How Shoeloose the Clown has become a staple of Fort Madison's Tri-State Rodeo
FORT MADISON — The best traditions are sometimes born out of spur-of-the-moment decisions, as was the case for Gregg Brockman and his alter ego, Shoeloose the Clown.
The year was 1973, and the 25-year-old Brockman and a group of friends had been enjoying a night of drinks and live music by Herbie's Little German Band at the Holiday Inn in Fort Madison when the group, along with the band members, decided to enter the first-ever Tri-State Rodeo parade the following morning.
"We had no plans at that time," Brockman recalled. "No float, no nothing."
And so they left the hotel and set about transforming a hayrack into a float. They lined one end with hay bales for the band to sit on while performing throughout the parade route. They tore the bar out of Brockman's parents' cabin to place on the other end of the hayrack. And they made plans to rendezvous at the float in the morning.
When they did, all were dressed in cowboy garb, except Brockman, who was dressed as a clown.
"And then right before the parade started," Brockman recalled, "I got to thinking, wouldn't it be a lot more fun to do something besides just being on the float?"
And so lying atop a wooden board chained to the makeshift float upon which his friends and the band were riding, Brockman was pulled through the streets of Fort Madison — and the droppings of the many horses that had walked ahead of them.
"I'm right down there at street level and it kind of looks like I'm just getting drug down the street," Brockman recalled.
By the time he reached the end of the parade route, Brockman was covered in horse excrement.
"The people really seemed to enjoy that," Brockman said. "It might not have been the smartest move, but it sure seemed to make people happy."
It was the beginning of what would become a longstanding tradition, though Brockman, often joined in the parade by family and friends, made sure that whatever he was being pulled on in subsequent years would keep him further off the ground.
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50 years of clowning around at the Tri-State Rodeo
Shoeloose is the grand marshal of this year's Grand Rodeo Parade, the theme for which is "Clowning Around," and on Saturday, he will lead 49 other clowns, one for each year he's been in the parade, through the streets of Fort Madison.
"It's a great honor that those guys asked me to be grand marshal," Brockman said. "I'm the only one that this year will be celebrating the 50th year in the 49th rodeo parade. I have a year on them, because they didn't have a parade in 2020, so I got ahold of the chief of police here and told him I didn't want to miss the parade."
And so on the Saturday morning the parade would have taken place had it not been for the pandemic, Shoeloose, accompanied by two police cars, traveled the two-mile parade route with Ottie the Gooney Bird, a bird costume he's incorporated into his parade performances since 1980.
"I was so happy that I still had some people cheering me on, especially when I got uptown," Brockman said.
Brockman also hasn't let his own health problems keep him from missing a single parade.
He's undergone heart surgery, two hernia surgeries and a total knee replacement, all of which have been in the summer, leaving Brockman little time to recover in time for the parade.
Still, Brockman gets off whatever he's riding — there's been a toilet seat, a whisky barrel bathtub, a spinning inner tube, water skis and many more, all designed with the help of his longtime friend and brother-in-law, Michael Manka, who for years also built the elaborate floats he and Brockman came up with — to interact with the crowd, hopping off and on other floats to navigate back and forth along the length of the parade route.
"We've been friends all my life," Brockman said of Manka. "When it came to building floats, my brother-in-law pretty much took over, and I would suggest some things and he'd come up with things and next thing you know, boom, there it is."
Among those floats have been a mine shaft with running water, a large wagon, a life-sized bull and an exploding outhouse.
Manka died in November 2021, but Brockman isn't about to let him miss this year's parade. A cutout of Manka will be featured somewhere in the float line.
Throughout the rodeo, Brockman can also be seen greeting people in the crowd — he stays away from those who are uncomfortable around clowns — and riding Ottie around the arena during grand entries.
That tradition began in 1975, when Brockman and about 30 friends and family members got permission to ride the stick horses they had used in the parade in the grand entries alongside real horses.
Throughout the rodeo, Brockman can also be seen greeting people in the crowd and riding Ottie around the arena during grand entries.
That tradition began in 1975, when Brockman and about 30 friends and family members got permission to ride the stick horses they had used in the parade in the grand entries alongside real horses.
In 1980, he upgraded from a stick horse to Ottie.
Brockman's presence has and promotion of the rodeo has been appreciated over the years. In 2005, Brockman was named parade grand marshal, but this will be the first time that honor has gone to Shoeloose the Clown.
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The little rope trick
Those who have attended the parade or rodeo are likely to have witnessed Shoeloose's signature little rope trick.
"Nobody can figure it out," his wife, Beverly, said. "Nobody in the family knows how to do it."
It's not for lack of trying.
"I get kids about seventh or eighth grade who think they have it figured out," Brockman said. "But they can't get it. ... I've got to pass this rope trick down to someone in my family one of these days."
Shoeloose also has a long rope trick, but that one is reserved only for stage performances, and for good reason.
"I was doing this magic act, and I had this rope," Brockman recalled.
The trick involved a single rope looped through Brockman's jacket and pants. He would pull about 15 feet of rope out of each sleeve and pant leg before tugging to pull out a comically large pair of underwear.
"This trick was going really good," Brockman said. "And then next thing I know, one kid grabbed one rope. ... These kids, one of them had one (end of the) rope and the other had another (end of the rope) and they're pulling on it and this rope is going back and forth through the back of my jacket, out one sleeve, back in the the other."
Shoeloose was stuck.
"I thought, 'oh my gosh, I've got to get these kids sat back down or something'," Brockman said. "It was funny, but it turned out to be a disaster for me."
Even still, it was worth it for Brockman, who enjoys making people smile and laugh.
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Becoming Shoeloose
Brockman has enjoyed clowning around for as long as he can remember, but it wasn't until he returned from two tours in Vietnam, one as a clerk for General Philip Davidson and another in a chemical detachment, that he realized he wanted to become a clown.
He came back to Fort Madison feeling without direction and unsure about what to do with his future.
"I was just feeling kind of lost in a way," he recalled. "A lot of people were at that time when we got out of service."
It was nearly a year before he got back to doing any kind of work, and he decided to apply for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Sarasota, Florida.
But fate intervened when he reconnected with Beverly.
"I met Beverly and decided I'd just stay around here instead," Brockman said.
Having been best friends with her brother, Brockman had known Beverly all his life, but it was when a she brought home a roommate of hers from Monticello, where she was teaching, that they realized there could be something more between them.
"Everybody was basically talking to her roommate, so I just started visiting with Bev," Brockman said. "And next thing we went to the parade that day and went to the rodeo that night."
He proposed around Christmastime in 1972, much to the chagrin of Beverly's mother.
"We get engaged, so I went and asked her dad, and he didn't really seem to have any problem with it," Brockman recalled. "And then I went and said something to her mother, and her mother's comment was 'over my dead body.' I don't think she really liked me all that well."
"When my brother and him would get in trouble, because they did this since they were little bitty kids, my brother would always tell my mom that it was Gregg's fault," Beverly explained.
It only took Brockman two decades to win over his mother-in-law.
"After we were married for 20 years," Brockman said, "she said to me one day, 'Do you remember what I said to you when you were going to get married? Well, I apologize.' "
While Brockman didn't go to clown college, he did go to clown seminars, where he learned things like makeup techniques and how to make balloon animals and do tricks. It was also where he bought his first pair of clown shoes.
He got the name Shoeloose from a professional clown, Dale Hall, in Fort Madison.
"One time, we were at a bar and I took my tennis shoe off to do the rope trick, and I took the lace out of the shoe and put the shoe on my head, and I was doing the rope trick and Dale says (in a French accent), 'Shoeloose, the French Clown,' and that's how it started out, so from then on, I went by Shoeloose," Brockman said.
But Brockman doesn't need to be Shoeloose to make people smile.
After 36 years of working more labor intensive jobs, Brockman got a job as a maintenance supervisors at the Kensington.
He initially planned on working there for only one season, but the residents he met at the assisted living and memory care facility inspired him to stay for 11 years.
"I enjoyed the people because I guess that's what makes me a good clown," Brockman said. "I know how to make people happy and I enjoy making people happy."
"All the ladies at the Kensington, they would act like he was their son," Beverly said. "And they would wait for him at the door where he came in in the morning because he would always greet them and be happy with them and they would just love it, and then when he'd leave at night after work, they'd always be at the door where he left because he would always be happy with them and he would greet them as he left, and he just loved them."
Brockman, now 75, has retired since then, but he's not ready to hang up his clown shoes any time soon, for Shoeloose still has plenty of work to do.
"Making people laugh and making people smile and making people happy, I think that's the part that makes a really good clown, because that's what it's basically all about," Brockman said. "Right now, in this world, it's a good thing. I like to see people smile and I think it's a good thing because we need it all."
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2022 Tri-State Rodeo schedule
Today
Fareway Chili Supper: 5 to 7 p.m. at the Tri-State Rodeo Grounds, C.E. “Eddie” Richards Arena.
Monday
Lil Spurs Rodeo: Registration starts at 8 a.m. and rodeo starts at 10 a.m. in the arena.
Hy-Vee Pork Dinner: 5 to 7 p.m. in the arena.
Little Miss Rodeo and All Around Cowboy: 6:30 p.m. in the arena. Contestants will be judged on 4 categories: Personality, Stage Presence, Western/Rodeo Attire and Talent.
Tuesday
Pee Wee Barrels: Registration opens at 4:30 p.m. and the event starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Saddle Club Arena on the Tri-State Rodeo grounds immediately behind the Tri-State Rodeo Arena. The top riders will advance and ride in the Tri-State Rodeo arena.
Wednesday
Tri-State Rodeo Competition CINCH Chute-Out: 7 p.m. in the arena.
Country singer and songwriter Aaron Watson will perform after the Chute-Out on the Jack Daniels Stage in the arena, followed by Natu Band.
Thursday
Tri-State Rodeo Competition -101.7 The Bull Night and Family Night: 7 p.m. in the arena. Wear pink to rally against breast cancer.
Rapper Flo Rider will perform after the rodeo competition, followed by Natu Band.
Friday
Tri-State Rodeo 29th Annual Golf Tournament: Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Tee-off is at 9 a.m. at Sheaffer Memorial Golf Course.
Tri-State Rodeo Competition – Military Night: 7 p.m. in the arena. Active and past service members will be recognized.
Country pop singer and songwriter Jordan Davis will perform on the Jack Daniels Stage after the rodeo competition, followed by Devin Clemons.
Saturday
Grand Rodeo Parade – Clownin’ Around: 9:30 a.m. along Avenue G in downtown Fort Madison.
Tri-State Rodeo Competition: 7 p.m. in the arena.
Country music singer Trace Adkins will perform after the rodeo on Jack Daniels Stage, followed by Dave Clemons Band.
Sept. 11
Lions Club Pancake Breakfast" 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Fort Madison Municipal Airport.
Michaele Niehaus covers business, development, environment and agriculture for The Hawk Eye. She can be reached at mniehaus@thehawkeye.com.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Gregg Brockman is Shoeloose, 2022 Tri-State Rodeo Parade grand marshal
