Kyle Bounds has been walking into the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo arena for close to two decades. This year, for the first time, he’s doing it without a bull rope or a rigging bag — and without any plans to get back on a bucking horse.
Bounds, 35, of Harrisburg, spent 18 years riding bareback broncs on the rodeo circuit, becoming a fixture at the Northwest Professional Rodeo Association Finals and, by his own count, winning the year-end title nine times. This summer he’s back at Philomath in a different role — full-time rodeo clown, working to keep the crowd entertained through the long stretches between events rather than chasing 8-second rides.
“I rode bareback horses for 18 years and we just have such a great rodeo community. We’re like a family and I’m in the retirement stage of bareback riding, and I couldn’t just leave rodeo,” Bounds said, sitting in the shade of the grandstands about two hours before Thursday night’s performance. “Everyone’s been telling me I’ve been funny my whole life, so I started clowning a little bit. And I actually enjoy being funnier than I do being serious in bareback riding.”
For Bounds, the shift wasn’t sudden. He first tried clowning in 2016, not long after an injury sidelined him from competition, and worked rodeos on and off in the years since while still competing. Last year he split his time between bucking horses and clowning. This summer marks his first full season doing only the latter.
“What really pushed me is last year at the NPRA Finals, I was 10 years older than the second-youngest guy in the bareback riding,” he said. “I don’t like waking up sore after every weekend, and this gives me an opportunity to stay in it and not be sore after getting on horses all the time.”
Bounds is clear about the distinction between his new job and the bullfighters who work alongside him in the arena.
“As a rodeo clown, my job is like if there’s downtime or something’s not going right, my job is to distract the crowd, keep them entertained,” he said. “The bullfighters are the guys that are protecting the cowboys from the bulls. So basically, I’m here to entertain the crowd and make the rodeo go smoothly, and just have a good time.”
That job comes with its own kind of endurance test. A bareback ride lasts 8 seconds. Rodeo performances run for hours and Bounds is on for most of it.
“You still have that adrenaline — it’s just a little different,” he said. “Rodeo clowning, I’m entertaining the crowd anywhere from two-and-a-half hours to some rodeos that drag on for four hours. So you’ve got that adrenaline that much longer, trying to keep the crowd entertained, watching you instead of just the 8 seconds.”
Bounds, a Creswell High graduate, competed at Philomath in bull riding before moving to bareback riding in 2010. The Frolic is his second rodeo this summer working as a clown — he took the first half of the season off after the birth of his son last month.
“I have a bunch of friends coming to this one to watch because I know everyone locally — I have for years and Philomath is a pretty good-sized rodeo,” Bounds said. “It’s almost intimidating getting out there. I mean, I can either do well or I could be terrible, so this could either give me more jobs or less. So it’s a good way to find out here at Philomath.”
He’s leaning on veteran clowns for guidance as he builds his own style in the arena, citing JJ Harrison and Clint Selvester — known on the circuit as Wolfey — as influences.
“I lean more towards Wolfey’s style than JJ’s — more of the funny stuff in the arena instead of the serious up-in-the-crowd interaction,” Bounds said. “I mean, JJ’s funny, too, but I want to bring old-school rodeo clowns back before they had microphones and they were still funny.”
Bounds keeps a handful of bits in reserve for when a performance needs a lift, but appears to mostly play it by ear.
“I’ve got a few things that I just keep in the back of my mind, like if something goes south and I need to make up some time in the arena,” he said. “But other than that, it’s just whatever the crowd wants is what they’re going to get.”
Bounds has nine rodeos booked this summer into September. He works at Valley Fence in Monroe when he’s not in the rodeo arena.
Stepping away from competing hasn’t been entirely easy.
“It’s so hard for me to watch these guys get on bucking horses and not be able to go get on bucking horses myself,” he said.
Still, he sees clowning as a way to stay connected to a community he’s not ready to leave.
“From the clowning perspective, as long as I can still walk and I’m still funny, I’ll continue to do it,” Bounds said. “It just keeps me in the rodeo world. And like I said, we’re basically like a big family. We travel from rodeo to rodeo, so it’s hard to just step away from that.”
