Tom 'Slapstick' Sandow

Fear of Clowns

Removed the following from the article due to it being original research (purely personal experience).-----Adimovk5 (talk) 17:20, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

As a traditional circus clown this 'fear of clowns' is quite new to me. I have been clowning for over 40 years and in my past experiences, with the smaller shows and the larger shows, it was never apparent or a problem. Children would help us build up the Big Top (or the small top!) just for the joy and the free tickets and would chat to the clowns painting their boots or whatever. In fact, children would always seek out 'the clowns' asking 'how many are there and who are they' etc.

The problem must be the many newer clowns engaged outside of circus in Mix and Mingle, in Magic or whatever. I do consider the terms clown and auguste to mean circus and its ring (s).

There is and never was any reason for a child to be fearful of clown costuming or make up, if these are troublesome or offensive then it is the artiste who should review his/her appeal and not the child for the whole philosophy should be to please the child (and subsequently the parents).

Here in England we have certain ventures trading the titles 'circus' and 'clown' with an adult 'horror' angle that may be agreeable to student type humour but I do not feel it helpful or proper to misuse the words, especially 'clown' when the persons are using very tasteless humour indeed and is, again, more destructive to the word 'clown' that is suffering enough adversity surely. Let us keep the word clean and pure and wholesome and dependable for every young mind just simplistic slapstick fun.

Tom Sandow (Tomato)

14:28, 9 February 2008 Tom (slapstick) sandow (Talk | contribs)

Thank you for contributing. Wikipedia is not a blog. It is not a place for first person story telling or discussion about an article. It is more of an encyclopedia. Additions to articles should reference third party sources. The clown article is a poor example of this at the moment. Over time (hopefully) users will add to it and make it more encyclopedic. Please don't be discouraged. Your inputs are wanted and appreciated.

Please see the articles in Wikipedia:Featured articles for an example of what we are trying to achieve.-----Adimovk5 (talk) 17:36, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Clown

Thanks for your input - a great website. I must ask though, under 'clown' why is the so titled Rebel Clown Army listed? This is a group dedicated to appose government policy miss-using clown make up (and the title!) and has nothing to do with clowning whatsoever. --User:Tom (slapstick) sandow (talk) 12:02, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Sorry I missed your question a week ago.

The answer is: what goes in to each article is determined by the great hordes of users. People have their own reasons; sometimes those reasons are inappropriate. Some people spend their time purposely causing mischief. You are free to edit the page too to remove things. Just be aware that controversial changes can get you involved in edit wars. If something might be controversial, you can discuss it first on the talk/discussion page. You can take disputes to arbitration and call in the admin people if someone is being unreasonable. Most people are pretty reasonable though if you have sound reasons for making changes.-----Adimovk5 (talk) 19:04, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Talking to other users

It is common etiquette not to edit a user's home page unless you are rendering assistance or giving a reward or kudo. It is better to go to the talk/discussion page and put your remarks there. After you finish making your comment, please sign it by making four tildes in a row ~~~~. That will put a time and date at the end of a linked signature. Do not put the tildes at the end of edits you make to articles.-----Adimovk5 (talk) 19:10, 24 February 2008 (UTC)