Kiwi adman who took clown to redundancy meeting does Reddit AMA

The Kiwi adman achieved viral fame when he hired a clown as his support person. Photo / Imgur

The Auckland adman who went viral all over the world a few weeks ago when he hired a clown to be his support person at a redundancy meeting has taken to Reddit to answer people's questions about the meeting.

Copywriter Josh Thompson hired the clown for $200 to provide him with emotional support and blow up balloon animals during his redundancy meeting at advetising agency FCB New Zealand.

Thompson took to Reddit to post an AMA thread, which stands for "Ask Me Anything". This type of thread on Reddit invites users to ask questions to the original poster.

Photo / Imgur

Thompson says in his original post he is doing it to try to boost his career as a stand up comedian.

"A couple weeks ago, a story about me went viral. The general gist is that I was fired from my job, and for anyone who hasn't been fired, what happens is they schedule a serious meeting and advise you to bring a 'support person'. I did a bit of research and found out the 'support person' is a legal entitlement. So, for my support person, I spent $200 to hire a clown to come to the meeting and make balloon animals as I was being fired," he wrote as a way of introducing himself on Reddit.

"I work in advertising, but am also a standup comedian in New Zealand. I'm doing this partly to answer your questions, but mainly because I want more followers and am desperate for your love and approval," he added.

Reddit users jumped on the thread to ask important questions such as "what was the best balloon animal the support clown made?".

If you must know, the best shaped balloon done during the meeting was, according to Thompson, a unicorn.

"Unfortunately I fiddled with it too much afterwards and it turned into a big worm," he added.

When someone asked how he thought the meeting went, Thompson replied bluntly: "Poorly. I was fired."

Thompson explained he believes he was made redundant as part of broader cuts being made by the company. "And I suppose they figured I'd have no problems in finding another job as a fashion model or Hollywood actor or professional athlete or something," he added, jokingly (probably).

Thompson's AMA received dozens of questions in just a few hours but Reddit users weren't too happy when, a couple of hours after posting the thread, the adman seemed to stop responding.

"An AMA is usually a good way for a comedian to show their chops, but all your replies are really low effort. Is this an example of why you were laid off?" one person posted.

"What was the point of doing an AMA if you're going to put zero effort into the replies?" another one asked.

"Comedians are typically good storytellers, have you considered a career path more inline with your...abilities?" someone else suggested.