Two first times...

My clown partner and I are walking down the hospital corridor and we enter a room where a 15 year old, poly-handicapped teen is sitting in his wheelchair. His father is there. They seem to be from the middle east. We start a chant and music, I use his wheelchair and then his body for percussion. The boy starts laughing, the dad starts crying. The more the boy laughs, the more the dad cries. We finish our intervention, say goodbye and leave. As we exit the next room, I hear the father talking to another parent across the hall and he says "It's the first time I hear my son laughing..."

Woah...

The next day, 2 nurses come chasing us down the hall to come meet their patient. Another poly-handicapped teen who is a regular in this ward. The nurses give us a hint about the boy's "girlfriend". The teen cannot communicate with words, mostly grunts and pure emotions. So the clowns get into this improv about the female clown, my partner, trying to seduce this teen to become his "new girlfriend". I suggest singing, dancing, massaging... to which my partner says yes, doing things very chaotically. There is a huge build-up and the teen is laughing hysterically. We say good-bye and as we are leaving, I overhear the nurses say, "I've never heard him laugh before..."

Nice.