also agree with Jess in that it is expected of younger people to go to school instead of staying in family business. If the U.S. Clown of America International and WCA are saying that there is no need to worry though, there is probably no need to fret about the amount of clowns in America.
This article gave me a good laugh which is what clowns are for I guess. I cant help but wonder if a shortage of clowns is really a bad thing? I never did really appreciate clowns growing up and I know plenty of people who are terrified of them. I guess for people who really like clowns its a good thing that there is no shortage according to WCA.
This is sort of embarrassing for the NY Daily News. I don't really understand why this is something that the reporter wanted to create hype over--- I guess as a reporter you'll create hype over anything in order to get a story. Misquoted or not, it seems that using the term "shortage" is exaggerated and really not descriptive of the actual situation. More appropriate would be to say that there has been a decline in interest, which wouldn't really surprise anyone. While I can see why the NY Daily reporter was tempted to call it a shortage in order to generate excitement over her article, it seems that it was a bad career choice in the long run because it just resulted in backlash from other sources.
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