[ WP ] `` Pride goeth before a fall , '' you tell yourself as you put on the clown costume .

The suits hot, like wearing a rain coat on a humid summer day. He can smell himself, the acrid sweat, every breath out pushing back up his nose, reliving the onions and hot sauce from lunch. 
 
 `` fuck it'', under his breath, quite so no one hears. 
 
 he steps out, onto the boards, the spot pinning him to the stage, the crowd yells, just a dull roar as he squint against the lights. 
 
 `` Here he is folks'', the announcer screams into his mike, the crowd get impossibly louder. `` Now that we've got him in the clown suit, what's next? We'll check the polls right after this commercial break. 
 
 The light on the camera goes from green to red, the announcer sets down the mike, blots his forehead with a towel, careful not to mess up the make up and the clown just stands there. Albert reaches up to the whole head mask. 
 
 `` uh uh uh, do n't touch that,'' says the announcer. `` we'll be back on in a couple minutes anyways.'' He stares down the clown, middle aged face set, commands coming easy. The minutes crawl by as the sponsors get their chance to talk their audience, piped through the wires and frequencies, into hands and homes across the world. 
 
 `` And how much longer am I on for?'' Albert thinks his voice sounds funny, muffled and unreal echoing around the mask. 
 
 `` As long as the people want you, now face the camera were about to be back on. And do n't forget to smile, hu hu hu''. Yeah, real funny Albert thinks. 
 
 The lights over the cameras blink back to green, a guy with a clipboard starts counting down with his fingers, 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 
 `` AND were back'', the announcer is going full volume. `` Now, what did the polls say?'' A card appears out of his pocket, Albert realizes it had to be there before they took the polls, which means he never had a chance. `` Looks like Bozo is headed to... THE FALLS!'' The lights strobe, the crowd goes wild, Albert is roughly seized by a couple of stage hands and yanked back behind the curtain. 
 
 `` This is n't right, this is n't what I signed up for, it was a...'' one of the guys punches him in the stomach and all the air goes out. He ca n't breath, his head pounds and his lungs scream at him to get his shit together and take a breath. Albert ca n't do it, he ca n't even curl up into himself, the other guys has a strong grip. All he can do is lean forward and wait for his body to give control back while spit drips out of the mask. As fast as he lost all that breath, an explosive gasp, and his muscles are working again, he's gulping down air, trying to calm down. Like his lungs said, get it together. Now that he can focus on more than just breathing he notices that he's already been hustled off to a new sound stage. The announcer is waiting for him and in the background the crowd waits. 
 
 The audience is 30 feet back and 30 feet below the top of the narrow stage. The backdrop is n't a curtain but a solid wall painted a bright primary riot of colors applied in firm bold strokes. Below stage is the fall. Fifty feet of empty space, fronted with safety glass and obstructed by countless steel pins. The lights come up, the announcer is screaming into his mike, Albert ca n't make any of it out, he can barely keep his knees from buckling, but he knows he wo n't have to stand here long. An abrupt shove from behind sends him out into open space, slamming against the safety glass and falling into the space between it and the stage. 
 
 The crowd watches the clown bounce off the first pin and start to cartwheel. He narrowly misses a couple more pins. The bright white face and ruby grin slams into one hard enough the crowd can hear it, then his body is caught, bent in half over a pin 20 feet from the bottom. They wait, the red lights start flashing and the pin starts to rotate. Rocking back and forth first left, then right, further left, further right, until the clown slips off, careens down the remaining fall and lands in the 15 point bin. The crowd howls and shrieks in celebration.
