Arts in the Family: A Family of Artists Just Trying to Make a Living in the Wilds of Texas

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Friday, June 17, 2011

Hometown Clown




I was doing a little re-organizing of my desk when I came across this postcard given to our kids by our friend and old circus buddy Rik Gern a.k.a. Bonzo Crunch. He was doing advance work for Ringling's one ring show at the time. I'm not sure how many years ago. Maybe four or five, perhaps.

The Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus has three separate shows that travel the across the country known as units. They are the Red Unit, Blue Unit, which tour the large cities and Gold Unit which tours smaller cities. Rik was doing shows and making personal appearances in advance of the of the Gold Unit's arrival to promote the show and happened to be in our area.

He still does some advance work for them from time to time but that particular job had him on the road for a good long, stretch. He's a talented and dedicated performer with a wide variety of skills which he presents in a very entertaining and of course, funny way as only a good circus clown can. I'm not sure what he's up to this weekend but no doubt he'll be busy entertaining the masses. Below is the backside of the postcard with a little bio on Mr. Gern. Click on it to magnify it.


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