THE BALLOON MAN

Hollywood Actor Joins the Circus
Hollywood resident Billy Murray lives his dream of performing as a clown in Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus.

Hollywood resident Billy Murray is among the clowns performing at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus this weekend. Credit: Paul Zollo
From thehollywood patch.com
By Paul Zollo, July 22, 2011
Billy Murray says he is living a dream.
The New Jersey native moved to Hollywood in 2007, like so many others, to become an actor. And though he has appeared on TV shows such as Hannah Montana and CSI, he’s made his name by becoming a circus clown.

“And not just any clown,” Murray, 26, told Patch from his Hollywood home. “I’m not bending balloon animals at kid’s parties. I’m part of the Greatest Show on Earth, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus.”

Though Billy isn’t in the current traveling cast of the circus, which opened its new show, "Fully Charged" Wednesday night at the Staples Center, he works as a clown ambassador of good will for the circus, entertaining the crowds outside of Staples as they wait to enter, as well as traveling to hospitals and elsewhere to spread the kind of cheer only clowns can spread.

Because of his love of music, Billy designed his costume to represent a one-boy band: his hat is a drum, his pant legs are keyboards and his jacket is appointed with xylophone keys. “It’s awesome, cause I’m musical,” he said.

Being a clown, despite common presumptions, is serious business. Murray learned his craft by studying with New York Goofs, where he learned every aspect of clowning from doing his own makeup to juggling, acrobatics, costuming, dancing, balancing and more.

In addition to clowning in the show, Billy also took on additional “cherry pie jobs,” as they’re known, such as participating in elephant walks. When the circus arrives by train in a new city, the elephants are marched from the train to the venue in the middle of the night.

Here in L.A. they walked three miles from the Vernon train depot to Staples at midnight Monday night.

The circus travels all year long on a mile-long train that houses some 275 people from every corner of the planet. Billy lived with the other clowns in the “clown car,” which has a dozen small rooms. “I go from car to car,” he remembered, “and you get a taste of Mongolia, Russia and China and other places from around the world. This has been an incredible experience.”

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus will perform “Fully Charged” at the Staples Center through Sunday, July 24 (with several shows on the weekend) and then move on to the Honda Center in Anaheim from July 27 to July 30.