I went to an open call in July 2015 at a circus festival in Springfield, Mass., and Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus was holding clown auditions ... through the balloon magic trick ...

In the foyer, near the cut-out clown holding a ... the bright-red balloon that hides his face. Posted nearby is a watercolor of three ghostly looking clowns in a circus, its origins lost ...

People living in Green Bay, Wisconsin, have been reporting sightings of an unsettling-looking clown walking around town at night brandishing black balloons ... in menacing circus-inspired outfits ...