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4:16 PM (1 hour ago)
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My Dear Diesel;
I sign the lease on my apartment this coming Monday.
WOOP! WOOP! WOOP!
So I’ll be in a brand new ward. I wonder what it will be like? I’m gonna play it up as the Crazy Retired Circus Clown. I bet they’ll be too afraid to ever have me talk in Sacrament Meeting or teach Sunday School!
So the first photo I’ve enclosed is the ringmaster and clown at Culpepper & Merriweather Circus back in 2005. I can’t remember the ringmaster’s name. I actually applied for his job, but when I was offered the publicity director position the salary was so much better I just couldn’t turn it down. He was Canadian, and said he was writing a book about circus life. He only lasted 2 months before quitting. He was also the show’s tire beater. A very important position. He took a small baseball bat around to all 12 show semi trucks and beat on each tire to make sure it was not losing air pressure. He had to do this every morning and then again every evening. The black tail coat he’s wearing in the photo was actually mine – left over from when I was the ringmaster at Carson & Barnes Circus. I gave it to him as a good luck present when he started. Then the fink quits and takes it back with him to Canada. I hope he got bitten by a loon!
The clown is Marvin the Marvelous. His claim to fame was that he rode a unicycle while playing the bagpipes. And that’s about all he could do that was even remotely funny. The show owner, Trey Key, kept him on because he was dependable and sober – never missed a show or got arrested. Which is pretty rare with mud show clowns. They generally are pretty alcoholic and law breaking. Or else they come from Mexico and can’t speak any English and you have to watch them closely because they tend to put in some R-rated material in their clown acts.
I felt kinda sorry for him, so I gave him my musical saw and taught him how to play it. I figured if he could play the saw while riding his unicycle he could make it to Ringling Brothers . . .
He spent the off season down in the Florida Keys, street performing, and told me he made more doing that than working for the circus. I almost went down to the Keys myself, just to see if I could make some money as a street performer. But I wound up going back to Thailand instead.
I may do some street performing here in Provo this summer, since my apartment is right off of State Street and Center in downtown Provo. I don’t think the cops will bother me if I just keep moving around from place to place.
Yer pal,
tt
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