ABOUT US

Our Victoria Clown Troupe

Stretch (Scott Smith)

Scott has always been a clown (refer to his high school yearbook for confirmation of this) but it was a bad street mime in San Francisco in the ‘70s that got him thinking he could do a better job of it. Heading back to Toronto he took to the streets as well as studying mime, clown and commedia dell’arte. It was there that he also taught mime classes for children and performed in children’s theatre. Upon arriving in Victoria in the early ‘80s, it didn’t take him long to set up his Rent-A-Joke business at the Inner Harbour but the demands of a growing family precipitated a career-drift back to his work as an early-childhood educator (where his clown remained very active). Now, with that chapter closed, Scott still thoroughly enjoys his diminished time with children but he is also thrilled to be spending more and more of his days cavorting with the Sunshine Clown Society.

Goldie (Amanda Ricks)

Amanda Ricks received her Bachelor's degree in drama from Concordia University in Montreal and her Master's degree in Drama Therapy from NYU. She is a Registered Drama Therapist with the National Association of Drama Therapy. She currently works for Community Living British Columbia as a case facilitator and has a private counseling practice. Amanda has also been a Senior Rehabilitation Counselor at Bellvue Hospital in New York City and a facilitator in Community Development in Northern Manitoba First Nations, but her favorite job was being a professional clown in Montreal. She likes to work, but play is way better!

Ruby-Dooby (Rebecca Ataya)

Rebecca Ataya received her BA in Child and Youth Care from UVic and has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Calgary. She currently works as a researcher and policy analyst for the community social service sector. She has also worked as a childcare provider, as a counselor for children and youth experiencing family violence, as a volunteer manager and as a manager for a shelter for homeless families in Calgary.

Mimsy (Ann Sorensen)

When Ann was a little girl, she wanted to be a clown when she grew up. She also wanted to be Pippi Longstocking. Ann graduated from UVic in 1977 with a degree in Child and Youth Care, though she probably learned more about life from hitchhiking across Canada and around Europe. Ann recently retired after 26 years as an Infant Development Consultant with Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health. She also once lived on a floathouse in Tofino next to a family of otters. In 2012, Ann studied clowning in Montreal with Vivian Gladwell and Blondine Maurice from “Nose to Nose”. She continued with further “Nose to Nose” training sessions in Victoria with Blondine and Kristin Crowley. In 2014, Ann completed the Care Clown training with the Sunshine Clowns, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to finally realize her childhood dream of becoming a clown.

Bungle (Jim Ricks)

Jim is a retired psychologist who now works with seniors in developing fitness and improving mental health. But he's always had a love of performing, starting out as a disk jockey in Oklahoma in his teens, and working off and on in television and radio over the years. He's also a country fiddler who played for some years in a country dance band. He has done clown training with Christopher Bayes, Eric (Red Bastard) Davis, and Avner (The Eccentric) Eisenberg.
He has several clown characters including Dr.Bungle, Phoologist and lecturer on Humor
and Health.

Blossom (Phyllis McGee)

Phyllis received a Doctor of Education in Counselling Psychology from the University of Toronto. She moved to Victoria in 1993 where she worked primarily with seniors; first providing bereavement counselling and community education for McCall’s funeral home and later conducting research at the Centre on Aging, University of Victoria. In 2003, Phyllis was introduced to Target Theatre, a senior community theatre troupe focused on performing plays designed to entertain and educate the community on seniors’ issues. She fell in love with acting! In 2015, she heard a lecture by a U of T researcher on Elder Clowning and it touched her deeply. When she retired in 2016, her dream was to continue in some form of meaningful work and to have fun. Care-clowning with the Sunshine Clowns has been a dream come true!