COLUMBIANA COUNTY FAIR Strength in clowning around

Buffo played professional baseball and has a master's degree in special education.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- At the Columbiana County Fair this week you might see Buffo, the World's Strongest Clown, balancing a ladder on his chin, lying on a bed of nails, juggling bowling balls or breaking cement blocks.
Buffo, occasionally known as Tom Toman of the Pittsburgh area, said his most difficult trick these days is finding time for his favorite pastime, sleeping.
"We have a nice house in the Pittsburgh area," Toman said. "We call it Seldom Home."
"We were home the other day for seven hours," said Toman's wife, Nancy, occasionally known as "Mrs. Buffo."
"We left a fair at 10:30, stopped at a 24-hour supermarket, got home at 1 a.m. and did the laundry from the week," she said. "We went to bed at 3:30 and got up at 6 to go out again."
Busy schedule
With about 500 shows booked each year in the Pittsburgh area alone, Toman is gone much of the time, touring or attending conventions of clowns, jugglers, magicians and other performers. He also does programs in schools and tours the country as a motivational speaker.
Toman said he is always looking to add something new to his act. He's working on a show featuring escape tactics, and plans to add ventriloquism next year.
"You always have to be learning," he said. "When I first started, someone wanted me to do a birthday party, and they asked me to juggle. I asked them when the party was and they said in about a month. I told them I could juggle, and when it came time for the show, I knew how to juggle."
Toman has been touring full time as Buffo for 18 of the nearly 25 years he and Nancy have been married. She's a full-time teacher, but tours with him during the summer and on some weekends during the school year.
Asked why he chooses to be a full-time clown, Toman said "because I can't get a real job."
His background
Toman was a professional baseball player with the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros.
He has a master's degree in special education and taught at Western Pennsylvania schools for pupils who are deaf and/or blind.
Besides his shows at county fairs, employee picnics and birthday parties, Toman does charity performances for children with special needs.
He has programs geared to police anti-drug and anti-gang programs.
"If people send me the program they're using, I can make a show to fit it," he said.
Toman said he performed as Buffo on weekends just for fun, and when the rigors of teaching full-time and cramming a weekend schedule full of road trips became too much, Nancy told him something had to give.
"I thought he would give up clowning," she said. "He quit teaching."
Starting out
Toman started clowning while still in high school, working birthday parties and events for special needs kids. He did a two-hour birthday party for the owner of a local pizza shop, earning $25 worth of pizza.
"I do this because I love children, but I'm no Mr. Rogers," Toman said. "I believe in tough love. If I see a kid in a wheelchair, I'll say "Hey, I'm really tired, move over and let me sit down, too."
When two small boys approached the stage with their parents, Toman asked, "Hey, do you want to be in my next show? I balance a chair on my chin and I need a kid to sit in it.
"The kid from the last show is still in the hospital. No, I'm kidding. It's all part of the show," he added.
"Besides, I've never dropped kids two shows in a row, so you're safe. Well, almost never."