I've noticed a lot of people are afraid of clowns, but for some reason they really hate mimes.  There seems to be a bit of a thin line separating clowns from mimes.  Both put on makeup and get into wacky antics.  Mimes never talk.  Some clowns don't talk, but some do, like the kind that make balloon animals at birthday parties.  Mimes probably dress a little less colorfully than clowns, too.  They tend to favor black hats and black pants and whatnot.

I'm not sure if I've ever been a clown, but I actually got to be a mime one time.  When I was in high school I was a member of a children's theater group and for some reason one day we went to the local water park and dressed up as mimes.  I can't remember exactly why we did this, but I went along with it.  And it ended up actually being pretty fun.  My friend and I went off on our own and just got into all kinds of mischief playing around with strangers at the park.  It was funny to see how people would react, including grown men.  Some of them seemed afraid of us, many of them seemed flustered by us, and it almost gives you a weird sense of power.  The whole not talking thing seems to unnerve people as well.  

It was all going really well until one crazy lady accused us of smashing ketchup packets and splattering them all over her baby carrier.  I know I didn't do that.  Possibly my friend did and I didn't see it, but that wasn't in line with how the rest of the day had gone.  We weren't doing anything harmful or malicious, just pretty much acting wacky.  But this lady was having a fit about how we ruined her baby carrier and we had to buy her a new one and threatening to call security or sue us or something.

I really didn't know how to handle the situation.  It's not like I was a professional mime or anything and I was only like 16 or 17 years old.  Plus the whole not talking thing made it difficult to defend ourselves.  Not to mention it seems a little silly to stay in mime character while being accused of something you didn't do by a hysterical lady.  I think I finally ended up just talking and trying to explain that she was mistaken.  I don't recall anything really coming of the whole situation, but it put a slight damper on an otherwise pretty fun day.

I don't know how real mimes do it though.  Is there like a mime code that you can't speak under any circumstances?  Do you get drummed out of the mime brotherhood if you do talk?  What do you do if the cops come and accuse you of murder?  Plus it seems like a lot of people fantasize about punching mimes.  What do you do if someone's really coming after you?

I'll most likely never be a mime again, so I suppose those questions will have to remain mysteries for the time being.