Tippy with some foam fun.
Many of us laughed till our sides split as the Three Stooges clobbered each other with various objects like hammers, wrenches or even a large rock. As you all know those objects of course were not made of metal but soft material like foam to avoid serious injury. Today many clowns employ foam props for various sight gags and other mischief. The props used in movies look very real and coupled with a sound effect you definitely feel the pain of the actor as they got bonked over the head. Movie props are sculpted, molded and painted to look like the real McCoy but as for clowns we go for a more comical look in our props, partly because we want our audience to understand we are just play acting.
Example of an early movie prop.
A young Stan Wolnic pictured above hand painting a prop at the Hackensack Novelty Co. circa 1907.
There are so many choices when considering buying foam props, where does one begin? Like shopping for any new prop you need to see what fits your character or style of clowning but with so many choices we are confident you will find a prop that will fit your style. Props like the cowboy hat are perfect for the classic Stagecoach skit or maybe the bug-eyed binoculars will aide you in searching the crowd for a participant for your act; this prop is very well made and look hilarious with the big eyes fixed at the end of the scope. A giant foam camera is another great prop for walking the parade route, occasionally pause along the route to snap a group picture or have some one in the audience take your picture with your big camera. People in the crowd will be snapping pictures of you for sure with this great clown prop. A giant foam tooth and toothbrush could be used to teach kids the importance of proper dental hygiene. If you are a clown that works schools or day cares any routine that has educational principals is well received by the teachers.
The list of cool foam props is bigger than a giant banana, yes we have a cornucopia of food props as well. Remember, just buying awesome props don’t make you a great clown, use them in a skit or write your own routine around one of your props.
Rustopher in a “hair raising” predicament.
We see Rustopher mugging it up with a giant stick of TNT, yikes don’t blow your stack! This is a great site gag to accidentally pull out of your bag o tricks, then looking panicked try to get an audience member to take it from you. Bottom line is to use the props, you make them funny, not the other way around.
There are so many fun foam props available if you can’t find one you like, you need to be bonked with a giant foam hammer.