Based on observation, there are different types of clowns that you can hire to liven up your kid's birthday party. However, some fastfoods that cater to such needs will provide mascots for free provided you choose a certain range or offer. Anyway, should you choose to prepare the food, you can always hire the services of clowns. In our locality I have noticed two groups of clowns which give different types of services. The first group have clowns who do everything---hosting and entertaining the kids with magic and games. There are two clowns in this first group, one of the clowns does the hosting and leads in the overall flow of events while the second one acts as assistant. Both are females. The second team also has two male clowns whose task is only to entertain the kids with dancing, magic, and games. Another person, who acts as the overall leader, does the hosting. In other words, the clowns are only there to clown around. No one hears a single word from them but they dance, bounce, do tricks and the like.
We compared the two groups and personally preferred the latter. Clowns are more credible when they stick to clowning but if they also function as host, it sort of diminishes their credibility and takes out much of the fun.