Funny Business: Who is Johnny K?

Johnny has that knack of making you laugh within moments of meeting him. On the day he came to my apartment, he pretended to walk into a door. Not suprising then that he is a trained clown.

Johnny has toured post-conflict countries, such as Bosnia and Romania, with comedy and circus shows. Most recently he brought a tour to post-tsunami Sri Lanka. En route, he teaches circus skills to local people, believing in the power of laughter to heal divides.

Johnny now uses his clowing skills to promote multi-cultural awareness in primary schools in Ireland. Responding to increasingly diverse classrooms, he said,

'I want to enlighten Irish children to people who are coming into their areas, to put them in these peoples shoes and show them what it would be like for them, irrespective of where they come from, whether a refugee or not. I basically talk about my experience of refugees in their own countries, and explain what it is like to be a refugee today'

I asked him what advice he would have for young people starting off on their careers, and without hesitation he stated;
'GET OUT OF THE POND. TRAVEL'.

By leaving Ireland, new opportunities and perspectives opened up to him, and from his travels he gained the experience necessary to develop the Schools Cap programme.

You can find out more about Johnny on http://www.socialentrepreneurs.ie/

tags: Clown, Schools, Ireland, Social Entrepreneur, Education, Intercultural