RALEIGH -- A year ago, high school senior Andrew Hicks of Goldsboro walked into the gloomy bowels of the RBC Center a little bit sick, a whole lot tense and with just four minutes to prove he deserved his lifelong dream job.
This week, the Goldsboro native returned in a red rubber nose, greasepaint and full-blown triumph, bursting through a crimson curtain and parading into the arena amidst a cavalcade of elephants, tigers and acrobats.
He had filled those biggest of shoes: the job of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey clown.
Hicks, 19, was signed to a standard one-year clown contract after getting a rare in-person tryout at the RBC Center last February.
He was among just eight picked out of more than 100 who sought one of the rare jobs, and in November began touring the nation with one of Ringling's three circus units. This week's performances at the RBC Center, which continue through Sunday, mark his first appearance in North Carolina.
Hicks lives in the mile-long circus train with a stew of 270 performers and crew from 15 nations, helps set up and tear down the show, and performs up to three times a day, zipping in and out of each show six or seven times, juggling, riding in the clown car and performing quick-hit slapstick routines.
The life, he said, tops even his years of dreams.
"The whole experience is actually way better than I thought it would be," he said. "It felt too big for a while. The realization was very surreal. When we were on the floor rehearsing and training, and I was looking back at the big Ringling Bros. portal - the entrance between backstage and onstage - I was like, 'Wow, I'm here. I'm really doing this.'
"It felt like such a huge accomplishment and such a relief, really," he said.
'A feeling of success'
Hicks grew up teaching himself to juggle and ride a unicycle in the front yard. By age 12, he had his own clown service, with business cards. His mother, Wendy, was the clown equivalent of a soccer mom, ferrying him to performances at birthday parties, libraries and churches around Wayne County.
A retired clown he had met helped him get the tryout last February, while he was still a student at the School of Science and Math in Durham.
Hicks was a kid with options. He had been accepted at UNC-Chapel Hill to study biology, and as a Science and Math grad wouldn't have to pay tuition. He had two dreams: to become a veterinarian or a Ringling clown. After the tryout went so well, though, he gambled, telling UNC-CH he wouldn't be coming this past fall.
Then came the wait. He stayed in touch with circus officials, then finally, after months, he got the call. News that should arrive accompanied by elephants, tumblers and trumpets instead came the low-key modern way: via e-mail.
Still, he was elated. And in early November, he joined his unit. The first week, Ringling held a kind of boot camp for the handful of new clowns, honing their slapstick technique, teaching them how to develop a new routine quickly, and even how to fall.
A renowned makeup artist came in to help them fine-tune their look, in Andrew's case, among other things, getting the amount of white around his mouth just right so that it exaggerates his smile to maximum effect. And he was fitted with a new costume, one with high-waisted pants with vertical stripes that exaggerate his gangly build.
The work is physically and mentally demanding, he said, and it took him awhile to get used to those three-show days. But the rewards are instant, beginning with the scatter of guffaws from the quick-witted, then a roar as the rest catch on.
"When you do something funny and the audience erupts in laughter, it is such a feeling of success," Hicks said.
College ... one day
Hicks has been with the circus for eight stops, including Chicago, Miami and Nashville. His mom flies or drives to as many shows as she can, and may try to catch five performances in Raleigh. What she sees is full payback for all those times she had to ferry the 12-year-old clown to performances.
"I think about all of that, and I see the expression on his face and how he is truly enjoying performing, how he is in his element, and I see him in a professional light, and that's a really good feeling," she said.
Wendy Hicks, who is a teacher, said that she values education deeply but that given what Andrew has accomplished, she'll back whatever decision he makes about college.
Hicks said he believes that one day he'll go, but he's not sure when.
"Right now, this just feels like what I should be doing," he said.
Then it was time to get ready for another show, and Hicks stood, waved an exaggerated goodbye, and shuffled back to his dream in custom-made 15-inch shoes.
