To look at Eddie Haworth you would not notice anything unusual. He s just another 58 year old western guy from Bolton in the UK who happens to live in Thailand.
But If you see his alter ego, Clown Eckie, then here is something truly unique. Being the only western clown in Thailand Clown Eckie has been entertaining audiences for the past 10 years. And now; with the establishment of the Gift of Happiness Foundation, Clown Eckie is giving back happiness to young orphans and refugees. But as Kevin Pearce discovered under the make-up and silly costume lies a troubled past that seems to lurk behind many a clown.
Photos: Kevin Pearce

Kevin Pearce: How did you become a clown?

Eddie Haworth: I had a very serious motorbike accident. I had back injuries, head injuries; I was in a coma for a while. I was in hospital for exactly a year and when I came out l was quite seriously disabled and had to have physiotherapy. In fact, I was registered disabled for about five years in the UK and at that time I could only use my hands so I learnt to play the squeezebox – the concertina. Anyway, as a result of the accident I lost my house, because I couldn’t pay I my mortgage, which was quite a big blow and I lost my job as manager of a bottled gas delivery company and lost my wife, which left me as a single parent with two kids.

So I went out on the streets busking with my concertina – I could hardly play the damn thing but could play things like Danny Boy and get away with it. Anyway, my ex—wife took the kids back and I was free to go off round Europe as a street entertainer and I spent nine years doing that. Gradually, I developed my skills and eventually became a professional clown. Then I met this girl from Lapland in northern Sweden and she was an acrobat so we ended up developing a double act and we sold very well and got bookings all over the place; we became quite successful. Eventually we married. That lasted for some time until she met someone younger and ran off with him; fancy car, money, all that stuff. I was devastated and from that point had to develop a solo act.

KP: Did you have a happy childhood?

EH: No. In short. Very, very unhappy times as a child which led me to a very unfortunate adolescence – I was a real tearaway and got into all sorts of trouble.

KP: Do you think this unhappy Childhood influenced you in any way?

EH: No, but I personally get a lot of pleasure from seeing children enjoying themselves. It’s difficult to entertain children and in a sense I have to be as innocent as they are, otherwise they don’t understand it – they don’t gain from it.

KP: So why did you choose to work in Thailand as a clown?

EH: I ask that question myself. I didn’t want to come here, actually. A fellow clown used to come here and he kept saying to me, “You should go to Thailand”, this was after my last wife left me so I was upset and a bit paranoid about the whole thing about a single man over 40 going to Thailand. And with me being a clown you know, these are issues.
Anyway, eventually I was offered a show at the Ploenchit Fair at the British Embassy and I also managed to secure a product launch for Mercedes Benz in Pattaya – that paid for my flight. And I have to say when I first arrived I hated it – way too hot. But I went back to the UK and thought I’ll give it a go.

KP: Were jobs easy to come by?

EH: No, well, for the first five years I hardly worked at all. I’d made a lot of money in the UK and I ended up spending a lot of it. And then I thought to myself, what are you doing? So it took me a while to wake up and smell the coffee and realise I needed to do something.

KP: Are you lonely?

EH: No not at all. I sued to be very lonely, when my wife left, you know, I was on antidepressants and all sorts of stuff, I used to drink heavily too – so I was beside myself. In fact, after my wife left, if I was doing two shows back-to-back, during the break I’d go to the toilet and burst into tears. There I was in the toilet in full make-up crying my eyes out. You hear stories about clowns being depressed – well I was that clown.

KP: Most people at work have colleagues or other people working in the same field who they can talk to, blow off steam. It appears to me that you’re quite unique, so who do you talk to?

EH: That’s a brilliant question; nobody’s ever asked me that before. I don’t have anyone to talk to and that’s the only thing I miss about being in the UK and you’re right, most people have colleagues with whom you can talk about shit, but here, I have nobody. And that I do miss, I really do. The only way I get round it is to email friends in the UK who are still in the business, Before (in the UK) wed sit around for hours after a gig and chat about things and learn from each other, too. That is something I really miss.

KP: How did the Gift of Happiness Foundation come about?

EH: When I first came to Thailand I did a few charity gigs at orphanages and stuff for the Rotary Club but there was one turning point at a gig here in Bangkok when after the show the lady who was caring for the children came up to me and said the children had really enjoyed the show but they were worried that I couldn’t speak. Well, at shows where the kids don’t understand English I don’t speak; I do the show like Mr. Bean. But she told me that many of them had HIV and full-blown AIDS and that made me think – here they were dying as it were, and all they were worried about was that I couldn’t speak. So I wanted to give a little back.

KP: How much of your time is now devoted to the charity?

EH: It’s 70% – for the last four and a half years I’ve been trying to get the charity registered in Thailand and we got full registration in December 2009, so I’m absolutely delighted with that. So now we can issue tax receipts to anyone who, donates to the foundation.

KP: What would happen if Clown Eckie couldn’t perform for the Gift of Happiness Foundation?

EH: It would stop! At the moment I’m all there is, but it’s new and eventually I hope to have other people along – no, I will, I’m going to make it happen. I want volunteer entertainers to come from the UK, America and Australia and so on. S0, I Eddie Haworth, not Clown Eckie, as director of operations,am going to make sure it all happens for the children. I’m directing truck loads of goods and donations from all over the place and making sure it gets to the refugee camps and orphanages. It’s a big, big thing.

KP: What gives you the most pleasure?

EH: I love working with the refugees because most of them have never seen a foreigner before, or if they have it’s NGO workers or people from the UN who walk round with great big files and
everybody’s bowing and scraping before them, and I come along, a big fat foreign guy and I fall off a chair and make a fool of myself. That for them (the refugees) can be a life changing experience they’ll remember that for the rest of their life. That’s important.

KP: What does the future hold?

EH: Well, over the next six to ten years I hope the foundation will grow and give a lot of pleasure to thousands of kids. As for Clown Eckie, I still need to make a living and keep going, but I want to do a Tommy Cooper – I want to keep working as a clown until I drop dead on stage. (laughs) Well, I hope I don’t drop dead in front of a bunch of five year olds – that would be very distressing!

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Taken from: Traversing The Orient, March 2010
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