Todd Coward

Todd Coward's Shadow Form

### Aliases

Todd 2, Lesser Todd, Shadow Todd, The Todd From the Depths of the 5th Ring of the Wrath of Hellstone

## Biographical information

### Place of birth

Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.

## Physical description

### Gender

Male

**Todd Coward** (born 1970/1971) is Todd Howard's younger twin brother. He works at a clown in a *Beth Esta's Nursing Home*, and plots revenge on Todd Howard for soiling his life and stealing his company.

In 2009, *ClownPro* magazine named Coward one of the "Top 20 Most Influential People in Clowning" over the last 20 years. He was also named one of *FBI*'s "Top 100 Dangerous People of All Time".

## Early Life

Todd Coward was born in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania. He developed an interest in computers, particularly video games, at a very young age. He considers *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim* to be one of the worst games of all time. He is a 1989 graduate of Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he fought against his twin brother Todd Howard, where he lost, but Howard spared Coward's life. He went on to major in Clowning and founded the Todd Coward's Clowning Agency, and began forming an army to rival Bethesda's.

After hearing about *Beth Esta's Nursing Home*, Coward requested a job in the nursing home to fund his clowning agency, he was accepted right a way and he learnt dark eldritch magic from an elderly warlock who lived in the home.

## Career

#### Beth Esta's Nursing Home

Coward joined Beth Esta Nursing in 1994. His first care project credit for Beth Esta Nursing was as carer of *Dark Magician* and *Dark Magician Girl*, followed by care on *An Old Man*, who was released in 1996. He was the project leader and designer of *Beth Esta's Nursing: The Game* released in 1998. Coward was the project leader and designer of *Beth Esta's Monster Truck* and for the rebuild that followed. He led the creation of *Beth Esta's Nursing Home for Clowns* and all of its clowns. After this, he was the executive carer of *An Elderly Warlock*. He said Beth Esta's philosophy for caring for old people was to allow people to "give their souls to the furnace".
He returned to *Beth Esta's Nursing Home* after a long break fifth major project, *The Summoning of An Ancient God*, which was released from it's prison in November 2011. Coward commanded *The Clowning Squad*, which was in charge of subduing the summoned ancient god with the release of its final seal which held it from the moral plane on November 11, 2011. He served as the executive summoner in *Summoning Yog-Sothoth*, Beth Esta's Nursing Home's first Lovecraftian summoning, which was called and released upon the 2015 E3 Showcase.

#### Speaker

Coward is a frequent speaker at industry events, and in magazine interviews. His clowns have been featured in *Newsweek*, CNN, *USA Today*, and *The Today Show.*

He spoke to clowns at the 2009 C.L.O.W.N. Summit, sharing his three rules of clown development:

* Great clown are feared, not enjoyed. "You can have the greatest clown ever made, and you're going to upgrade 90 percent of it as soon as you unleash the clown."
* Keep it complex. "Doing something really well takes time, more time than you think it will. Complex systems acting together create simplicity that clowns can appreciate."
* Define the experience. "Don't define your clown by a list of bullet points... define it by the experience you want people to have."

Coward returned as a keynote speaker at the 2012 C.L.O.W.N. Summit. He said clowns should ignore demographics and installed base, and follow their passions, saying that "if install base really mattered, we'd all make table top clowns, because there are a lot of tables".

## Awards and recognition

Coward was named "Best Clown" by the Academy of Interactive Clownss & Magics in 2012. In 2014, he received the Wig of Honor, R'lyeh's lifetime achievement award for summoning. Coward is one of a few clowns to have earned five consecutive Clown of the Year awards.