Clowns fight illness with silliness

Eric Ruiz hasn’t quite figured out his identity – at least when it comes to the Coeur d’Alene man’s preference of clowns.

“I’m going to take it one step at a time,” Ruiz said Saturday during a break at clown school, where he was learning about what it takes to clown around. He found it’s a lot more than just painting on makeup and dressing in wild and wacky clothes and oversize shoes.

Each clown has to develop a persona, a task that can take years and lots of trial runs to master.

“Don’t get frustrated when you are just starting,” instructor Al “Boomer” Bryant told Ruiz and the handful of other clown students gathered at Kootenai Medical Center for the weekend workshop. “It all will work out. It takes time to find your identity.”

The training is aimed at recruiting volunteers for the hospital’s Smile Squad, which visits KMC and nursing home patients each week. The hospital started the therapeutic clown program in 1997 and now has about 55 clown volunteers.

Jeanne “GIGI” MacConnell, director of the clown school, said KMC believes that laughter is the best medicine and that studies have shown that patients recover more quickly when they enjoy humor.

“We want to bring joy and laughter to (the patient),” MacConnell said, “and for a moment erase the sorrow, tears and boredom.”

Ruiz isn’t sure if he will join the Smile Squad or even become a clown. He first needs to figure out his “clown feature,” or the type of clown he will play.

Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, Ruiz stuck out among the other students who had purple wigs, red rubber noses and names like Lolli Pop, GIGI and 2 Nu Nee.

After Bryant went over the hierarchy of the clown world, Ruiz still wasn’t sure how he fit in.

The whiteface clown is the boss in the pecking order of clowns. The whiteface is reserved and acts more like a straight man.

The Auguste clown is the fall guy with lots of pranks. At the bottom of the chain is the hobo or tramp clown.

Somewhere in the middle are the character clowns such as the Three Stooges and the European clowns, who wear little makeup and rely on physical comedy, such as juggling or magic.

Ruiz said he can see himself as a clown who wears black and has simple makeup, such as a whiteface with a black diamond painted over his eye.

“I’m going to have to go to the library and look up books on clowns,” Ruiz said.

Vicki Ball, also known as the whiteface clown 2 Nu Nee because she had both her knees replaced this spring, told Ruiz not to worry. She has three clown personas and still isn’t sure which one is her true clown.

Debbie “Lolli Pop” Wagner’s advice was to “just be brave.” She, too, has another clown identity.

The Smile Squad is aware that not everyone finds humor in clowns.

MacConnell said that’s why the clowns always knock and ask a patient if they want a visit. She admits her GIGI gig will occasionally scare a small child walking down the hall of the hospital.

Her solution is to teasingly act scared of the child and get down on the child’s level. Usually the child laughs and forgets the fright.

And that’s the whole point – to share fun with those in need.

“Having fun isn’t too difficult,” Bryant said. “You just have to learn how not to act your age.”