The Clown Who Wants to Make Children Smile For As Long As He Can

Dozens of children are gathered by a heavily decorated stage that day. It's an exceptionally hot February day, but the children don’t care—they are simply too excited. Shortly after, a figure in a bright yellow costume with a face covered in thick, white powder and red lips comes out.

The clown walks awkwardly before tripping over his own feet. He quickly stands up and pulls three balls out of his pocket and starts juggling them with his two hands. The crowd are out of control at this point. The children can’t stop laughing.

“I want to meet and take a picture with the clown,” says Caca, an eight-year-old girl in a wheelchair, to her mother. At the end of the event, I see Caca posing with the clown, both of them are smiling wide.

Caca is one of the 240 children taken care of by the Amarylis Kirana Foundation in Tangerang. All of them are being treated for cancer and blood disorders. Since 2015, the foundation has been providing support for the children by placing them in a halfway home where they have easy access to medical facilities.

That Sunday, on the International Children Cancer Day, twelve people from a clown community called Aku Badut Indonesia are there to entertain the children for free.

“My mom suffered cervical cancer,” Dedy Rahmanto, the founder of Aku Badut Indonesia, tells me. “I know what the struggle is like. That’s why I was moved to help these kids.”

Being a clown is not the most popular career path in Indonesia. To many people, the profession is little more than a joke. But Dedy makes it clear that being a clown is profitable and more importantly, noble. I mean, he puts a smile on people’s faces for a living.

“When I meet sick kids, I see myself like a doctor,” Dedy says. “The only medicine I bring is a smile. Sick kids don’t need toys. They need laughter.”

The 50-year-old man has dreamed of becoming a clown since he was a child. It all started naturally when Dedy's parents took him to a circus in Central Jakarta. There, Dedy was mesmerized by a chubby clown juggling things skillfully. The image stuck in his mind, and at 9 years old, Dedy asked for his parents permission to join an acrobat studio owned by the Indonesian legendary acrobat Pak Tepong.

“There’s a feeling I can’t explain, but when I saw a clown for the first time, I knew that’s what I wanted to be for the rest of my life,” Dedy says. Today, all of his five kids are also in the entertainment industry.

Dedy’s parents thought his fascination with clowns was going to pass. So when Dedy decided to work full time as a clown, they were against it. But that didn’t stop him. In high school, he skipped class often to perform. On average, he skipped about two weeks of class a month. Strangely, he graduated and went to university for a degree in tourism. After university, he worked as a chef at an elite hotel in Central Jakarta. But he quit a few months later to pursue his true passion as a clown.

“Being a clown is looked down upon,” Dedy tells me. “People in my neighborhood used to laugh at me. Even my in-laws didn’t want me to marry their daughter at first.”

He didn’t find stability as a clown straight away. For a few months, Dedy was struggling to find gigs. There weren’t enough birthday parties to give him a steady income. So he started promoting himself by going to hotels and malls to give out his business cards. Finally, a management of a mall in Central Jakarta hired Dedy for a children program. For a decade, he became a regular entertainer at the mall where he’s instantly recognized as the clown with a shoulder-length yellow hair, a red hat, a yellow-and-green plaid satin suit, yellow knee-length pants and giant green shoes. It’s a costume that has lasted for more than 20 years.

Dedy has made a name for himself in the entertainment industry. He’s appeared on TV and performing on big stages. He bought a house and a car. He started a tailoring business. Nowadays he’s so busy that he often turns down birthday party gigs. After being a successful clown for 25 years, putting more smiles on children’s is still his life’s calling.

“Clowns don’t only entertain, we also educate through games and dancing,” Dedy says.

Dedy became more open to volunteer work after a friend asked him to perform at a orphanage. That experience taught him that not all children can afford quality entertainment. Some children have never even seen a clown before. So he gathered some of his clown friends and started Aku Badut Indonesia.

Aku Badut Indonesia sells merchandise to raise money that it later distributes to orphanages and foundations, including the Amarylis Kirana Foundation. The clowns never take a single penny when they perform at community events.

Members of Aku Badut Indonesia come from all sorts of different backgrounds. Some are dancers, ustaz, graphic designers, and even entrepreneurs. But their mission to make children happy is what glues them together.

“Each of us has our own job, but in Aku Badut Indonesia, we all have the same vision and mission,” Dedy says. “Which is to become clowns who can not only joke, but contribute to society.”

Dedy is not as young or as strong as he used to be. He has spent almost half of his life entertaining people. But as long as he can make people smile, he has no plans to retire.

“Born as a clown, die as a clown,” he tells me, full of pride.

This article is a collaboration between VICE and Pepsodent in a campaign to spread more smiles in Indonesia. #SenyumSatuIndonesia