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Except he was inside and staring at the white foam tile of a classroom ceiling at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
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Professional make up artist Jim Howle of South Carolina puts a face on Dianne Rossbach of New Mexico while attending the Clown Camp at the University Wisconsin LaCrosse . Dick Riniker photo |
McCannon — known Monday as Candy Connor — is one of a dozen children signed up for a clowning class during the 26th annual Clown Camp at UW-L this week. He did his “stunned” look when asked to do an expression so his classmates could guess the emotion he was portraying.
“I want to be funny,” Candy Conner said when asked why he signed up for the class with his sister, Madeline.
Clown Camp isn’t just for kids. Actually, this is the first year in a long time that sessions were held for children, and most of this year’s participants have parents who work at UW-L.
The weeklong camp is aimed at adult clowns, who live on campus, attend performances and take classes such as physical comedy, face painting, balloon sculpting or storytelling.
Ruth Winblad of Chicago learned about origami Monday. This is the fifth year the 101-year-old Winblad — or Twinkle Toes — has attended the UW-L Clown Camp.
“You come alive here,” she said.
The first clown camp drew about 35 people in 1981 and was intended to be a one-time deal, said Clown Camp Director Richard Snowberg.
Twenty-six years later, 175 are attending Clown Camp from 32 states as well as several foreign countries. At the height of the camp, as many as six weeklong sessions were offered and hundreds attended.
Camp is an offshoot of adult-education classes Snowberg taught in 1980, at the request of the continuing education department, that filled 24 hours after being announced. That popularity garnered attention from both alumni and trade publications, and UW-L received numerous calls for a one-week, intensive clown class.
Snowberg, a clown for more than three decades, said the role appeals on several levels.
“Most see clowns as happy, as having a zest for life and experiencing new things,” he said. “Some individuals see that and think, ‘I’d like a little bit of that.’”
Others do it to deal with stress: As a character, they do or say things they can’t as themselves.
Winblad has been a clown for at least 25 years, and did vaudeville theater and ballet dancing before that. She dons a white silk shirt, white skirt and white ruff lined with turquoise ribbon when she visits retirement centers, nursing homes and hospitals, and laces up her ballet shoes before applying white face makeup and adding a tear under her right eye.
One boy once told her she looked like a Christmas tree ornament.
“It’s such an amazing feeling,” she said of cheering up sick children.
“Kids laying ill in a hospital bed will perk up like coffee in a percolator when they see you come in.”
Kate Schott can be reached at Kate.Schott@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8226.
