Lawyer quits to become a clown
A former Auckland lawyer has swapped her courtroom regalia for a red nose to pursue a career as a clown doctor.
Phoebe Mason, 26, worked as a lawyer at leading specialist environmental law firm Atkins Holm Majurey for almost three years after graduating from Auckland University with degrees in law and arts.
In 2016, she was granted unpaid leave for a four-month-long sabbatical to attend the famous John Bolton Theatre School in Melbourne – an idea she’d toyed with before being offered the law job following an internship.
‘‘I had a moment where I went, ‘Oh, I went straight from 13 years of school straight into five years of uni, straight into work,’’ she says by phone from Australia.
‘‘I realised I hadn’t stepped back and gone, ‘What is this trajectory I’m on? What could life be like?’’
Mason didn’t have dreams of gaining fame as a performer; she merely wanted to ‘‘live in a different way to 9-5 in my hometown’’.
So she signed up to a series of gigs – working as an actor for an improvised theatre company, as an usher at Arts Centre Melbourne, an administrator for a futsal organisation, and creating her first solo show, to be performed this month.
She also applied to become a clown doctor with The Humour Foundation.
The charity’s website explains clown doctors are ‘‘highly trained, professional performers who spread ‘‘doses’’ of fun and laughter throughout the hospital, working to uplift sick kids’’.
‘‘Clown Doctors work in partnership with medical professionals to divert children during painful procedures, calm and distract in emergency, encourage and assist during occupational therapy and physiotherapy and improve the quality of life of some of the most vulnerable members of our community – sick and injured kids.’’
After auditioning, Mason began the year-long process of ‘‘clownterning’’ – accompanying seasoned clowns on the job.
She remembers the first time she saw a clown doctor in action. Two parents were with a toddler in the hallway – their sick family member was elsewhere – and a clown caught the youngster’s eye.
The clown began to play with a squeezy toy, delighting the child who began to giggle, sparking a chain reaction of laughter among those assembled. Mason watched the child’s mum laugh ‘‘bellycrunchingly hard’’, and noted the glow in her husband’s face.
‘‘She said, ‘I must be really stressed to be laughing this hard at something so silly.’ But there was this real delight in her eyes.’’
The lessons such encounters impart go beyond the hospital setting, Mason says. ‘‘When you’re having a tiff with your boss or... money troubles or house issues or friend [struggles], all these things we grapple with every day, it’s really easy to forget... the joy of just being here for this moment.’’
Since leaving the law
''When you're having a tiff with your boss or ... money troubles or house issues ... all these things we grapple with every day, it's easy to forget ... the joy of just being here for this moment.''
Phoebe Mason
profession, Mason feels in control of her time for the first time in her life – something she says is empowering, though she cringes at the term. She also has a new perspective on performing.
‘‘I suppose for a while I had a worry that performing might be frivolous or more self-indulgent than helpful for the world,’’ she says.
‘‘But this has made me realise... it’s actually possible to make the kind of work that gives people something.’’
Mason says while her lifestyle isn’t overly ‘‘financially stable’’, she’s had only positive reactions to her career change.
‘‘My parents have been getting some good mileage out of the ‘lawyer into clown’ story.’’
❚ Phoebe Mason’s Brisk Wind Whistling Down Twin Oak Drive plays March 20-24 at Auckland’s Basement Theatre. Tickets available at basementtheatre.co.nz.