The Trouble with Troubled Clowns
The Daily Press is running a story about Spunky the Drug Smuggling Clown, who is boo-hooing in sad-clown makeup about the fact that no one wants to hire a clown who was busted smuggling drugs into a prison to give them to a convicted criminal.
Spunky the Pot Junky Clown
From the DP here:
Troubled clown hopes for second chance
Manuela Markham is afraid she will never get to clown around again.
Markham, the Suffolk resident whose alter ego is Spunky the Clown, was arrested May 6 for attempting to smuggle marijuana to an inmate at the Greensville Correctional Center.
Earlier this month, a local TV station picked up on the story, and since then the story has made the rounds online and by email. Markham, 35, who has no prior arrest record, says her lapse in judgement has ruined her life and cost her the only business she has ever known.
“I’ve been clowning for 18 years,” she said by phone this morning. “It’s all I’ve ever done since I was a teenager. People thought I was a wonderful clown. I won awards. And now everybody’s abandoned me. I don’t own a business anymore,” she said. “People won’t hire me. I have nothing.”
Markham said her clients have canceled performances. She has taken down the Web site for her Bubblehead Entertainment company.
Markham said she agreed to carry the drugs because she needed money.
She says no one will hire her as a clown, the only job she’s done since she started out working at a Six Flags park in New Jersey. “I feel like this is it, like my clown career is over,” she said. “Nobody wants me. I miss it so much, and this is something I just can’t get over.”
Don’t you just feel so sorry for this idiot who never had a job tougher than putting on some makeup and hideous outfits?
Aww Spunky, don’t be a sad clown. Maybe you can get 29 other unemployed clowns and pile them all into a Mini Cooper and go to the unemployment office together. Once you are there you can all pile out at the same time! Everyone laughs at that one. Especially if you all wear impossibly huge red shoes. Inside the unemployment office, you can honk bicycle horns at the dour clerks until they give you some money. They need cheering up more than most office workers.
And maybe, just maybe, they can get you a job. You can even deliver newspapers, or wash cars at the local car wash. I just hope they don’t do a background check and find out you used to dress like a clown smuggle drugs!
I think you are the most retarded reporter by far… you to stoop low to say clowns don’t do anything but put on makeup and wear hideous outfits… that should offend ANY clown… I am not a clown but I have witness how it can be tough… As it is as any other profession, it is work. No one will hire a clown that just stands there would they? She is a HARD worker.. Granted she had made a poor judgement does NOT in any way make her a monster.
Dina,
Get serious. Being a clown is not hard work.
And if she can’t get new work, she should get a job at McDonalds. Flipping burgers is just like juggling, but with meat and spatulas.
I am so sorry that some people feel it’s so easy being a clown. My husband and I are ministry clowns. We constantly attend conferences, classes, traveling to learn more and more. We sign for the deaf and work with special needs children as well. The money that is spent learning, make-up, clothing, shoes, wigs, lashes, magic tricks, ballon cost, face-painting, games, etc. is so expensive to keep up. You don’t get into this just to be a silly clown. You have to have some personality inside to entertain not only children but the family as well. We write our own routines, put together, write our own songs, travel all over the united states and no matter how long we are clowning that day we have to always be happy and excited, which is easy for us because we love what we do. We work in pairs and never touch a child. They come to us and hug us and we do hug back but never go and put our hands on children because we want to always keep our good rep in tact. Now, what this other clown did was very wrong and she knew better. I know this clown and it is sad because she is one of the best clowns I have ever met next to Ro-d-Yo. The world has lost a funny lady. I was shocked when I heard this and feel sorry for all the kids out there that knew her and have heard about this. The kids are first always and everything we do reflects not only on us but everyone that knows us and what we do. I plan on a life time of giving laughter and fun and I ask God everyday to help me to think first before I act to always be able to keep a good rep. for my own children to see the example we live. Have a great day.
Clown,
Ever think of doing a ministry that doesn’t involve dressing up as a stupid demonic clown??? It will save you money and help stop children from having nightmares.
Well, it goes to show that Pat knows nothing about clowning at all. It shows how some people talk without knowing what they are talking about. And for your little response non of our children how nightmares. I would love to see Pat do some clowning at a large event just to see what people would say about Pat. I think that would be funny but hurtful to the clown community because there are people out there like Pat who think things are easy. We do this job and put many hours into it because we love it. Just like a teacher, baker, lawyer we make a differnce. Now, I know Pat will come back with something so now come on and give us a laugh…….
No funtobeakid, clowns do NOT make a difference along with teachers, bakers and lawyers. I think that white facepaint must be getting you high if you believe that nonsense.
Anyone wanting to learn more about clowns and clowning are welcome to visit http://www.ClownEvents.com I especially enjoyed attending former Ringling clown college dean Dick Monday and Tiffany Riley’s NYGoofs.com 2 week workshop in NY and Tricia’s Mooseburger.com clown arts camp in Minnesota.
There’s always gonna be the good, the bad and the ugly in any professional. Many jack of all trades, very few specialists. Only the strong survive (or live).
You can’t please everyone, especially someone who is either ignorant to a subject or someone who just doesn’t know any better.
Manuela “Spunky” Markham, went to jail for 4 months. and still clowning in Virginia Beach , Va and in Toms River, NJ, She goes by the Manuela Gill. She is on Facebook.