A Heart 4 Clowning: Hospital Clowns, Caring Clowns & Healthcare Family Entertainers

Because the patient is in Center Ring when entertaining in the healthcare setting, there are some approaches that work best, and other techniques are not appropriate. Such is the case in ‘live performance.’ For instance, there is a definite difference between performing a skit and a schtick. However, we’ve met many clowns who do not perceive the difference between these two vehicles of entertainment, nor understand the correct application of them.

Healthcare family entertainers offer more than just a performance for their captive audience. Harking back to the original intent and purpose of entertaining — or cheering the patient is to:

• Empower them in the process, by allowing them choices — whether to allow us in to interact with them, in the first place.
• Including them in the performance as part of the act, to the extent possible in their health condition — giving them a needed break from their current situation, taking them away from that place even if for just a moment in time.

Here’s why skits don’t work when entertaining patients:

1. By the nature of what our important ‘job’ is in the healthcare setting, the family entertainer, hospital clown or caring clown must remember to keep the spotlight on the patient — at all times.
2. Even skits that are devised with outcomes that may be decided by the audience, or modified according to whim, are at the least somewhat pre-determined ‘templates’ of a set of actions to be applied to an unpredictable setting each and every time, in the healthcare venue.
3. Skits come with a set of given situations and outcomes that are required to make it effective in a traditional setting, but may not be able to be played out to completion due to continual unknowns with each patient.
4. Performers involved with presenting a skit must step into Center Ring, displacing the patient in the process, if even for a moment. This not only removes the patient from the main focus of the visit, but also takes the entertainer’s attention away from their audience. This totally sucks the air and the life out of the experience.

Why schticks work:

1. They are short bits of performance with no agenda, that can be reworked according to each and every patient’s condition, degree of interaction or performance.
2. Schticks often present a vehicle to draw the patient into the Center Ring to assist the magician or uniquely help solve the ‘problem’ for the silly clown who just ‘doesn’t get it.’
3. This means of entertainment is such that the bit can be shortened, lengthened or even terminated abruptly as necessary, according to the patients’ changing condition.
4. The patient is empowered by the performance tailored to them, and for that moment in time, taken to another place — of levity and fun.

NEXT: How a healthcare family entertainer, hospital clown or caring clown can perform more effectively in the healthcare setting with schticks, and avoid the inappropriate use of skits:

Entertaining More Effectively in the Healthcare Setting (2-Part Series)