Back in 1994, I, Mike Beauchemin, had the idea that I wanted to do a TV show on a local public access channel. I wanted to do a weekly magic show. Then I felt the Lord wanted me to do a show that would glorify him if I was going to do a show. I thought about this and prayed about this. I then came up with "Clown Town".
I belonged to a clown ministry at the time at the church I attended. I approached them with the idea of "Clown Town" to see if any of them would like to join me in this adventure. One other member agreed to join me. Her name was Carol aka Joy the Clown.
I decided “Clown Town” would be nondenominational, so I figured my next step would be to call our local newspaper, The Daily Messenger, and inform them of my idea and that I would like to have more people from different denominations involved. They liked the idea and agreed to do a story about us. Two people answered the ad. One was interested but had a busy life and was unable to make the meetings or filming dates. The other person turned out to be a real dedicated person. Dedicated to the Lord and spreading the word of the Lord and dedicated to "Clown Town". His name was Russ aka Snorky. (Russ is now home with our Lord)
The 3 of us wrote the scripts, ran the cameras and edited the shows as well as participate in them. As we needed people to fill roles in the scripts, we would ask friends and relatives to play the parts. Most people we asked to help didn't have the time to dedicate to the show full time but were happy to be a part occasionally. A couple years into the show we had some friends, Jim & Sheri, who had 4 boys. Sheri played guitar and the boys sang with her as she played. They were going to be our guests on a few episodes. We were going to film them as a family singing a few songs then edit them into various shows. As a last minute thought, they thought it would be fun to do it as clowns, so we made them up and they did. This was the start of Daisy (Sheri), Scruffy, Dusty (later started another character Tripper), J.J., Rainbow and Smiley (Jim). They liked it so much they stayed with us for a couple years until the Lord had them move out of state. ( I miss them :( )
My sister Ree (Pronounced Ray), and my son Jordan when he was 3 or 4 years old (now he's 16) both came to know the lord through saying the sinners prayer during one of the episodes. (We give "the people at home" a chance to say the sinners prayer with a cast member during each episode.) They both became regularly involved in show.
"Clown Town" aired for 5 years filming one new show per month along with a few specials. In 1999, Carol was led by the Lord to join a mime ministry called Eppic based in Minnesota. The group started to tour the US then the Lord opened up opportunities for them to minister in other countries such as Bolivia and Peru. A couple years later the Lord led her into a different ministry in Peru with "Food For The Hungry" where she ministers to this day teaching health and hygiene as well as the Lord to children in the church she is attending and in clinics.
Russ and I tried to carry on "Clown Town" but it was like pulling a leg off a 3 legged stool and it just didn't work thus this was the end of the TV series.
After a 2 year absence of "Clown Town", I was doing a gig with another clown group called "Haywire". While I was there, I saw a talented performer with an awesome singing voice singing with puppets. I approached her after her performance and introduced myself and told her about "Clown Town" and asked her if she would like to be a part of it and get it going again. She agreed to do so and she merged her puppet ministry with our ministry. Her name is Cheri and her husband and soundman, Butch, became our soundman.
Well we met at Butch and Cheri’s house and another friend of theirs, (which turned out to be a student at a clown class I helped teach a year or so before), joined us as well. Her name was Renee aka Mama Clown. Her husband Mike helped out with the sound and their daughter became involved as well. Butch’s granddaughter and one of my nieces also joined the team. My son, sister and her 2 sons continued on with us. (Her 2 sons were also part of the TV show. ) Russ continued on with us as we got started again. Unfortunately, during the time we weren't active, Russ was. He joined us when he could but eventually couldn't join us anymore. We truly miss him performing with us too.
We filmed 6 episodes, and I got 3 of them edited, Jan, Feb (we missed March because I have a busy life as well as everyone else with a fulltime job and a family etc.) & April. Russ wanted to help edit, but his busy life kept him from actually doing so. Nobody in the group really had the time to learn and we couldn't find anyone outside the group who would like to take on this task.
Since it seemed so difficult to get the shows on the air we agreed to pray about it to see if we are doing God's will or ours. At the next meeting, there was confirmation amongst us that we were to put the TV show on hold and do public shows in area churches and local parks etc. So we put this to the test and decided to do 4 shows to see where it leads. One in June, July, August & Sept of 2001. We ended up doing about 7 or 8 shows that year. We all agreed it must have been what the Lord wanted us to do. 2002 was a pretty slow year and we weren’t sure if we were to continue or what. BUT in 2003...WOW!!! We were busy!! You can check out our 2003 schedule at this web site as well as all other schedules since then. We are posting shows as we get calls.
Each show consists of music, skits, puppets, tricks, as well as other fun ways we can think of to share the gospel. Each show also gives the audience a chance to ask Jesus in to their hearts to be their Lord and Savior.
Now for the sad news. Cheri informed me that the Lord had opened many doors for her other ministries, (singing solo with accompaniment tracts from CD's, and other ministries she was involved with at the time), that she had to leave "Clown Town". Renee aka Mama Clown also called to inform me of the Lord leading them in another direction. We will miss them performing with us but the Lord calls. At the same time, the Lord has led other people to the group to join us.
The rest of us still meet to see what we all feel the Lord wants us to do as we GO FORTH AND SPREAD THE WORD!!!
Please pray for us for guidance from the Lord. Thank you for visiting us.
If you would like to be a part of "Clown Town", contact us. You have to be located or willing to relocate close enough to make meetings, rehearsals and gigs. We meet in Newark, NY.
God bless you all!!
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HERE
Back in 1994, I, Mike Beauchemin, had the idea that I wanted to do a TV show on a local public access channel. I wanted to do a weekly magic show. Then I felt the Lord wanted me to do a show that would glorify him if I was going to do a show. I thought about this and prayed about this. I then came up with "Clown Town".
