At about 5-foot-6 inches tall, Kool Breeze might not have attracted much attention on May 14 when he walked through the police station entrance to Town Hall – had he not been wearing a bright red nose, an orange wig topped with a tiny blue hat, a red vest, and huge shoes nearly as wide as they were long.
With municipal court in session and the lobby thick with attorneys and pending court petitioners, Kool Breeze’s arrival drew puzzled stares.
Few, if any, of the strangers knew Kool Breeze had come to collect the key to the town from Mayor Dennis Elwell, a ceremony that officially welcomed Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus to Secaucus.
The circus will perform twice each day for two days on May 28 – May 29 at the Paul Amico Athletic Complex near Secaucus High School.
Upon seeing the clown, Town Clerk Michael Marra only shook his head, saying: “I know I’ve been here too long when I don’t find someone asking if I’ve seen a clown something unusual.”
In greeting the mayor, Kool Breeze stuck out a gloved hand and said, “I’m Kool Breeze. I’m so cool I can spell it with a K.”
Coming home
Kool Breeze, whose non-performance name is James F. Maresca, travels ahead of the circus to put out the message about the events. The Cole Bros. Circus is one of the old fashioned kind, bringing many features found under traditional big tops such as tigers jumping through a ring of fire and a man being shot from a cannon. Dressed in a patriotic red, white and blue clown outfit, Maresca, marketing director for the circus, has been known to perform acts with his “magic bag” and balloons. In fact, he gave the small reception of local officials balloons as they gave him the key.
Although Maresca has traveled up and down the coast with the circus, his trip back to Secaucus brings him close to the place where he grew up in Jersey City Heights.
“I was born in St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken, went to Dickinson High School in Jersey City and graduated from St. Peter’s College in Jersey City,” he said.
His family traces its roots back to what was once called Hudson City, where one uncle was a merchant and another a councilman, part of a family that had a told of 15 siblings.
“I grew up on Ogden Ave, which overlooked Hoboken,” he said. “I could look out from my house and see the New York Skyline. I used to watch the luxury liners coming down the Hudson River.” Unlike tales of how other people arrived in the circus, Maresca did not run away from home to become a clown – even though he has been performing with the circus and on his own for over 18 years.
After graduating high school in 1966, Maresca served a tour of Vietnam in the Army. After returning, he attended college as part of the military’s benefit package. He had a vague idea he would be working in the dental field, and took biology. He got his masters in marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson at night, while he worked to raise a family. He worked a several jobs before finally coming up with the idea that he wanted to be a chiropractor in 1981.
The public viewed the field skeptically at the time, and he and others had to go out and sell the idea. A friend also in the field knew a little magic, and Maresca thought they could put a little act together. He donned his makeup as a clown for the first time.
“I looked hideous,” he said. “It wasn’t anything like the professional job I do today.”
But something must have stirred in his blood because he couldn’t stop. He started touring senior housing and other places, doing a variety of holiday shows.
“I was going to nursing homes, pediatric wards and orphanages,” he said.
Yet there was a moment when he realized just how important his role as a clown was to people, when he agreed to do a gig at St. Mary Hospital for Children in Nassau, N.Y.
“We didn’t’ charge for things like that,” he said. “We just wanted to entertain the kids. But when we went there, I didn’t have a clue as to what we were getting into. We hid ourselves when we got there so we could surprise the kids. We thought it was just another orphanage. When the people there opened the curtain to introduce us, we saw that every one of those children had multiple handicaps and everyone was terminally ill. To this day, I feel a lot of emotions about that moment. All of them were angels and none of them were going to live. At that moment I saw what I could do as a clown, bringing smiles into the lives of people who had no reason to smile. At that point, I decided I would be a clown for the rest of my life.”
Not all clowning around
Clowning took over his life in a way he didn’t expect. Although he thought he would continue part time, he began to get more satisfaction at making people laugh than cracking their backs. In fact, as a chiropractor, he found himself in a situation in which he was doing more paperwork than helping people, so through a few connections he had made over the years in 1997, he found a way to get into the circus.
It is a hard life. His home is basically on the road. He spend most of the time between March and November living in hotel rooms as he moves ahead of the circus to announce its coming. The circus has its winter quarters in Florida and starts north in March.
This year, he got a sharp reminder of why he decided to become a clown when the circus passed through North Carolina and he was confronted with a child whose adopted parent had died in the Pentagon attack on Sept. 11. The child – still struck by the tragedy – was apparently scared of the circus clowns.
“I wasn’t in makeup then,” he said. “But the child could see the other clowns but didn’t want to go near them. I showed him my picture as Kool Breeze and told him that was me. I don’t think he believed me, so I went to where I kept some of my makeup and put a little on. I asked him what he had dressed up as on Halloween. He told me Batman. I told him that this was just like Halloween. That we dress up in the same way. I put my clown nose on his face and he laughed, then he came over to meet the other clowns.”
A little while later, the child was giving the clowns hi-fives and riding in the front seat of the clown car. A religious man, Maresca said seeing that increased his belief in his profession.
“God and Jesus raised people from the dead,” Maresca said. “I raise people from negative emotions. It is a great reward to use my talent for things like that.”
Although it might seem odd, Maresca is a member of a troop called Clowns for Jesus, and he will be traveling to Germany in June to help spread the faith. The circus is coming to town
Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus bills itself as the World Largest Circus under the big top and features Nubian Lions and Royal Bengal Tigers performing side by side. It also has a tight wire act at the top of the tent, where trapeze artists execute breath-taking aerobatics designed to make audiences gasp.
Tradition dominates circus performances, and the public is invited to witness the raising of the tents at 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. on May 28. Added to this ceremony, the circus offers the public a chance to lean around and meet the circus elephant.
For 200 years, circuses had counted on elephant power to raise their tents and move equipment. While the circus staff relies now on numerous workers and mechanical equipment, elephants are still the symbol of that moment. Each opening day, the circus offers a free educational seminar on elephants and elephant training at 9:15 a.m. as part of the tent raising activities. Central to this lecture is Tina, a four and a half ton elephant, who demonstrates how elephants learn and respond to verbal commands through positive reinforcement and the shaping method of training. The public will have an opportunity to meet Tina and learning about elephant feeding and care, and the importance of elephant conservation.
General admission tickets sold an hour before the show cost $14 for adults, $11 for children under $12. Reserved seats are $16 and $11. Advanced ticks for adults are $14 and for children, $9. Ringside seats in advance are $20, show day, $22. Tickets can be purchased at Secaucus High School’s main office, Secaucus High School Adult School office, the Acme Supermarket in the Plaza, on the web at http://wwww.tickets.com or by telephone (888) 332-5600. After May 27, tickets will be cold only at the circus ticket wagon. The circus is being held at the Secaucus High School on Millridge Road. For more information or directions call (201) 867-4967.