Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey Brainstuff listeners. Instead of a normal episode, today, we're
Speaker 2: back with one last preview from the new season of
Speaker 2: the podcast On the Job. We've teamed up with them
Speaker 2: to bring you a few samples of what they do,
Speaker 2: which is engaged with professionals from all kinds of businesses
Speaker 2: about what they do, from producing maple syrup to making
Speaker 2: a line of dolls meant to help kids learn about
Speaker 2: and love their natural curls. Through these stories, the team
Speaker 2: tries to help explain and explore different aspects of what
Speaker 2: working means in our world today. They're sponsoring us to
Speaker 2: run these samples. I think it's a good fit because
Speaker 2: it's a look into how different jobs work. Today's episode
Speaker 2: is about a rodeo clown for whom Rodeo is a legacy,
Speaker 2: though a tragic car accident and family loss almost cut
Speaker 2: his career short. This is the final episode of On
Speaker 2: the Job Season seven, so we'll be back to a
Speaker 2: regularly scheduled programming after this one. Though if you want
Speaker 2: to hear more or explore their previous six seasons, you
Speaker 2: can find On the Job from Express Employment Services wherever
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: Hey, everybody, a quick heads up. This episode deals with
Speaker 3: some unexpected loss, so listen at your own discretion.
Speaker 4: I have these long wringler baggy pants that are about
Speaker 4: five times too big, some old red suspenders. I've got
Speaker 4: different colored socks and converts tennis shoes with wide around.
Speaker 4: My eyes and my mouth and the rest of my
Speaker 4: face is painted red kind of. It's an old school
Speaker 4: traditional look.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to on the Job. I'm Avrey Thompson, and
Speaker 3: this week we're making a call over to Petrolia, Texas,
Speaker 3: a little town up there on the banks of the
Speaker 3: Red River, to speak with Brandon Dunn, who has, at
Speaker 3: least in my opinion, one of the more fascinating jobs
Speaker 3: on the planet.
Speaker 4: I'm Brandon Dunn. I'm a professional rodeo clown and barrel man.
Speaker 3: That's right, partners. This year episode we're talking with a
Speaker 3: rodeo clown. Yeha. Now, I bet that there are probably
Speaker 3: a few of you out there going what in blabbering
Speaker 3: tarnation as a rodeo clown or heck, maybe you're surprised
Speaker 3: to hear that rodeos still exist, to which I'm here
Speaker 3: to tell you all that rodeos are alive and bucking.
Speaker 4: It is a huge business, and I think the popularity
Speaker 4: of rodeo is growing more so now than it has
Speaker 4: ever before it So I don't think rodeo is going
Speaker 4: anywhere anytime soon, and.
Speaker 3: That's not a biased opinion. There there are more than
Speaker 3: six hundred rodeos put on across the USA and countless
Speaker 3: more amateur events, and according to some sources, bull riding
Speaker 3: is now America's fastest growing sport, which means that people
Speaker 3: like Brandon Dunn can make a full time career as
Speaker 3: a rodeo clown. Which if that doesn't make you proud
Speaker 3: to be an American, well, I don't know what will.
Speaker 3: At most rodeos, Brandon has a designate, a time slot
Speaker 3: in which he gets to come out there at the
Speaker 3: center of the rodeo ring and perform his feature act.
Speaker 4: It's kind of a spoof of the old top Gun movie.
Speaker 4: Got an old airplane that is actually the cockpit of
Speaker 4: it is an old World War two airplane, but it's
Speaker 4: built on a corvet body, And so I'll fly that
Speaker 4: thing in there and crash land that right in the
Speaker 4: middle of the arena and tell everybody I'm trying out
Speaker 4: to be Tom Cruise in the new Top Gun movie,
Speaker 4: and it brings a lot of laughs.
Speaker 1: Kids really enjoy it.
Speaker 3: But most rodeo clowns also have a job to do
Speaker 3: during the actual bull and bronco riding events, and Brandon
Speaker 3: is certainly no exception, which is why he also calls
Speaker 3: himself a barrel man, which, strangely enough, is exactly what
Speaker 3: it sounds like. Brandon will climb into a barrel which
Speaker 3: has holes in the top and bottom for his head
Speaker 3: and feet to protrude from, and then he'll get in
Speaker 3: the ring and wait for the bull and his rider
Speaker 3: to come shooting out of the gates.
Speaker 4: A lot of them times in bulls, a buck three
Speaker 4: or four or five steps out of the buck and
Speaker 4: shoot the bull rider bucks off. It's too far to
Speaker 4: get to the fence for them to be safe, and
Speaker 4: so I can bring that barrel in there to them
Speaker 4: and distract the bull, and the bull hit me in
Speaker 4: the barrel.
Speaker 1: Instead of the bull rider. In the bull riding instance.
Speaker 5: What's it feel like to have a bull hit the barrel?
Speaker 1: It does get intense.
Speaker 4: Sometimes that bull will end over end that barrel and
Speaker 4: you come out of that barrel and you don't know
Speaker 4: which ends up, and it's quite surprising.
Speaker 3: And with there being two holes in that barrel, if
Speaker 3: a barrel man's not careful or just downright unlucky, sometimes
Speaker 3: a bull can even get his head or horns in there.
Speaker 4: I had a bulle to get his head in the
Speaker 4: barrel with me before, and man, it looked like watching
Speaker 4: the video, I think, how did I even survive that?
Speaker 4: And a matter of fact, the bull bloodied his nose
Speaker 4: when he stuck his head in there, and the.
Speaker 1: Blood of that bull's nose was all over the barrel.
Speaker 4: Well, everybody thought that was my blood inside and they
Speaker 4: were trying to roll me out of the arena.
Speaker 3: So the moral of the story, folks, is, don't let
Speaker 3: that makeup fool you. Rodeo clowns are a tough bunch
Speaker 3: of own braids. And in case you haven't been to
Speaker 3: a rodeo lately, let me remind you that we're not
Speaker 3: talking about some little dairy cows here. These rodeo bulls
Speaker 3: are supreme athletes who have been carefully bred to be
Speaker 3: very big and ferociously mean. So from the very moment
Speaker 3: these bulls are born, there's no question what they're going
Speaker 3: to be doing these bulls are destined for the rodeo.
Speaker 3: But then it turns out that you could also say
Speaker 3: the same thing about Brandon.
Speaker 4: My mom was a professional bell racer, my dad was
Speaker 4: a steer wrestler. But I think I got the passion
Speaker 4: that loved to rodeo clown And now for my uncle,
Speaker 4: which was Rex Done, he would do clown acts and
Speaker 4: five bulls, and I think that's where my passion and
Speaker 4: the love for clowning was born.
Speaker 5: So rodeo clowning is in your blood, It's in your heritage.
Speaker 4: You know. Ever since I could remember, that's all I've
Speaker 4: ever wanted to do. I mean from the time that
Speaker 4: I can very first remember. If I would have a
Speaker 4: set of old baggies that my mom not cut up for me,
Speaker 4: try to put on her old lipstick or something to
Speaker 4: paint my face up with, and I would go outside
Speaker 4: and we had an old blue healer dog that would
Speaker 4: chase you around, and I let that dog chase me around, pretending.
Speaker 1: He was a bull.
Speaker 4: That's the only thing I could ever remember really wanting
Speaker 4: to be was a rodeo clown.
Speaker 3: No matter where you are in this big country of ours,
Speaker 3: there's a good chance you can find a rodeo nearby.
Speaker 3: Even those city slickers up in New York Piland and
Speaker 3: Madison Square Garden for three days every January to watch
Speaker 3: riders and clowns perform their craft at its highest level.
Speaker 3: Which means that the life of a rodeo man is
Speaker 3: very much a life on the road.
Speaker 4: I have to pretty much drive everywhere, and of course
Speaker 4: in the state of Texas, Oklahoma got rodeos in Idaho
Speaker 4: and Montana, So we just kind of travel all across
Speaker 4: the United States.
Speaker 5: Do you like that aspect of it or does it
Speaker 5: travel get tiring?
Speaker 4: It gets tiring, But I think I've got enough gypsy
Speaker 4: blood in me. And like I say, rodeo is a
Speaker 4: way of life, not only the competition parts of it,
Speaker 4: but the knights on the road, the times away from home.
Speaker 1: I mean, you certainly miss your family.
Speaker 4: So I've got a wife that's very, very supportive, and
Speaker 4: she grew up in the rodeo industry as well, so
Speaker 4: she very well understands the nature of this business. But
Speaker 4: there's times that you'll leave the house and it may
Speaker 4: be a month or two before you get back home.
Speaker 3: So that's how it went for Brandon from one rodeo
Speaker 3: to the next, with lots of lonely miles in between.
Speaker 3: But there were miles that he accepted because he knew
Speaker 3: that when he got there, whether it was a big
Speaker 3: stadium in Houston or rinky dink little corral in Idaho,
Speaker 3: that he had a job to do.
Speaker 4: When I'm in the arena, I forget everybody everything else
Speaker 4: in the outside. That's kind of my sanctuary, and I
Speaker 4: know for two hours, people have paid good money to
Speaker 4: come and be entertained at a rodeo, and that is
Speaker 4: my primary focus. To make sure that those people that
Speaker 4: they can forget about their troubles and they can leave
Speaker 4: and say, you know, we have been well entertained outside
Speaker 4: of that arena. I'm truly I'm not a people person.
Speaker 4: I'm just trying to kind of keep to myself, and
Speaker 4: a lot of people that don't know me or know
Speaker 4: what I do, they don't really understand. Said, how can
Speaker 4: you be a clown? Because outside of the arena, you're
Speaker 4: so serious and you're so withdrawn from people. But when
Speaker 4: I get in that arena, you gotta lay all that back.
Speaker 4: No matter what's going on, you just got to drop
Speaker 4: it there. When you walk in that arena and entertain
Speaker 4: the crowd.
Speaker 5: Do you think putting on your outfit, putting on the
Speaker 5: makeup allows you to become this other person?
Speaker 1: Most definitely.
Speaker 4: I would compare it to be like a method actor
Speaker 4: or something like that. You know, you get into that character,
Speaker 4: and this character has become, for lack of a better word,
Speaker 4: kind of my alter ego. When I walk in there,
Speaker 4: I mean, it's kind of the Chris Gains of Garth Brooks.
Speaker 4: When I walk in there, I'm still Brandon, but I
Speaker 4: just take on this whole new character and a whole
Speaker 4: new live in the arena.
Speaker 3: And for seventeen years, Brandon lived that life weekend after
Speaker 3: week and full after bull seventeen years of showmanship, seventeen
Speaker 3: years of doing what he loved, and then it all
Speaker 3: came to a tragic halt. We'll be right back.
Speaker 5: A strong work ethic takes pride in a job well done.
Speaker 3: This is the kind of person you need.
Speaker 2: Express Employment professionals can help because in good times or bad,
Speaker 2: we understand how critical it is to manage your business
Speaker 2: for today with the right workforce.
Speaker 5: We offer hiring solutions to fit changing demands.
Speaker 3: Express knows Jobs.
Speaker 2: Get to know Express Go to expresspros dot com to
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Speaker 3: We're back speaking with Brandon Dunn, who for seventeen years
Speaker 3: traveled the country as a rodeo clown and bullfighter, entertaining
Speaker 3: audiences with his comedy act and then stepping in the
Speaker 3: ring with some of the world's fiercest bulls.
Speaker 5: Are your thinking about right before they opened the gate?
Speaker 4: There's really not a whole lot of thank of course,
Speaker 4: I don't think you really think to be if you're
Speaker 4: going to be a rodeo clown or bullfighter anyway, I
Speaker 4: think half your brain has kind of been removed if
Speaker 4: that's the choice of career choice that you're going to
Speaker 4: be in. But at this point in the game, there's
Speaker 4: not a whole lot of thinking. It's just more reaction.
Speaker 4: You know what your job is. It's just time to
Speaker 4: go get your job done.
Speaker 3: But then, in April of two thousand and three, Brandon
Speaker 3: and his family were involved in a horrific car accident.
Speaker 3: The head on collision with a drunk driver killed Brandon's
Speaker 3: seven year old daughter and left Brandon crippled.
Speaker 4: There was four of us in that vehicle, and we
Speaker 4: were all in separate hospitals didn't get to see each other.
Speaker 4: I didn't get to go to my daughter's funeral. I
Speaker 4: mean it busted me up from head to toe. It
Speaker 4: took my Rodeo career, and to be truthful, probably the
Speaker 4: first six years of it.
Speaker 1: I just pouted.
Speaker 4: I was in a deep depression. You know, my whole
Speaker 4: life had been completely turned upside down.
Speaker 3: In this time of darkness, Brandon turned away from Rodeo
Speaker 3: life completely.
Speaker 4: I kind of cut myself off from even my good
Speaker 4: friends that were Rodeo on I just kind of, like
Speaker 4: I said, I just poudered.
Speaker 1: I just stayed to myself. I tried to change my.
Speaker 4: Whole lifestyle because Rodeo was such a deep part of
Speaker 4: who I was and had such a huge influence on
Speaker 4: me that I just completely just cut myself off from
Speaker 4: that world.
Speaker 3: In the absence of Rodeo, Brandon hungered down at home
Speaker 3: and focused his energy on the family cattle ranch. He
Speaker 3: deepened his connection with his family and his faith in God.
Speaker 3: He started up a little church that he became a
Speaker 3: pastor of. But even though Brandon had turned his back
Speaker 3: on Rodeo, Rodeo wasn't about to let him go that easily,
Speaker 3: because the passion Brandon once had for rodeo was beginning
Speaker 3: to show itself in the next generation of duns.
Speaker 4: I guess he was about twelve years old or so.
Speaker 4: He kept telling me. He said, Dad, I really want
Speaker 4: to fight bulls. I really want to fight bulls. And
Speaker 4: the little rascal. I said, it's if you want to
Speaker 4: do this, you're going to have to put out some
Speaker 4: efforts show me that you want to get in shape.
Speaker 4: Of course, he's twelve years old, but the kids started
Speaker 4: coming home when he started running, and he started doing
Speaker 4: push ups and set ups every night, and I thought, well,
Speaker 4: now dad's got to put up or shut up. So
Speaker 4: I bought him a little little bitty miniature zebou bull.
Speaker 4: I thought, well, this thing. He was mean, little rascal,
Speaker 4: and I thought, this little sucker, he's going to eat
Speaker 4: Brindle's lunch up, and that'll be that.
Speaker 1: We'll be through with this.
Speaker 3: But instead, Brandon's son fell in love with that little bull,
Speaker 3: and his interest in rodeoing only grew. And as Brandon
Speaker 3: watched his son Brendall's passion for rodeo blossom, his old
Speaker 3: love for the sport re emerged.
Speaker 4: So I thought, well, the only way that I know
Speaker 4: to guide this deal is, maybe get me a barrel
Speaker 4: and see if I can go back to just being
Speaker 4: inside the barrel and doing my clown ax and stuff.
Speaker 3: So a few years after Doctors narrowly managed to put
Speaker 3: Brandon Dunn back together again, he was back out in
Speaker 3: the rodeo ring.
Speaker 4: And sure enough it took off. The first probably three
Speaker 4: or four years of Brindle's rodeo career, we were working rodeos,
Speaker 4: me and him, and so I really never had intentions
Speaker 4: of coming back to the level of the game that
Speaker 4: I'm at right now. But God's kind of brought it
Speaker 4: all back full circle, and it was because of Brindle.
Speaker 1: Here we are in life is good.
Speaker 5: How does it feel to have your son following in
Speaker 5: your clown truth?
Speaker 4: You know, I've always told Brindle from an early age.
Speaker 4: I said, son, you don't have to do this because
Speaker 4: I do this. And honestly, there's times out there that
Speaker 4: I couldn't be more proud. But there's time said, man,
Speaker 4: I just want to stick my head in the barrel
Speaker 4: and not see what's happening. I told him, I said, son,
Speaker 4: if you ever want to go play Tidley Winks, let's
Speaker 4: just go play Tidley Winks and we'll be the tidy
Speaker 4: wing champion. It'll be a whole lot easier on your dad.
Speaker 3: But of course this is a done we're talking about,
Speaker 3: and Brandon's son is the next generation and a long
Speaker 3: lineage of people born and bred for the rodeo ring.
Speaker 4: I never dreamed, even when I was fighting bulls, that
Speaker 4: I would be able to share the arena with my
Speaker 4: son the way that I do now. And we have
Speaker 4: lots of highlights, especially when he's in the bullfights and
Speaker 4: I'm in the barrel. He brings that bull to the
Speaker 4: barrel and it's just a total conversation. While that barrel
Speaker 4: is getting mucked out by that bull. Brindle's protecting that
Speaker 4: barrel and we'll talk and we'll laugh inside that thing,
Speaker 4: and from the outside, I'm sure people in the stands think,
Speaker 4: you know, one.
Speaker 1: Of us is fixing to get killed. Brindle's got total
Speaker 1: control over the situation.
Speaker 4: I feel just completely safe in his hands when I'm
Speaker 4: in that barrel, and every time we get out of it,
Speaker 4: we give each other one.
Speaker 1: Great big hug. That's probably the highlight of my whole career.
Speaker 3: For on the job. I'm Avery Thompson. I'll see you
Speaker 3: down that dusty trail,