Thought For The Week June 13, 2009

"A sticker is not something that you distribute. It is a tool for creating an interaction that can become a memorable moment." - Angel Contreras

One of my joys over the past decade has been watching Angel's development as an entertainer. He was originally a very fine caricature artist. I first met him in 1998 or 1999 when Richard Snowberg hired him to create caricatures of everyone on Clown Camp Ž Staff for use in promotional material. He created the 1999 Clown Camp Ž logo depicting Don Burda. Clown Camp Ž begins with a Staff On Stage show featuring each person on staff performing an act. Angel's first Staff On Stage act, performed in 1999, was simply demonstrating how quickly he could draw Don's caricature. He did not perform as a character.

Since then he has developed a very nice artist clown character and has combined other skills with his art. This year he did an act where he drew a hat on a cardboard box. He covered his head with the box and removed his outer shirt revealing that he was wearing a T-shirt with a face printed on it. The mouth of the shirt was open, but by pleating the shirt Angel was able to make the mouth open and close. In a very funny routine he danced around while the T-shirt lip synced to a song. (The shirt is Angel's creation featuring his artwork and is available for purchase.)

Angel he has created a second clown character that reminds me of Poncho in the Cisco Kid movies. He has used that character at Clown Camp Ž charity auctions improvising hilarious routines as he displayed items up for bid.

Angel has used his artistic skill to create his own line of stickers. At Clown Camp Ž this year Angel, assisted by his wife Susan, taught a class on how to use stickers as an entertaining tool. (I was able to attend part of his class. Other demands on my time meant I missed the first half. I wish I had seen the entire class.) Here is an example of the type of things he taught. He has a sticker shaped like a sheriff's star that says "Smile Inspector" in the center. He put one of the stickers on and explained that he was the official smile inspector. He asked people to smile for him, and then, imitating Billy Crystel, he exclaimed, "You look Mahvelous!" After checking out several smiles, he selected somebody to deputize as another smile inspector. He gave them three smile inspector stickers with instructions that they were to put one on and check out smiles until they found somebody they thought would make a great smile inspector. Then the deputy was to deputize them and give them the two stickers, one to wear and one to give away. The newest deputy then looked for somebody else to enlist as a smile inspector. Angel explained that this is a great bit to do at an event where people don't know each other because it gives them an excuse for interacting and meeting each other.

Angel has a set of eye stickers. I had previously seen people use them on balloon sculptures, and this year for the first time saw people adding them to origami animals. Angel used the stickers to demonstrate the old vaudeville bit of turning your hand into a puppet by putting the eyes on the side of your first knuckle and using your thumb as the character's jaw. He has also figured out two other places to put the eyes so he can turn his hand into three characters that can carry on a conversation. (He had two of the characters perform a portion of Abbott and Costello Who's On First routine.) Angel said he will demonstrate the puppets to kids and then give them stickers so they can turn their own hand into a puppet to play with after he has moved on to somebody else.

How can you use your variety arts skills as a tool to interact with others? How can you turn that interaction into a memorable moment?

I was very impressed with the sticker class taught by Angel Contreras. I highly recommend that you attend it if you have the chance. I know one place where he will be teaching it is the NW Festival of Clowns. I plan to attend the entire class then. You will find more information on that in the Educational Opportunity column on the right.

For more information on Angel's products go to