No longer able to work in the sport he loves, Wayne Gramble packed his saddlebags, moved home to Crockett Valley and opened Wayne Gramble’s Professional Rodeo Clown Academy. Mr. Gramble, a three-year rodeo clown veteran who was recently forced to retire after suffering severe gluteal trauma, said he started the academy to not only train new clowns but also give back to the sport that has given him so much.
After graduating from Crockett Valley High School in 2005, Gramble headed west where he worked a number of odd jobs in ranching and telemarketing. He got into the rodeo clown business while on a blind date at a county fair in Cheyenne, Wyo.
“She bet me a beer I wouldn’t run across the ring in the middle of the bull riding event,” said Mr. Gramble. “I knew right then and there that she was the woman I was going to marry. Too bad things never worked out between us.”
Mr. Gramble may not have married his date, but he did take her up on her bet and barely avoided a goring by an 1800-pound Brahma bull before managing to slip over the wall.
“Best Coors Light I ever had,” said Mr. Gramble.
Soon rodeo promoters all over the West were paying “Insane Wayne” to bolt spontaneously across rodeo rings wearing an over-sized tuxedo and a rainbow wig. Within a year Mr. Gramble went from novelty act to full-fledged clown.
“I earned my suspenders the hard way and I got knocked around pretty good doing it,” said Mr. Gramble. “I hope the academy will make becoming a rodeo protection athlete easier and safer for the next generation.”
Mr. Gramble has aggressive plans for expansion and franchising in the future. In the meantime, classes at Wayne Gramble’s Professional Rodeo Clown Academy’s Crockett Valley campus range from barrel diving and wall jumping to tactics and theory. Mr. Gramble encourages men, women and children of all ages to enroll.
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