Working Well With Others Works Great for Everyone
As you are trying to grow your business there is a chance you will come into contact with other entertainers: clowns, magicians, balloonists and many others. Some of these people will be positive towards you and some of them will be negative. The important thing to do is to make sure that you are positive towards other entertainers, no matter how they act towards you. This is important because you never know when you might get a referral from them when they can’t do a job or are sick.
A quick story that will illustrate this point:
When I first started out I was 15 years old. I was excited, this whole entertaining thing was new to me and I was looking for other entertainers to learn from, practice with, etc. The only entertainer in the area at the time was a magician/juggler/Christian entertainer. It just happened that my family where members of the same gym he belonged to and I had seen him practicing on the aerobics floor. So one day I worked up the nerve to talk to him and asked if he would like to juggle together sometime. During this conversation I explained that I was new to the business and was excited to get started working. I also explained that I was going to be a clown (not a juggler, magician or Christian entertainer). Apparently he viewed me, a fifteen year old with zero experience, to be a threat to his hold on the entertaining market in a small to medium sized town. Since that time, eleven years ago, I have never once referred a job to him because I didn’t want to risk him doing a poor job and having that reflect on me in anyway.
At the time there where only two entertainers in Greeley, me and him, and so when I needed to refer someone to another entertainer because I was busy I had to give them to number of an entertainer out of town, thus increasing their cost. Since then a few other companies have sprung up and though I may not agree with everything they do, we all agree that we should get along.
One way to foster a sense of community with other entertainers is to have balloon jams, juggling clubs or other entertainment related evenings planned through out the month or year. This will allow you to get together, trade stories, work on ideas and generally have a good time together. You may find a partner to work with that will allow you to broaden your shows or you may find someone who will be able to cover for you if you are sick.
Keep in mind that not every entertainer is going to have time to come to these, that dosen’t mean that they don’t care or you should treat them differently, it just means that they are busy or may not feel comfortable with all of the entertainment stuff yet. Remember hanging out with a large collection of entertainers takes some getting used to and not everyone is ready for it from day one.
Try to hold your meetings in a neutral area, such as a church or school gym, that way you won’t be infringing on anyone’s hospitality to often. The other option is to have a rotation of whose house it is at and stick to the rotation. Also make sure that you put together some rules so that people are polite to one another, this will also help keep people from directly stealing another’s ideas.
That article submitted getting along with others was sort of right on, another view I would like to interject, about working with others is, in the 3 attempts to getting an alley here the struggle has not been able to meet with the other clowns; the problem was trying to move to fast. In a venture to create bonds, like trying to hang out together, do balloons, face painting, magic, or just take a concept to a usable piece of stage or birthday party bit. The mind set of ½ the group was start an alley, pick a name, join a clown organization, and Due’s first. Missing the main thing, of creating a relationship with the others an honest and non demanding environment that will create friendships with the group, just by hanging out and spending time you can achieve this. At that point you have the founding members with anchor set to address the next level to getting group, and then you have a foundation set, so it will stand on its own. I have seen this thing with Clown camp La Crosse, it’s a money thing or you have to be able to offer Dr. Snowburg something in order to be brought up to another position. The dealers at conventions, or gathering not at all careing about clowning but what cash they can get from the attendants. Sure they will say they care but what will the show nothing of substance, same old same old stuff, competition its seems you will score higher if you get on the judges agenda, or spend a lot of cash at said dealers store or on line you will be offered higher score’s. these are the things myself and others have observed in 15 years of clowning, of the 2 clown organization’s Coai it seems to be addressing this and I feel in time they will be even stronger, Unlike World clown, same old same old strangle hold over its members and host alley at there conventions and membership. I am aware of these things. I just do the things I do for clowning, was blessed for knowing Mr. Clown when I got into this and living at his house for 4 years, learning what it meant to be a working clown, and relying on what I did for years to give me foundation. I do not try to change people, and for people trying to learn clowning I do try to help when asked for input, but also I am getting older late 40’s my tolerance is getting less, when someone pays to go to a venue for learning and the powers at be, main goal is to stifle free thought and they claim to teach without putting effort in searching for new direction of teaching, a couple of us around country are talking about making a how to web-site that enhances the strengths on prop making, stage setting, taking an idea and running with it to get a piece of quality work. You see me and others do see the problems with trying to get along with others, but we think we see solutions and putting in the effort to do this also we even talked about making an on-line alley since we don’t have a positive alley in the towns we live at.
One of the hardest parts of starting any group is getting everyone on the same page. A lot of clowns, when they start an alley, are more interested in having a clowny name and setting up dues and rules and the like instead of enjoying the group experience.
I think the best thing to do is to start a balloon jam night or a juggling club and then have that turn into a clown alley. This will allow everyone to work together first before you start worrying about all of the alley related stuff.
If you start an online alley let me know as I would probably join.