HE DOESN'T MIND BEING CALLED A CLOWN

Presson entertains children during a birthday party.

Kelly Presson doesn't mind being known as a clown. As a matter of fact, he's spent many years cultivating that image.

Presson, who recently moved here to assume duties as youth and children's pastor at the First Assembly of God Church in Jackson, got his start as a clown many years ago during a visit to a Memphis gag shop.

"My uncle lived in Memphis near Poplar Plaza and there was a blue jean shop that my uncle wanted to take my dad to see and while they were in there, I went next door called the Fun Shop," Presson explained. "I went in their and bought my first trick -- called the cups and balls -- at the age of eight."

That magic trick sparked his interest in entertaining and eventually helped him forge the hybrid act of Jeepers T. Clown, a slapstick fellow who performs both comedy routines and sleight of hand magic tricks.

After buying his first trick, he bought a few others and as a youngster, he and friend started an occasional magic show in a shed in his best friend's backyard.

Kids from the Kennett neighborhood where Presson grew up would gather at the shed, pay admission and buy a bag of popcorn to watch the youngster perform his tricks.

While he loved to do magic, he was so shy that his hands would shake even during these neighborhood performances. He soon found the answer while designing an impromptu Halloween costume.

"Once at Halloween my cousin, who is a lot older than I am, was having members of her women's club over and asked if I would take her daughter and find a Halloween costume for her," he explained. "We went to the stores and couldn't find anything so we went back to my house and I thought, 'Well, I'll find something.'"

Presson finally settled upon the idea of dressing himself and the little girl up as clowns.

Once they were in costume, the two went back to the home of Presson's cousin. The women gathered there were very impressed with the authenticity of his creations.

Later, Presson was asked to perform magic tricks during the intermission of a civic club's Christmas beauty pageant (at a rate of $25 for 30 minutes: "For a little kid, that was a lot of money," said Presson).

It was during this performance that he decided to make the clown outfit a permanent part of his act.

"I found that performing behind the make-up gave me a way of hiding," the performer recalled. "People I grew up with and had been around all my life had no idea who I was and that gave me a lot of confidence."

With this renewed confidence, Presson had business cards printed up and began performing at birthday parties and club meetings around Kennett. As he grew older, so did the performances. Soon he was performing at corporate picnics, school programs and other larger gatherings.

"Shows at schools are by far my favorite things to do," he said. "Anyone's who's ever been to school knows that when they let you out of class for something, you were excited about it.

"These kids are wired to the max and before you come out they will chant your name so loud that you think the roof of the auditorium is going to cave in," he added. "When they are that excited about something, you can't help but get pumped up yourself."

In 1993 Presson had the opportunity to polish his clowning ability at a "clown camp," held at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

"I'd probably been 'clowning' for 10 to 12 years and at that point, everything I knew I taught myself or had learned through books or mail order things.

"The clown camp was great because I got the opportunity to meet people who were professional clowns and who had even gone to the Ringling Brothers' Clown College -- most people don't even know such a thing exists -- and that really helped me polish my act."

Presson's love for clowning is evident when he discusses the past several years, during which learned a different way of juggling.

In the traditional sense, Jeepers T. Clown can juggle more than two things at a time by tossing them in the air but he has become a master juggler in another sense.

"Last year, I was juggling a full-time job with going to college part-time and performing more than 80 times over the year," he said. "I'm pretty proud of that.

"Sometimes I'd come home from work and not want to move again," he explained. "I just wanted to sit there but when I started to think about performing and started to get ready and put on the make-up, then I'd get really excited."

Presson said his love for clowning is what has kept the activity fresh for the past 15 years.

"I just enjoy spreading some good cheer and making people happy," he said.