Everything about A-1 Entertainment and Concessions is big. Their offices and warehouses are on Ashland, a big street. They have four 21,000-square-foot warehouses. They rent out big equipment for big parties and carnivals: dunk tanks, moon walks, hot-pretzel machines, popcorn carts, huge tanks of helium. They organize big parties.
“Look at that! Look at that!” Zusel shouts from his chair, pointing at the image on the TV screen. “I get goose bumps looking at this today. No feeling like it in the world.” He sits back in his chair and then leans forward again.
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“Look at that! Six thousand people are screaming and cheering for something I did. Look at this. Those are people–6,000 people waiting for my show. Waiting for me. That’s a thrill. Awesome.”
Zusel concludes the conversation and takes a deep breath. He emits a large cough and continues his story. “I got a lot of pleasure playing with the kids. And Jerry Bishop was interviewing me for a television show and he asked the kid I was with ‘What’s that clown’s name?’ and the kid was confused or something because we were on Farwell Street and the kid said, ‘Farwell.’ Thus, Farwell the Clown was born.”
To get to the nearest warehouse from Zusel’s office, you have to pass by Zusel’s caged African gray parrot. “I got parrots everywhere. I’ve got ’em in the house, in the office, in the warehouse. This one knows over 100 words.”
Attached to the warehouse is the wood shop where much of the equipment is made. John Shirley, a semiretired entertainer, is the chief woodworker here. Shirley, whose career has included appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and Bozo’s Circus, is applying white paint to small wheelbarrows he designed. He wears a light blue checked shirt and thin dark blue suspenders, and has a white mustache that curves into curlicues.
