Children's entertainer keeps everyone smiling during pandemic

But award-winning children’s entertainer Lucy Wilkinson, aka Louby Lou, has found a way to keep her livelihood alive so she can continue her mission of spreading joy and laughter.

Lucy, from Leigh, has been tapping into her 22 years experience of being a clown, reinventing her business in order to save it during this pandemic with the introduction of Giggles on Wheels: a new musical van set to brighten up anyone’s day.

The 40-year-old mum of three fell in love with magic when she was six when her father became Trumble the Clown.

She said: “Seeing big happy smiles is just priceless. I love my job – it brings me so much joy and happiness personally. The place that is closest to my heart is the work I do at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, bringing happiness and joy to a poorly child’s face is just real magic.”

This work led to Lucy being awarded an honour of recognition by Cherie Blair at 10 Downing Street.

“I long to make people smile and laugh – for me that is the most rewarding job in the world,” she said.

But work came to a complete stop overnight when Covid-19 hit. Birthday parties were cancelled and hospital visits were banned. Lucy was determined not to wallow and wait – she decided to move the party online and celebrate special occasions virtually.

This online format allowed Lucy to continue to spread magic and laughter and keep everyone positive throughout these trying times.

Lucy also reinvented her Louby Lou shows to follow government guidelines, moving the show to Giggles on Wheels providing 10 minutes of pure magic and giggles on your doorstep no matter what your age.

Lucy said: “You can hear us coming in our new jazzed up van with the Louby Lou song, this has made whole streets smile and then when I get my Saxophone out many would burst with joy and excitement, it’s just magical for me to see people giggling and smiling again during such a tough time.”

Her drive to facilitate happiness stems from her own mental health journey. In 1997, she suffered from anxiety and burn out. It caused panic attacks on the motorway and Lucy had to seek help to understand how her mind and body had got to this point.

Thankfully Lucy managed to regain control of her life through lots of personal development and now she strives daily to be a better version of herself, better mum and entertainer all whilst prioritising self care and daily routines and practices.

She said; “I have done this work for so long, I was worried I was going to have to stop, I was catastrophizing and thinking of the worst case scenario, I knew that I had to take control of the situation and keep to my daily morning routine of Yoga, listening to podcasts, running and also it was key for me to set myself goals so I reassessed my business and set myself new goals to achieve. As a result I have managed to keep up my positive mental attitude that I have on life and this enabled me to rethink my business model.”

To find out more about Lucy’s work, visit loubylou.co.uk