Deepa Bharath
When Sherron Newberg puts on her hot pink wig, paints her face white
and dons her frilly costume, she's a different person.
Really.
She's no longer Sherry. She transforms into Molly Malone, the
clown.
The 60-year-old Santa Ana resident, who has owned her Costa Mesa
store selling costumes and gag gifts for the last 12 years, has been
"clowning around" for about three decades now.
"I was born a clown," Newberg said, letting out a high-pitched
cackle.
She took drama in high school and knew she had a talent or two
when it came to the fine art of acting. But it wasn't until she moved
to California from Florida and took up a job at a Santa Ana costume
store that she realized she wanted to be a clown.
"There were no female clowns in those days," she said. "We had a
lot of male clowns who came to our store for makeup. And I figured,
'I could do that.'"
The male clowns looked "ugly," Newberg joked.
"They said, 'Oh, there's no such thing as a female clown,'" she
said.
But that wasn't going to stop her.
At first, she looked and felt like an amateur. Clowns didn't
really have names back then. So, Newberg called herself the "Love
Clown." One of the first costumes she made was a green checked skirt
and pinafore. She spray-painted a wig green.
"It was horrible," she said, contorting her face as she pointed to
a picture on the wall of herself wearing that costume. "I had that
green paint running down my face. Oh, it was awful."
Molly is born
Newberg was not one to throw her arms up in the air and quit. She
worked her way through it all. She went to Clown Camp at Circus
Circus in Las Vegas. She went to conventions and workshops, honing
her skills and getting newer ideas.
At the same time, she was also looking for her first gig. An Irish
pub in Santa Ana called Malone's was looking for a clown to perform
on their opening night. And Newberg stepped right in and Molly Malone
was born.
"I just wanted that gig," she said. "Molly was the first name that
came to my mind and I couldn't just call myself that, so I added
Malone."
She also learned to perform magic and is an active member of the
International Brotherhood of Magicians.
Newberg hasn't looked back. She's seen it all: birthday parties,
over-the-hill parties, office picnics, family reunions.
She has also enjoyed doing telegrams, where she acts as a
messenger delivering a humorous message to a recipient. Once, dressed
in full clown garb, Newberg proposed marriage to a judge in her
chambers for a pilot who had to take an unexpected flight.
