Dallas 20-year-old: 'I was born a clown'
Nick Rainone worked on his expressions with other area residents during their audition to hit the road as clowns with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Friday. 'I can't be a cute clown, I need to be tough,' he said. Saturday, August 7, 2010By JON NIELSEN / The Dallas Morning News jnielsen@dallasnews.com
Nick Rainone found his identity in face paint and clown shoes.
Nick Rainone worked on his expressions with other area residents during their audition to hit the road as clowns with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Friday. 'I can't be a cute clown, I need to be tough,' he said. His father is a clown. His mother was a clown. His fate, it seemed, was set from the beginning.
But as a teenager, Rainone rebelled. He joined a punk rock band, got some bad tattoos and began running from his parents' influence only to find that what gave him the most happiness was the laughter of others.
He found it again Friday when he earned a chance to become a traveling clown with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Rainone, who calls himself Zerp, was one of 20 clowns who showed up for the open tryout Friday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
"I was born a clown." said Rainone, 20. "This is probably what I'm supposed to do."
When he was a week out of the womb, his parents, John "Bonkers" Rainone, and mother, Holly "Poppy" Benner, dressed themselves and their newborn in classic clown garb. It was their first family portrait.
Rainone still keeps the photograph. In it he looks like a pale-faced doll in his parents' arms.read more at:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-clowns_07met.ART.State.Edition1.35791c2.html
Nick Rainone worked on his expressions with other area residents during their audition to hit the road as clowns with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Friday. 'I can't be a cute clown, I need to be tough,' he said. His father is a clown. His mother was a clown. His fate, it seemed, was set from the beginning.
But as a teenager, Rainone rebelled. He joined a punk rock band, got some bad tattoos and began running from his parents' influence only to find that what gave him the most happiness was the laughter of others.
He found it again Friday when he earned a chance to become a traveling clown with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Rainone, who calls himself Zerp, was one of 20 clowns who showed up for the open tryout Friday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
"I was born a clown." said Rainone, 20. "This is probably what I'm supposed to do."
When he was a week out of the womb, his parents, John "Bonkers" Rainone, and mother, Holly "Poppy" Benner, dressed themselves and their newborn in classic clown garb. It was their first family portrait.
Rainone still keeps the photograph. In it he looks like a pale-faced doll in his parents' arms.read more at:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-clowns_07met.ART.State.Edition1.35791c2.html
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