They say this is where it all began.
At 326 W. Gorham St., in the town they call Madison, Wis., there’s a glass door emblazoned with The Badger Herald nameplate shoved off into the corner, out of sight to the casual passerby. Most people too occupied with mining for subs or sitting down for a drink with the Madhatter will never know of this door’s existence. But if you were to open this door, you would find yourself entering a world of history. Sure, there are volumes of tales to be told about the legendary independent student newspaper that works in these hallowed halls, but this isn’t that story. This is the Bozo Buckets story.
As I walk up the three stories of stairs toward the office, I catch the sweet, musty aroma of stale subs and alcohol. It’s not quite grandma’s cookies, but for some reason I feel at home. I continue down the hall to a cramped room in the back to spend some time with the four men who started it all.
The Herald conference room is a historic landmark in its own right, with awards and the sticky residue of celebratory champagne littering the walls, but my focus is drawn to the two sets of ten red Solo cups meticulously lined up on either side of a long wooden table. For it was in this very location on a fateful February night in 2010 that 20 cups were set up in this arrangement for the first time, marking the inaugural game of Bozo Buckets.
“We were just drinking and clownin’ around like we always do late on Thursday nights when we decided to mix up our usual games of beer pong by expanding upon the Bozo Buckets re-rack,” co-founder and Sports Content Editor Adam Holt said while popping open a can of Rochester’s renowned Genny Light, the official beer of Bozo Buckets since co-founder and Associate Photo Editor Bobby Breitenbach introduced the office to its tantalizing taste on inaugural night.
Popularized by ArtsEtc. Content Editor Tony Lewis (who for the sake of journalistic integrity is not the same person in the byline), the Bozo Buckets re-rack involves stacking three cups in a line akin to the eponymous game on the long-running “The Bozo Show” hosted by the one and only Bozo the Clown. But Bozo Buckets became much more than just another way to rack the cups for beer pong.
“It was one of those things where we just started playing and certain shots would occur, and we collectively decided we needed to come up with a name for that,” co-founder and Design Director Joey Schroeder said. “Keeping with the Bozo theme, we went online and to our pleasure there was an entire list of wacky episode titles at our disposal.”
This search would eventually lead to the birth of the game’s legendary shot: the Big Clown Shakedown. A spectacle fit for Barnum and Bailey themselves, this skillful shot occurs when a ball hits the rim of one bucket and proceeds to fall into a different bucket, resulting in the removal of these two buckets and all buckets in between.
“The shakedown takes the game to a completely new level,” co-founder and Associate Sports Editor Max Henson said. “When it happens there’s a moment when everything stops, and you realize you’ve just knocked out half their buckets. I get in the bozone just thinking about it.”
As the founders begin to play, I notice a collection of papers haphazardly taped to the left corner wall. Although the edges have been tinted yellow with age and the ink has started to fade, I reminisce in some of the original shots. There’s Back-to-Back-with-the-Ack-Ack-Flack, the jubilant announcement that two teammates yell to get their balls back if they both make buckets in the same turn — though, as we all know, if the team fails to do so before the other team pulls the balls out, then it’s no balls back, Jack. There’s also Bear Hunting, the one-time call that if you hit the current front bucket results in the removal of that bucket and the one behind it (there must be a bucket directly next to the front bucket to make this call, because in the Bozo Bucket world, bears always travel in packs).
Never played Bozo Buckets before? No worries. Many of the terms used are just intelligent variations of beer pong. Instead of calling re-rack, it’s rebozo to push all the buckets back into a straight line. Then there’s flamin’ and clownin’ around to replace heating up and on fire.
“It’s a game for everyone. Beginner’s luck isn’t random — it’s a guarantee. You’ll be bear hunting in no time,” Holt said.
Yet, the game only got better with age, with the addition of later terms like the South of the Border Disorder for the behind the back shot or Rootin’ Tootin’ Six-Gun Shootin,’ the Bear Hunter but with the sixth bucket. Perhaps the greatest addendum to the game, though, was the remarkable and highly unlikely Bye Bye Fly Guy. This life-defining shot is a Big Clown Shakedown that knocks out all ten buckets by hitting off the first and landing in the last. Warning: If one defies odds and hits this shot, the game is immediately over, and the shooter is inducted into the Fly Guy Hall of Fame, currently an exclusive three-member group of Schroeder, Henson and Lewis, who hit the first Fly Guy on Feb. 19, 2010.
“The first reaction after hitting a Fly Guy is like the calm before the storm,” Lewis said. “Everybody stands in silence before breaking out in what I can only describe as the Rebellion victory dance on Endor after defeating the Empire — John Williams score included.”
Today, Bozo Buckets is played at parties, North American colleges and universities and elsewhere, such as tailgating or other sporting events. Yet, despite its wild popularity, it’s still known as a game of Gentleclowns — an endearing Bozo Bucket variation on gentlemen — where players don’t finger, don’t blow, always straighten buckets and let the Space Ace Save Face (incorrectly known as a rebuttal), no matter what. What started on the drunken whim of four bosses is now the game that has defined our generation.
“I seen a lot of changin’ in the way other people drank booze, and the way I drank booze. It was the Buckets. What I’m tryin’ to say is … if I can change and you can change; everybody can change,” Schroeder said. “I just want to say one more thing … there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Bozo Buckets is a game for all Gentleclowns. Want to learn more? Check out a beginner’s version of the Constitution in today’s paper or became a fan of Bozo Buckets on Facebook for the full version with everything you need to know to start clownin’ around.
