Professional clown Michael Christensen doesn’t just confine his act to the Big Apple Circus he co-founded. He also brings laughter to a place that is often badly in need of it: pediatric hospitals across the country.
　　迈克尔·克里斯腾森是一位专业小丑，他还是大苹果马戏团的创始人。克里斯腾森创立的全国性项目“小丑关怀”每年派身穿戏服的马戏团演员到全美各地的儿科医院巡回演出。
　　Christensen’s national organization, Clown Care, sends costumed circus performers on nearly 225,000 visits to ill children across the country.
　　Getting into the act
　　The arc of Michael Christensen’s circus career has taken some funny turns. Born in Walla Walla, Washington in 1947, he trained to be a traditional actor. But he got hooked on the circus spirit during the early 1970s, when he learned how to juggle from the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a politically radical ensemble of street performers.
　　迈克尔·克里斯腾森的马戏团生涯出现过一些有趣的转折。他1947年出生于华盛顿州瓦拉瓦拉市，接受过传统的表演训练。1970年代早期，他在由街头艺人组成的旧金山哑剧团学习变戏法时，迷上了马戏团。
　　That’s where he met and befriended juggler Paul Binder, who later joined him as a circus act and became his lifelong business partner as well. Together, the two set off for the streets of Europe, where they performed their juggling act everywhere from Paris to Istanbul.
　　克里斯腾森在哑剧团结识了保罗·宾德。宾德不仅和他一起表演变戏法，而且成了他终身的商业合作伙伴。
　　By 1977, the two had returned to America and raised funds to start their own one-ring circus under a small green canvas tent in New York’s Battery Park City, in the shadow of the World Trade Center. They called it The Big Apple Circus.
　　1977年，他们筹集了资金，到纽约市炮台公园城社区，在世贸大厦的荫蔽下，搭起一个小型绿色帆布帐篷，开始了他们只有一个圆形表演场的大苹果马戏团。
　　"We took off," Christensen recalls. "A year-and-a-half later we were in Lincoln Center. What started out as a couple of ragtag brazen Americans juggling on the streets of Europe as a great adventure has ended up being a great New York institution."
　　克里斯腾森说：“一年半之后，我们开始在林肯中心表演。最初，我们只是两个衣冠不整、莽撞冒失的人，如今，我们却发展成纽约市一个大型马戏团。”
　　Big Apple Circus
　　Today, more than 500,000 fans see the show every year during its 38-week tour. Christensen stresses that despite its success, the Big Apple Circus remains a non-profit, grassroots operation.
　　今天，大苹果马戏团每年巡演38个星期，观众超过50万。克里斯腾森强调，尽管他们取得了成功，但是，大苹果马戏团依然是一个非盈利的草根组织。
　　"We both decided when we created the circus that we wanted it to serve the communities in which we performed. This is important - having a direct, positive, supportive relationship with the community."
　　他说：“我们在成立马戏团时就决定，我们要服务于我们表演的社区。和社区有直接的、积极的和援助性关系，这非常重要。”
　　In that spirit, the duo launched "Circus of the Senses" in 1983, a special edition of the Big Apple Circus adapted for visually and hearing impaired children. They also started "Beyond the Ring," an afterschool program which teaches kids clowning, acrobatics and juggling. Christensen says circus arts offer children life skills such as teamwork, perseverance and calm flexibility in the face of the unexpected.
　　本着这种精神，他们1983年发起了“感官马戏”项目。这是大苹果马戏团专门为有视觉和听觉障碍的儿童安排的表演。他们还开展了“马戏团之外”的课外计划，教孩子们扮演小丑、体操和戏法。克里斯腾森说，马戏艺术让孩子们学习到团队精神、坚韧和遇到突发情况时保持镇静。
　　"If a club falls and hits the ground, or you drop it while juggling, instead of being embarrassed that you’ve made a ‘mistake,’ accept it, and find some fun thing to do with that," he says. "And all of a sudden the kid looks up and sees the audience go ‘Yeah, yeah!’ And there has been a shift in the child, a really fantastic one, that goes, ‘These aren’t mistakes. These are things that happen,’ and they can be the source of fun and delight."
　　Clown Care
　　But it was personal grief over the loss of his brother to cancer and the search for a larger purpose in life that inspired Christensen to start his own signature program.
　　但是，兄弟死于癌症带给他的伤痛，以及对生命意义的探索，激发克里斯腾森开创了自己的招牌项目“小丑关怀”。