Alison McLaughlin

News Obituary Article

ATLANTA: Alison McLaughlin, clown with many faces

By HOLLY CRENSHAW

Alison McLaughlin's approach to clowning wasn't just child's play. She loved adding a subversive twist to her repertoire of offbeat characters and messing with people's all too comfortable preconceptions.

Take, for example, her favorite incarnation: Doris Bellamini, a tacky truck stop waitress with a ginormous red wig, tattered aqua-and-pink outfit, and garish lipstick smudged on her teeth. Mischievous party hosts would hire her to show up at their soirees, then stand back and watch as unsuspecting guests were left dumbfounded by her loud comments and gauche behavior, such as stirring her drink with her finger.

"She'd show up late and stumble all over the place and was hilariously funny," said her friend Bob Hollister of Atlanta. "People just loved that character."

"Often she portrayed people that were kind of on the fringes of standard society, so it was entertaining to watch everyone's reaction to it," said her brother, Bob McLaughlin of Longmont, Colo. "But Alison liked giving people a chance to stretch a little bit and see that not everything in life is as it appears."

Ms. McLaughlin, 57, of Atlanta died Wednesday of liver disease at Grady Memorial Hospital. The body was cremated. The memorial service is at 5 p.m. Nov. 13 at Paris on Ponce. H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill, is in charge of arrangements.

For years, the comic actress gallivanted around at concerts as ring-tailed Rocky Raccoon, a mascot for radio station 96rock. Her Bubbles the Clown character was a staple at children's parties and festivals, where she made balloon animals, painted faces and did magic tricks.

She was just as likely, though, to show up at an office delivering a comedy-gram, insisting that she was some embarrassed birthday boy's long-lost lover. Sometimes Ms. McLaughlin was transvestite Sly Bly or fortuneteller Madame Madelaine or Tinseltown has-been Lucky DuJour, dripping with gaudy jewelry and feather boas, with a floor-length sequined gown and mile-high hair.

"She had a long list of wacky performances she did that were never hurtful but just intended to bring joy and fun and a different look at life," her brother said. Her fortuneteller persona always put a positive spin on her prognostications, he said.

Ms. McLaughlin moved to Atlanta in the early 1970s, first picking up work through a booking agent and then branching out to start her own Alison Agency. She ran it from her southeast Atlanta house, building a roster of more than 500 actors, models and specialty acts.

She kept Braves games stocked with clowns, booked jugglers and magicians for conventions and oversaw the fortunetellers and astrologers at Underground Atlanta.

Ms. McLaughlin's house was filled with paintings she bought from local artists, and for years she vacationed throughout the world with her close-knit circle of friends.

"Alison was a very spiritual person who, like many of us in her age group, came through the Hari Krishna and hippie movement, and it molded her attitude about connecting with the world," Mr. Hollister said. "She just believed in love and in making people feel good, and that was very much her approach to the world."

There are no other immediate survivors.

© 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution