Thornhill clown celebrated for his heroic actions

yorkregion.com
Nov. 26, 2015
By Simone Joseph

A Thornhill clown found himself in the middle of a media maelstrom this week.

Shane Farberman became an international media sensation, a sought-after interview, an overnight wigged hero.

His painted face made the cover of The Toronto Sun, was featured in The Toronto Star and in the Washington Post .

In twitter-tech lingo, he was trending in Europe, he said Tuesday., noting he even made it onto the front page of a newspaper in London, England.

Our own hometown clown, Farberman lives off of New Westminister on the Vaughan side of Thornhill.

Farberman has been a professional clown for 32 years.

He manages Farco Entertainment Inc., an agency that books other clowns, magicians and specialty entertainers around the globe.

The incident that brought his rainbow wig to the forefront began at around 3 p.m. Sunday.

He was driving back from a day’s work in Toronto with two clown co-workers in the back seat of his SUV.

Farberman turned a corner and saw a man jumping on cars in the Front and Portland streets area and called 911.

When the man ran down to Bathurst Street, Farberman followed in his car. Then, he saw the man try to punch women walking in the opposite direction on the street.

The women began to walk a bit faster. The man began chasing them.

Farberman was still in full clown makeup and costume. He rolled down his windows and yelled for the women to get into his car.

 While looking astonished, the women ended up diving into Farberman’s car, squeezing in with the two other clowns in the back seat.

Then, the man turned his attention to Farberman’s own car.

“He was pounding and he was smashing and he was looking at them with death in his eyes, he was absolutely - and I’ve never experienced that, I’m a happy guy,” Farberman said. “What am I going to do, go out and hit him with a balloon? It was pretty terrifying.”

The police arrived and subdued him.

He received a celebratory scroll at Toronto city hall, among other acclamations.

Farberman said he doesn’t consider his actions particularly heroic.

“I’m very humbled. I believe that people should look out for people,” he said.