Jackie Nolder has 29 years’ experience as a clown and performed recently at a children’s party in Chattanooga.The recent panic over creepy clowns hits some professional Chattanooga-area clowns like a cold stream of seltzer water to the face.
“It’s annoying that you’re out there trying to do something good like we do, and then you get somebody that gets a perverted twist on your profession,” said Perry Perkins, who’s one of about a dozen volunteer clowns at Chattanooga’s Alhambra Shriners Oasis of Tennessee who raise money for a Shriners children’s hospital.
“The mission of a professional clown is to bring joy and smiles to people’s lives,” said Jackie Nolder, a professional clown from Ranger, Ga., who gets hired to paint faces and twist balloons at kid’s parties in Chattanooga and elsewhere.
Both Perkins and Nolder are distressed over sightings of scary clowns reported around the country. The sightings started in August in South Carolina, where clowns supposedly tried to lure children into the woods, and spread to other states, including Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. Two Red Bank Middle School students were charged in a Sept. 21 clown hoax when they allegedly made social media threats to shoot up schools.
While a number of creepy clown sightings have been prosecuted as hoaxes, Chattanooga-area law enforcement officials have said they take seriously reports of suspicious clowns. They warned that anyone who dresses up as a clown with the intent to scare, lure or attack others would be prosecuted.
The suspicion directed toward clowns makes Nolder, who recently earned $250 for a two-hour gig at a private children’s party in Chattanooga, “a little paranoid” to be out in public in her clown makeup and costume.
“If I stop at a red light, how are people going to react?” she wonders.
This isn’t the first time the clown profession has taken a hit, said Nolder, who points to horror novelist Stephen King’s 1986 book “It” that features a white-faced, red-headed, bloodthirsty clown named “Pennywise.” It was made into a TV miniseries in 1990 and will be released next year as a feature film.
When Nolder runs into teens who say they’re afraid of clowns, Nolder says, “Let me guess, you saw that bad movie, ‘It.’ Nine out of 10 of them say yes.”
Nolder, 60, first got into clowning three decades ago when her church’s vacation Bible school needed someone to wear a clown suit. Nolder, who had five brothers and three sisters, said she was a natural at clowning.
“I got attention by entertaining people,” she said.
Nolder still uses the funny voices she learned as a 10-year-old mimicking the different speeds of 33-, 45- and 78-rpm records at home.
Clowns from Chattanooga’s Alhambra Shriners Oasis recently donated $25,000 to Shriners Hospital for Children in Lexington, Ky., which is one of 22 Shriners children’s hospitals, Perkins said.
The Shriners clowns here, who take part in events such as area Christmas parades and donate all the money they make, are well-received by crowds, he said. People will yell out “Doc Rock!,” which is Perkins’ clown character, as he rides by in parades on his minibike.
Perkins will be one of the clowns to perform Wednesday through Sunday when the Alhambra Shrine Circus returns to Camp Jordan Arena in East Ridge for eight shows.
Perkins doesn’t think the recent panic over creepy clowns will last.
“I think it’s just going to pass on,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to hurt us.”
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.