What Do You Think of Clowns?

Earlier this month in Mackay, Queensland, a group of people reportedly dressed as clowns and appeared around town, presumably to scare people.

One of today’s guests, Kate Iselin, brought this story to our attention.  Kate loves things that are weird and creepy!  Along with Kate, host Sean Morahan was joined by guests Jess Klajman and Ray Cashman.

The group of Mackay clowns appear to have started during the clown craze of 2016.  On 11 September, 2017 the group posted on it’s Facebook page ‘We’re coming back’ with three clown emojis.

Last year (October 9, 2016) they posted “It is now our time to shine we don’t want to hurt you we just wanna play”.

Host Sean Morahan had to ask:

• Is Ray Cashman behind this?
• What are our guests’ opinions of clowns?
• What are their experiences with clowns?
• Are clowns scary?

So the latest activity from this Mackay scary clown project is allegedly ‘inspired’ by the remake of the Horror Movie ‘It’ based on a novel by Stephen King.

So Sean was also interested to know:

• Do you enjoy horror movies?  (Disney movies don’t count).
• If so, do you have a favourite?
• What do you think the attraction of horror is?
• Do you enjoy pranks?
• What pranks have you played?

Some people have threatened violence if they encounter the clowns in public.  They didn’t say specifically if it would be a head-butt.

Rocks in Their Head

Our second story this week was spied on the NEWS Limited website.  The story reported that hundreds of people are mailing rocks, sand and twigs and it’s not for the postal same sex marriage vote.

Tourists who have taken natural mementos from the land around Uluru while visiting there are mailing them back to the land’s traditional owners, the Anangu people.

As yet, no tourist has managed to get THE Rock into their suitcase.  Anangu people say they are overwhelmed with letters and packages.

The article references a new book ‘Haunted: Mysterious Australia’, which is a collection of spooky stories, but oddly with no mention of the Clowns of Mackay. The book tells how several international tourists have been hit by bad luck after taking natural souvenirs from around Uluru.  It says “Hundreds of visitors from all over the world are returning their illegal caches of rock and sand … often after experiencing bad luck attributed to their souvenirs — the curse of Uluru,”

The author of the book is the credibly named Tim the Yowie Man.

The rocks being returned have been dubbed ‘Sorry rocks’ but there is no mention of sorry twigs or sorry sand.  It’s a sorry state of affairs.

This story prompted Sean to ask our guests:

• Have you ever taken a natural souvenir?  Apart from hotel towels and cosmetics?
• Do you buy / acquire souvenirs?
• Do you still have any of your souvenir/s?
• In a Brady Bunch story where the family go to Hawaii, Peter and Bobby take a tiki then experience bad luck until they return it.  Do you think re-runs of the Brady Bunch are partly to blame for this superstition?

One traveller from Hong Kong posted a 300-gram piece of Uluru with the note: “When I received the rock I was so worried that I want to return it as soon as possible. [In] just one week, my brother broke up with his girlfriend, my father went to hospital and he will do heart surgery on the 20 January. Anyway I just want to return the rock to its rightful place and say good bye to the bad luck!”

Traditional owner Barbara Tjikatu appreciates the gesture of sending back mementos of Uluru with apologies, but urges: “Please, please don’t take anymore”.

The Vultures’ Nest is on 2SER 107.3 FM on Saturdays from 10.30 am.