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Harlen Pierson installs heating and air conditioning for a living, but
on weekends, he puts on make-up and goes a little wacky.
Pierson, as his alter-ego Rollo then Clown, has been entertaining kids
and adults for about 10 years. Most recently, Pierson won recognition
at the Midwest Clown Convention in Des Moines, Iowa.
"When I started out I was just going to roller skate and dress up as a
clown," said Pierson. "I never dreamed I would do magic or balloons or
that there was competitions."
About 250-300 clowns from seven Midwest states attended the convention
held in October. However, they weren't all dressed for work.
"They have speakers that come in. There are also a lot of classes you
go to to learn about clowning," said Pierson.
"If you didn't already know it was a clown convention, you couldn't
have told by looking."
That is, until the competition starts. The contests can be awfully
somber for the field of silly contestants.
"It is pretty serious stuff," said Pierson.
There are four main categories of contests for clowning: make-up,
balloons, parade ability and skits. Each category has different
classes. For example, make-up is broken into classes for august, white
face, tramp or hobo, and character clowns.
Pierson placed in the top 10 in parade ability, second in white-face
make-up and second in group skits with his partner Rick Zaborac of
Peoria, also known as patches.
The duo performed a short skit that involved milk, cereal and the
obligatory banana peel.
Pierson and Zaborac have their own business, A Couple of Clowns, which
keeps them busy almost every weekend between May and September.
They met when Pierson joined the Class Clown Alley, a clowning gruop in
Peoria. When he first arrived, "I found out I was doing everything
wrong."
"I was basically a Halloween dress-up clown," said Pierson.
One thing to avoid, Pierson said, is applying too big of a smile
because, "Big smiles basically scare kids, so I learned to tone that
down."
Pierson, 40, is now president of the alley and also a member of the
World Clown Association.
"I do it for the fun. I enjoy bringing a smile to people's faces and
making them laugh ... or groan," said Pierson. "In clowning, a groan
is as good as a laugh."
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