Kids Watch As Clown Is Crushed to Death

Don't tell me you didn't laugh just a bit at the title. And don't think I'm an insensitive bastard, because the title wasn't my idea.

A hot-air balloon caught fire during a circus stunt in Ireland, killing a clown acrobat as dozens of children watched, police said Tuesday.

The accident happened Monday night as the Royal Russian Circus was performing in Scariff, County Clare, a village in western Ireland. About 100 people were in the audience, most of them children. Police said the clown was a 26-year-old man from Belarus but didn't release his name.

Witnesses said the man, dressed in a clown outfit, was hanging from a cage suspended by ropes and a hot-air balloon inside the canvas tent. When the balloon exploded in flames, the cage fell on top of the man.


"Was hanging from a cage suspended by ropes and a hot-air balloon..." ??!?

Call me crazy, but skydiving into a shark-infested Altantic Ocean wearing a bathing suit made of tunafish sounds more safe than this stunt. The grim reaper was just sitting on this clown's front door step.