Wrinkles the Clown Wrinkles the Clown
Wrinkles the Clown is real. In case you were wondering, there’s no doubt about that question anymore. The new Wrinkles the Clown documentary has erased all doubt. There is a man behind that costume. But we still have more questions than we have answers. Here’s a rundown of everything we know about Wrinkles, including the best photos released by the documentary.
Warning: This post will have major spoilers about Wrinkles the Clown that were released in the documentary, including a plot twist. You might want to watch the documentary first before reading on if you haven’t seen it yet.
Wrinkles the Clown Once Claimed He Was a 65-Year-Old Divorced Veteran
If you’re at all familiar with the Wrinkles the Clown story, then you know that back when he went viral in 2014 and 2014, the clown from Florida told media that he was a 65-year-old divorced veteran who didn’t want to live the typical retired life. But since he never unveiled his anonymity, no one could truly verify his account.
Wrinkles the Clown went viral when stories surfaced that parents were paying him to scare their children. The YouTube Channel HvUSeenWrinkles reported sightings of him and the videos became very popular. This was the first one:
But more videos than that surfaced. Here are two more.
Wrinkles the Clown had an interview with The Washington Post in November 2015 and claimed that he would make an appearance at a party or a gathering or prank a friend for a “few hundred bucks cash.” He told The Washington Post that he was hired to scare someone’s 12-year-old son by just standing across the street.
But his first interview was this one with NBC 2 back in 2015:
Wrinkles said in anonymous interviews that he was 65, a divorced military veteran, and from Rhode Island. He said he had retired a few years earlier and had no family in Florida. He wasn’t interested in the boring life of retirees, he said, so he ordered a clown mask, made business cards, and started his gig.
He told NBC 2: “I just want to have fun… Have a good time, make a little extra money on the side. … Have a little fun before I die.”
In August 2016, Wrinkles even had an interview with GQ. He said about the creepy clown sightings: ‘As long as nobody is getting hurt, what’s wrong with some kids dressing up and scaring their friends? And how much of it is really true? … Everyone needs to relax, for Christ’s sake.”
He told GQ that he charged $150 an hour for parties but only people aged 21 and older could hire him.
In the Documentary, We Learned that Everything about Wrinkles Was All Made Up, Even Though the Clown Himself Was Real
In the documentary, we learned that everything about Wrinkles was all made up. He was never hired by parents. Not once. He wasn’t a 65-year-old veteran who was divorced and from Rhode Island. His accent was fake.
Michael Beach Nichols, the director of Wrinkles the Clown, told Heavy in an interview that Wrinkles first made up his story during that interview with the local NBC News station.
“All he had to do was say it once and then all the other media outlets just sort of accepted it and ran with it, which to him was sort of surprising and sort of shocking that they took him at his word,” he said. “It just became a little bit of a game to kind of see how far he could take it and how far people would believe.”
Wrinkles’ Phone Number Is a Real Google Voice Number
Wrinkles the Clown
And yes, Wrinkles’ phone number is real too. It’s a Google Voice number.
Nichols was given access to Wrinkles’ Google Voice number and was able to listen to all the voicemails. What he didn’t expect were how many messages children would leave threatening Wrinkles with violence.
“Only about 5 percent of the calls were actually parents who were calling to use Wrinkles as a misbehavior tool,” he said. So that whole story about parents paying Wrinkles to threaten their children was all made up.
“The majority of calls were actually kids who, in most cases, were calling to basically let Wrinkles know that if he showed up outside their house at 3 am, they’d be ready to defend themselves and they’d cut his head off basically,” Nichols said. “A lot of kids were basically taking their power back… They wanted to make him aware that they were ready to use deadly force to defend themselves. A lot of the calls were super violent, super profane.”
Wrinkles Made His Own YouTube Videos & the Documentary Revealed Clues about Wrinkles
Wrinkles the Clown
The HvUSeen Wrinkles YouTube channel was created by Wrinkles himself. And he made his own video sightings too. So that viral video of Wrinkles popping up under a child’s bed: that was one of Wrinkles’ friends, dressed up as Wrinkles. And the video was made with Wrinkles essentially directing it.
This person’s face was blanked out in the documentary. It’s not known if this is supposed to be Wrinkles in real life or a friend associated with Wrinkles.
Wrinkles the Clown
Wrinkles did reveal himself to Nichols, but Nichols had to promise not to give away his identity in the documentary.
We learned some tantalizing clues though. Here’s one photo of him.
Wrinkles the Clown
His voice was altered so no one could guess his identity based on his voice.
Wrinkles the Clown
Sometimes we got small glimpses of Wrinkles, like in this photo.
Wrinkles the Clown
And he appeared to be good enough with tech to edit his own videos and submit them to YouTube.
Wrinkles the Clown
His hands look like this.
Wrinkles the Clown
But we never got to see his face.
Some People Think Wrinkles Was a Publicity Stunt
YouTubeWrinkles the Clown
A local newspaper, Naples News Daily, has proposed the idea that Wrinkles might be Cary Longchamps, a Naples filmmaker.
In 2016, Anomalous Films began a Kickstarter to try to raise $45,000 to make a documentary about Wrinkles. They said he agreed to let them follow him on and off the clock and see who he was “out of the mask.” The documentary’s Kickstarter only raised $3,853 of a $45,000 goal, so the project was dropped.
Naples Daily News reported in 2016 that Wrinkles became more popular thanks to marketing efforts by Cary Longchamps, the filmmaker who wanted to make the original documentary. Daily News reported that one of the Wrinkles’ video clips was filmed in front of Longchamps’ duplex. Longchamps told Daily News that it was “viral marketing.”
Daily News also said they photographed Longchamps wearing a red-and-white polka dot clown suit at an Artis-Naples event shortly before he started documenting Wrinkles sightings. Cary Longchamps was dressed as a clown for community day. He’s a volunteer at the Baker Museum, Naples Daily News reported. Longchamps told the Daily News that the clown costume was just coincidence.
The idea for a documentary was later picked up by Magnolia Pictures, who made the documentary we have today.
In the end, we know Wrinkles is real even if some of the stories around him aren’t. And with all the death threats that were left for him, it’s not surprising he doesn’t want to reveal his true identity.
And as for Wrinkles’ next move, Nichols told Heavy that it all remains to be seen. Wrinkles will likely enter some kind of new phase thanks to the documentary, but just what is unknown.
“None of us really know how the film will impact the public perception of Wrinkles,” he said. “I know that since the trailer came out about a month ago, the number of calls that he gets on a daily basis has skyrocketed. Right now there’s more awareness of Wrinkles than perhaps any other time in the history of Wrinkles. There’s a lot more engagement right now. That’s exciting for Wrinkles.”
READ NEXT: Wrinkles the Clown Review: An Unexpected Documentary with a Fresh Look at Myths
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Who Is Wrinkles the Clown in Real Life? Photos & Updates Today