Characters 4 Teddy the Clown

Another character from my Future Learn experiences. I can't remember the brief - each character sketch or scenario was supposed to help us exercise a specific writing technique - but whatever it was I quite liked this one. 

'I knew a circus clown once, called Theodore William Foofourang. I never knew whether this was his actual name or a made up one with which he could trade easy jokes, along with his over-sized feet, nobble nose and swazzel voice. One morning, one of those cruel, dull, November mornings, Theodore or Teddy-Clown as the children called him,was found dead in the local park fish pond. According to the park keeping attendant who found the body,several koi carp were nibbling at his prosthetic nose and sucking down what was left of the pills that floated from the bottle he still held. His only living relative was traced as his sister,an aged spinster surprisingly named Miss Elizabeth (Betty) Foofourang. She announced to a disinterested world via the Lewisham and Greenwhich Mercury that her brother probably died keeping any joy he might have been born with,still locked away in his heart.'

There is a danger I suppose from accusations that this character is nothing much more than an outrageous cliche: the sad clown.  But to hell with that. Actually now I come to think of it that might have been part of the brief. Whatever the case he's here if I ever need him.