Sometimes It's No Fun Being A Clown.

MayorBob.

Posted to Business on Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 09:02:39 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

It's not easy being a clown.  First off, many people don't take you seriously.  Then there's the occupational hazard of dealing with coulrophobics.  Now comes a tale of a British clown who says United Kingdom is a big nanny state eager to put a crimp in his style by limiting what he can do.

Tony Turner, stage name "Barney Baloney", was hired to do a four hour gig at a Tesco in Leeds.  When he showed up at the store he was informed he wouldn't be including any balloons in his act.  A Tesco spokesperson said, "we have banned balloons because latex is used in the manufacture of them and this can trigger an allergic reaction in some children."  And, according to Turner, this isn't the first time he's been cautioned about using balloons in his act.  At a school, he was told twisting balloons in the shape of guns was a no-no "because it could encourage violence."  And if that wasn't bad enough, another of his bag of tricks - a bubble machine - has been retired because he couldn't find an insurer.  Several insurance companies turned him down saying the chances of an accident from slipping on burst bubbles was too high.

All of this is distressing to Turner, who has made his living the past seven years being a clown, making full use of his repertoire.  He says his job is to "capture a child's imagination" and without balloons, he's down to about 60 percent of his act.  He said the bubble machine was another feature the kids loved and now he's down to "magic, puppets, juggling and an emu costume."  He predicted "at this rate I won't have an act left."  It doesn't seem right to leave Turner alone to protest his claims that Tesco's latex allergy fears are a bit overblown.  For that we go to the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) which says "it probably affects less than 1% of the general population."  There's some other professional literature saying it's actually a lot less of a threat among children.  A truly serious reaction can result in death but, according to BAD, "there have only been three published cases in which latex allergy was proposed as the cause of a fatal reaction."

All of this leaves Turner one sad, sad clown.  He sees Tesco's ban on balloons being a slippery slope "other supermarkets who employ children's entertainers will follow suit and then we will have other organisations and worried parents banning balloons from kids' parties."  He laments the "country is going crazy with its political correctness and health and safety issues and it's making us a laughing stock."