About Me

Early Beginnings

As a child I spent most of my time and pocket money in novelty and joke shops. My debut magical performance was to my grade 1 class when I was only 5 years old.

Many years later when Brisbane hosted World Expo ’88 I fell in love with street theatre and modern clowning. Armed with this new passion every spare moment  was spent learning a wide variety of circus skills and magic tricks.

Entertainer

By 1992 I had reached a stage where I was able to give up my day job in the retail jewellery trade and launch into an unknown future as a full time entertainer.

Since then I have performed thousands of shows and circus workshops for countless people in many wonderful places including Norfolk Island, Scotland, England, France, Holland, Jordan, Israel, Thailand, Cambodia and all over Australia.

Clown Doctor

For eleven years, sick children at Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital knew me as ‘Dr. Bob’, the Clown Doctor™. Parodying the medical routine brings laughter and joy into a patient’s experience. This makes a hospital visit less stressful. Laughter also helps patients in times of pain, fear and grief.

Teacher

When I started my career I had a lot of support, advice and encouragement from  experienced entertainers. I would never have made it this far without their help.

I am honored to be in the position where I can now teach other people some of the ‘tricks of the trade’.

School Chaplain

Throughout 2007 and 2008 I spent 2 days each week working at my local primary school as the chaplain. A chaplain offers pastoral care and support to kids when times get tough as well as fun activities the rest of the time. I have stopped being a chaplain due to my increasing role as a parent but hope to support the chaplaincy program again in the future. What I love most about chaplaincy is that it is all about love.

Family

I am happily married to my wife Pippa who works as a  paediatric Occupational Therapist. Her expertise with children has helped my show improve immensely.

In December 2006 we became the proud parents of our first daughter, April. Our second child Fraser was born in May 2008. On the afternoon of June 18th, 2010 our third child Erin rushed into the world - we didn’t even make it to the hospital. Special thanks go to the great staff of the Queensland Ambulance Service. Being a parent to three little kids is certainly an adventure, made more exciting as I get to stay home and look after them when my wife is at work.

Designer

In recent years I returned to university to study Architecture and Industrial Design. I now run Jester Studios, a small design studio that provides design assistance, 3D printing and laser cutting services for architects, product designers, interior designers, musical instrument makers and artists. I also work at QUT as a design assistant in the school of design and also the school of fine arts.

Hobbies and Interests

What little spare time I have is spread between doing home renovations, building things, canoeing and hanging out with my family.

I am interested in renewable energy and low impact living. I have found that making many small changes in day to day life all accumulate to make a great big difference. I have also found that living ‘greener’ is often the healthier and cheaper option.

Content of this website including images, video and text may not be reproduced in any

way without written permission from Wayne van Wijk, trading as Domino the Jester.