Clowns come in all colors, shapes and sizes. They also come in all degrees of talent, ability and attitude. So how do you navigate the yellow page adds or the Internet to find a clown you can have confidence in? I'll attempt to help you in the next few paragraphs.
Let's talk about who is a clown. A clown is first a performer. They could have been the drama geek you went to high school with. They could be an aspiring actor paying their dues. They could be a teacher who is great with kids and knows they can make great money working a few hours on weekends.
A clown is also an independent business person. They market their services in the same way as other businesses. You may find a clown in the yellow pages, you may find them on the Internet or you may find them through a friend either at their party or from a referral. As not all artists are good business people and not all business people are good artists. There is a symbiotic relationship between professional party planners and successful clowns.
Clowns usually offer several talents as their standard service. This can be face painting, balloon animals, magic, story telling, games or an interactive show. You can determine what they do through their ad or your discussions with them. You obviously cannot judge their talent without the opinion of a trusted friend or witnessing their show yourself.
The other way to assure yourself the clown you choose is competent, qualified and can perform the things you contract for is to use a party planner. You can rest assured that the party planner you use has the same questions and concerns as you. Through their due diligence, they have weeded out the weak performers, the chronically late, the limited talents, the bad attitudes through customer feed back, networking within the industry and personal evaluation. After all their business relies on word of mouth, referrals and reputation. They cannot afford to send out undependable entertainers and put their livelihood at risk.
You also benefit from the party planner's desire to keep you as a customer. A Clown offers the same show, face painting designs, magic tricks or balloon animals for every party year after year. The chances of you booking them over and over as the headliner of your parties is not as likely as you bringing in other types of entertainment. Their incentive to handle your customer service issue to your satisfaction is not as great and any discounts or coupons they offer you come right out of their pocket. It can also be uncomfortable or intimidating to discuss some deficiencies in an artist's performance with them directly. Imagine trying to explain that your party guests noticed that they had bad breath or an offensive body odor!
A party planner offers the widest variety of entertainment available in your area. You can discuss any issues with them discreetly and know that they appreciate the feedback. The planner's incentive is to handle any concerns to your satisfaction. They hope you will come back to them year after year for all your party needs and they can offer discounts or coupons that may be used on other types of entertainment. Let the booking agent handle the problem with the performer. They have the leverage. Your clown is more likely to "make it right" since the agency represents a continual flow of business to them. After all, if you were not happy with a particular clown, why would a discount on having the same clown return to your next party help you?
