MUSEUM & CULTURE
Toby's Clown School & Museum
Highlands County · Central Florida
A clown school and a museum of over 700 pieces of clown memorabilia, started by a man who began by entertaining hospital patients.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Keith Stokes, known as Toby, moved to Lake Placid and started visiting hospital patients in costume. He taught his first clown class in 1993, and in 1995 the group was chartered by Clowns of America International as Toby's Clown Alley number 296. The school has been running ever since and has trained a great many clowns over the years. In January 2010 the foundation opened its own building, which holds more than 700 pieces of clown memorabilia, a gift shop and the offices. The museum is the part visitors come for, but the school is the point of the place: people who train here go on to work hospitals, nursing homes, children's birthday parties, street entertainment through the tourist season and events across central Florida. The foundation takes no city, state or national money and runs on donations and its own fundraising. Clowns can be booked for an event by telephone. It is in Lake Placid, the same small town as the murals and the caladium fields
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