Clownin' around at the San Angelo Rodeo
When most people think of bull riding, they picture eight seconds of chaos — a rider gripping tightly as a two-thousand-pound animal bucks and thrashes beneath him. But after the rider hits the ground, another figure steps in between man and beast: the rodeo clown. "So, the truth about the rodeo is, I have absolutely the best job at the rodeo, bar none," 25-year veteran clown John Harrison said.
He also added it's a journey that began unexpectedly. "I didn't really want to get into this," he explained. "As a kid, I grew up in rodeo.
We were at a rodeo and the clown didn't show up. And our boss was like, 'Hey, you're doing it. ' I'm like, 'I don't know what I'm doing.
' And the next thing you know, 25 years later, we're still doing it," laughed. Harrison travels across the country nearly year-round, spending up to 46 weekends on the road. "When we leave home at the beginning of June, I won't see the house again until September," he said.
"This time of year, we try to stay close to home. I say close to home's 8 hour drive, something like that. " The demanding schedule often comes at a personal cost.