Clown City Here we Come...

Its that time again.....the annual Clown City January Jamboree (Held in February for the last 2 years) Anyway this is sadly the last year of the convention. We have been going to this convention for 8 years in a row! Phineas and Pupperdoodle have grown up around these folks and gotten a lot of their clown skills from the many lectures and events at this small family oriented convention.
This year is going to be great, Our family group skit is ready, Jessica's single skit is ready and Matthew's newest juggling routine is all set to go.
We'll post the videos on youtube and link them here as soon as we get them.....
Off to clown city we go........

The Kids Loved it....

Another slam dunk at Clown Rounds on Martin Luther King Day! A full pediatric unit (that's not good too many sick kids) -but the ICU was empty. We broke out a new bag for this trip- a fully modified gold bag that holds so much more stuff and is more portable than our janitor's cart. We juggled and magished for everyone.
The pediatric resident covering for the day didn't expect us and was happily surprised to see us. She followed us to a few rooms to watch us entertain.
We arrived just before lunch so the bad hospital food jokes were flying
"whats the difference between hospital meatloaf and a brick.....nothing"
Hey, we even got a teenager to stop texting to watch some magic..now that was impressive.
We came across one young girl who was from another country and her father didn't know what to make of us and asked us in broken English to please go away, we complied with a smile.
Overall the patients and staff had a good time.

Reality Sets in....

Its been a rough week......it seems Hospital Administrators do not like sarcasm.
Not verbal, not written, even sarcastic thoughts don't seem to fly.
The further away they get from direct patient contact the more "unknowing" they get.
But we march on.
Can the smile and laugh win over the protocol and policy?
Time will tell

HAPPY NEW YEAR

May 2010 bring happiness, success and most importantly health to everyone.
Happy New Year!

Christmas Day Clown Rounds

So what happens when Three clowns hit the pediatric unit on Christmas day? All the staff get into it.....well all four of them. There are only a few staff and nurses on the unit on a holiday and they were happy to see the clowns for a visit. We spent the morning singing "jingle bells" and acting silly with and for the small number of children admitted. The new drum set gave us some extra volume and it has after only one day become very useful for rim shots after EVERY SINGLE JOKE!
We even got a good beat going in the hallway as we moved from room to room.

Sometimes I personally enjoy a smaller group so we can spent more time in each room.
The Doctors try if they can to get most kids discharged before a holiday like Christmas but no matter what you do there will be someone who needs to be admitted and that's where we come in.

As always the last stop was the peds ICU. There was one child admitted and he was sleeping. His Grandmother tried to wake him to "see the clowns" but he really just wanted to rest, so we excused ourselves, but not before I spoke with her about how she was doing. She admitted that she was tired, and she breaks down every once and a while but she feels better after that. I reminded her that she needs to take care of herself as well and letting her emotions out every once and a while is important for her well being. She was a bit teary and thanked me for the kind advice and wished me and the team a happy holiday. I think that may have been the most important interaction of all of rounds this visit.
Happy Holidays and a Happy and Healthy New Year to all....

Clown Round On Christmas Day

Its become a tradition around here to go do clown rounds on Christmas day and sing songs and play with the kids stuck in the hospital on such a major childrens' holiday.
We have a new piece of equipment for our clown cart....Phineas found a set of kids' drums in the toy store and we mounted the thing on the front of our cart....even if we don't sing in key, they will hear us all over the unit.....maybe even the lobby!
More tomorrow when I report on the three Jewish clowns who found something to do on Christmas, other than go out for Chinese food and go to the movies. :o)

Clowning between cases

This past Thursday I had the chance and the time to clown with some pediatric patients who were waiting to have surgery in the holding area. I'm on staff at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and there are times when the turnover time between operating room cases is long so this week I took advantage of that down time to play with a few children waiting for care. It was only a few minutes but the kids and the nurses were enjoying it. I really wish there was more time in my daily schedule for this type of clowning. I am going to try to make time in the future if I can, but for now we'll continue to squeeze it in.
We are scheduled to head back to Brookdale Hospital on X-mas day, so check us out after that....