We volunteered at this walk last year and although smaller than the Manhattan event it was still exciting and very well attended. This year we woke up to temperatures in the 40's with high winds. s you'd realize, not the greatest weather for an outdoor event.
So we beefed up our costumes for warmth, thermals and a sport jacket for me. I actually had this jacket for my costume for just such an event.
As we arrived, we watched the staff and other volunteers were setting up and actually holding the ropes of the tents down and trying to prevent all the flyers and other giveaways from blowing off to Oz. The families started to arrive and although their kids were bundled up in layers to stay warm they were still there to walk and participate.
My usual routine is to walk around and work with the crowd and my prop of choice at the autism walks is my bubble wand. No luck with this thing in the wind, the bubbles came out and disappeared, so after about 15min I had to abandon it and just go back to working with the crowd.
The rule about clowning with a crowd in this type of event is to use anything around and everything we see, this includes the weather. So we clowned and joked with the attendees about the weather and having this walk outside in the wind. We shared the situation with them and were able to make fun of ourselves and the common challenge we were all facing. Applying our clown characters to this situation resulted in comedy for all. One of our teachers in clown, the Great Joel Jeske taught that formula, situation + character = comedy. It doesn't take props as much as applying your character's way of dealing with situations you're put in.
Oh, and I did get to meet the AdvantageCare Mascot! what a good dog......
Be Well
Keep 'em clean
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