Video: Being Afraid Of Clowns

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Clowns. They can be seen performing at circuses, and birthday parties trying to bring joy to kid’s faces

However, they can also bring fear to a lot of people as well.

“If you look up online, coulrophobia is the fear of clowns or so they tell us,” says Micahel Nadorff, psychologist and assistant professor at MSU.

Nadorff has worked in the field of psychology for three years now, and he explains exactly what it is about clowns that scares people.

“Clowns are not something you see everyday, and they have those features that are not normal for a normal human face,” he explained. “So because of that, whenever we see something that is different, often we’ll assume that’s a threat and that’s what causes the fear.”

Nadorff said the fear starts in kids at a young age and it can often times remain with them even into their adulthood.

“Well if you have even a minor fear of clowns, if you’re not interacting with them, the more you actually try to avoid it, the more it can grow,” said Nadorff.

“Some adults and kids are afraid of clowns, but once they meet Mrs. D’D they’re not afraid anymore, because I’m just a friendly happy clown,” said Delores Cunnie, who’s a professional performer.

Cunnie is also known as Mrs. D’D The Clown.  She’s been performing clown acts for three years now.

She said often times, she’ll run into someone whose afraid of her, but when she does she knows how to quickly get rid of their fear.

“I just let them know I’m just Mrs. D’D. Come and just let me give you some love,” she said. “And then I say just look at me. I got on a yellow wig, and you can see, I’m a person just like you.”

Cunnie said making everyone’s favorite animals and painting pretty pictures on their faces also helps overcome that fear.

The entertainer also pointed out that once people get over their phobia, they often times find her clown acts to be therapeutic.

“It does,” Cunnie explained.  ‘I do the balloons and also with the kids I do the face painting, and also when the adults come around, it brings out the kid in the,, and they say, Mrs. D’D can you do my face too. So it just makes them happy.”
Now Cunnie did point out that she is not the clown that’s been running around town.

She said the recent clown sightings have given good clowns like her and bad name, but thankfully, she says the negative clown attention and incidents have not affected her business.