ONTARIO, Calif. — Even when she’s not in character, Julie Varholdt acts like a buffoon.
On a recent day, the veteran clown named "Lovely Buttons" gave her age as 1 billion, 527 million and 437,512 seconds; did a few pull-ups on a luggage cart, and then stretched out on a hotel front desk to the giggles of the receptionist.
Bring up professional clowning, however, and the mother of three decked out in cartoon-sized purple buttons, a red straw hat and oversized shoes grows serious — and even sheds a few real tears.