Dr. Penny-Cillin, Puddlz, Happy, Ellaphun, Koo-Koo, Mommo, Happy, Loopy, Bogey, Sunny, Granny Jean, CeCe, Bangles, and Jojo. The Grease Paint Alley Clowns have been in operation since 1979, working out of Rochester, New York. With 20 to 25 members at a time, the GPAC in total volunteers at least 240 hours per year, primarily visiting children at the Golisano Children’s Hospital, but also senior homes, attending local events, and teaching at local schools. Before the Pandemic, they could visit for hours, multiple times a week.
Now, they’re attending local events again as they open up, and finding a community lost during the pandemic.
The beginning of recruitment for the Grease Paint Alley Clowns begins when an individual decides to join. It’s as simple as that. They hold elections for their board for the positions of President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Business Manager, as well as designating individuals to lead their introductory clowning classes. Bethany Ruffino, 22, and her mother Gina Rufino, 54, have been clowning together since Bethany was a younger teenager.
Another now-member Kristin Smith, took her mother to take clown classes offered so that they could have their first experience together. After a ceremonial graduation, they became fulltime members, and have been coming out to events since. Kristin’s name is Koo-koo.
Jean Federico, Megan Smith, Cheryl Arnold, and Kristin Smith have their photograph taken by Christina McGlynn during the lilac parade on May 19, 2022.
Megan and Kristin Smith on the back of a truck during the lilac parade on May 19, 2022.
Goofiness is a huge part of clowning. Gabby the clown, or Cheryl, comes with a arsenal of tools and tricks to keep everyone amused, such as her impromptu toilet plunger microphone studded with plastic jewels and glitter, or her siganture ukelele. For Spring-A-Doodle, it’s a three coin trick, or a rubber chicken for honking through the low points of entertainment, and for happy, several one-line gags attatched at the hip, including a rubber glove and gun that shoots a paper with “bang” on the front. And with each new joke, even when they only incite a few giggles here and there from the mst mature of adults, all clowns take it upon themselves to out laugh their friends, or double down on the joke with a piggy-backing gag of theirs, in an incredible display of suprisingly clever, but still goofy humor.
“Being in the group reminds me to laugh,
and once I start, I’ll be smiling all day,
hoping the smile follows me home”
says Jean Federico, a member since 2002 when she first joined after hearing of the group from a close friend who was also a member.
Jean sits at her prep table in the basement of her home in Hilton, NY, to begin her makeup, on April 16t, 2022. This will be the first time she is able to go out and perform with the Grease Paint Alley Clowns in over a year, coming out of the Pandemic. Reflected in the concave mirror is a photograph of her in full makeup, as Granny Jean, a matriarchal figure for the group.
When she had first heard about the GPAC, she had been a painter for some years, but after a bout of brain cancer and the removal of two brain tumors, she searched for a new art form to express herself. “I thought about it and my mom said to me she was here visiting and she said, Gee, you've always been a clown, so go ahead.”
She lives with her husband John and has four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, who she spends hours making outfits for from repurposed fabric, alongside the station where she makes her costumes. She has made several costumes over the years, and although she practices classic white face clowning, her costumes can be either as over-the-top, or as simple as she needs for every event.
Donna Gutowski has been working with the Grease Paint Alley Clowns since the early 2000s, for over 20 years. She is also a lifetime member, like Granny Jean, and serves as its Vice President. At first, she worked exclusivley as Spring-A-Doodle, but adopted the name Penny Cillin and a new outfit after working for years in the Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester.
“I was visiting the hospital every week with the Alley, and not
everyone always is always ok with the presnese of a clown in
their workplace… after all that time it was my favorite thing to
do as a clown. Being around those children, I felt like part of the
community, that I was giving back”
Acceptance is a huge part of learning to be a clown as well. Finding a place to be accepted, regardless of your background, is the core goal of any clown, she says.
Donna was introduced to clowning by her daughter, who said to her that she should practice clowning as a new hobby. But for many members, simply find the group and join because the artform is so intriguing.
For most people who join, however, the community they have found in clowning is irreplaceable. “It's definitely a place with no judgment, no right way to be good at it oh, apart from being good at makeup for costuming. We never want to judge each other because everybody here is beautiful. everybody looks so stunning what their makeup outside and they look so happy when people see us, but you never want to make anyone feel uncomfortable because then they wouldn't come back and create this incredible environment for other people.” Says Donna.
It’s a community that attracts people from all over. All members of the Grease Paint Alley Clowns work hard to preserve the legacy of clowning in the USA, despite the lingering stigma that exists surrounding such an old art form. Today, the GPAC is always looking for new members to continue the work they do, carry on their relationship with the local communities of Western NY, and keep the art of clowning alive, and make it easy to laugh through the times their in.