Well, if you want to do a killer clown in a mini clown car, it is easy. I built this guy with a PVC frame and chickenwire body. I bought a cheap kids costume on sale at K-Mart. I used a wig head under the mask. The hands were clothes hangers, duct tape and garden gloves. The entire proip cost only about $20, since I got the car for $3 at a yard sale.
I built this tight rope walker with a $10 ground breaking skeleton from Walmart. The body is PVC frame with bubble wrap for the filling. I got the gymnastics costume at Goodwill for $3. I built a 2x4 frame with a piece of metal conduit for the "rope", painted white. The umbrella is PVC, clothes hangers and creepy cloth. Under normal haunt lighting it was pretty cool. This shot shows the gory details under artificial lighting, including support wires for reference.
Here's the last suggestion. I used my FCG rig to make a marionette theater with a fresh corpse on strings. Again, PVC, chicken wire, a fake head ( kinda' looks like Reba Mackentire). Just keep the joints loose, using rope or wire. I attached the knees to the wrista with fishing line, so the feet moved up and down in tune with the Alfred Hitchcock Theme: 'Dance of the Marionettes.'
There are more ideas in my photo album here.
Eric