MONROE — For Colors the Clown, the makeup goes on and off, but one thing stays the same:

"I’m like this all the time," Colors explains. "I’m like this all the time!"

Colors, who in deference to the clown code of ethics will be called Kelly in this writing, has been clowning all her life.

"But I‘ve been wearing the makeup for about 10 years," she said.

A native of the Manchester/Chelsea area, Kelly’s performances at the Monroe County Fair this year will mark her fifth year here.

Colors will perform four shows daily (1, 2:45, 4:15 and 6:45 p.m.) during the fair in the tent at the northeast corner of the fairgrounds.

"I usually stay in the Ann Arbor area," she said, "but because I like Warren (Monroe County Fair Manager Warren Siebarth) so much, I come over here.

"He’s a nice guy. He and his wife are wonderful."

It was Siebarth who recruited Kelly from the Chelsea fair after seeing her perform there.

In Monroe, she performed four 20- to 30-minute shows daily, a heavier workload than her usual one or two daily 40-minute shows.

Clowning year around, Colors makes 250-300 appearances annually.

Prior to donning makeup 10 years ago, Kelly was "an artist by trade" and, in college, a marketing major.

"It’s all the things you ever wanted to do in one package," she said of clowning, "The marketing is there, and the show business. You can play and be your own boss."

For Kelly, who lives on a farm, clowning keeps her in touch with another passion — animals.

She will incorporate as many as 15 critters in her performance.

Her pot-bellied pig, Petunia, used to do tricks, including rolling out the red carpet to open the show.

"She stopped doing them about two years ago," she said. "She’s a little too smart for me now."

The menagerie includes rabbits, pigeons, chinchillas, chicks, even a hedgehog.

"They’re all on ice bottles to keep them nice and cool" she said.

She credits her grandfather with her link to levity.

"He was too funny," she said. "He would dance on the tables. He would make us laugh."

Colors is a "white-faced clown." Unlike largely slap-stick "auguste" clowns or the somber tramp-like clowns, white-faced characters are caring and perfectionist — in the case of Colors, possessing "more the prissy, little girlie" personality.

The transformation from Kelly to Colors takes about an hour.

"I have to do it in steps," she said. "There is a process. Everything has to be done a certain way.

"The makeup has to be taken off. Then I powder. Then I put the makeup on, and I powder again, and then I put on all the details."

Though her hair color has changed, Color’s makeup and basic costume have been unchanged for the last decade.

Kelly creates her own tricks for her show. She is largely self-taught, having studied clowning through Ringling Brothers clowns and other entertainers that attend clown conventions held by several clown groups to which she belongs.

Ultimately, it is the kids and their reactions that inspire and shape her performance.

Key to connecting with the kids is overcoming "the Santa Claus syndrome."

"Kids are afraid of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. It’s not just clowns.

"Hollywood hasn’t done us any big favors, I’ll tell you that."

Her experience with the little ones is extensive.

Married with children, Kelly has a 15-, 13- and 11-year-old.

"I have one in every school," she said. "Plus, I have my 45-year-old husband who’s trying to tolerate all of this.

"I’m a PTA president, so I have to be a clown for that job, especially in the middle school."

Along with several other volunteer duties, Kelly organizes talent shows at the schools to help ensure that budding young entertainers have a means of expression.

"If you don’t create that now, when they get older they’re not going to create it because they didn’t do it when they were kids.

"My job is to create fun," she said. "I could never put it away and hang it in a closet. Even if I did something different, I don’t think I could get rid of it. Even if I won the lotto."

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