When hometown clown Darren Burrell was featured in a Feb. 26 story, he told the Enquirer about his career as a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey clown.

        He talked about driving his teachers crazy at Taylor High School and stupefying his family when he announced he was trading in his boring corporate duds for a colorful, mismatched ensemble and a bucket full of bubbles.

        “Being a clown is more than just slapping on the shoes and colors on your face,” he said. “You have to be able to create from there, watching the slaps and eye pokes, but write a new gag that makes sense when it's performed right.”

        What Mr. Burrell didn't talk about was the reason his smile won't leave his face even after the greasepaint's gone: his fiancee Molly Pelley. The two met in 1995 while attending Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College. He was perfecting his multiple bubble act and she was becoming an expert in the fine art of hula hooping.

        They were recently featured on ABC's Good Morning America “Happily Ever After: Love in Times Square” promotion. They competed with four other couples for an all-expenses-paid wedding, courtesy of Bride's magazine. The GMA experience was fun and a shot-in-the-dark for Mr. Burrell.

        “Somebody here (at the circus) found out about it, and so I wrote an essay and sent it in. I can credit my English teacher, Mr. Lowell, for this too,” referring to the entry being one of five chosen out of 500 entries from across the country.

        Although they didn't win the contest, they had already won each other's hearts. The couple plans to wed Oct. 14 in the Boston area.

        “We found a nice little castle to get married near where her parents live,” he says, “very little.”

        Friends and fans can see the clowning couplet in action when the circus pitches its tents in downtown Columbus Thursday-next Sunday at Nationwide Arena.

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