Entertainment finds high demand for his slap-stick skills.

AUGUSTA (AP) – Pat Swan is a clown.

Not a boorish clumsy person, but a performer who wears a polka-dot suit, cracks jokes and ties balloon animals. But unlike most clowns, Swan – aka Pedro the Clown – has managed to turn his clowning into his full-time job.

After 16 years of struggling, Swan now finds his clown talents in high demand.

Nearly every week, Swan travels with suitcases filled with balloons, makeup and costumes to car dealerships in the Northeast and as far away as Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin. His job is to entertain customers and their children while they negotiate car purchases.

“I’m booked every week. How many guys can say that?” Swan said.

Pam Bridge, northeast regional director of the World Clown Association, said most clowns would be envious of Swan’s position. “I can tell you, right now, that’s very rare,” Bridge said.

She said most clowns live like she does; she works full time as a cook in Manchester, N.H., during the week and puts on her clown costume for birthday parties on the weekends.

“In New England, I think, it doesn’t seem as prevalent. There are a lot of clowns, but there isn’t as much steady work,” she said.

Swan, 36, said his love for entertaining started when he was an eighth-grader in Dixfield. His father even sent him to a summer camp to learn to juggle, mime and perform slapstick comedy.

He later joined the Air Force, and after winning second place at a talent contest, he decided to take his clown show to private parties. In 1992, he moved back to Maine, met his wife and started a family.

He worked three years for a Falmouth amusement company, where he entertained for birthday parties. After that company started to go under, Swan spent the next eight years taking a string of sporadic clown gigs across Maine and raising his children while his wife worked full time to support the family.

In September 2002, he was ready to give up the clown world and pursue another career.

That’s when he heard about the Wolfington Group, an Augusta company that holds weekend sales at car dealerships all over the country.

Lee Glynn, a partner with the Wolfington Group, said Swan’s goofy nature wins over adults and children. He clicks so well with customers that he trains other clowns for the company, Glynn added.

“There’s so much tension in the sale of an automobile anyway,” Glynn said.

AP-ES-03-09-04 1852EST