The Very Best Medicine

By C.J. Hirschfield

What does Doyle Ott, the director of our renowned Children’s Theatre program, do when the program takes a break from summer-season rehearsals? He goes to Vienna, Austria. Not for the Alps or the waltzing, though: He’s on his way to the international Healthcare Clowning Conference.

Doyle has a Ph.D. in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State University and a certificate from the Clown Conservatory. He has trained at Circus Center and has worked with Splash Circus in Emeryville. He used to commute to work on a unicycle.

Doyle Ott in clown costume.

And he has been a member of the local Medical Clown Project for two years, visiting hospitals and shelters to bring “joy and agency” to kids and adults alike.

The local project, which will send five of its members to Vienna, describes therapeutic medical clowning this way:

Through the therapeutic art of play and humor, medical clowns help patients and their families reduce fear and anxiety while increasing their strength and motivation to cope with illness. The medical clown connects with patients in a way that is markedly different from the rest of their experience in the hospital.

The clowns work in pairs, using magic, music, circus and puppetry to aid the healing process of patients, families and medical teams. In addition to patient rooms, they work in hallways, elevators and waiting rooms.

Doyle (background) with another medical clown and a patient.

Doyle has mostly visited the California Pacific Medical Center and Laguna Honda Hospital, both in San Francisco, where he’s sometimes in contact with more than 100 people a day. He also did therapeutic clowning in Sonoma County after last year’s devastating fires in that region.

Responses to his medical clowning run the gamut. One child was fearful at first, but relaxed and laughed after the clown team played simple songs, blew bubbles and danced. Sometimes a kid will just reject him, but, Doyle says, “a no is as good as a yes” in a place where patients have very little power over their choices. 

Occasionally, Doyle told me, it’s a stressed-out parent who turns down the opportunity.  But after the clowns exit with some simple slapstick (feet caught in the door, for example) and the child responds with laughter, that parent often softens and tracks down the clowns for a return engagement.

Doyle is excited at the prospect of meeting and learning from the 400 attendees expected at the international conference. They include researchers, medical professionals, patients and, of course, lots and lots of clowns from all around the world.

As healthcare clowns are increasingly becoming an integral part of the hospital environment, conference promoters say there is a serious need for professionalization and research into the field. It’s already happening in Israel, where you can earn a degree in medical clowning.

I asked Doyle how attending the conference might inform his work at Fairyland. He says he’ll be attending several sessions focusing on work with young children, exploring how story, health and play can all come together. As Fairyland expands its work with families who have experienced trauma, he expects that sessions that deal with these communities will also be relevant.

The conference is made up of three full days of sessions, followed by evening performances. But Doyle is building in some time for himself, and is looking forward to exploring Vienna’s place in the history of fairytale lore.

And then there are those fabled Viennese desserts …

For more information on the most excellent Medical Clown Project, go to their website. 

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C.J. Hirschfield has served for 15 years as executive director of Children's Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation’s oldest storybook theme park.