Sioux City Journal du lieu suivant : Sioux City, Iowa • 77

Loving Sunday The Sioux City Journal Sunday, May 22, 1 994page 1 tefi fir feiradfe S5(0M By BWZahren Journal staff writer i t's Tuesday night and i A Ml fif In 7" f- 1 i ft Vj 1 1 m. a rzT a f1, A Ih. MW-O manipulating children's minds like that." Fluff returned swiftly think we had to go out and buy another and Bass kept Klarence suitably happy from then on. Can I have your autograph? Kid's show hosts also have to deal with off-air recognition that comes from all the on-air scrutiny. Not even clown faces shielded Bass or fellow host Dave Madsen from TV's power to create celebrities.

"It was always amazing to me that people knew who Bingo was," says Madsen, alias Bingo the Clown from 1977 to 1979 on KMEG. "You knew if you walked up and down the River-Cade parade route and the vast majority of the kids know who you are it's because they have been watching TV." Poppen spent 13 years hosting "Puppin's Place" on KMEG, took a a five-year hiatus and returned as host of the "Kid's Club" last September. He's used to being recognized. "I get that all the time," says Poppen. "I walk through the mall on Saturday and the kids recognize me.

The strangest thing is getting used to hearing your name behind your back. I'll walk by and then hear, 'Hey, that's Tim I just keep going. If they say 'Hi Tim' I'm very happy to turn around and talk to them." Madsen, now program director for KTIV-TV in Sioux City, said after the initial thrill wore off he started disliking being recognized out of makeup. A packed personal appearance schedule and his move to KTIV eventually ended Bingo's run. "Toward the end it wasn't fun anymore," Madsen says.

"I got burned out on it." Personal appearances are a lot of work, but Poppen remembers his audience. "It's fun for the kids," says Pop-pen. "I'm not an egoist and I know I am just on a little UHF station in Northwest Iowa, but I see how important it is for these kids. I remember when I was a kid seeing Canyon Kid and my jaw just dropped." And, Poppen knows their eyes are on him both on and off camera. "There's a lot of pressure.

I think about that all the time, my behavior in public," says Poppen. "Someone once said 'Don't be worried that kids didn't hear what you said, be worried that they are watching what you OK, make me laugh The recognition, scrutiny of young fans and insatiable requests for public appearances can grind on kid's show hosts, as can the sometimes-tough job of being silly and wacky on command. "We filmed all the shows on Monday night," says Bass. "So that meant on Monday night you have to put all this (makeup and costume) on and step out in the front of the camera and act silly no matter what went on in a person's life that day. And some days you don't feel like acting silly." Tim, Klarence and Bingo say the good news is the job is generally a hoot.

And it provides a gigantic creative outlet. "The stuff I do here (at the advertising agency), I'm always creating something for somebody else. I have some specifications from someone else that I am creating something to fit," Poppen says. "With this, I create what I want to create and I do it 100 percent the way I want to do it." Don't forget the thrill of personal appearances, says Madsen. "You get immediate feedback from the kids they are enjoying what you are doing," says Madsen.

"That's the reason I do magic now is that immediate feedback and once you have done that it's hard not to do it anymore." The main feedback for Poppen last week was a glob of non-dairy whipped topping (with sparkles, reminds enthusiastic "Kid's Club" producer Fritz Miller) in the nose. "I don't have major aspirations to take this and become the next Barney or something," says Poppen. "I always enjoy what I am doing and it goes someplace, that's fine. If it doesn't I'll still be having fun doing what I'm doing right here." 6-year-old Sara Gotch of South Sioux City is armed and dangerous. She's packing a pie (actually a pizza pan full of whipped topping, a reasonable television facsimile of a pie), and is prepared to use it.

"What are you going to do today?" asks Tim Poppen, television friend to Sara and about 8,500 other Siouxland kids. "I'm going to hit you with a pie," Sara declares with a grin. "Oooooh nooooo," Poppen groans as a nearby video camera records the scene. A few minutes later, Sara makes her side-arm special delivery, a direct hit leaving Poppen's face Cool Whipped. The TV station crew howls.

The guys in the control room snicker. Sara's parents Rick and Carmin and brother Brent chortle. Another milestone in local children's television is recorded on video tape. Poppen, host of the KMEG "Kid's Club," from 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays, is the current successor in a 40-year history of local kid's show hosts.

Other faces in the historic crowd belong to clowns named Bingo and Klarence and a New York transplant called Canyon. All of them say the job description includes celebrity, creativity and a willingness to do nearly anything to entertain kids. Poppen tapes five segments of up to one minute each for KMEG to intersperse during each day's "Kid's Club" shows. "We try to make sure the kids have un, says Poppen whose day job is vice president at Rochester Rossiter and Wall advertising cy. "We have fun, goofy stuff, weird camera angles and learning of some sort." And wacky kid's show host stunts.

Like taking a pie in the face from the member of the club. Calling all members Trying to boost club membership, Poppen promised to let the kid who signed up smack him in the face with a pie on the air. Sara won the big membership lotto and delivered beautifully during taping May 10. The pie segment aired May 19 and will likely live on for some time in promotional spots for the shows. Taking a pie in the face comes under the part of the job that Bill Bass calls "just acting silly." Bass, owner of William Bass Advertising and Associates in Sioux City, was Klarence the Klown on KMEG four some four years in the early 1970s.

"It was kind of like being in the military," Bass says now. At the time, it was a lot of work but in retrospect, Bass is glad for the experience and memories. Are you making this up? Like many children's show hosts (including Poppen), Klarence the Klown made up what he said as he went. Between cartoons, Bass just talked about things that interested kids. His safety valve was named Fluff.

"It was a little stuffed animal that someone got somewhere and it would be sitting on the stool next to me," Bass says. "If Iran out of things to say I could always just say 'What's that, and lean over to listen to him and then start a conversation." Fluff also gave Bass evidence of how closely kids watch such shows. When Fluff turned up missing from the prop room, Bass decided to give his clown a little depth of character. Klarence juiced up the tears and presented his audience with the wrenching tale of Fluff being lost. "I really got into it saying 'Fluff's my friend and I don't know what to do' and was nearly in Bass said.

Enter the mailman. "I got a note from a woman who said 'You've got to find Fluff." The clown was so sad that children weren't sleeping at night," Bass says. "I realized the children were believing all of this. The children had become the clown's friends. You have to be a little bit careful i tm lr.ni ii mo.

i i. I VJt tot "T-l( "I n-lj Tim Poppen, Jim Henry, Dave Madsen and Bill Bass, from left, Henry's Canyon Kid (with Jerry Mathers) and Bass's Klarence relive their kid show days. Madsen's Bingo the Clown (below, left). the Klown are all in retirement. (Staff photo by Gary Anderson) i JST1 tf1 tt M- to 4 1 If' i IiC I -Si Man.

1 -f 1 11 1 1 I I -i rv- i mS. Tim Poppen and camera operator Nick Kielhold tape one of five spots "Kid's Club," Poppen spent 1 3 years hosting "Puppln's Place," a kid's that run during KMEG's "Kid's Club" from 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays. Prior to show featuring puppets. (Staff photo by Bill Zahren).