COMMUNITY PROFILE

Laughter is the best medicine

Petaluman Cheryl Wagner’s profession revolves around making others feel good

Cheryl Wagner performs at parties and other events as Budderball the Clown, Queen Daffodil, Madame Ravioli or Captain Jane Sparrow. Zoom Photo

AT A GLANCE Name: Cheryl Wagner Age: 52 Family: Married and has two sons. Occupation: Professional clown. Hobbies: Reading and gardening. “I’ve become a ‘Flower Floozy.” Latest books read: “I have a lot of books going at the same time. I just read incessantly. ‘Paint It Black’ by Janet Fitch was sad, but very good. ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini was so engaging. For my reading group, we’re reading ‘A Woman’s High Calling’ by Elizabeth George.” Fave Petaluma hangout: “I love so much about Petaluma. I love to walk at Shollenberger Park. And for someplace new, I just had a great lunch with a friend at Namaste Café.” Little known fact: “Clowns have a code of ethics. When in costume and character in public, clowns never drink alcohol, smoke or swear.” Web site: www.budderballtheclown.com.

Just hearing her rich, hearty laugh is enough to convince one that Cheryl Wagner is a person who knows how to enjoy life.

Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Wagner says, “My earliest memories are of walking to the library with my mother and brother as a child, and we’d check out our limit every week. We filled out a library card for my little brother so we could check out even more books.”

From that vast lore of stories, Wagner says she would read and act out the stories, being comfortable in the role of storyteller.

The clowning part came later, when Wagner and her husband owned two stores in the Haight district of San Francisco.

“I had a friend who was a clown and she wanted to go into business and asked me to help her set it up,” she said. “Instead of pay, we bartered for clown lessons and I attended clown school in Concord.

“We stayed friends through the years, and eventually my husband and I moved to Petaluma, where we opened the Circle of Friends store in the space that is Copperfield’s now. We didn’t get as much business as we’d have liked, although we’d have 60 people in the store each day. I started thinking about what else I could do.

“My friend Zipp (the Clown) said, ‘you should clown.’ I didn’t know anyone who clowned full time and I was a bit hesitant to commit to it as a career, but I knew it was for me when I attended the National Clown Convention, which just happened to be held in San Francisco for the first time that year. I met people who told me how much it would cost for makeup and costumes and how much they made as clowns, and I was off! Now I wish I had started 22 years ago.”

Wagner says her philosophy is that “I believe that we are created in God’s image and we laugh as normal behavior. Have you ever seen an infant laugh? It’s natural; our God’s a god of laughter and joy.

“Laughing is such a release, allowing a cleansing within,” she said. “There’s the release of endorphins and I believe it helps the digestive system and clears the lungs. Even people undergoing great hardship can laugh and find the strength to go on. I get more out of it than anyone in my audiences.

“It (laughter) brings me great joy and inner peace. I feel the tragedy we have in the world, but laughter relieves it and there’s a lot to laugh about.”

Wagner, who says her specialty is face painting, entertains at children’s and adult parties, church and leadership groups. She does a few jokes, especially with children who are waiting in line for her, but mostly inhabits characters such as her best-known “Budderball the Clown,” named after her favorite childhood doll, as well as “Queen Daffodil,” “Madame Ravioli” and “Captain Jane Sparrow,” a female version of Captain Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Wagner also visits high schools and discusses clowning as a career option for students.

“If you’re artistic and outgoing, it is a career to consider,” she said. “I tell them that you can make a great living at it. Face-painting alone can be a very rewarding career.”

Wagner has been writing lately, with an eye to expanding her repertoire to include stand-up comedy, as well as facilitating and emceeing at group functions.

“I give people a chance to find their inner funny,” she says. “I see the foolishness about everything, but with a different perspective, which is finding the funny business and empowering people by helping them laugh it off.”

(Contact Lynn Schnitzer at argus@arguscourier.com)