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 vecesdesespero, cuando me enamoro, cuandomenos 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].
Q: Highlights?
A: Best class reaction was French poetry for sure. I passed out a French poem to the class, which had nothing to do with anything. I don't know French at all so I was just making up sounds (starts imitating French sounds). And then at the end I said "et toi?" and left the classroom.
I think the funniest thing to an outside observer was in the Portuguese class. It was in the basement of Olin and I just started flopping around in the aisle (starts making flopping motion) but no one noticed me for two minutes 'cause they were watching a movie, then all of a sudden the professor goes (makes a gasping face) and the students all turn to look back and start laughing. She approached me off the podium and I just ran away… that was a good one.
One of my favorite reactions actually was Thursday at noon in Olin. I had just changed into costume, about to go into class. There was a graduate student meeting going on in the lounge. As I walked by, everyone burst out laughing, and one guy was howling. Actually I wasn't appreciative of that at first because I thought now everyone would know and my cover would be blown. Not that you have much of a cover when you're wearing a fish suit…
I think my favorite experience was chasing a girl through a Feminist Philosophy class. This girl ran in with a bag of microwaved popcorn and I came in with the [golden] puppet and I threw candy everywhere (Syena: it's like a golden dragon thing…Clownfish guy: it's a seahorse actually…)
Q: What impact, if any, do you think your shenanigans had on Tufts?
A: People were posting things up and looking for explanations — was this a social psych experiment, was this an NQR protest? The only explanation I could come up with is that I'm a f---ing weirdo…
It's about the effect you can have as an individual. To be honest, it's about the individual doing one little thing, and doing something outside of your comfort zone. You show that you don't have to be stuck in things, get stuck in ideas about how you should act, get stuck in things to believe, or stuck in groups and organizations ‘cause really, you have a lot of power as an individual.
Q: What would be your reaction if someone picks up your example and decides to do something similar?
A: I mean, my reaction is: If you feel it, do it. That's what I really think. It makes everyone's day a whole lot better. It made my day a lot better.
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Siau Xi is a senior majoring in international relations. SyenaSerrafpour is a senior majoring in biochemistry.
