Sam Tee as Uncle Button
Dr Richard Snowberg as Junior
KUCHING: For the first time in Asia, the city will be host to The World Clown Association Annual Convention (WCAC) which would expect to see a gathering of about 250 clowns from all over the globe.
According to World Clown Association past president Dr Richard Snowberg, the six-day event will be held in March 2013 to promote the art of clowning and humanitarian acts.
“The purpose of WCAC is to share the gifts that we have and secondly to provide opportunity for us to experience working alongside the host community.
“We’re doing something where clowns can really make a difference for the community,” he said during an interview at a hotel here.
Snowberg added that WCAC is unique from other conventions because of its coverage on other aspects of clowning.
“It is unique because we do so many different things. We usually have 30 different classes in the convention.
“These classes don’t have to be on clowning per se, so we have classes on juggling, magic, face painting, story telling which are all skills that clowns use. WCAC participants will also be going out to the community and engaging them with fun activities,” he said.
The 34-year old veteran in the clowning business also mentioned that for the first time ever, WCAC would be dedicating one whole day for their ‘Humanitarian Day’.
“We will either be going out into the community or we’re going to have groups come to us and we’re going to provide a clown for them. We are also planning to have a gathering of various charitable organisations for a ‘celebration of life’ event and will provide them with an enjoyable experience,” he added.
Snowberg’s clown persona is known as Junior or Snowflake. He is a professor and the founder of Clown Camp at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse where he teaches the art of clowning.
In addition to founding and running Clown Camps, Snowberg is also involved in establishing Wishland Pony Express, a ‘make-a-wish’ style organisation for chronically and terminally ill children.
Meanwhile, owner of Uncle Button Clown Supplies, Sam Tee, who was also at the interview said that Malaysia would have the largest number of Asian representatives in the association.
“At the moment, Japan has the highest number with not more than 15 members. We will have 17 new members plus two existing members, so we are going to have 19 members from Malaysia,” said Tee.
Tee, who is known as Uncle Button as a clown, is in-charge of bringing the WCAC convention into the state.
According to him, the event will also look into establishing an “Asia-Pacific Clown Alley” to encourage cooperation between clown communities across the globe.