Tucked away in the Tommy G. Thompson Youth Center at the Wisconsin State Fair Park is the International Clown Hall of Fame. You may need to knock, as foot traffic often is low. Professional clowning is a serious business and takes a high degree of skill and dedication to be done well. The International Clown Hall of Fame honors those great clowns of the past with distinguished careers.

Be sure to find the Otto Griebling display, pictured here.

Visit the International Clown Hall of Fame Web Site.

The International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center was conceived in 1986, as a University of Wisconsin student project in collaboration with the Delavan, Wisconsin, chamber of commerce. Delavan became the museum's first home. After fifteen years in Delavan, the museum moved to Milwaukee, circa 2001. Then, after a couple of years in the big city, it moved again, to the outskirts of Wisconsin. Eventually, its collection of artifacts and ephemera wound up in storage, where it stayed for about four years. In 2009, Greg DeSanto combined the International Clown Hall of Fame w with the Barnum and Bailey Circus Museum already in Baraboo Wisconsin.