Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Thursday, November 02, 2006

Working a Haunted House as an Insane Clown

Being a musician, you pick up the most random jobs. For Halloween this year I worked at a haunted house, first as an insane clown and then as an extra (those people who jump at wanderers out of nowhere and spook them). Getting paid to scare people was rather amusing, though the hours were too long for what we were making ($50 a night, and I was there for 10 hours on the first night--nope, not even minimum wage, though I hear that it's rare for a haunted house to pay in the first place). Personally, I think the the haunted house was more gruesome than genuinely scary--in discussions during the breaks between visitors one of the other clowns and I came up with the "ideal" haunted house, where instead of loud metal bands there'd be silence punctuated by the

occasional creaking of floorboards and similarly subtle noises, instead of bloody butchers and mad doctors there'd be a lone, pale-faced, dark-haired girl on a swing, instead of guides, rooms with doors closing suddenly and forcing you to travel in a certain direction at a certain time or stay trapped.

Thanks to the prosthetic, I wore more makeup that night than I ever have in years of theatre. We glued the prosthetic on and covered the edges with latex; I did my own makeup and the effect was rather stunning. I didn't look like myself at all. (And later, it took 45 minutes to remove everything. Thank goodness I have a very good makeup remover at home, because the mineral oil they had and face wash I brought were not strong enough.)

The insane clown was much better than the other option I was given that night: boob job victim. "What does that entail?" "Well, I don't know if we have the prosthetic for that--we might just put makeup on your skin." "Do you have any other roles?"

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