I recently visited with the famous Bello Nock, a comic daredevil who’s performing this spring in Lake Delton. Come listen in on our conversation. 

“My earliest memories of you, Bello, were when I had you as a fourth-grade student at Lake Delton School. It was spring, you’d just arrived, and you seemed keen on impressing your classmates. (Much of that may have been because of sweet Jenny Beard, who later became your wife.) 

“I had recess duty and noticed a cluster of kids around the jungle gym. You were whipping around the bar and flying to a higher bar. Frightened, I yelled for you to stop. I ran over, sure you were going to get hurt.” (That was when I learned Bello was part of the famous Nock family who performed at Tommy Bartlett’s.)

“Weeks later, I saw you swinging on top of the swaying poles. Your enthusiasm showed that you loved performing, and your determination proved you were unstoppable.

“I know you struggled as a student. Tell us about that.” 

“I was a dyslexic, redheaded, bucktoothed, pigeon-toed klutz as a kid, bullied and never picked first for a team. I had ADHD before the world even knew what that was. But I learned how to thrive in environments where I felt like a fish out of water. Once you learn how to do that, you never lose your sense of passion and persistence. It stays with you.”

“You’ve hung by your toes under a helicopter hovering over the Statue of Liberty, and you’re regularly shot out of canons. You’ve performed at the White House Easter Egg Hunt for the George H Bush administration, and you’ve broken 16 Guinness World Records, including the record for the longest unsupported tightrope walk. In fact, you have a saying about that that would be a great philosophy for life.”

“Yes. A tight-wire is walked one step at a time with your eyes on the goal and destination.”

“What’s extra special is that you practice and perform these highly structured tricks while masquerading as a clown with a foot-high tower of strawberry-red hair sticking straight up in the air. Tell us how your signature hair came about?”

“While a teenager, I was skiing for the Tommy Bartlett show. When the other boy skiers buzzed their hair, I did too. But the short hairstyle allowed the sun to burn my head, so I grew the top long. It sometimes made my friends and audience point and smile. I decided to keep the hairstyle.”

“And we love it. It helps set you apart. Aren’t you an eighth-generation circus performer, and wasn’t it your family who created the sway-poles stunt?

“Yes. My grandfather developed the idea after his family needed to climb tall pines and cut off the tops to sell as Christmas trees. Rather than climb down and back up the next tree, Grandpa figured he could save time by swaying over to the next tree top, grabbing it, and moving over.”

“Ha! That’s incredible. I know from visiting with you that you’re unstoppable, but you’re also intent on sharing with others, lifting them up, and empowering them.”

“I like to tell others: ‘Don’t let fear paralyze you. Rather than be afraid, prepare, practice, and keep trying. Believe in yourself, and you will be unstoppable.”

“It’s been a pleasure to see you again, Bello. As your old teacher, I’ll give you an A for an awesome attitude. Do you have any final words?” 

“Yes. From little on, I wanted to have my name on a billboard and to be going places. But the older I get, the more I realize that what means the most is coming home. Coming home to my family and friends and sharing with others.”

Meet Bello in person either before or after his show. Bello’s Circus Extreme Dinner Show, https://bit.ly/4i8ZomS, is at the Legacy Dinner Theatre until April 27th.