WORCESTER—Kristy Collins is serious about clowning around and she has a certificate to prove it.
Collins received the certificate after attending the Northeast Clown Institute, informally known as Clown College, in Plymouth Jan. 19-21.
“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “I didn’t know how I felt about it at first. I knew I could do the outfit, I knew I could probably figure out the makeup, but could I have the horn and have the rubber chicken and that sort of thing? But as I went on, I was like, ‘Oh, I can do that.’ It was fun. You did lighten up a little bit more when you were around the clowns.”
Collins, 45, was one of 50 first-year students in the program and she estimated that, in all, 300 students that ranged from teenagers to senior citizens attended and received certificates of graduation. Collins said one student once performed in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Collins works full-time as an admissions clerk for the Worcester Housing Authority and for the past 13 years she’s also made balloon animals and done face painting at parties and other events as her business name, “The Birthday Girl.” She has even attended balloon conferences.
After the pandemic hurt her birthday girl business, she received a $5,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and she set aside some of it for training and supplies. When she learned about the Northeast Clown Institute, she decided to enroll. The classes, two nights at a hotel and such supplies as balloons, face paint and costumes ran her close to $800.
She passed on forking over the $650 for the clown shoes for sale at the college and stuck with the polka-dotted Adidas sneakers she snagged on Facebook Marketplace.
Collins and her husband, Gabe Rollins, have similar last names. Did it make them even more compatible?
“That was definitely a selling point,” she joked.
So, Collins sometimes goes by Collins-Rollins just for laughs. The couple lives in Worcester with their three cats, Stanley, Al and Hollins Collins-Rollins.
Collins’ 85-year-old mother, Joyce Collins of Auburn, accompanied her to clown college. She didn’t take part in the classes, but she attended the graduation ceremony and banquet.
“I do think people think she’s a fun person,” Joyce said. “I thought she was more serious when she was very young. I guess she’s fun and games now.”
The institute debuted in 1990 as a training facility for Shrine clowns in Salem, N.H., and shifted to various locations until settling in Plymouth in 1998. The following year, the college opened to the public and changed its name from the North East Shrine Clown Institute to the Northeast Clown Institute. The college continues to subsidize the International Shrine Clown Association Sneaker Fund and Shrine clowns teach most of the classes.
Classes this year include, “Enjoying the Clown in You,” “Juggling for Fun,” “Fun with Balloons,” “Pocket Tricks and Pops,” “Costumes on a Budget,” and “Basic Magic.” There are also several classes on makeup, and even one called “Fear of Clowns.” Some children are afraid of clowns in part because they can’t read a clown’s true facial expressions due to the face paint. The college’s master clowns taught Collins to look approachable.
A class on legal issues warns clowns to not touch anyone and to maintain the jazz hands position, waving with their palms facing forward and fingers spread, especially for photographs with people.
Clowns are urged to smile a lot and not to drink or smoke or to give balloons to young children because they are a choking hazard.
Collins learned how different types of clowns wear different makeup. Some have white paint covering their entire faces, Auguste clowns have white around their mouths and eyes, and Tramps and Hobos have sad, unshaven faces.
When Collins attended Auburn High School, her nickname was “Pipi Longstocking,” so when she was deciding on a clown name, she considered “Pipi Wrongstocking.” Instead, she accepted her sister’s recommendation of the more playful “Polka Dottie,” and she wears a polka dot dress and hat and a light pink wig.
Collins has never been afraid to take chances by wearing colorful outfits to get noticed. In high school, she was chosen “most unique.” So when she posted online that she had attended clown college, no one was surprised.
“It fit my persona,” she said.
Ronald McDonald, the mascot of McDonald’s fast-food restaurants, is her favorite clown and she has a collection of his memorabilia, including a miniature Ronald McDonald she purchased at a flea market. A couple of years ago, she handed out candy on Halloween dressed up as the four-eyed Hamburglar, another McDonald’s mascot that was distributed in Happy Meals.
When she was a Girl Scout, she posed for a photo at the DCU Center with the clowns at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. She still has the circus clown cup that held the snowcone she bought that day.
Collins has always been a big fan of puns. So she got a kick out of a pushcart at the college shaped like a giant nose with feet on the wheel called the “runny nose.”
Collins attended the college for fun and to add to her birthday girl business, but her graduation has led to other opportunities as well. She has booked her first gig as a clown, reading stories at a small, family daycare center in Worcester in March. She’s also been approached to get involved with the nonprofit, volunteer Clowning for Kidz Foundation in West Warren, which participates in parades and events in New England to raise revenue to support clown workshops, programs and opportunities for children in need.
To book The Birthday Girl for parties, one can simply contact Collins via The Birthday Girl Worcester on Facebook or Instagram. She is scheduled to teach children aged 9 and up how to make balloon animals from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, at the Tatnuck Magnet Branch of the Worcester Public Library.
She keeps unblown balloons in a fuchsia bag made to look like a big sneaker.
Her first instructor at the college, George “Joy” Hebert, had been a clown for nearly 60 years and he said that clowning starts in the heart.
“I think I do have it in my heart,” Collins said. “I think that’s why folks aren’t so surprised about my new clown alter ego. I am always up for bringing laughter and smiles into a room.”
What she didn’t realize was that there were actually clown trading cards. She plans to look into that next year. Collins isn’t clowning around when she says that she plans to attend again in 2025 and bring a friend or two with her.
“I had a blast,” she said.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
