Skeeter the Clown visited the Boulder Community Library on Thursday, June 16, to help bring circus festivities to town–as she does for all Culpepper and Merriweather circuses–before the June 22 event in Boulder.
For Skeeter, promoting the circus means getting involved as much as possible. Promoting the Boulder circus took the form of performances at the Library in Boulder and Whitehall. Each show included classic clown acts, involving magic tricks and audience involvement.
Skeeter’s path towards becoming a clown began when she was nine years old when she helped a clown in her hometown with promotion.
Skeeter does much more than just “clown around.” She also received a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcasting, which she then used while working for Werner Brother’s Broadcasting in Ohio. Later on she attended Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Before she joined the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus, she traveled on her own working with other artists and performers across the county, learning things that she could incorporate into her acts.
For Skeeter, a day as a clown starts early, around 5 a.m to begin setting up for the day. The longest part of the day is makeup application. From there she does her best to schedule any interviews or extra things earlier in the morning, before her performances. For some communities she does several performances at different locations, in hopes of seeing as many people as possible. She then spends a portion of her day driving between communities, with distances varying up to a hundred miles. Sometimes Skeeter does shows in several different towns all in one day.
Skeeter visits close to 350 towns and communities each year, and she said that over time she has learned to change her act on the fly.
“No act is the same,” she said. “I have to be able to change things based on each unique audience.”
Even with constant travel, Skeeter said her job allows her to meet new people and share joyful moments, and “nothing beats that.”
