'Killer clown' craze 'frightening' for entertainment industry
The "killer clown" craze sweeping across Britain which has seen children being chased and clowns jumping out on people, in some instances armed with knives, is "seriously harming" the clown entertainment industry.
Children are being put off clowns due to the recent "killer clown" craze and this is "frightening" for the industry, a professional party entertainer Mattie The Clown said.
"I'm not surprised, a lot of these masks are quite scary and very inappropriate," he added.
The recent clown craze is especially worrying at a time when less and less children have clowns at their parties due to the abundance of other types of entertainers or characters they could have, he said.
He continued that although every year sees people dress up as sinister clowns in the run-up to Halloween, this year has "been really bad".
Social media has made people even more aware of the craze, Mattie, who is also the director the Clowns Gallery-Museum in London, said.
In a message to those who dress up as clowns to scare others, Mattie said: "All I can say to you lot out there is, it's not funny and there are people trying to make a business out of being clowns, and you're spoiling it for everyone watching clowns."