As Penn State seniors are getting ready for mid-May graduation and entering the work force, a group of white-faced, red-nosed alumni will also be applying skills learned from their secondary education.

"I hold three degrees below zero," punned Joel Jeske, a promotional clown with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which will perform a show titled Bellobration Thursday through Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Despite his humility, Jeske, like many other clowns, graduated from "clown college" before joining Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The circus established its own clown college, located in Sarasota, Fla., that taught aspiring clowns how to take a pie in the face, apply clown makeup and fall down without getting hurt, according to clownevents.com.

Different from other circus acts that are based on strength and agility, Jeske said, clowning is the only act based on thought and wit, although he's an exception.

"That's why you find a lot of clowns that are incredibly smart -- but I'm not. I'm rude and I'm stupid," he said.

Jeske said the Ringling Bros. production is in its 137th year and combines familiar circus tradition with new elements.

Jeske said the circus now incorporates a lot of state-of-the-art technology, "almost like an arena rock [show]," which includes large screens to show a closer view of the performers.

"Which aren't so flattering if you have a zit," fellow promotional clown Daniel Berkley added. Like Jeske, Berkley came to State College two weeks ago to promote this weekend's show.

Berkley said he believes the circus has such staying power because it is live entertainment that can't be altered before it reaches the audience.

"With television, you know that the amazing feats that people can do on TV can be fake," he said. "On TV, I can do all sorts of incredible things that are physically impossible."

The performers -- including acrobats, human cannonballs and high-wire climbers -- push normal physical limits, contributing to the universality and continued enjoyment of the circus, Jeske said.

"[What] we've found is that regardless of how much we change, how much the audience changes, there is nothing so inherently American as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus," he said.

Jeske and Berkley said the best thing about being a clown is the ability to create a personal connection with audience members.

Other members of the circus seem distant, flying through the air, riding elephants or contorting to balance on one another, but clowns bridge the gap between the performer and the audience, Jeske said.

"The thing about a clown in a circus is that's the core performer that's going to walk around, stop and notice you," he said. "It's very much our job to take this huge spectacle and bring it in and make it very, very close."

This particular circus, which honors a clown, helps celebrate the connection between the performers and the audience.

The show Bellobration honors Bello, the star clown and show's daredevil host.

Bello, with his signature strikingly vertical strawberry blond hair, will perform throughout the show, entertaining on the sway pole, a flexible climbing pole and the "Wheel of Steel," which Berkley described as a "hamster wheel gone crazy."

The circus also features horses, dogs, elephants and zebras, Jeske said, in addition to 12 tigers, which he and Berkeley almost forgot to mention.

"They scare me, so I forget about them sometimes," Berkley said.

Bernie Punt, director of sales and marketing for the BJC, said Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus visits Central Pennsylvania about every three years.

On Tuesday, the elephants and horses from the circus were paraded down Route 26 from the Nittany Mall, where the train carrying them stopped, to the Bryce Jordan Center.

Punt said many larger cities have a rail system that travels near or under the arena where the circus performs, so the parade doesn't happen everywhere.

The parade traveled down part of Route 26, turned onto Porter Road, then Curtin Road and ended at the BJC.

Three-hundred and fifty people travel with the circus by train from city to city, including the 150 performers, 49 animals and nine musicians, which make up the band that inconspicuously provides all the music for the entire performance.

Conductor Brett Barlow said many people don't even notice the band that is set up on the floor, near the portal where the performers emerge from backstage.

"That's sort of a compliment," he said. "It sounds just like a very high-quality, produced recording."

The band has to be able to improvise, especially when working with animals that are sometimes unpredictable.

"Almost every show, we're required to do something that we didn't do the show before," he said. "When you're working with horses, tigers and little dogs, anything could happen.

"You're living in the middle of a hurricane," he added, "but you figure it out."

Everything is newly composed for each production and each individual act must be reflected by different styles of music, Barlow said.

Because of the wide age range of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey audience, Barlow said the band incorporates R&B, techno, pop and Broadway styles into the Bellobration music.

"It's an audience ranging in age from 2 to 92, so our music has to try and suit everyone at some point in the show," he said.

Punt said the circus, which will hold seven performances over the weekend, attracts audiences from small children to senior citizens because of the longstanding tradition it represents.

"I don't know at what other show you can see that range of an audience," he said. "That's why it's still here; that's why it's part of our culture and entertainment."