THE BALLOON MAN

Big Man of the Big Top Bids It Adieu

Barry Lubin, in Big Apple's practice arena in Walden, N.Y., has performed as Grandma for 25 seasons with Big Apple

By GLENN COLLINS

Published: September 20, 2011

WALDEN, N.Y. — Some might think it an inappropriate beginning for a grand farewell tour, but certainly not Grandma, a k a Barry Lubin. Here was Mr. Lubin, the 59-year old star clown who began fooling around at the Big Apple Circus 29 years ago, being lassoed by two magicians at the show’s cavernous practice arena in this woodsy patch of the Hudson Valley. The whole problem with the cowpoke routine — the one in which Grandma played, what else, the cow — was that it wasn’t funny. Scott Nelson and Muriel Brugman, comedy magicians, tried flinging their lassos toward Grandma. Nothing there. Grandma the cow then tried to lasso them back. Still nada.
Again, they flung lassos toward Grandma, but by accident Mr. Nelson knocked off his high brown cowboy hat. At that, with manic inspiration, the ageless matriarch pounced on the hat and plopped it on her cheesy gray wig. The performers laughed.
“Yeeeee-hah!” Mr. Lubin exulted, in full Grandma cowboy speak. “O.K., it’s a small joke. But let’s see if it plays.”

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Barry Lubin, in character as Grandma, begins his final tour with Big Apple Circus before relocating to Sweden.

It was August, and Mr. Lubin was creating Grandma’s final show for the amiable one-ring circus that pitches its 1,619-seat blue Italian-made tent in Damrosch Park in Lincoln Center every year for three months. Though Big Apple doesn’t begin its official season in New York until Oct. 20, the show embarks on the first shakedown performance of its new production, “Dream Big,” before an audience in Sterling, Va., this Thursday. READ MORE:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/arts/barry-lubin-grandma-the-clown-in-final-big-apple-tour.html?_r=1