Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Scary Clown Idea Goes Too Far

This is not Dominic Deville.  Click on the link to see the person from the article.
It is true.  You can now hire a scary clown to threaten, torment and completely freak out your child for their birthday.  Dominic Deville is a professional clown. He's not the happy, floppy, sunshiny, rainbow and balloons kind of clown, however, his MO is to scare your kids half to death.  Happy Birthday!

This is a true story.  The week of your child's special day, Mr. Deville promises to leave messages for your child in the form of scary notes, texts, and emails.  He will tell them they are being watched, and that soon he will get them, or they will be attacked when they least expect it. After stalking your child, when he finds the time is right, he will hit them in the face with a birthday cake.  Ta-da! What a hoot!

Honestly?  Do we not remember the clown doll in Poltergeist that kept us from sleeping at night? I have an idea of what kind of parent would go for this kind of thing, but that is a whole other blog. 

Maybe the target audience here is for teens? I'll have to ask my 16 year old if he thinks this would be funny.  The idea is not to tell them they are being set up.  How many days do you think a kid will be stressing out looking over his shoulder before he brings it up to his parents?

In full disclosure, Mr. Deville states in the article that he absolutely backs off if kids get too scared or if parents ask.  By then isn't the damage already done? If the mission is completed, I have a hard time believing that the cake in the face at the end of the week will erase the terror that took place prior.


I'm always surprised when I see someone capitalizing on tormenting kids, but the fact that there is a market for these people, and parents who pay the tab...well, it just leaves me dumbfounded.  Maybe I'm not getting the joke.  Maybe I'm too overprotective.  What do you think?