Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2025 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Circus clowns are the latest pandemic related shortage in Northern Ireland

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

First, it was toilet tissue, then computer chips, now clowns - at least in Northern Ireland. I'll pause so you can include a joke about U.S. politics here. Circuses in Northern Ireland are reopening after being closed for 500 days. But during that time, a lot of clowns drove their clown cars over to EU nations that have already reopened. And now there is a clown shortage in Northern Ireland.

David Duffy, co-owner of Duffy's Circus, has opened online auditions - no previous experience necessary - for people who think they have the grit to get squirting flowers in their face. Mr. Duffy told BBC Radio Ulster, there's a lot more to being a clown than just putting on a big red nose and a big, baggy pair of pants. You have to be able to read your audience in a short couple of minutes, he said, to get a rapport going with them and interact and feed off them - that and saying, BJ Leiderman writes our theme music? I think I know of somebody.

(SOUNDBITE OF PHARRELL SONG, "HAPPY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.