Courtesy Elliott Snedecor

a semiretired insurance adjuster once ran in a local “fun” race dressed as a clown. Inspired by the reactions of the youngest spectators, he decided to keep clowning around. Seventeen years later, “El Sned” is a happy presence at schools, birthday parties and retirement homes near the coastal town of Newport, Ore.

Being a clown, he says, “is a wonderful experience that gives you an automatic entrée into the lives of other people.” Some kids, however, react with wariness. When a youngster asked him, “Are you a real person?” El Sned changed his opening act, entering as plain old Elliott Snedecor and putting on his costume and makeup onstage. He also self-published a short, poignant children’s book showing that “clowns are people, too.”

Historically, “clowns have built an excellent reputation, and we work hard to maintain that,” he says. “We never put people down. We make fun of ourselves and remind grown-ups how to be playful.”