Life as a Fair Variety Artist Can Be Full of Pain, Pride : Entertainment: Geeser the Walking Puppet Stage, other performers and about 4,000 daytime attendees brave heat amid an array of activities.

Pulling off the bulky red costume that he wears head-to-toe for a character called Geeser the Walking Puppet Stage, Tom Jorgenson let out a big sigh.

Returned to human form, he was free to take a break from the random kicks, punches and insults that children inflict upon adults who work in costume for a living.

“Sometimes it’s like I’m a real punching bag out there,” said Jorgenson, his voice raspy from laryngitis.

“But most of the kids do seem to enjoy it, and so do I. Well, mostly.”

Jorgenson and other performers were there to entertain a crowd of about 4,000 who braved 100-degree heat and $3.50 bottled water Saturday at the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster.

Despite unruly children and the long, grinding days, the fair performers--who refer to themselves as “variety artists” if they have more than one talent--are proud of their profession.

“You’re an entertainer,” said Jorgenson, a thin, 50-something man who has done everything from perform magic tricks to paint silly pictures at fairs across the country for the past 10 years. “The nice thing about fairs is that they allow us to be as creative as you can get.”

But Jorgenson knows that it’s not a typical job. “It is hard for people to comprehend a variety artist,” he said.

But Ernie Guderjahn understands.

Guderjahn is the inventor of Jorgenson’s walking puppet stage, a wearable device consisting of an open red box that covers Jorgenson’s head and torso. The bottom of the box has a hole so that he can operate a puppet character.

Unfortunately, because of Jorgenson’s throat problems, much of what the puppet said Saturday could not be understood.

Guderjahn is also the creator of what he believes to be the world’s first inflatable theater--a blue rubber-like object that is home to his own puppet show. He said originality is one of the keys to getting hired on the fair circuit.

“If you have some good ideas and some stick-to-it-ness, you can get them interested,” said Guderjahn, a 20-year veteran of fair shows.

Stick-to-it-ness is indeed necessary if variety artists are to survive financially. The season stretches only from April to October, and many fair employees don’t have jobs during the off-season.

“Actually, all these guys are performers of a sort,” said Professor Marvel, a children’s magician whose real name is Mark Price.

Even Gary McKnight, 37, a relative newcomer to the circuit, who makes about $70 a day running the fair’s pool table.

“It’s really pretty simple,” he said as he made several well-practiced shots. Then he missed several times in a row.

“If I could make them every time, I wouldn’t be here,” he said with a shrug.

Meanwhile, the fair’s announcer, Rick Fatland, was reading off the day’s lineup of entertainers with an air of what seemed to be genuine excitement.

His list included such only-at-a-country-fair events as Stanley the Talking Scarecrow and a diaper derby.

“There’s a lot going on here,” Fatland told the crowd. “And we want to thank Waste Management for the donation of the Sage Pavilion this year.”