When the Professional Bull Riders tour was in Tulsa a couple weeks ago, I had requested an interview opportunity with the PBR’s arena entertainer Flint Rasmussen. I had interviewed Rasmussen several years ago, but thought it would be good to catch up with him once again, especially since he recently announced his retirement.

However, the BOK Center folks had different plans. They threw him a surprise retirement party that took up our interview time. I still had the opportunity to speak with Flint briefly, but he agreed to instead do a full interview on the Tulsa Beacon Weekend radio program this past week. The following is a partial transcript of our conversation. I began by pointing out that the PBR has been coming to Tulsa for 19 years, and I wondered what Rasmussen liked about Tulsa.

FR: “My daughter flew in to Tulsa with me for the weekend, and I told her there’s something that relaxes me about Tulsa, because there are certain places we go where I say ‘these are my kind of people’ and in Tulsa I’m just relaxed. I really can’t explain why, but I think it is because it’s the first market of the year where there’s a real familiarity with what we’re doing. I just feel like when I step in the arena there’s a peace there and a real relationship with the people, especially because I have been going there for a very long time. I can really relate to the people around Tulsa for some reason.

JB: “What do you call yourself; a rodeo clown, a barrel man?

FR: “It’s funny you ask that, because I’m like Madonna or Cher, I’m just Flint. I’m introduced to people as the official arena entertainer…The deal is, PBR is not a full rodeo. So, when I took the job full time, they said ‘what the heck do we call you?’ I don’t make balloon animals, I don’t juggle although I can juggle, but you know this, you’ve watched me. I’m a little more contemporary, what do you call me? Am I a comedian, I mean I’m in the entertainment business, so we came up with arena entertainer.”

JB: “You wear clown makeup but it’s not really integral to your act, it does project the image to the audience that you’re there to make fun and have fun, but I don’t think it’s necessary to your act.”

FR: “I had a really great career in rodeo, so it was really holding on to that tradition. It separated me from the bull fighters, the guys that are saving lives out there. There was a discussion a few years ago about me losing the makeup because I don’t do clown type things. I think I probably not hide behind it, but transform a little more than I think, once I put that on. It’s holding on to a tradition. When I’m done will the next guy do that? I don’t know.”

JB: “You grew up in Montana. How did you get into the rodeo business?”

FR: “We weren’t ranchers, my dad had a small herd of cattle but that wasn’t his main living. He worked in an office and had some cows but he was a rodeo announcer, so we would travel with my dad around Montana all summer and got into it through assimilation. I didn’t want to make a living in it. I didn’t have that much interest in it. I was an athlete. I was a football, basketball, track guy, a music guy and was in a lot of plays. I wanted to be an entertainer of some sort, but rodeo was my avenue to do it.”

JB: “How did that happen? When did you decide that rodeo entertaining might be the thing?”

FR: “It happened while sitting around the table one night with my dad and brother, and we were talking about traditional old rodeo clowns, and I made the comment that they were doing the same stupid rodeo clown jokes as when I was five years old, and I knew it all, why didn’t they change. So they dared me to do it. I was about 19 years old, and it became my summer job in college and even when I got a teaching job. I think it helped me because I was patient at it. I didn’t do it one year and say, ‘Yay, this is what I want to do for a living. I want to go to Madison Square Garden.’ I just gradually worked up to the small rodeos in Montana and I’d get a phone call here and a phone call there, and after a couple years teaching school I thought maybe I ought to try this. There’s no overnight successes, but it really took off for me and it turns out I was good at it.”

JB: You announced recently that you’re going to be retiring as the PBR entertainer. What’s next?”

FR: “Basically I’m ending my job out on the dirt just because it’s really hard to do. I’ve done the job in a unique way, but it’s a real physical job. It’s been dancing and jumping and running. Also, emotionally just to get up for shows, I’m just tired and I don’t feel I can do it as well and it doesn’t bring me the joy that it used to. I still have a lot to offer, like podcasts and TV shows. I feel I can bring that to the Western sports industry. I announced I was retiring fairly early in the season, for one, to thank the great markets that I’ve gone to for years, but also to see what doors open. Next fall I’ll do some broadcasting for the PBR Team Series. There’s some opportunities within production behind the scenes that I have a lot to offer with seeing talent and what we should do in shows. There’s more to me than a guy dancing with makeup on.”

For more from Flint Rasmussen, check out his podcast “According to Flint” and you can watch him on YouTube.

TULSA BEACON WEEKEND

My guests this week on the “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show will include media expert and television producer Phil Cooke, and TU athletic director Rick Dickson. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.