Leon Coffee: 40 years of bullfighting

HOUSTON, Texas — Rodeo legend Leon Espresso is aware of how one can entertain a crowd. For greater than 40 years, the bullfighting clown been portray his face and getting huge laughs at rodeos throughout the nation. However regardless of the make-up and the foolish costume, being a rodeo clown is not any humorous enterprise. Its truly probably the most harmful jobs on the earth!

“I do not concern these bulls. I’ve a wholesome respect for his or her capacity to harm me,” stated Espresso. “However I even have a really wholesome respect for my capacity to get round them. You are that bull and you are going, okay, its an enormous recreation of tag, lets see whos going to get there first. , these bulls run 40 miles an hour and the quickest man on the earth can solely run 30. And I ain’t him!”

Espresso has been a rodeo clown because the early Nineteen Seventies. He first started using bulls as a toddler, then began bullfighting in highschool and started performing in main rodeos throughout the nation. He estimates he performs in 35 to 40 rodeos a 12 months.

“It grew to become an obsession,” he stated. “And I am an adrenaline junkie. I like to stay on the sting and that is as near the sting as you may get. You do not know what the bulls going to do, how they will do it, however you realize what you might want to do. You must understand that you just’re on the market for the safety of the bull rider.”

After dozens of accidents and even some near-death experiences through the years, Espresso serves as a barrel man at rodeos. He’s additionally a ProRodeo Corridor of Fame Inductee and was named the PRCA Clown of the 12 months in 1983, amongst many different accolades.

“To be part of that, and nonetheless be right here proper now, I am blessed in additional methods than you’ll be able to ever think about,” he stated. “Not everyone can keep on this enterprise. You have to have that burning craving to do it.”