14/04/2025
What a beautiful review to receive from Alias / Guy Alias who recently participated on Humanitarian Clowns Inc Circus for Humanity tour to Cambodia.
Woah! I'm home from this incredible tour with Circus For Humanity Humanitarian Clowns Inc in Cambodia 🇰🇭 . It must be WALL OF TEXT TIME! I still have a ton of pics & vids to sort through but have to drop a few here & share a few thoughts now I've had a moment to catch up (Yes I have been for a week but I've been catching up is a time x).
It feels trite & sappy, but how do you actually describe what these trips are like? Landing in such a cool & wild place at Siem Reap, meeting folks youve only admired on social media, making friends, creating a show together, travelling to remote Samrong (the last hold out for the Khmer Rouge which is still being rebuilt), getting up every morning in a shared room with your artist buddies at 6am while roosters are crowing (or a wedding party blasting non stop a block over), putting your face on, having delish brekkie made in house, bussing to a remote school with shy kids, doing a show, watching the kids reservations melt as they engage in the fun, partying with them wildly post show, getting another delish lunch, bussing back for the arvo show where the later classes have CLEARLY been told what they are about to see & are already wild waiting for it (& the earlier classes have come back to watch show 2... in 36-40C heat no less), doing it all again with an even bigger party after, ANOTHER cooked fresh & amazing meal, hangs & adventures with the cast every night who are becoming more like family..... then adventures to Angkor Wat, the holy Kulen mountain with Buddhist temple on a boulder & waterfalls (I am not the same after standing under it), back to Siem Reap for more schools & seeing Night Markets, meeting land mine sniffing giant hero rats, learning more culture, seeing Phare circus, botanical gardens, random bubble teas, pool swims, tut tuk adventures & hangs with the nicest folks around 🥰🤩🤡
Also, getting a chance to work on an act that I could deliver more than just once or twice was a blessing. I got to hone skills under different conditions over & over, rather than just compromising to get both the producer end done & often, at best, a draft version of what I really wanted to do on stage. I have a handful of acts I've drilled enough that I'm proud of, but I rarely get any act dev time with crowds to really polish something. I feel so confident in my abilities when I give myself time to work on things properly, which is something I will be making space for more this year. Time away doing this to reflect on where I want to be as a producer & performer has been so good for this.
But all in all, the best is the kids. The kids who are the same as kids everywhere. Kids who are just so excited to see silly adults in bright colours who can do nifty things & make them laugh. Kids who have never gotten a chance to see anything like what we brought to them, & who were not shy about giving us so much love for being there. I truly cannot wait to go back & do another tour with this group wherever they go next. And I recommend it to anyone who can swing it. I am also beyond grateful to all the artists & friends who helped me get over there, contributed to my fundraising show in March, & have been so supportive. My community is everything & I love you so much.
You will all be stoked to know we performed for over 5000 kids in the end. My party parachute has seen such indescribable happiness. And all the feedback from teachers & kids has been that there never seen anything like it, & are demanding to know when we will come back. Hope I can make it happen. Love to the cast & now dear friends Caution the Clown Rae Kelly , Spin Florescence Chrissie Atkinson , St Vincent Meg Johnston , Jamee Jamee Campbell , Scarlet Tinkabelle aka Alicia Taylor , Sn**ch Adams & our most excellent clown captain Tim Timbadim Webster 🤡🎪.
