To become an inspiration at whatever you do, you need to have an attitude and a standard. It takes a story to convey the attitude that inspires, but the standard can be easier to come by. Recently, when I interviewed JT “Bubba” Sikes, the nationally known clown who just moved into my neighborhood, I learned the fundamental standard of clowning.
If they laugh, you’re funny; if they don’t, you stink.” That’s a high standard to assess your skills by, especially when you’re talking with extremely ill kids. JT retired from the distinguished position of Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Navy and began to revive the art of making hospitalized kids laugh. It would be a big mistake to think that doing so would be easy.
Four or five decades ago, an organization encouraged its members to try being clowns for the sick, but hospitals found that those well-meaning members too often thought it was enough to put on red paint or lipstick on the nose and do something silly. The common result was that they just became scary, boisterous, and disruptive. They hadn’t yet learned JT’s assessment criteria, so instead of laughter, their acts stunk. And this outcome does not end with well-meaning amateurs.
People notice clowns and remember them. Not so long ago, clowns completely covered their faces in makeup and their bodies in loose-fitting clothes. JT even showed me the giant $400 shoes that he has used for the last three decades. But the disguise is not without problems. Stephen King capitalized on the problems by turning the clown’s disguise into his horror character in “It.” He thought that to kids, clowns were the scariest character of all.
For clown disguises to spread fear is discouraging news for people whose goal is just to make people happy, help them forget their problems, and make them laugh. JT has a good solution. But it came later in JT’s career, so it helps to know what came first.
“I felt God calling me—that was my ministry.” Early on, JT realized that he needed to understand more than what he knew. He needed to find somebody because the only books about clowns were in the children’s section and none of those described the makeup or what a clown does. “Nobody wanted to share their approach, because they didn’t want the competition. I had to go to a convention of clowns and met my first mentor, Leon Buttons McBryde. I picked his brain. He advised me to be a giant sponge, just sit and observe, whether it’s good or horrible, make a note of both. If they laugh, you’re funny; if they don’t, you stink.” Bubba was so proud of his three mentors that he proudly displayed a framed picture of them in his dedicated clown room.
“Buttons told me a quote from Ray Kroc, the founder of the McDonalds chain and promoter of the famous Ronald McDonald. ‘When you’re green, you grow. When you’re ripe, you rot. If you rot, you stink, and nobody wants to be around you.’” JT then interpreted the quote. “If you’re green, you’re growing and want to learn more. If you rot, you think you know it all, and you stink.”
By the time JT was ready to try his hand at bringing laughter to sick children, hospitals had become wary of clowns. But in a lesson to everyone with a passion for an activity that others lack, JT found a way to allay their fears. He volunteered at the hospital, listened to all their instructions for volunteers, told them he would like to do something different, to volunteer to make people laugh. He wanted to start with the nurses, doctors, and staff, and told the volunteer coordinators that he would like them to follow him until they became completely comfortable.
It wasn’t long before there was an article about Bubba the Clown in Stars and Stripes and soon after that Leon McBride, creator of the famous clown “Buttons,” asked him to be director of the ministry of clowning for his programs on advanced studies in the art of clowning. JT demurred, saying that he had only been a clown for three years. Leon replied, “You had done something that nobody else had in recent years by getting accepted at a major hospital.”
Leon’s response became a footprint for JT’s courses. He starts by asking the attendees to write down, “I am here to volunteer for services.” He tells them to start their meeting at the hospital with that statement and then shut up. Let them tell you about all their volunteer activities and then reply, “I have something a little bit different that will make it a better environment for your doctors, nurses, patients, and families: free entertainment several days a month.”
JT instinctively knew the danger as well as the benefit of being noticed. “From the moment you step out of the car,” he cautions “you’re in character. If you meet janitors, make them laugh. When you arrive on a floor, let the nurse supervisor know that you are in her territory and respect her. Ask her who to visit and who to avoid.” He also cautions learners to pair themselves up with a person of a different gender, so that the person who knocks on the door will be the same gender as the patient. It’s helpful to start in a large hospital because they
will keep up and keep you informed about changes in laws like HIPPA and the latest infectious control issues.
Bubba has long been a teacher of clowns, holding vocational days for all ages. As a clown, he learned to stare death in the face and make people laugh. In recent years a bout with cancer meant that he had to do that for himself. But teaching people to clown is his passion. He likes to think of teaching as an art—a way of painting the whole picture of whatever you are talking about. Whether you are teaching or clowning or doing both at once, he models his three principles of success: energy, timing, and movement. Like a dancer, you always need to be ready for the next move; it has to be delivered at the right time; and no one wants to watch a static performer.
For Bubba, clowning also involves painting a complete picture. “I take the audience on a journey that has a beginning, middle, and end. Before the end, you have to pause, so that their minds catch up with where the story is. Your pause has to be obvious – you have to have it before the punch line.”
He showed me a trick with a half-yard long rope that he kept putting in a sack saying that “The rope will come out of the sack tied.” His several unsuccessful attempts built tension. Then, with one last dramatic attempt, he put the rope in the sack, appeared afraid to even look at the result, and pulled it out. And voila! It came out Tide. He reiterated his basic instruction: “If they laugh, you’re funny; if they don’t, you stink.”
He loves taking common items from everyday life and make people laugh with them. Another illustration started with getting a lunch bag from his kitchen and telling me he had four balls. I replied that I couldn’t see any of them. He answered, “Watch this.” He put his hand near his waist and flipped his wrist up as if he was tossing a ball. Then, he watched it from the point it left his hand to the top of its arch, and after a loud “plop” he looked in the bag, showed it to me, and asked, “You can’t see this?” Magicians are advised to never repeat a trick, but Bubba did it again and again until all four “balls” had landed in the bag with a loud plop each. I still couldn’t see any of them.
Next, Bubba found a straw, put one end under his arm and blew into the other to make a most convincing fart sound. One of his fondest memories of hospital clowning involved such a straw. He was posing as Dr. Wacko and this trick became such a favorite of the kids, that he started teaching it to them. One day before the holidays, a nurse in the children’s dialysis clinic called over the intercom: “Dr. Wacko, come to children’s dialysis stat!” When he rushed down to the bottom floor, all the kids had straws. As soon as they saw him, they played Jingle Bells with their fart-noise straws. He had given those children the joy of making up a new clown act and have it succeed.
JT gave me another illustration with a story of a Jewish friend. His friend said to him, “Bubba, I know you are a religious man. I have to ask you a favor. My grandson Noah is having the celebration of his bris. I would like you to come.” Bubba then recounted how his friend instructed him that if got there before the rest of the attendees, it was important to put on the Jewish cap (yarmulke) that could be found next to the door and go to the back room.
Next Bubba explained, “I tell my Sunday school class I won’t be there. I didn’t want to be late for the bris, so when I walked in, I was the first one there. As I was instructed, I grabbed a ‘beanie’ out of respect and went to the back room. When the others arrived, the Rabbi said, ‘I happen to know there’s a gentile among us.’ When everyone looked around somewhat surprised, the Rabbi explained. ‘He parked in my parking space and his bumper sticker said, ‘Jesus is Lord.’”
“I ended up becoming very good friends with the Rabbi. After I assured him that I could focus on Hebrew bible stories, but not about Jesus, I did several classes at the synagogue. When you do something that is pleasing to others, the barriers disappear”—all sorts of barriers, religious and otherwise.
JT’s most important innovation for modern day clowns is how he changed the way they clown. When the horror movie “It” made people fearful of clowns, he didn’t give up. Instead, he adopted a new, “less is more” and “normal is boring” makeup strategy. Completely covered faces were originally designed to be stupid or ridiculous. To offset their fearsomeness, he made a “face” with less makeup, saving most of the hour it took to create it. Male clowns couldn’t have beards or mustaches but had to cover their entire faces with makeup. So, his reduced makeup also made it possible to restore the beard. His makeup kit, the stock-in-trade of a clown, is still extensive.
Some clowns objected that he was ruining clowning. His first defense was to remind them that in Europe, clowns have less makeup. But his better defense was that now none of the babies cry. Best yet, with the old way, you could never tell the race of a clown, so you had no idea that there could be black clowns. Black children had no person to inspire them, because they couldn’t see their skin. JT’s new approach taught them that if you are a person with pigment, you don’t need so much makeup.
“It wasn’t because I felt better than anybody else. It was because I will do everything I can to improve clowning.”
There is the attitude that inspires. Whether you’re a clown or a doctor, lawyer, programmer, manager, engineer, or educator, the attitude that inspires is the one that leads to doing everything you can to improve your profession. JT has just joined the Fuquay-Varina Writers Guild, so watch for his how-to pamphlets on clowning to appear on Amazon soon.
