Missouri rodeo clown returning for 3rd straight rodeo

Rodeo clown Colten Ulmer from Mount Vernon, Mo., will get to be a part of hat trick and trifecta when the 79th annual Sallisaw Lions Club Rodeo takes the spotlight beginning Thursday. Elmer will be performing as this year’s event for the third straight year.

“I’m super excited about it honestly,” Ulmer said. “This will be my third year there. I got to tell you — Sallisaw is one of those rodeos I look forward to every year. I’ve been looking forward to it since they asked me to come back last year. It’s a family event. The crowds are big and electric. They like to have fun. The more the crowd likes to have fun, honestly the easier it makes my job — and the more fun that I get to have out there.”

It also helps when there is quality people around you.

“It’s a great rodeo and committee,” Ulmer said. “They have one of the best stock contractors (Kevin Hampton and the Hampton Rodeo Company) and best stock that’s there. All the animals — the bulls, the horses — are all award winning. You have (rodeo announcer) Matt McGee — the voice behind everything. He’s awesome. Me and Matt get to work several different rodeos together. That also helps — it makes it fun. He’s not just somebody to work with, but somebody that I’m also friends with. That makes it fun. You’re constantly bantering between the clown and the announcer. When he’s your friend, you can have a little bit of fun.”

Ulmer said he is in his peak time for being scheduled to be the clown at rodeos.

“Summer is the busy time,” he said. “I usually say that’s from the first weekend of June to September. I think this whole summer of four months, I have two weekends open. I’m booked about every weekend in summer. It’s a fun job. It’s a lot of work and traveling, but I absolutely love it. It’s the best job ever. I get to do something I love. I love rodeo — and the sport, itself — but then being able to go from town to town and see new faces is fun. I love being able to go where somebody decides to spend their hard-earned money on the weekend, and they decided to come to the rodeo. If I can make them all have a good time and make them laugh, and make them get up and dance a little bit, that makes my job totally worth it.”

People likely aren’t truly aware just how hard Ulmer has to work and practice to make his performances seem easy.

“The ongoing thing that everybody says is ‘Man, you’ve got a great job! All you have to go do is tell jokes and dance around,’” Ulmer said. “It’s a little bit more than that. Besides the two hours they see me working, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into it. You have a lot of travel time. I have a trick pony that I often do acts and comedy with. It’s taking care of animals. I have one act on my pony, and I put two years of training into one act to get him ready. That’s just working in the arena when I’m home. Whenever I’m home, I do lots of laundry, catching up to re-doing my barrel — I always like to keep my barrel looking clean — and on top of that, I’m always trying to keep my material fresh. There’s a lot of mental that goes into it — you know, mental preparation. You know, working on materials, putting together some new acts — stuff like that. Besides the running out there, dancing around and telling some jokes, there’s a lot more that goes into it behind the scenes.”