Mr Custard is a clown from Bridport. He's come down to the fete to entertain the children and he's successfully distracting them from the pouring rain: "We're having a lot of fun and we're encouraging lots of other people to come and play and to be playful." Mr Custard, aka Derek Finch, is a member of Holy Fools, a collection of over 200 clowns, mime artists, puppeteers, dancers, storytellers and musicians from around the UK who use laughter to put across the Christian message. The members regularly gather together and perform at fetes, in schools and in churches.
 | | Hattie Maths |
Hattie Maths, aka Sue Brown, from Puncknowle, is the editor of the Holy Fools newsletter, Foolish Times. She thinks she was always destined to become a clown and entertain: "God made me a clown. I never asked to be a clown. Clowning helps me be me." Faith was something Mr Custard came to later in his life: "I was a clown before I was a Christian. I think I was a much bigger fool then because I was trying to live my life without knowing Jesus. Now I'm a fool for Christ instead of being a fool without Christ and my job, such as it is, is to share that joy. I can say to other people, hey, you can know this Jesus too." | "Why do we want to bring joy? Well, it's because you have to put Jesus first, others second and yourselves last. That's joy!" | | Mr Niggles |
He sees clowning as being able to make people laugh and show people that Christianity doesn't have to be a serious affair: "I hope that I can show people that it's not all doom and gloom. You don't have to sit in church looking miserable. God's got a sense of humour. He must have a sense of humour because he picked me!" Mr Niggles, who travelled to Puncknowle from Weymouth with the silent Miss Luppy, says that spreading joy is the most important aspect of being a Holy Fool: "Why do we want to bring joy? Well, it's because you have to put Jesus first, others second and yourself last. That's joy!"
 | | Mr Niggles and Miss Luppy |
It's not just local clowns who have made their way to Puncknowle. Plummie is visiting Dorset from Manchester. He used to be a professional wrestler and was often booed as a baddie. He left the wrestling world, became a Christian and asked God to give him a new gift. He now uses his clowning skills to pass on the message that God is fun: "I try and tell people that God is love. It's all about having fun with God. God created laughter as well as the world." Tom Fun from Penarth in Wales wanted to be either a clown or a bus conductor when he was a child: "The only bus conductor I knew when I was young used to make people laugh a lot! It didn't happen though and in 1981 I had the opportunity to try out some clowning and it snowballed from there." Even though spirits amongst the members of Holy Fools are often sky high, running a clown organisation is not easy, according to Hattie Maths:
 | | Tom Fun |
"Clowns are a bit disorganised and they're not very good at paying their subs! At the moment we've got about 136 paid up members and another 70 who don't pay." A lot of the membership is made up of part-time clowns who spend the rest of their time as doctors, priests, lawyers, chefs and teachers. Hattie was a maths teacher looking for a different direction. She went on an RE course and came across clowning. She now tours schools teaching maths 'in clown' - meaning dressed in full make-up and costume. Plummie has performed at nearly 3,000 school assemblies. It's an approach he finds goes down very well with the children: "Who would you sooner have at your school assembly - the headteacher telling you how to behave or a clown being funny? Already, you've won them over! As a clown you can go into a lot of church schools and explain the gospel of Christ easier than a lot of priests because children will listen to a clown."
 | | Mr Custard |
Mr Custard agrees that clowns can get the Christian message across to children better than more traditional methods: "There are teenagers who want to know what it's all about but it's not cool to listen to Bible stories. Young people are hungry to know what it is that Christians have got and clowning is another way of sharing it." Mr Custard thinks that it's not just children who can appreciate the message of a Christian clown: "What we do speaks to grown ups too. The gospel message is actually very very simple and all these theologians and brainy people use long words and it makes it all so complicated! The message is Jesus wants to be in your heart, so invite him. While we're saying that to the little people suddenly the penny drops for some of the bigger people!" | 
