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'Weird' Clown Plays Sad Ukulele Song At Open Mic And Everything Is Fine

By Mark Konkol | November 3, 2015 5:45am
 A reporter with an iPhone walks into a bar to witness the weird solo-debut of Annette Nowacki, the clown-faced girl who wore a mask to overcome diarrhea-producing stage fright.
A reporter with an iPhone walks into a bar to witness the weird solo-debut of Annette Nowacki, the clown-faced girl who wore a mask to overcome diarrhea-producing stage fright.
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DNAinfo/ Mark Konkol; Nora Sintos

BRIDGEPORT — A reporter with an iPhone walked into a bar, Bernice’s Tavern in Bridgeport.

It was Open Mic Night and a gal in a creepy, clown mask sat on a stool poised to play the ukulele and leaned into the microphone.

“This is my first open mic night, b------,” the clown girl said. “I really hope you guys are weird.”

As things turned out, she was in luck.

The clown girl strummed a ukulele and serenaded drinkers with an original song called “Sometimes I Drink Alone,” about loneliness, feeling old and drinking, not necessarily in that order.  

Later, the clown-faced girl’s identity was revealed. Bridgeport artist Annette Nowacki said she donned the clown mask to help overcome debilitating performance anxiety as she took the stage solo for the first time.

“I wanted to see how a crowd would react to me performing, and let loose a little bit. I like to fool around — a lot. But I get stage fright. I seriously shake. I get stomach pains. I get the runs … everything, from being so nervous,” she said.

“And you can literally see the pain on my face. But if I have a mask on … you can’t see it. ”

Ironically enough, Nowacki plays keyboards and sings in a rock band, The Flips, that has played on some big stages around town, including the House of Blues.

There’s comfort being part of a quintet but she’s extremely nervous for those shows, too. Sometimes, Nowacki suffers gut-wrenching symptoms for days, pushing through the anxiety the best she can.

But when it comes to her fledgling solo career, though, Nowacki said the clown mask-look might stick.

“It was pretty close to Halloween so that helped make it less strange,” she said. “But I think I’ll stick with [the mask] the next time I introduce a new song. It’s weird enough that it makes people pay attention.”

Plus, the strange smiling clown mask adds a touch of levity to the 25-year-old’s melancholy ukulele songs.

“I do write really sad songs, but they’re about every day things that tons of people deal with,” Nowacki said.

“And these things I sing about, you’ve got to find a way to laugh about them, because if you don’t … Oh. My. God. It's bad.”

Nowacki isn’t clowning around about that.

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