Broadway the Clown: celebrating a 50 year legacy in Bowling Green
Meet Nick Wilkins: The man behind the face paint
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – This week is National Clown Week, and Bowling Green’s very own Broadway the Clown has been serving up smiles for 50 years.
Broadway the Clown is a performer, a jokester and an artist loved by his hometown, but the man behind the face paint is even more magical.
“I like to tell people I’m a laugh merchant. I peddle laughs.”
Meet Nick Wilkins – an altruist with a knack for creating smiles.
“Clowning to me is not just putting on a face and doing this or that. That is an element of it, but clowning comes right here from the heart,” Wilkins said, pointing to his chest.
Wilkins grew up mesmerized by his father’s magic tricks
At 8-year-old he decided to start putting tricks up his own sleeve. Wilkins dove into magic books – self-teaching around the time his family moved to Bowling Green in 1964.
50 years later, and Broadway the Clown is a household name passed from generation to generation here in Bowling Green.
“It’s kind of neat to look back and see how far I’ve come and how things change,” said Wilkins wistfully.
After graduating from Western Kentucky University, Wilkins headed to clown college in 1978 – one of 60 chosen out of over 5,200 applicants.
An impressive feat he immediately followed up, securing a job with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
After two years with what many call “The Greatest Show on Earth”, Wilkins loaded up his his clown car and came back to his hometown in Bowling Green.
With only a $500 investment, Wilkins started up Balloon-A-Gram Co., turning his clowning love into the next chapter of his life.
“I was very blessed and very lucky…. Bowling Green’s been very good to me.”
Wilkins especially loves performing for children, and the elderly. His favorite memories are created in hospital rooms or entertaining Special Olympians.
With a 50 year legacy secured, is Broadway ready to hand up the red nose for good?
“I will continue to clown,” Wilkins said surely. “I love what I do. It’s just in my blood.”
