Uncle Curly couldn’t be anyone else - it’s in his makeup
Uncle Curly, the clown persona of Tom Plovanic, talks with Michael Brass, 5, and Isabelle Burgess, 5, while performing at the Western Montana Fair last week. Plovanic, a professional clown from Missoula, travels the fair circuit during the summer entertaining and operating his Uncle Curly’s Funtastic Kidzone attraction.
Written by JENNA CEDERBERG
Photographed by TOM BAUER of the Missoulian
from: missoulian.com
August 12, 2012
Under the shady protection of the canopy at his Funtastic Kidzone, Uncle Curly the clown is taking requests.
A rainbow of balloons decorates his belt. A line of kids forms back from his oversized shoes. All afternoon, Uncle Curly had been spreading the word: Free balloon animals at 5 p.m. inside the Kidzone.
“How about a helicopter?” a little boy asks.
“Not an animal,” Curly proclaims with a giggle, as his trusty air compressor kicks on. The balloon takes shape as a long thin form, which in Curly’s hands becomes a miniature black helicopter with red rotors and grey blades.
Next, Uncle Curly crowns “Sir Sneeze-A-Lot from Kleenex Land” with a blue balloon sword. Sir Sneeze-A-Lot bounces off in a blue balloon hat.
A purple balloon hat with pink flowers floats off on the head of another small fan. A purple poodle is transferred into the small hands of a smiling girl.
“It’s my ChapStick,” Curly says of his air compressor as it kicks on and off again. The line of balloon animal seekers doesn’t get any shorter. “Saves my lips.”
Uncle Curly, the clown persona of Tom Plovanic, talks with Michael Brass, 5, and Isabelle Burgess, 5, while performing at the Western Montana Fair last week. Plovanic, a professional clown from Missoula, travels the fair circuit during the summer entertaining and operating his Uncle Curly’s Funtastic Kidzone attraction.
Written by JENNA CEDERBERG
Photographed by TOM BAUER of the Missoulian
from: missoulian.com
August 12, 2012
Under the shady protection of the canopy at his Funtastic Kidzone, Uncle Curly the clown is taking requests.
A rainbow of balloons decorates his belt. A line of kids forms back from his oversized shoes. All afternoon, Uncle Curly had been spreading the word: Free balloon animals at 5 p.m. inside the Kidzone.
“How about a helicopter?” a little boy asks.
“Not an animal,” Curly proclaims with a giggle, as his trusty air compressor kicks on. The balloon takes shape as a long thin form, which in Curly’s hands becomes a miniature black helicopter with red rotors and grey blades.
Next, Uncle Curly crowns “Sir Sneeze-A-Lot from Kleenex Land” with a blue balloon sword. Sir Sneeze-A-Lot bounces off in a blue balloon hat.
A purple balloon hat with pink flowers floats off on the head of another small fan. A purple poodle is transferred into the small hands of a smiling girl.
“It’s my ChapStick,” Curly says of his air compressor as it kicks on and off again. The line of balloon animal seekers doesn’t get any shorter. “Saves my lips.”
Plovanic’s wife, Kathleen Vavrovsky, takes care of the Kidzone while Uncle Curly makes balloon figures for kids. Plovanic says he’d be nowhere without her working alongside him
Plovanic is a professional clown who operates Montana Clown Work LLC. He travels long summer circuits doing his work at 10 fairs between June and September.
Last week, Plovanic performed in front of a hometown crowd at the Western Montana Fair, where his Uncle Curly’s Funtastic Kidzone was set up on the west lawn.
It’s there that Plovanic’s imaginative creations were on display, a sort of clowning kingdom he’s established to pursue his passion as an entertainer.
“It’s just me. People ask me if I went to clown school. I say no, I was born this way,” Plovanic said. “Clowns, generally speaking, are exaggerations of our lives.”
Plovanic jokes with vendors as he travels the fairgrounds last week. He says he plans to sell the Funtastic Kidzone part of his business someday, but in keeping with clown tradition he will always be Uncle Curly.
read more:
http://missoulian.com/lifestyles/territory/uncle-curly-couldn-t-be-anyone-else---it/article_3a722966-e32f-11e1-9e3f-001a4bcf887a.html
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