Harrison one of the best in the business

Loves the ‘small town feel’ of

local rodeo

By ERIC PLUMMER

Sports editor

SANDPOINT — Whether providing comic relief, or distracting a 2,000 plus pound angry bull from a bucked cowboy, rodeo clown J.J. Harrison is one of the best in the business.

The 42 year-old from Okanagan, Washington has worked everything from the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas to small town Friday night varieties, each with its own story to tell. Starting tonight, he’ll be working his latest, as the 2017 Bonner County Pro Rodeo hits the Fairgrounds.

Harrison remembers his first rodeo in Sandpoint last year well, recalling that the venue is tucked back in the trees and feels like the old west.

“It was fun, it’s beautiful up there. A great committee, I’m excited to come back,” says Harrison. “You see 1,000 bull rides, and they run together. It’s the people that distinguish that rodeo for me.”

There are 31 days in August, and Harrison will be working a rodeo on all but six of them, and he’ll work 38 of a possible 52 weekends this year. He’s booked straight through October, and has already hit places like Tennessee, Florida and Hawaii this year, to say nothing of the small Idaho, Washington and Montana towns that fill his hectic schedule.

He was asked what the worst part of the job is, and admitted it’s being in the barrel when an angry bull blasts into it. That said, he feels driving from rodeo to rodeo is the most dangerous part of the job, including a recent lengthy solo drive where he watched two different sunrises before arriving just in time to work his next gig.

An old pro, he rallied and delivered a good show for the fans, exhausted or not.

“They want to have a good time. You can’t just say ‘I’m tired,” he admits. “You have to flip the switch, come out and be excited and give a good show.”

For rodeo clowns, an old-school term Harrison prefers to barrel man or rodeo protection athlete, the doctor’s visits come with the territory. Harrison’s medical charts will show three knee surgeries, a hip surgery, a cracked skull, separation of both shoulders and a couple broken collarbones.

He admits much of the challenge of the job is simply staying healthy, no easy task when angry animals charging at you is a nightly occupational hazard, to say nothing of the strains and sprains that come with the territory.

Last year in Sandpoint he talked the Rodeo Queen into being part of the act. Harrison, in a big air suit, made a move that spooked the horse, who spun and promptly bucked the Queen off.

“The crowd didn’t know what’s going on, and neither do I. She was OK, and curtsied. The crowd laughed, they thought it was part of the show,” remembers Harrison. “Those kind of moments are what you remember. I’m excited to come back.”

Harrison jokes that he might be one of the only rodeo clowns in the business with a master’s degree, having given up his job as a high school teacher long ago to pursue his current profession.

A single dad, he spends a lot of his summers touring the West with his 9 year-old son. This summer the two spent five hours at Little Big Horn, hung out at Yellowstone and poked a stick into lava during an active volcano while in Hawaii. The quality time together helps during the long road trips from town to town, rodeo to rodeo.

“I’ve gotten to work some of the biggest rodeos in the world, including the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. It’s like getting to the Super Bowl, but it isn’t what defines me,” he admits. “At Nationals, you don’t talk, you don’t have a mic. So much of my comedy is off the cuff, making things up as I go. That brand is more current.”

For Ashley Gerstenberger, one of the organizers of the Bonner County Rodeo, partnering with renowned professionals like Harrison shows Bonner County Rodeo’s commitment to bringing the best rodeo performers available to the community.

“J.J. is one of the most well-known barrel men in the Pacific Northwest. He’s performed at the National Finals Rodeo (NFR), which is the most prestigious rodeo in the United States, along with many other high profile rodeo events,” describes Gerstenberger. “Acting like a funny, whimsical rodeo clown is one thing. Being a charismatic, professional barrel man is something else entirely. J.J. sets the bar.”

Harrison has a pile of belt buckles to go along with the assorted bumps and bruises. He was asked about the best part of being a rodeo clown.

“The people you meet along the way. It’s the memories and the people that make those memories,” he says. “I love rodeos like Sandpoint, with a small town feel.”