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The Ugliest Clown of all

January 21, 2021   ·   0 Comments

Babozzo had the biggest, the ugliest nose. He imported it from one of those countries he went to for an Ugly Nose Conference and especially to congratu- late the clowns who cheated their fans and ate the elephants.

One day, someone totally fixed the lot- tery numbers and Babozzo had won the biggest prize of all and was King Clown over the whole huge circus.

At first, he could hardly believe his luck, but pretty quickly he was into it – the power, the deceptions, the craziness of being able to do anything he wanted – no rules – no objections that mattered – anything he liked and it was perfectly okay because he was King Clown.

To be sure, he tested it. He said outra- geous things about the acrobats – how they were not really people – how they could only fly on their wires high in the circus tent because they had invisible wings – so, they were weird and maybe dangerous – they stole secrets and kept them in little places up in the air, among the tippy top poles, where they flew with- out wires when they thought no one was looking. But King Clown had spies every- where and he knew – he even pretended to know what the secrets were.

The secrets he said the acrobats stole were about the Good People. Good Peo- ple were all the ones who loved Babozzo,

King Clown; who followed him with pas- sion and wanted him to be King Clown forever. Now they were even really afraid of him because of the stealing, flying acrobats who took their secrets and King Clown knew the secrets.

He was sure that all beings have secrets – all except him! He had no secrets – he had no need to hide any- thing he did: he broke the laws and hurt anybody he wanted to and was rude and terrifying but he never hid any of it.

Most of all, the King Clown loved to have parties – he had the biggest parties in the whole history of the circus. Crowds and crowds of loving, frightened Good People came to those parties. Nothing was free there- they had to pay for bon- nets and goodies and they had to sing and cheer for King Clown and jump up and down for everything he said.

They repeated his words about how wonderful he was strong, talented, a great dancer and a genius – not only a powerful King Clown but the most smart- est Clown the circus, or any circus, had ever seen.

Time passed and King Clown made a mess of everything because he liked power but he didn’t like work – he liked parties and games but he wanted every- one else to clean up. None of it mattered. Audiences stopped coming to the cir-

cus because there were no acts and the acrobats had to hide. They had not stolen any secrets and they did not have wings. They were just clever little people who practiced hard to fly on their wires but King Clown had ordered the safety nets be removed – “They don’t need them,” he shouted, “they have wings – they can’t trick me!”

When one of the acrobats fell and died, the others stopped flying and doing tricks and the audiences stayed away. Bit by bit, there was no money to feed the tigers and the monkeys, so, they were sold or the small clowns ate them. Bit by bit, the circus people were upset and wondering what to do.

“No problem!” exclaimed King Clown, “Let’s have some more parties!”

And the Good People came and wor- ried about the secrets the acrobats were still stealing because the King Clown told them the acrobats were definitely still fly- ing.

Then came the next lottery and the person who had fixed the numbers had run away and, this time, the Lion Trainer won and he was to become King of the Circus.

“No!” screamed King Clown – “No!

Everyone agreed – I should be King Clown forever – I’m never going to die and I have to be King until Time dies!”

“The numbers are the numbers, Babozzo – you’re done,” said the Strongest of the Strong Men.

“Never!” and Babozzo called on the other Strong Men to take the Strongest one away and feed him to the hungri- est tiger but they refused. Bit by bit, the dwarfs returned all the treasures Babozzo had collected, from Museums and jewellery stores. The Dwarfs began to give everything back while Babozzo threatened and yelled.

Yet, on the day the Lion Tamer came for the King Crown, Babozzo had one more party – lots of the Good People came because they still believed him about their secrets but they still had to pay for bonnets and goodies.

“I was the best King of all!” Babozzo shouted but then all the Good People saw he was just an ordinary clown with the ugliest nose. So, they dumped their bonnets and goodies and walked away.

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