No, it's ok, I'm with the clown.

This is Italo.  He is a clown.  Sometimes.  I live in the same house as a clown.  Sometimes.  At other times, he's not a clown.  He works with youth living on the streets of Guatemala City.  He works weekends as a clown to support his ministry, more on the ministry later.

I am currently doing some photography for  his website and promotional materials.  Yesterday, I witnessed him in action.  Much to many peoples surprise, not all clowns are evil.  To be sure there are evil clowns, but he is not one of them.  In fact, there are about 300 clowns in Guatemala, and for a country of 14 or so million people, that is not many.  Of these 300 clowns only about 25 are educated (well, in the art of clowning that is) and family friendly, the others might be considered street clowns, or something of the like.

We first traveled south to the city of Escuintla just before the land flattens out into the coast of the Pacific.  This was a birthday party at the home of a family for a one year old with about 50 or 60 people as guests, the clown and the clown's photographer, that would be me.   The other party we traveled to was in San Jose, a coastal city looking over the pacific, this party had about 200 people.  I was a little uncertain as to weather or not I was invited or not, but I recieved no strange looks other than that look I have come to know very well, the look that says, as one kindly old woman put it (translated): "Hey, your not from around here."  It might be my skin tone, I don't know. 

A birthday party with a clown looks something like this in Guatemala:  First, things are decorated the Guest of honor is there. Next, as guests arrive, the clown makes his entrance greeting everyone (and introducing the clown's photographer, explaining "he's not from around here").  Next activities begin.  Games are played, magic tricks are performed, and then happy birthday is sung to the guest of honor.  Next the piñata is brought out, (in the case of the second party there were no less than six piñatas). After the piñata is beaten, the cake is cut and eaten and a meal is served with the cake. As the cake is eaten sometimes the clown will create things out of balloons, while keeping kids in line and at bay.  After this the party is over and the guests begin to leave.  Now, I have exactly, two parties to base this off of so you can trust that this as exactly how a Guatemalan birthday with a clown is celebrated.

Italo makes a great clown.  Not only is he good at it but enjoys this work as a blessing which God has given him to help support the ministry.  As a clown he has also been able to make contact with influential people in the city in hopes that in the future together they can do some things to fix the problem of the many, many youth living on the streets of the city.  Sometimes there is more to clowning than just clowning around.  Sometimes.