Clowning around

By Johna Strickland - Argus Observer
Sunday, August 5, 2007 4:07 AM PDT

SnickleFritz the clown, also known as Beve Bryant, draws a face on a balloon animal she made at the Malheur County Fair last week. The fair is only one of many events she and her husband Al Bryant, known as Boomer in the clown world, participate in each year.

Ontario - Al Bryant is an expensive man to dress.

Or rather his clown persona, Boomer, is a bit of a clothes horse.

“Boomer, all decked out, is about $750 for one outfit,” Bryant’s wife, Beve Bryant, 49, known as SnickleFritz when she slips on her round red nose and blue curls, said. “Boomer’s got more clothes than SnickleFritz. A whole closet full.”

Roaming the Malheur County Fair last week, Boomer gained a chance to show off his wardrobe and his balloon art skills.

“Balloons are Boomer’s passion,” Beve Bryant said. “He can think of a balloon and make it. He’s been doing it since he started clowning, and I believe he’s the best in the Northwest. It’s just like homework, you gotta practice.”

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Al Bryant, 51, became a clown 26 years ago when he attended a clown school in Wisconsin. He also worked in circuses as a shrine clown, he said, and it was his affection for the circus pyrotechnics that inspired his clown name.

“Then he came back out here and trained a lot of the clowns out here in this area,” Beve Bryant said. “I got my training from him (in 1999), and I thought he was so fantastic I married him later.”

Together the Bryants, Boise, have clowned at everything from county fairs to cancer wards, but both keep their day jobs. Al Bryant works for the city of Boise, and Beve Bryant — who picked her name after what her grandpa used to call her and because “it always made me giggle” — for the Better Business Bureau.

“Neither one of us want to do this full-time. It takes a lot of energy,” Beve Bryant said. “We want to enjoy doing it and be completely up when we do it. There’s a lot to being a clown, and to be trained right, it takes some time. Like to do the hospital clowning, you can’t just walk into the room and say ‘How ya doin’? As soon as you walk out in public you’re on. When you’re in your car, you’re on. Until you walk back in your house, you’re on.”

Boomer and SnickleFritz work to be positive role models, especially around the children they serve at events for Make-A-Wish Foundation ¨, MADD, Boys & Girls Clubs and other venues.

“We just like to give back and make the kids smile,” Beve Bryant said. “We really like clowning for Make-A-Wish. It really touches my heart. The really tough part (about clowning) is when the kids you’ve grown to have a relationship with pass away, the kids with cancer. You lose a friend. That’s tough. We’ve even had parents ask us to come to their funerals and clown because that’s how their kids remember us.” Being a clown, though, is worth it despite the work, expense and lost friendships, Beve Bryant said.

“It’s a real joy to be able to spend fun time together,” she said. “I think the favorite thing about being a clown is when we’re doing a magic show for the kids and we don’t know what the other is going to do. (And) being able to dress up really loud, fun and crazy, and get away with it, and people think it’s normal.”