Florida man scared of clowns dedicates huge Halloween show to them

CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida man has decided to channel his fear of clowns into a creative exercise for his annual Halloween shows.

Clearwater resident Jeff Somerville began decorating his home with scary clowns in 2019 after relocating from the Midwest a few years earlier, he previously told Nexstar’s WFLA. The inspiration came from his own fear of clowns, he said.

In that first year, Somerville spared no expense. He even designed and commissioned the showpiece – a 35-foot clown tunnel just above the driveway – from a company in China.

“It all started with a hand drawing, and they brought my vision to life,” said Somerville, who previously told WFLA that the company “knew how important this piece was to me and the role it played in our Halloween theme.”

The tunnel is of course back for 2022. But the property also features menacing clowns of all shapes and sizes, including animatronic clowns, caged miniature clowns, a two-headed clown, and several clowns who ride on an electric Ferris wheel or swinging chair. One of the more recent additions to the display for 2022 is a 12-foot clown with glowing red eyes.

Not surprisingly, Somerville’s “amazing neighbors” have taken to calling his house “the clown house,” he once said.

Somerville told WFLA that it took about two days to set up the display, but acknowledged it’s still quite time-consuming to run and maintain on a daily basis.

“I build this up every night,” Somerville said. “I need about 30 for that [minutes] set up and 30 [minutes] tear off.”

Former WFLA reporter Alexis Pastore contributed to this report.