Skip to main content

State of Emergency / Speech to the People

int(105936)
Morro and Jasp State of Emergency iPhoto caption: Photo by Alex Nirta
/By / Oct 14, 2016
SHARE

Dear people who are pretending to be clowns and creeping around our schools, forests, and cities throughout Canada and the States:

Please stop. We beg you to stop.

It is hard enough to be a clown in this world where clowns in movies, on TV, and even in music are always portrayed as either stupid or scary or related to fast food. We are neither, and our food is slow-cooked and locally sourced. And now when we go out in public, people are going to have even more reason to question our actions, because of yours. This is our livelihood, people. How dare you take on our image, our faces, our likeness—a likeness that is meant to represent heart and soul and joy and truth and love and magic—and use it for something harmful and threatening.

We want to be clear here: The people committing these acts are not “clowns.” They do not deserve to be called “clowns” because they do not reflect a clown’s mission to seek truth and create healing and love. We, the real clowns, are now calling these cowardly people, who wear masks and fakey-fake looking clown makeup to conceal their identities, “Masked Nightmare-ists.” Morro liked “Fakey-fakes” but Jasp thought it sounded too silly for them, and they do not deserve the title of “silly” either.

So we are asking you, the public, to please not give them the honour of being called clowns. We are taking that right away from them. Right here. Right now. Do not give them power. If you see one, stop drop and roll, blow a whistle, alert the authorities, Care Bear–Stare them with your ukulele band, and tell them you are united with real clowns everywhere. We will not let these “Masked Nightmare-ists” scare us anymore.

Also, to anyone who is planning to dress up as a scary clown at Halloween, get an imagination and make a costume that is actually creative. If you even bother to take the time to look it up online, Halloween costumes were originally to ward off roaming ghosts, so we’re not sure how a clown costume does that anyway.

Finally… Dear King Bo. We watched your video. We understand you are scared and angry and want to protect yourself and your family and friends. We don’t blame you for being angry. We are angry too, and want to stick the Masked Nightmare-ists’ heads in toilets or cover them with five thousand fire ants. But hatred and violence is not the answer. Or at least that is what we were taught as kids. Tasering is definitely not the answer… because you might accidentally mistake us for killer clowns and taser us. The Masked Nightmare-ists are obviously people who are really twisted and in need of some love or attention or a good Netflix binge or… we are not sure what they need, but they need it in a big way.

Join us in identifying these people as what they are: Masked Nightmare-ists, a.k.a assholes.

With love and spitfire,

Morro and Jasp

Xo

Morro and Jasp
WRITTEN BY

Morro and Jasp

Morro and Jasp are Toronto-based clown sisters. Lovers, fighters and self-proclaimed superstars, they make plays, have a cookbook (yes, with real recipes!), and are working on a video game and a television pitch because they want to heal the world with love.

LEARN MORE

Comments

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


George Bernard Shaw, Dungeons & Dragons, and me

I love George Bernard Shaw. This is my 11th season as an actor at his namesake festival. I think so much of what Shaw wrote could have been written yesterday. But some people aren’t interested in hearing what Shaw has to say to them 74 years after his death.

By Travis Seetoo
kailin brown iPhoto caption: Kailin Brown in the Broadway National Tour of Chicago. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

I’m not a woman, I just play one

“As a performer, my job is to play a character, and if that character is right for me it doesn’t matter what gender they are,” writes non-binary actor Kailin Brown. “What matters is that I can make a difference in someone’s life who can relate to the character, or to me as the actor.”

By Kailin Brown
A photo of Uoft's University College. iPhoto caption: Photo by Robert Motum

Why would anyone do a PhD in theatre?

In an industry where stagnant government funding and tuition freezes have contributed to increasingly rigorous competition for fewer full-time positions, I’ve found myself reflecting: why do a PhD in theatre today?

By Robert Motum

Will female stories ever have a place in Canadian theatre?

A season of less than 50 per cent female playwrights, directors, and actors means the female-identifying population is not being fully represented. Programming becomes a question of this play or that play, as opposed to this and that, resulting in some narratives receiving short shrift. 

By Lezlie Wade

The spectacle of suffering: Toronto theatre’s addiction to trauma porn

Trauma is everywhere in Toronto — on the streets, subway, and stage — and maybe that’s why I’m so bored by it.

By Stephanie Fung
iPhoto caption: Rose Napoli appears as Margaret in her play Mad Madge. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

What is a feminist rom-com?

Rose Napoli reflects on Mad Madge, rom-coms, and the undeniable power of Patrick Swayze.

By Rose Napoli