CLOWNSIZING: The All-Time Biggest Las Vegas Clowns
Posted on: August 26, 2025, 05:25h.
Last updated on: August 26, 2025, 07:24h.
On a boulevard where Elvis impersonators roam freely and pirates once battled nightly, some American cultural touchstones take a back seat.
Las Vegas was never much of a clown town — with the possible exception of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. But the Bozos we have had, from fictional casino mascots to real-life circus performers, were loved. (And, depending on one’s phobias, feared.)
1. Lucky the Clown, Circus Circus Sign
One of Las Vegas’s most iconic neon landmarks, this grinning mascot has directed traffic into its casino since 1976. Lucky was designed and built by YESCO (the Young Electric Sign Company) to amplify Circus Circus’s carnival theme and family-friendly branding. Towering 123 feet over the Strip, it has appeared in many Hollywood establishing shots of the town.
Lucky’s aesthetic draws from mid-century American circus motifs inspired by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The sign is original, though it has undergone multiple refurbishments over the decades.
2. Jocko the Clown, Boardwalk Casino Sign
The second most famous clown in Las Vegas represented the Boardwalk Casino. With its faux roller coaster and seaside amusement park vibe, the Boardwalk offered a quirky contrast to its glitzier neighbors from 1988 until 2006.
That’s when the property was demolished to build what was at first called CityCenter. Unfortunately, Jocko was not salvaged for resurrection at the Neon Museum — ahh, the perils of being second best – but his likeness remains collectible via the silver strike tokens awarded by special slot machines in the 1990s.
3. Blinko the Clown, Circus Circus Performer
Ernie Burch, better known to circus audiences as Blinko the Clown, was a beloved figure in American entertainment whose career spanned traditional big-top performance and the glitz of the Strip.
Born in 1923, Blinko began his clowning career with the Daily Bros. Circus, where he earned a reputation for his expressive face and gentle humor. His talents caught the eye of Hollywood legend Cecil B. DeMille, who cast him in the 1952 epic, “The Greatest Show on Earth.” (It was DeMille who gave Burch the name “Blinko,” a moniker he proudly used for the rest of his life.)
Burch’s most enduring legacy came in the late 1970s, when he became the clown ambassador for Circus Circus. Dressed in full clown regalia, he greeted guests at the entrance, posed for photos, and crafted balloon animals for children and adults alike. He retired to Sarasota, Fla., passing away at age 70 in 1993.
4 & 5. Wayne Hronek & Brian Dewhurst, the Old Clown in “Mystère”
Wayne Hronek was the unsung hero who shaped the DNA of Cirque du Soleil’s Vegas clowning. When Treasure Island premiered “Mystère,” the first Cirque show in Vegas, in 1993, Hronek didn’t just perform the clown role, he created it.
His clown was the trickster, the fool, the observer. His act wasn’t filler between aerial stunts. I was the emotional glue that held the show together.
After Hronek’s tenure ended in 2000, he passed the red nose to Brian Dewhurst, the British-born circus veteran who transformed the role it into a decades-long meditation on aging, joy, and resilience.
At 89 when he took his final bow in 2022, Dewhurst was the oldest active performer in Cirque history.
6. Mr. Whimsey, Painting
Mr. Whimsey (aka the Hobo Clown) was the last and best known in a long series of paintings completed by renowned realist Julian Ritter for the Silver Slipper.
Painted in 1968, the 39” x 30” oil portrait hung high in the entryway of the Silver Slipper for three decades, greeting all guests as they entered the property.
The Silver Slipper used Ritter’s emotionally charged clowns and voluptuous nudes to set a tone of theatricality and sensuality right at the threshold.
Howard Hughes loved the Slipper’s 33 Ritter paintings so much, he purchased the casino in 1968.
Last year, Casino.org investigated how the paintings came to be owned by art collector Greg Autry in 1988. Autry is currently selling Mr. Whimsey on eBay.
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