I see these people every day. Chapman has created her own white-faced clown character with an unusual hot pink wig shaped like a question mark. When I'm performing, I'm always Lisa Chapman. But my character has got to be big enough for everyone to see to really enjoy it. I can portray any emotion, but it's got to be larger than life.
Chapman works six days a week, with one day open for travel to the next city.
She usually performs 10 shows a week, with multiple shows on weekends. During the show, Chapman and her Clown Alley cohorts perform eight different production numbers, including a laundry gag in which the clowns try unsuccessfully to wash an article of clothing at the laundermat and another routine with an Egyptian theme, featuring Chapman as Nefrititi, in which she jumps over King Tut's tomb. In other skits, the clowns walk on stilts and dress up as penguins, instruments in a clown band, and the members of a film crew, where Chapman plays a wardrobe lady. Once I get out on the floor, and I hear the crowd cheering and the children laughing, it can immediately lift me right out of a down day. Even when things go wrong - like the time a kiddie pool filled with bubble soap suddenly deflated during a gag, spewing 10 gallons of suds onto the arena floor.