Recently I have become employed by a farm! I was job hunting for about 5 months and after emails and emails of repeated rejection my motivation decreased and then lacked until I found out about a local fright night that needed actors, jumping at the chance I applied, attended the meeting and got the job... as a clown. My job was to have my own little section within a scary adult maze and get into everyone personal space and make loud noises and blow in the person's ear. I'm not complaining, I loved the job so much!
Throughout the day time there was a range of activities ranging from pumpkin carving too face painting, cake decorating and actors along with woodland walks etc. The actors were aged 16-18 and dressed up as things like Frankenstein and other scary monsters. However, the younger the children got, the more scary the actors seemed and sometimes it wasn't even the actors that scared them, often I, being a normal person, not dressed up, holding a pumpkin was enough to make them fall to the floor and bellow out a scream that seemed unnatural for the size of the body of the child. - Boy, oh, Boy. Did some of them have a pair of lungs on them, what seemed even worse was it was a small section of a pen that was originally used for animals, there was only one door to escape from and the child was in the way of it. Its scream basically forcing me into the corner.
The nights were the most eventful part of the time period there. I never knew how many people had bad phobias of clowns, I had people peering round the corner so they could prepare themselves, people crying in the corner, people not even hesitating, they just ran through without even opening their eyes. - To be fair, I wouldn't blame them, the lighting down in our section was enough to make you just rely on shutting your eyes and having your brain repeat the flash, even when your eyes were shut.
We had actors ranging from "The Bitch Witch" - this actor would insult any one or flirt with most of the male people that appeared to be with a partner. The other actors ranged from Zombies with gashes down the face, blood pouring everywhere and you would have had them stumbling after you often stopping and then running straight at you. - Occasionally, the mud would be too much and would cause them to do a cartoon type run without even moving. -this was enough to put people over the edge and start stumbling themselves up the hill into the arms of other terrors - By terrors, I mean things ranging from emus to other half dead people.-
This job I found hilarious and so enjoyable. The compliments from people kept pouring in from people who cried, ran the opposite way and got chased by others or cornered and people who just laughed right in the actors face. People kept coming back too, many people often attended for two or more nights, obviously they still didn't expect certain things.
One person who went through had their collar right up and was laughing with confidence until he peered around the corner and was confronted with me - A clown. - His head shot down into his collar and his eyes were shut, he glued his back to the wall and slid around the corner, trying to keep as far away as humanly possible from me. Once he passed me, his head rose slowly, thinking and assuming he wouldn't be confronted again - Oh, how wrong he was. - He turned a corner, bounced along a mattress and was confronted by not just one clown but two. His reactions would have been more effective and amusing if it was in slow motion. The whimper that escaped this 6 foot man's mouth resembled something a school girl may do if she were scared, his head shot down into his collar. His eyes still open because with the flashing light you wouldn't want to shut your eyes and risk walking into a wall or even a clown. -Never Assume Anything.
If ever you have a chance to visit or even work at a fright night, I would strongly recommend it, the thrills and the confrontations of people can be heart stopping!
Enjoy and I hope you take my advise - Never assume anything because throughout life you will be confronted by all types of things, you just need to work up the courage and battle through it, even if hiding in your collar is the last option that will help!
~Soph.
