Street theatre as psycological growth

Part of being a parent apart from keeping your kids save is exposing them to things that are outside the ordinary yet beneficial. 
Every time you learn from a new experience there is some period of discomfort as you pass from what you have known into what you now know.
Part of the reason clowns are feared is because, well one reason is that they are simply painted hyper insensitive idiots trying to get by in the world but more importantly that vague fear that comes from a natural distrust of the unusual. 
But without it growth is impossible. 
  Europe is old and it's social norms go back a long way. American culture simply lacks this.

To go about your day and be confronted by some creative celebration that isn't sponsored loudly or isn't advertising is a declaration on a deep level to parents and kids and everybody that our individual imaginations are gifts in their own right. That wonder often follows moments of disquiet and that our world can be generous.

 

this is fun to play with, make your own

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Street Performers common ancestor is the archetypical hero

In everyones eyes, whether conscious or not, walking a city street is it’s own mythic landscape, thousands, millions of minds moving as if a soup, chaos flavoured yet orderly.

Enter a street performer of quality, one reason it works so deeply is that the archetypical hero story is inherant to our species, deep in every culture, another being the celebration of lifes purpose which is to reconcile mortality and belligerence and dance between them til the end. That’s the subtext whether the performers or audience are aware.

An archetypical hero "Who's eyes are open and who's speech is true and who faces both the chaos of the unknown and the tyranny of the known and balances them...meta solution to the meta problem."

Ta DA!

"Keep going!" "Don't give up!" "Laughter's a thing!" "Generosity is it's own reward.!!"

Todays winner of the internet...

"Top 10 tips for dealing with an unruly president!

1) Notice good behavior and give attention to it. Anything you see that you want to happen more often -- let the president know you like it. Say, "You’re doing so well playing nicely with Congress today! That's great!" Then go over and touch the president affectionately or give it a Diet Coke. This will help ensure that this behavior happens more often.

2) Positive attention to good behavior can be a smile, a tweet, or verbal praise -- or all three -- but do it right away and be specific about what it was the president did right every time. "Great job signing your name today!" works better than just "Great job!"

3) Instead of saying "stop" or "don't" when you see bad behavior, find the "positive opposite": Figure out what you do want the president to do instead. So "Don't threaten other nations with nuclear extermination" becomes "Please continue to allow our species to exist another day." If they comply, remember to praise them! "Wow, you did what I asked! You let us live today!" You will have to say "stop" and "don't" once in a while -- that's normal -- but you will have to say it much less often if you are praising the positive opposite.

4) Enthusiasm counts. Let them see how thrilled you are with their good behavior, especially on CNN!

5) Start a reward system for a president who rarely does what you ask, but make a game of it. When you are both calm, tell it that it is a game and practice giving a pretend request like "Please go to bed." Then give it praise and one cheeseburger when it goes to bed the first time you ask it to. If it doesn't do what you ask the first time, say, "I can see you're not ready to do it right now, you don't earn a cheeseburger right now, but we'll try again later." And they don't earn a cheeseburger. If the president then turns around after you've said that and does what you asked, then praise it effusively, but don't give it a cheeseburger. You want to get the president used to doing what you ask on the first try. The key is practice and role play. Give it a cheeseburger for doing a successful pretend. Show it the rewards it can earn by doing what you ask right away without complaint. Rewards can be anything a president really wants, and don't always cost you money. Maybe they get an extra shark movie at bedtime or get to go lingerie shopping with their daughter, or maybe it gets to destroy one civil right.

6) Give an instruction only once. Don't foster greater disobedience by giving it a lot of attention. If you focus on their defiance, it will actually increase.

7) Learn to ignore -- or actually walk away -- from annoying behavior. When you stop giving attention to annoying behavior, there's nothing in it for the president. When you first start doing it, your president may actually throw even more tantrums -- because they're upset that their usual way of getting what they want isn't working. Eventually they will see that it doesn't work anymore.

8) Your goal in a tantrum is to get past it. Stay calm yourself and your president will calm down faster.

9) When you must punish your president, make it brief and don't delay it. Don't add punishment if the president complains. If they can't or won't do time out, take away a toy or privilege for a specified time. Longer and harsher punishment doesn't make it more effective.

10) Above all, put tip No. 1 into practice. Ideally, you should be praising your president’s behavior 90% of the time and punishing only 10% of the time. Notice your president’s good behavior and give it positive attention. They will do more of it. Change your behavior and your president will change theirs!"