Talk About Clowning Around--Women Dominate Profession : Entertainment: The industry is no longer the male preserve it once was, and children seem to like it that way.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Belinda Withrow has to wipe the smile off her face every night.

Withrow, 32, mother of two, recently left her office job for a bright red rubber nose, a blue wig and a life of balloon sculpting, magic tricks and face painting.

Say whoopee to Blossom the Clown.

“What I like about it is making people happy and making them laugh,” she said. “There’s so much crime, unhappiness and sin in the world these days. It pleases me to bring some joy into someone’s life.”

Withrow is one of a growing number of women choosing clowning as a career. Some are dropping out and dressing up. Others are keeping their regular jobs but clowning on nights and weekends.

In fact, clowning, once an all-male bastion, is now dominated by women.

“We see circus clowns and Ronald McDonald and Bozo, and we think it’s all men, but that hasn’t been the case in 20 years,” said Richard Snowberg, a University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse professor who runs the nation’s preeminent clown camp.

About 65% of the 5,600 members of Clowns of America International are women, said the organization’s president, Jack Anderson of Jacksonville, Fla.

“When the makeup goes on, she is judged not on who her husband is or where she lives, but on her performing ability,” Anderson said. “A lot of them are able to go out and really succeed and feel welcome on their own.”

Also, children seem to respond more readily to a female voice.

“They have that kinder, gentler touch,” said Rick Dickson, secretary of the World Clown Assn. in Pekin, Ill. “As clowns become more one-on-one, that touch is so much better.”

About half of his group’s 3,400 members are women, Dickson said.

Withrow worked several different jobs at Charleston Newspapers for more than 14 years, the last as a $16,000-a-year accountant’s assistant.

But the lure of the greasepaint tantalized her. She often dressed as a clown at Halloween.

“I’ve always been fascinated by men clowns,” Withrow said. “But women are more apt to be silly, I think. They make just as good a clown as a man.”

She figured clowning would give her more time at home with her two young children, so she took a six-week basic course and forsook finance in favor of fun.

“I plan to go into clown ministry, perform at Bible schools, church functions, nursing homes,” she said.

It takes about an hour to go from Belinda to Blossom.

She begins by bunching her waist-length brown hair into a skull cap that contains it behind her head. Then it’s on with white face, blue wig, Raggedy Ann shirt, pantaloons, fake eyelashes and rubber nose. She paints a heart on one cheek and a flower on the other.

The transformation isn’t just physical. Withrow said she escapes from reality when she’s Blossom, and even speaks about herself in the third person.

“I’m more serious-minded,” she said. “I’m more backward and shy. Blossom would go up to someone, shake their hand and then just keep shaking it. I would never do that.”

The dichotomy was underscored when Blossom sang “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” recently at a church event.

“People at the church couldn’t believe it,” she said. “Because I was in costume, I wasn’t at all nervous. I wouldn’t have done it in a million years by myself.”

Withrow charges $55 for an hour of magic, balloon sculpture and face painting.

What happens on bad days when the smile is only skin-deep?

“You just have to be happy when you get there,” she said. “They can’t see under the makeup, but you have to be happy. When you see the children, it’s easy.”

Mary Barrett, 58, of Warren, Mich., quit her job as an office manager for the Associated Press to become a clown. It was at the urging of grandchildren who loved her less-serious side.

She took an eight-week adult education course and plans to attend clown camp.

When the makeup goes on, she becomes Ning Ning.

“You have to have a silliness,” Barrett said. “You have to always be 11 years old. I was always a class clown. It was a lifelong wish.”

Now, she is a real one. But she doesn’t plan to make a living at it.

“For me, this is giveback time,” she said. “I plan to go to hospitals, nursing homes, parades, birthday parties for grandchildren, friends, that type of thing.”

The United States has about 100,000 clowns, most of whom started like Barrett and Withrow did, Anderson said.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus operates a 10-week clown school in Venice, Fla., but it is only open to clowns who have passed auditions and will work for the circus.

After that, most agree the best clown school is run by Snowberg at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. The one-week course, repeated five times this year, costs $395 per person and attracts clown-wannabes from all over the nation.

Snowberg said 80% of his students are women.

“There was a time in circuses when women weren’t allowed to become clowns,” Dickson said.

“You will find that of the women clowns now entertaining, many are doing the local birthday party-type clowning. That is the bread-and-butter of clowning. There are women in the circus, but not as many as men.”

Clowns typically work birthday parties, company picnics, street fairs, parades, Christmas parties, office parties and even nursing homes. Their fees often range from $50 per 45-minute appearance to several hundred dollars, depending on where they live, what they offer and the competition in their community.

Barbara Porath, 41, of Lincoln Park, Mich., is a computer analyst who clowns on weekends.

“It’s a different personality,” Porath said. “When I was younger, I was quiet and shy. And I go to work all day and dress for this management job in a suit and have to pretend I’m an adult.

“Then I can be a clown and be a little silly, be a different personality, be hyper and let myself be more childlike.”

Clowns say they’re not goofing around for the money.

Pat Frank of Huntington Beach, Calif., quit her job as an accountant 10 years ago to go into business with her clown husband as Potsy and Blimpo. She’s Potsy.

“You have to have the heart of a clown,” she said. “A lot of people have the heart of a clown and don’t realize it. It’s a caring person who loves people and wants to make them happy.

“If you’re going in to make money, you’ve got two strikes against you. You have to be happy at it, because that’s really the pay.”