The real reason why I hate clowns...I think.
By Rodney Blackwell

When I first started The No Clown Zone back in 1996, there wasn't much content to the site. I was currently enrolled in a short fiction class at the local university, and our current topic was the "short short story". I wrote the story on this page with that theme in mind. At the time I wasn't really sure why I hated clowns...I just knew I did.

It wasn't until late last year (2001) when my wife and I bought the DVD version of "The Wiz" when I realized where my hatred most likely began.

I've probably seen "The Wiz" maybe 10-20 times throughout my youth. It was one of those movies you watch every year around the holidays like "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer", "Frosty the Snowman" and the like.

It's basically, the classic "Wizard of Oz" tale, but with an all black cast. Michael Jackson plays The Scarecrow, Diana Ross plays Dorothy and Oz bears a great resemblance to downtown New York.

As our cast ease on down the road to see "The Wiz", they have to make their way through a subway. Once in the subway they are confronted by one of those creepy subway vendors, only this one doesn't have little cute monkeys, it's got these creepy clown dolls! Not only are the clown dolls creepy, but they slowly grow to like 20 feet high and start chasing Dororthy and her friends through the subway.

This part of the movie only spans about 5 minutes, however the music that plays as the clowns are introduced and the way they slowly grow even more menacing in size makes the scene seem to last a lifetime. Now that I think back...that scene has lasted a lifetime.

I still love "The Wiz". It's a great movie on many levels: Michael Jackson acting (he's actually pretty darn good), catchy musical numbers ("Ease on Down the Road" comes to mind), and it's just funny to see how they remake the classic "Wizard of Oz" to fit their needs.

So that's my real story about why I probably hate clowns. If you haven't seen The Wiz, Amazon.com currently has it for around $20...you can pick it up here.