Tuckness Enjoys a Clown’s Life

Rodeo clown Timber Tuckness has left audiences both laughing and confused. While it’s a great job and lifestyle, “sometimes you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and the crowd’s not with you,” the longtime rodeo competitor said.

Tuckness grew up learning the rodeo life in the Finley, Wash., area on his step-father’s and grandfather’s ranch. “I do this for the love of the sport and the lifestyle,” Tuckness said. “I wanted to keep this in my family.”

Tuckness has won or participated in the Turquoise Circuit Finals, Coors World Finals Barrelman, Senior Pro Rodeo Finals Clown, Black Hills Bullfighting Champion, Coors’s World’s Biggest Bull-riding, National High School Finals All-Around Cowboy, College National Finals All-Around Cowboy, NARC Finals Barrelman and NRA Finals Barrelman.

He started his career on rough stock, riding bareback and saddle broncs on the high school rodeo team in Finley. “Someone told me I was a good rough stock rider,” Tuckness recalled. “He said he’d pay me to do rodeos, so I did.”

After graduating from high school in 1977, Tuckness attended Washington State University. At WSU he studied pre-vet, animal science and biology, and competed on the college rodeo team. He later transferred to Western Montana College in Dillon where he studied physical education and health.

Finally, after years of rough stock riding, Tuckness figured it was time to do something different and began performing as a rodeo clown, entertaining audiences with his humor.

Tuckness considers himself an old-school rodeo clown, wearing oversized pants and painting his face with crazy colors. “In the past being a rodeo clown involved a barrel man, specialty act and bull fighting,” Tuckness said. Today, everyone just specializes in one, he added.

He said he designed his acts for all ages, “trying to keep things professional. “It’s a challenge to entertain the crowd,” Tuckness said. “My best material comes from the newspaper.”

Tuckness said the most important part of his work is “taking care of the cowboys.” “My job is to position myself around the bull and get the cowboy a better score,” Tuckness added.

After traveling around the U.S. for many years, Tuckness decided to take his act overseas. Performing with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1989 at Enduro Disney in Paris, Tuckness said the crowds were “excited.” “I performed trick roping, riding, whip cracking and shooting,” he said. “The crowd seemed to like anything we brought with us from the West.”

But during their stay in France the climate turned ugly.< “The French were boycotting Enduro Disney for political reasons,” he said. “They were upset with the American workers who came over to train the French. They didn’t like that.” Protesters blocked 10 miles of roads leading to Enduro Disney with “whatever they could use to keep cars from crossing,” he said.

Finally fed up with the situation, Tuckness said he and other rodeo competitors walked all the way from the rodeo arena to the airport in Paris, booked a flight home and “got out of there.”

In 1992, Tuckness’ career took a turn for the worse when he was injured and unemployed for six months. Performing at an event in Minot, N.D., Tuckness was attacked by a bull while tucked inside a barrel. “The bull kicked me in the head with his hind legs,” he said. “I ended up with a fractured neck and jaw.”

He began working at the Cody Nite Rodeo in 1993, performing 100-125 rodeos per year as a clown. “This is the best rodeo I’ve ever worked,” Tuckness said. “It’s great to have a nightly rodeo. You can try out new acts and perfect them.”

When he’s not touring the U.S. Canada, Brazil, the Philippines, Finland, France and Australia, fans can find him at the nite rodeo. He’s seen “dramatic changes” in rodeo during his 25 years in the sport. “The rode is more modern today,” he said. “There’s more money involved, and the production and entertainment are bigger,” he said.

Tuckness has performed more than 300 shows at the rodeo grounds in Cody and will continue to help. “I’ll probably never make a million dollars doing this,” he said. “But I’m having a million dollars worth of fun.”

Tuckness and his son Dusty, a bull fighter, are the only father-son team working together in the Professional Bull Riders Association. “It’s nice we can stay on top of the game and get to work here in between tours,” he said. Later this month he’ll perform at a PBR event in Afton, WY. “This career is like having a paid vacation,” Tuckness said. “I’ll do this as long as I stay healthy.”