Clowing around's a serious business!
CLOWNING around is no laughing matter for Hartlepool man Scott Hall.
It takes four years to become a fully fledged funny man.
But 25-year-old Scott is well on the way to mastering the art.
MICHELLE WILSON caught up with him.
MOST people put their feet up at the weekends.
Scott Hall puts his into size 15 clown shoes.
Then he gets out his bag of make up and spends almost an hour transforming himself into Scooty the clown.
Scott is still waiting for his Big Top debut. In the meantime, he spends every weekend at clown school.
"There's not many people who can say they are training to be a clown," said Scott who was born and brought up in Hartlepool before moving to Devon four years ago.
"I never imagined when I was growing up that I would end up doing something like this, but it just kind of happened and I get a real buzz from it."
Scott's road to stardom began around 10 years ago when the former Dyke House Comprehensive School pupil began working for Planet Promotions.
He distributed posters for events taking place across the country.
Scott, 25, who was born on the Central Estate in Hartlepool, said: "The posters would advertise anything from dance shows and circuses.
"But I became particularly interested in the circuses and began spending quite a bit of time promoting them and publicising the shows.
"The more time I spent there, I just thought how fun they were and I saw an opportunity to get involved and to train at weekends to become a clown."
Scott began spending his weekends with Zippo's circus three years ago, discovering the antics of the famous funnymen.
He now lives in Devon.
But every Friday he swaps his everyday work clothes for baggy trousers, a grey glittery wig and size 15 shoes to become his clown counterpart - Scooty.
Scott said: "I still work Monday to Fridays distributing the posters and I also try to spend one day a week visiting schools and nurseries to put posters up in my clown outfit.
"Then every Friday I travel to various parts of the country, depending on where the circus is, to do some training with the clowns."
Scott's training sees him put through his paces by chief clown Martin Zippo.
"We have to do a bit of everything," said the rookie.
"There are several stages which we have to pass through to officially become a clown and different elements to the training.
"I am taught unicycling, trampoline stunts, juggling -all the things you would expect.
"I like the trampolining but I can't get to grips with the unicycle."
He's also trying to get to grips with putting on make-up.
"We have to learn to do our own faces, it takes a while and is strange at first. It takes me about 45 minutes now to do the face painting, but I am getting better at it now and I'm getting faster.
"Then I have to wear the baggy trousers and the big shoes and everything."
Although great fun, Scott said there is a lot more goes into the performances that people would believe.
He said: "It is really hard work and there is a lot involved in the training. It's especially hard after working all week and then doing it at the weekends, but I have support from my family."
Scott's partner Trudie Pickford and his 15-month old daughter Isabelle Hall try to join him each weekend at the venues.
Scott met Trudie while putting up posters advertising the circus in a shop in Devon. He said: "They enjoy coming along and seeing what goes on.
"Trudie doesn't mind the clown outfit and my daughter likes it. The only thing that tends to scare some of the children is the make up.
"They normally like the outfits and everything and I am quite lucky that I have never had any children who have been really frightened."
He added: "Some people think it is a bit of a strange hobby but I have always been quite outgoing.
"It's great to learn from the other clowns as they have so many skills and training with the circus means I get to know about everything else that goes on and all the preparation that goes into it.
"We all get on really well and it's like one big family.
"I still have some stages to get through and I think it will be another year before I am ready to perform professionally, but I am really enjoying it."
Martin Zippo, the founder of Zippo's Circus, has been working with Scott for the past three years.
He has performed as Zippo the Clown for 35 years. Scott is his sixth trainee. He said: "Scott has great potential and he has bags of energy."
Zippos circus will be in town from Friday, June 6, to Tuesday, June 10, at Hartlepool Marina, off Maritime Avenue.
For more information contact 0871 210 2100 or visit www.zipposcircus.co.uk
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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