Deepa BharathMichaele Watson got to swirl rings...

Deepa Bharath

Michaele Watson got to swirl rings with Brenda the clown.

Brenda Graham, who used to work with the Ringling Brothers and

Barnum and Bailey Circus, spent Friday with her husband, Jimmy,

clowning around at the fair during their Clown Seminar show.

Six-year-old Michaele looked in awe as Brenda threw up the rings

in the air.

“These are awesome,” said the girl who had come to the Orange

County Fair on a day trip as part of a summer camp from Hawthorne.

Michaele said she was also going to go to the circus at the

Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim that begins July 25.

“I love the animals at the circus,” she said. “I like the horses.”

Jimmy gave the little girl a tiny tip.

“If you get there an hour and a half earlier, you can actually be

near and talk to the animals,” he told her.

“You can talk to them, but I don’t know if they’ll talk to you,”

he said with a guffaw.

Maxine Tow of Downey brought her 8-month-old granddaughter,

Isabel, to watch the show.

“It’s her first experience,” Tow said. They were watching the

Grahams’ act. Jimmy held a balloon in his hand and bent over as

Brenda kicked him in the rear. Jimmy fell down and the balloon burst,

almost making little Isabel cry.

“I don’t think she appreciated that,” her grandfather said.

Monique Shaffer of Irvine said she was planning to take her three

children to the circus and this was a kind of preview.

“They love the circus, especially the clowns,” she said.

The Grahams, who now live in Chino, Calif., traveled with the

circus in the early and late 1980s.

“But we got off the road to have a normal life, had triplets, and

that was it,” Brenda said with a laugh.

“But we still enjoy coming out to events like these and

interacting with the children,” said Jimmy, who with his wife puts on

the clown seminar each Friday of the fair. “This is family

entertainment. It’s clean, wholesome fun.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].