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Quit clowning around with the elderly
The Gazette
Published: Saturday, May 23, 2009
Marguerite Blais has some big shoes to fill - literally. The minister in charge of seniors affairs has apparently got it into her head that what the residents of the province's old folks' homes need to bring a little sunshine into their lives is a squad of clowns. Blais told La Presse this week, in the middle of that newspaper's devastating series on the drab conditions in many senior's residences, that she'll announce officially on Monday that her department has signed an agreement with "Dr. Clown." Hmm - given how many people can't find a general practitioner these days, we wonder if she had to wait long for an appointment.
The program is to cost $293,000 over four years, and that's no joke. Surely it would be cheaper and the antics just as clownish to provide every old-age residence, public and private, with a free live feed of the National Assembly's daily question period. Now in fairness, these are specially trained "therapeutic clowns," not the common or garden variety red-nosed, flower-squirting, floppy shoed sadists you see terrifying kids at some birthday parties. But we're not sure what they can contribute, if anything, to aging gracefully or happily.
There's nothing wrong with providing a little stimulation for the elderly. Indeed, it's sorely needed. With no job to go to any more, no family or home to care for, no rose bush to prune and no lawn to mow, the old can find that time often hangs heavy on their hands. One of La Presse's most depressing stories focused on the air of boredom and torpor in many old-age residences.
But clowns, for heavens' sake. The whole notion smacks of condescension. These aren't wrinkled 4 year-olds we're talking about, but mature adults rich in experience and knowledge. They deserve better than clowns. Lectures, perhaps, movies, string quartets, stand-up comics, even. Or maybe if the government really wants to help, it should find ways to reconnect the elderly to their communities and to their families. Unvisited and alone, their ennui often springs as much from alienation as it does from fading faculties.
Last week we found out the government had invested in a luxury hotel for dogs and cats, and now we find it's sending in the clowns. Tired governments usually run out of ideas; Jean Charest's Liberals seem to come up with bad ones instead. If it's not too late, Minister Blais should cancel her appointment with Dr. Clown.
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As a clown with an elderly mother who lives in a nursing home, AND who's deaf, so she can't hear 'lectures, movies, string quartets, or stand-up comics', I take particular umbrage with this shithead. He obviously knows nothing about clowns or the elderly. It brings to mind another question I've wrestled with recently: Will the art of clowning or mime ever become respectable again?
To this, I turn to an astute Facebook entry from an exceptional actor and clown, Molly Brennan.
"There is something unsettling about garish makeup, on a clown, a senior citizen, or the young women who stagger around my neighborhood on weekends. And I can't help but feel for people who have real phobias of anything. But, because I clown, I am often engaged in the "clowns are scary" conversation, and I think there is a certain amount of just saying "I'm scared of clowns" because it's perceived as a funny or interesting thing to say. Like hating mimes. Mime is an incredible practice, and people who are good at it are really mind blowing. But somehow it has become cool to say "I hate mimes." Or hating lawyers. I know some awesome people who are lawyers. I've even met some pretty incredible cops in my time. It's part of the same conversation we started a few weeks ago, Noah. "Are Mountain Dew and Cheetos really delicious? I don't THINK so, but we've believed it for so long, it's hard to tell what I really think." People say things sometimes without thinking, and the more they say it, the truer it becomes. So, if you honestly asked a scary clowns person: "Really. Really. Are you REALLY afraid of clowns? Are you afraid of Buster Keaton? Are you afraid of Lucille Ball? Are you afraid of Paul Kalina?" That person might respond with "What the fuck are you talking about?" To which, a great response is: "What the fuck are YOU talking about?" And, with any luck, there is a reexamination of the rote statement that the person has been making, and PERHAPS, change happens..."
...and to directly address clowning with the elderly, I did that for 8 years. The clown state is a marvelous place to connect with someone who may have compromised senses. Again, there is a difference between the storebought costumed frauds and those artists who dare to stand with one foot on the ground and the other in the shit, with one hand in the ether and the other scratching his ass. There are good and bad doctors, there are good and bad hairstylists, and there are good and bad clowns. With all the terrible things in this world, hating all clowns seems like a waste of energy, and a great loss to the hater. I suggest volunteering at a nursing home, picking up garbage on the sidewalk, tutoring students or some other socially responsible activity instead. Life is Worth the Risk.
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