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This story originally published July 4, 2025.
JJ Harrison's name comes up a half dozen times during the half-hour production meeting before the opening performance of the St. Paul Rodeo.
He's expected to fill about a half hour of that night’s 2.5-hour performance with 3-minute comedy blocks – when he’s not dodging bulls and other excited animals.
“I always say I’m like salt. A little bit of me, I make it better. Too much of me, you might have to throw it out,” Harrison said.
Harrison has been delivering laughs night after night for two decades at rodeos all over the West Coast, including St. Paul, which runs June 30 through July 4, for about 12 years.
His appendix was removed in 2025. He worked a rodeo six days later despite a doctor telling him to sit out for two months. Harrison thinks he can mine that for comedy in between cowgirls roping horses and cowboys being bucked off bulls at St. Paul.
He doesn't script his comedy.
“It exactly is improv. It’s just I’m on the world’s most dangerous stage,” he said.
During the bull riding, Harrison earns every cent of his pay.
He climbs in an aluminum barrel placed about 20 feet in front of the bucking chutes. It’s designed to look like a can of Coors beer and attract a bull’s attention after they get rid of a bull rider.
After bucking off bullrider Colorado Kid Mackey during the opening performance on July 1, the bull Ready Team charged at Harrison in the barrel, knocking it upside down, throwing a hoof full of dirt in his face. Ready Team hits the barrel again and knocks it on the side.
A bullfighter in the arena set the barrel upright, Harrison pops out and sings along to the music playing in the arena: “I’ve got the power.”
Harrison, who was inducted into the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2025, said he wants his career to be defined by the three hours he works each night of the rodeo.
“I want them happy with me the duration of the rodeo," he said. "It wasn’t just a little act.”
Some of the top bull riders in the nation walk by fans at St. Paul without as much as an autograph request. But Harrison is constantly recognized, even before he puts on his makeup and costume. Fans chat him up and ask to take selfies.
At 50 years old, there are probably more rodeos behind Harrison than in front of him.
Athletic trainers from the Justin Sports Medicine Team put a heating pack on Harrison's back and electrodes on his back and right hip. They massage and stretch his legs and hips, limbering him up for before the show.
He’s been injured more times than he can count. He's had two knee surgeries. He had one shoulder surgery. His skull has been cracked twice. He had his hip replaced. He admits that rodeo was the cause of a lot of those injuries, but he also was an athlete before that.
It’s adding up.
“There’s only so much tread on your hips. There’s only so much tread on your knees,” said Susan Ganz, program manager for the Justin Sports Medicine Team.
Harrison jokes that self-preservation has not always been a top concern.
Late in the 2024 Sisters Rodeo, the bull Party Bus was looking for an exit from the arena after bucking off a bull rider. Then Party Bus jumped the fence out of the arena and ran into the crowd. The bull ran between two sections of grandstands and into the midway.
As soon as the bull was in the crowd, Harrison can be heard on the video yelling, “Get to higher ground, everybody! There’s a bull out.”
Harrison ran after the bull, jumped the fence and was the first person to help those Party Bus hit.
“It sucked for me because you don’t like to see anybody get hurt, and especially a fan,” said Harrison, who has worked the Sisters Rodeo for 17 years. “It’s not something you can plan for. It’s just a situation that was unforeseen.”
Harrison understands he will always be associated with that incident and the worldwide attention it received.
The silver lining, he said, is that Sisters Rodeo added an extra performance for this year’s rodeo, and it quickly sold out.
Harrison figured out a lot of how to be a clown on his own.
He grew up in eastern Washington, and competed in rodeo while going to Washington State University.
After earning an undergraduate degree, Harrison gave up rodeo and taught middle school science in Walla Walla.
A promoter was putting on a bull riding event in Vancouver, Washington, in 2005 and recruited him to work as a rodeo clown for a day. Something clicked. People in the rodeo industry heard about his performance and he received offers to work their rodeos.
He had to figure out an act. “There’s no clown college that I know of, except the University of Washington,” Harrison quipped.
He quit teaching in 2008 and has been a full-time rodeo clown since.
Harrison doesn't like wearing makeup but does it to honor the tradition of the rodeo clown. He uses simple black and white makeup and it takes a few minutes to apply. He doesn’t overthink it.
“My pattern is called I want to wear the least amount of makeup to be a clown,” Harrison said.
Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: St. Paul Rodeo clown JJ Harrison has comic's timing, daring of a bullfighter
Continue reading...
JJ Harrison's name comes up a half dozen times during the half-hour production meeting before the opening performance of the St. Paul Rodeo.
He's expected to fill about a half hour of that night’s 2.5-hour performance with 3-minute comedy blocks – when he’s not dodging bulls and other excited animals.
“I always say I’m like salt. A little bit of me, I make it better. Too much of me, you might have to throw it out,” Harrison said.
You must be registered for see images attach
JJ Harrison delivers comedy between action at rodeos
Harrison has been delivering laughs night after night for two decades at rodeos all over the West Coast, including St. Paul, which runs June 30 through July 4, for about 12 years.
His appendix was removed in 2025. He worked a rodeo six days later despite a doctor telling him to sit out for two months. Harrison thinks he can mine that for comedy in between cowgirls roping horses and cowboys being bucked off bulls at St. Paul.
He doesn't script his comedy.
“It exactly is improv. It’s just I’m on the world’s most dangerous stage,” he said.
During the bull riding, Harrison earns every cent of his pay.
You must be registered for see images
He climbs in an aluminum barrel placed about 20 feet in front of the bucking chutes. It’s designed to look like a can of Coors beer and attract a bull’s attention after they get rid of a bull rider.
After bucking off bullrider Colorado Kid Mackey during the opening performance on July 1, the bull Ready Team charged at Harrison in the barrel, knocking it upside down, throwing a hoof full of dirt in his face. Ready Team hits the barrel again and knocks it on the side.
A bullfighter in the arena set the barrel upright, Harrison pops out and sings along to the music playing in the arena: “I’ve got the power.”
Harrison, who was inducted into the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2025, said he wants his career to be defined by the three hours he works each night of the rodeo.
“I want them happy with me the duration of the rodeo," he said. "It wasn’t just a little act.”
You must be registered for see images attach
The injuries compound for JJ Harrison
Some of the top bull riders in the nation walk by fans at St. Paul without as much as an autograph request. But Harrison is constantly recognized, even before he puts on his makeup and costume. Fans chat him up and ask to take selfies.
At 50 years old, there are probably more rodeos behind Harrison than in front of him.
Athletic trainers from the Justin Sports Medicine Team put a heating pack on Harrison's back and electrodes on his back and right hip. They massage and stretch his legs and hips, limbering him up for before the show.
He’s been injured more times than he can count. He's had two knee surgeries. He had one shoulder surgery. His skull has been cracked twice. He had his hip replaced. He admits that rodeo was the cause of a lot of those injuries, but he also was an athlete before that.
It’s adding up.
“There’s only so much tread on your hips. There’s only so much tread on your knees,” said Susan Ganz, program manager for the Justin Sports Medicine Team.
You must be registered for see images attach
JJ Harrison's role in notorious incident at the Sisters Rodeo in 2024
Harrison jokes that self-preservation has not always been a top concern.
Late in the 2024 Sisters Rodeo, the bull Party Bus was looking for an exit from the arena after bucking off a bull rider. Then Party Bus jumped the fence out of the arena and ran into the crowd. The bull ran between two sections of grandstands and into the midway.
As soon as the bull was in the crowd, Harrison can be heard on the video yelling, “Get to higher ground, everybody! There’s a bull out.”
Harrison ran after the bull, jumped the fence and was the first person to help those Party Bus hit.
“It sucked for me because you don’t like to see anybody get hurt, and especially a fan,” said Harrison, who has worked the Sisters Rodeo for 17 years. “It’s not something you can plan for. It’s just a situation that was unforeseen.”
Harrison understands he will always be associated with that incident and the worldwide attention it received.
The silver lining, he said, is that Sisters Rodeo added an extra performance for this year’s rodeo, and it quickly sold out.
JJ Harrison goes from middle school science teacher to rodeo clown
Harrison figured out a lot of how to be a clown on his own.
He grew up in eastern Washington, and competed in rodeo while going to Washington State University.
After earning an undergraduate degree, Harrison gave up rodeo and taught middle school science in Walla Walla.
A promoter was putting on a bull riding event in Vancouver, Washington, in 2005 and recruited him to work as a rodeo clown for a day. Something clicked. People in the rodeo industry heard about his performance and he received offers to work their rodeos.
He had to figure out an act. “There’s no clown college that I know of, except the University of Washington,” Harrison quipped.
He quit teaching in 2008 and has been a full-time rodeo clown since.
Harrison doesn't like wearing makeup but does it to honor the tradition of the rodeo clown. He uses simple black and white makeup and it takes a few minutes to apply. He doesn’t overthink it.
“My pattern is called I want to wear the least amount of makeup to be a clown,” Harrison said.
You must be registered for see images
Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: St. Paul Rodeo clown JJ Harrison has comic's timing, daring of a bullfighter
Continue reading...
