Clowning about gets the smiles

STRETCHING IT: Clown Puk and Clown Bluf get the kids to join in the fun at a school in Yeoville, Joburg, where they performed last month.

ONCE a year, Dutch clowning organisation Africlowns visits South Africa to perform clown shows for the disabled, the poor and township schools in an effort to put a smile on the faces of those who need it most.

Led by Willem Hans Elbrecht, aka Clown Pluum, Africlowns visited Joburg in March 2012.

Last month, Elbrecht brought two other part-time clowns, Bluf and Puk, with him. All of the clowns are part-time, and hold down day jobs where they earn the majority of their income.

Elbrecht, the founder and chairperson of Africlowns, set up the group in 2000 and has performed in many countries in Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Often working in the heat of the day, the clowns staged shows in front of packed schools, under trees in the poorest of communities and to the disabled at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Diepkloof, south of Joburg.

More often than not the African children they perform for have quite simply never seen a clown before or have never known about the culture of clowning, now many hundreds of years old in Europe.

Although the smiles are temporary on the faces of those who watch the shows, it seems to be well worth it as the children go home to their families and friends to tell the tale of the clowns that came to town. – EPA

PICTURES: EPA FUN AND GAMES: Peter Vrinds, aka Clown Puk; Jans Koopmans, aka Clown Bluf; and Willem Hans Elbrecht, aka Clown Pluum; enthral their young audience with their antics.

COVER-UP: Dutch clowns Jans Koopmans and Willem Hans Elbrecht keep the kids under wraps during one of their sensational acts.

IN THE RED: A youngster beams from ear-to-ear as he is covered in material used as part of the clowns’ act at a school for the disabled in Soweto last month.