Albers is a professional face painter who recently retired after 20 years of being “GoGo the Clown.”
What’s new in the world of face painting? Today’s professional face painters do mostly full face painting. It’s easier, it’s faster than doing cheek art and it looks better. And the kids get a feeling out of it. In other words, they become a cat. They become a dog. And the dogs chase the cats and the cats chase the butterflies. It’s actually a feeling that the kids get out of the face painting.
I take it that face painting is not a 9-to-5 job? It’s not. But in my particular case it is at least a four- to five-day-a-week job. I do birthday parties, I do restaurants I do picnics during the summertime. I do corporate events. I actually face paint as Mrs. Claus during the month of December.
What’s the market for face painting like these days? The market has slowed a little bit, but not like the rest of the country. I’m still pretty busy.
Why’d you hang up the clown shoes? It had been 20 years, and I was pinned between two cars in 2000 and my knees just aren’t good anymore. To be a clown professionally, in my opinion, and this was the way I was taught, everything must be big and everything must be overexaggerated. So it takes a lot of energy and it takes a lot of jumping around.
You must have been to thousands of birthday parties, what’s the recipe for a good one. Hire an entertainer. … And I would say between 10 and 20 children, a birthday cake, [and] laughter. … For parents, [don’t do] facepainting with acrylics. Acrylics can burn into the skin and cause permanent scarring. And there’s just a whole lot of people who don’t know that.
Any advice for would be clowns? Go to class. Absolutely, go to class. Learn how to clown properly. And there is a proper way.
