Nick Wilkins has been putting smiles on faces for decades with lessons learned from his schooling at clown college in Venice, FL. Itâs easy to enjoy the animated face paint, colorful costumes, and clever tricks he teaches the students, but it goes much deeper when you sit and observe his class for a day. Sitting in a room with 14 enthusiastic students, Nick said, âWe donât use that word in hereâ as he motioned to the whiteboard spelling âcanâtâ with a large cross mark over it. âBecause of the âcanâ mentality, I taught six students to juggle in 10 minutes,â he proudly stated.
It is clear Nickâs âcan doâ outlook has infiltrated the class. At the beginning of each day, students walk in and eagerly begin working on their juggling skills. Every open area in the room is filled with a student working with bean bags, rings, scarves, balls, devilâs sticks, and diablos to master their skills. âI love your enthusiasmâ and âYouâre awesomeâ are common comments Nick uses to encourage his students.
When asked what he likes most about the class, Nolan R. said, âItâs fun. We spend time doing things you donât do in other classes. We do physical activities; weâre going to do stilts!â
A sense of anticipation and excitement filled the room as eager hands went up to volunteer to be the next one to receive a clown face painting. Random selection determined Nate D. to be the lucky one. Nick asked Nate, âWhite or character?â Nate enthusiastically said âWhite!â and the clown face style was confirmed. Nick informed the class that white face is the fastest face painting to do. When he began at Ringling Brothers, face painting took him an hour and forty minutes every day, but he eventually got it down to 40 minutes to put his face on and only 5 minutes to remove with some cold cream.
Nate carefully selected black lips and the style of mouth he preferred along with his nose color of red. When asked how he felt with his face completed, Nate said, âI feel like no one is going to take me seriously today, and Iâm fine with that.â
