Clown(fish)ing around: Unraveling the mystery of the masked class-crasher

A week before Thanksgiving, Tufts was visited by a strange, mysterious occurrence: Reports claiming sightings of a clownfish creature on campus abounded. Facebook statuses discussed the clownfish's crashing of different classes — throwing popcorn into a lecture hall in one instance, stirring a pot of goldfish in another, reciting "French" poetry in yet another. Questions were raised about the clownfish: Who is he? A Tufts student? (Maybe.) Someone with too much free time on his hands? (Not exactly.) A really weird person? (Oh, most definitely.) More importantly, why was he literally running around campus (specifically into classes and out of them) engaging in random shenanigans? Recently, we caught up with him, a Mr. Eric Sinski of the Class of 2012, and in an exclusive interview, he laid to rest our most pressing questions.

Q: What inspired you to become the clownfish?

A: Well, I think it was a combination of factors. One is that I've always wanted to run around in a costume. Another thing I told my roommate was, if I could put a smile on one person's face, it's worth the effort. There are two other components: One is the general philosophy of why I did it, and the other is the specific circumstances. So it was one of those days at Eaton shooting the s--t, you know how you just have great ideas some days, like in the shower? And I thought, wouldn't it be great if I just run around in costume? I spent an hour and a half planning it, and I was getting really into it. I realized that often when people say they're gonna do something they don't actually do it. I think that can be applied to many things, like when people say let's hang out but they don't actually mean it at all. I'm trying to be more honest with people. This is one of the examples. I told my friend in Eaton I was gonna do this on Nov. 16. I just picked this day that I thought would never come 'cause I'm obviously scared to do it. Then Oct. 31 comes. I knew the friend I told would forget but it was the principle that I shouldn't commit to something and plan it without actually doing it.

Q: Why choose a clownfish mask to do that?

A: Well the thing about the clownfish is, my friend and I were looking at costumes on the Boston Costumes website, and everything else was absurd, but the clownfish costume was the most absurd. You know, I could run around in a banana suit all day but [the clownfish] was by far the most bizarre-looking, and the most bizarre-looking thing that deviates most from the norm is gonna generate the biggest response.

Q: So were the choices of classes random?

A: It was a mixture of planning and spontaneity. I ran into every single class on the first day; I didn't know anybody, so that was purely for my own amusement. When I chose classes, I picked the most boring ones 'cause I figured that would be the most beneficial and it'd be a good start. I chose some classes too because I knew my friends were in them, such as biochem. They say happiness is best when shared, so I brought donuts for the biochem class, scattered candy for the Spanish class and sang Enrique Iglesias.

Q: Which song?

A: It goes something like (starts singing): "Cuando me enamoro, a veces desespero, cuando me enamoro, cuando menos me lo espero…"

Q: Were you nervous when you went into classrooms?

A: You don't have time to be nervous honestly; you just have to rush. That said, I was really nervous when I saw the costume. It was a heavy clownfish head and a dress that I couldn't escape in if I wanted to. I would be at the speed of an old lady running. Any moderately in-shape person, any moderately fit person, I mean, anybody could catch me and tackle me.

Q: Have you had bad reactions from professors?

A: I got chased by a French professor, and Sam Sommers told people to tackle me so I ran outside and ran right into a girl 'cause I couldn't see 'cause you don't have peripheral vision [when you're wearing a clownfish head].