The clowning community has a message for anyone horrified by the thought of white make-up, big shoes and wild red hair: not all clowns are to be feared.
A global craze of people wearing creepy clown outfits in public has left legitimate jesters juggling up fresh ways to avoid frightening their clientele.
![People wearing clown outfits have been terrorising residents in America.](/web/20161009111851im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/5/2/f/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grxtvj.png/1475937024549.jpg)
The so-called "clown purge" fad involves people dressing up in sinister clown masks, such as those from horror movies, and then appearing in random places.
The trend has become so prevalent that Victoria Police issued a warning on Friday that the wave of creepy clown sightings across the United States was being replicated by copycats locally.
![Rufus the Magical Party Clown markets himself as being "non scary".](/web/20161009111851im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/x/v/f/2/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.grxtvj.png/1475900457340.jpg)
Police haven't gone in to any detail about where the clowns have been seen. However numerous Facebook pages have been set up devoted to spotting the clowns and, even more alarmingly, hunting them.
Sam Starr, also known as Crazy Daisy, said the grotesque clown masks being seen in public were inspired by fictional characters, the most famous being Stephen King's "Pennywise" from the book It.
As a female clown, she said her act was usually not as spooky for people who had a developed a legitimate phobia of clowns from scary movies.
"I'm really not into those falsified extremities, for me the only thing you need for a clown mask is the red nose," she said.
![Crazy Daisy she she doesn't scare people because she doesn't look like the traditional horror clown.](/web/20161009111851im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/x/v/e/f/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.grxtvj.png/1475900457340.jpg)
Sam said that even she had a fear of clowns when she was little but had since learned to see clowning as a "beautiful way to express the innocence of children".
"We're the opposite of those masks, if I saw that I would be scared. The clown is innocent, it is not scary," she said.
Rufus the Magical Party Clown (a character of Mathew Barnsley) markets himself as "non scary", using minimal make-up to avoid unnerving anyone with clown anxieties.
The more a person can see his face, he said, the less likely it is they will be frightened.
"It's also trying not to have the clothing too loose, I just wear a jacket and pants," he said.
"If they're in a really big costume, it adds to the the whole perception of the scary clown."
Many people develop their fear of clowns as a child and then carry it right through adulthood, Mathew said.
In the United States, some clowns have taken to starting up the #ClownLivesMatter hashtag (as in the #BlackLivesMatter movement) as a way of casting off their scary reputation.
Judith Lanigan, who recently wrote the book Clownland about what it takes to be a clown, said the classic scary clown had distorted facial features, which were developed in early theatre.
She said the recent warnings from police was worrying because it may lead to threats of violence against professional clowns.
The word "clown" was now so loaded with meaning that it had almost become offensive itself, she said.
"Being a clown is something to be proud of," she said. "It takes years of work to become a clown.
"These people are just buying a plastic mask."