Eric, or has most people know him, Sharpo, is the reason I started doing kid’s parties. Sharpo and I go back almost 20 years, I met him soon after I first moved to Los Angeles to feed my acting addiction. We’ve performed together (and still do on occasion) doing murder mystery’s, worked together in not one, but two sketch groups, played music together and entertained at the occasional birthday party. Like all L.A. relationships, we’ve grown apart at times and went for a long time without seeing one another. We reconnected a few years ago at a yard sale. My yard sale to be exact. He was walking with his family – yes, Eric had become a family man, and I came to find out that he also lived down the street from my wife and I. We are both new fathers, twice over and are both now in our 40’s. I hear it’s the new 20’s, only with less aches and pains.
When Eric asked me if I would be interested in being interviewed for his online “Sharpo Says” blog talk radio show, how could I say no? He is the man responsible for me wondering into the world of children’s birthday parties, no “if’s”, “and’s” or “but’s”, it WAS 100% his doing. And that experience awakened a sleeping desire in me, the desire to write a book.
Thank you Eric.
You can listen to the interview here – http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sharpo/2011/02/15/sharpo-says-interview-with-actor-author-jason-lassen
I AM The Hollywood Clown
Balloons make people happy. It didn’t matter if I was twisting a balloon into a doggy at some kid’s birthday party, or delivering a balloon bouquet to an office, balloons made people happy. And I think the world needs a spoonful of happiness right now more than ever. Thus the birth of “The Twitter Experiment.”
“The Twitter Experiment” is my attempt to spread some joy and happiness via twitter and latex.
Here’s the deal: I will hand out FREE balloon animals to whoever wants one. I will be recognizable by one thing: a red clown nose. And because the happiness that balloons bring aren’t isolated to the greater Los Angeles area, I won’t just be local. I may be coming to a city near you. The only way to find out is to follow me on… Twitter.
“The Twitter Experiment: Day 1” begins on February 4th 2011. Where will I be? Follow me on Twitter and find out.
http://twitter.com/HollywoodClown
There it is. I don’t know where this is going to go, or how it’s going to work, hence the word “experiment,” but I’m very excited to see the results. I’ll be posting photos of me with my twitter followers and their FREE balloon animals. Because balloons make people happy.
I can’t wait to see you out there!
I AM The Hollywood Clown
Birthdays are important to me.
This was not always the case. It wasn’t until I became a performer at children’s birthday parties that I truly began to appreciate them.
After going to, http://www.pokemybirthday.com/, I can truly say, I’ve never thought about my birthday in this way. Thanks for the info Poke My Birthday and here’s the story they told me once I put in the day I came out of my mother’s who-who!
You think your birthday is the oldest day of your life history but you are sadly wrong. Let’s surprise you:
310 days before you are born (-310 days), your father has produced the semen that will be half of you soon. He produced 1000 sperms every second of his life and you will be the lucky one out of 500 million sperm he sent on their way in the conceivement. You may find it interesting to know that if he had drunk (or not drunk) coffee on this morning, you might born completely as someone else (for instance in the opposite sex) as caffeine changes the speed of male sperms.
(Your birthday -295 days):
Today your mother had her last menstrual cycle and started building up the egg, which will be the other half of you.
After today, she will not have this cycle again for a very long time (thanks to you!). She spent the day as moody, anxious, short-tempered and you should be glad, you were not around her that day!
(Your birthday -280 days):
Your mother’s egg is ready to build the other half of you and your father and your mother got together to make you. But there is still no “you” around so don’t get excited too much. It can take several hours for your father’s sperm to reach your mother’s egg and now it is just on its way out.
(Your birthday -279 days):
Out of 500 million sperm on their way to your mother’s egg, the sperm which built you has won the race by coming in first and the sperm and the egg became one to make your very first cell. Do you see how lucky your half (the sperm) is by winning coming up first among 500 million other rivals? Never say you are not lucky anymore! We can call –279 days as your “first day alive” because this is when you are a living entity, an embryo, congratulations! Although you are just a 1-cell creature today your unique DNA is also formed so your future destiny, like your sex, height, physical appearance, intelligence, characteristic and vulnerability to certain diseases is already been determined.
(Your birthday -265 days):
If your mother is an intelligent women, she would have suspected that she is pregnant on this day. She is not very sure yet but she is suspicious. We hope she was excited and overjoyed, not worried.
(Your birthday -258 days):
Today your mother is telling your father about her pregnancy and he is celebrating to be a daddy! Today is also important in that, your heart has pumped for the first time today. We don’t know if it is a coincidence that your father learned about you in the very day, your heart first pumped!
(Your birthday -182 days):
Your parents could have lawfully got an abortion until today so this is also an important day of your life. Today they decided you should live! We are glad they didn’t otherwise; we’d lose one site visitor in pokemybirthday.com (and at http://hollywoodclown.wordpress.com/ )
(Day 1 Your birthday):
You are born to a cruel world. Happy birthday little buddy! We hope you remember to enjoy your life, which was a big journey from day minus 310 to today.
I AM a grateful Hollywood Clown
“Do you know what you’re having yet?”
It doesn’t matter if it’s a family member, close friend or the checkout lady at the grocery store; it’s the inevitable question that always follows once people hear that you are expecting a child. “No, we’re not finding out. As long as it’s healthy we don’t care either way.”
Then comes the look of, “Yah, right.”
But for us it’s true. And I’m sure if you ask any parent that has ever lost a child, they would agree. There is no worse feeling in the world than going to an ultra sound and having the Dr. say, “There’s no heartbeat.” I realize that it was natures way of saying that they embryo was unhealthy and it made the difficult decision for us of terminating the pregnancy. It still doesn’t make it any easier.
An acquaintance of mine had his twins born a few months premature and one of them unfortunately did not make it.
A friend of mine lost her child, days before her due date, because its umbilical chord had gotten tangled up and knotted in utero. She had to still go through a ten hour labor to give birth to a child that she would never get a chance to see it take it’s first steps, to fall in love, to laugh and cry.
One of my cousin’s and his wife had their baby born four months premature and everyday was a struggle for it to cling to life.
Notice, in the three stories above, I never revealed any of the child’s sexes? Does that make any of them less sad?
My wife and I already have a daughter, fortunately a very healthy one, with a very healthy temper to boot. We are expecting our second child in October and every time we hear from the Dr. that everything looks good, I breathe a silent sigh of relief to myself. Earlier during the pregnancy, we had to have some extra test done because the Dr.’s said that my wife’s blood test came back with things indicating that the baby might have downs syndrome. It’s great that today’s technology can give parents a heads up to something of this magnitude so that they can properly prepare both mentally and emotionally for any added challenges to the already difficult job of being a parent. Anyone with a child can attest, raising a child is hard, but raising a child with any sort of health issues makes it even harder. This type of information is important to me. I would take the info of my child being healthy over the info of its gender any day.
There are so few real pleasant surprises in life these days, I think waiting for the day that you’re your child arrives in your life and in your family to find out if you have a boy or a girl is one of the last true surprises. It’s always been funny to me how differently people act toward the baby, while it’s still in it’s mommy’s belly after they find out what it is. It will have a whole lifetime to live up to and to be categorized, like a book in a library, to it’s expected gender role, why not give it 9 months to just be a baby? Why the big hurry? But to some, the really macho guy who NEEDS to have a son because, “only a man can make a man!” (are we still cavemen?) or the people who are control freaks, I guess it is important. Nothing against my control freak friends, you’re fun to watch.
And there are some out there, you know who you are, that really do want a boy or a girl but feel that it’s taboo to admit to it. I can completely understand that if you already have a child and you only plan on having two, that it would be nice to be able to experience the parenting trials and tribulations, that one day become specific for each gender.
To me, there was no feeling like assisting in bringing my child into this world, raising them high (like in ROOTS or The Lion King), and announcing to the world that I have a daughter.
A beautiful and healthy daughter.
I AM The Hollywood Clown
My friend Stacy’s disdain for passing out goody bags at birthday parties was recently brought to my attention via Facebook. She realized that she needs “20 of something” to handout, and being a working mom she doesn’t have a second to shop. Within her status, she received lots of advice from her friends on what to do… and what not to do.
“I stopped doing them! They are a stupid idea!!” Allyson said.
“Hate them. Skip them!!!” stated Christine.
Janice’s advice, “I truly do not think the kids will notice no gift bag. Go for it!”
Yet Darcy added, “My daughter actually cried at a party that did not have them.”
While performing at a birthday party, I once witnessed a pack of children ravenously chanting “Goody bags! Goody bags! Goody bags!” It was like the overly zealous kids from Children Of The Corn on crack. I can honestly say that I don’t remember the exact moment when goody bags became the “norm” at birthday parties. It makes you think, “Who started the whole ‘goody bag’ craze anyway?” Obviously, it wasn’t a working parent.
In Los Angeles, the contents of GB’s from a party can get as competitive as the party itself. The really wealthy clients would have the party planning company provide the GB’s so they didn’t have to think about it. I remember clients that would specifically say, “We would like to have the same goody bags that you handed out at the Spielberg’s party, but better. We’ll pay more, of course.” Well, I’m going to let you all in on a big secret. My bosses would send me to downtown Los Angeles to purchase cheap $1 toys in bulk to stuff into the goody bags for the children of celebrity millionaires.
Have we gotten to the point of no return? Are goody bags expected? Is it a regional/class thing? Thus the question: To goody bag or not to goody bag? Do we teach our children that goody bags are a token of generosity and not a requirement?
My wife loves goody bags. She loves getting them and she loves giving them. But for her getting one is a bonus, not an expectation, and perhaps that is the difference.
In my opinion, the best piece of advice Stacy received was from her friend Dawn: “Give them a book.” And that is what she did. Reading: the gift that gives a lifetime.
I AM The Hollywood Clown
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