It takes practice to master the craft of clowning and for one Valley resident becoming a clown came about after helping her daughter Lulu the Clown. As of the spring of 2016, Ruth Dunbar has brought Rudy the Clown to the Upper Columbia Valley.
“I retired a year ago October and kinda of started thinking about it more and more. There was a lot of practice and I went to a clown convention and it really inspired me. Then I thought I’m going to try it because there really is nobody else doing clowning or balloon twisting here in the valley,”said Dunbar.
Since deciding to pursue clowning, Rudy the Clown has been at Canal Days, Radium Days, Fairmont Canada Day and various birthday parties. She travels from Golden B.C. to Cranbrook B.C. bringing her balloon twisting skills with her. After attending the clown conference in Banff A.B. in April balloon twisting has been a priority for her to master. With some of her favourites balloon animals being an octopodes and giraffes perfecting them has been time consuming.
“Practice, practice, practice you go through a ton of balloons to get one right, it feels like,”said Dunbar.
Learning to create the balloon animals and other items such as laser guns and flowers was something she credits to her daughter’s experience. For her practicing was how she mastered the art of balloon twisting. Looking to gain more experience Dunbar is considering furthering her training in the United States of America.
“There are big clown conventions in the States that I might actually think about going to in January,” said Dunbar. My hope is and I would like to get into doing some face painting and some magic as well, but first I feel I want to perfect this.”
Dunbar is no stranger to character performances, working with Just Kidding Entertainment at several events in the past.
“I’ve been Mrs. Claus in Calgary for several events for years through another company called Just Kidding which is an entertainment company. So I’ve always been around this kind of thing, but I’ve been Mrs. Claus. I’ve never been Rudy the Clown,” said Dunbar.
Choosing her performance name came easy for Dunbar, thanks to her best friend. Dunbar said her friend calls her Rudy all the time and it just seemed to work for her stage name.
Rudy has been busy at some of the biggest events in the Valley but is available throughout the summer to come to events or parties from Golden to Cranbrook. For more information, she can be contacted by email at rudydunbar@icloud.net or phone at 250-342-0118.
