Fun and games at the Brown County Fair

By CHANCE PRIGGE

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- All it took Saturday afternoon was a balloon animal and kids were flocking to see Woz, one of the performers at the Brown County Fair's Family Day.

After pushing his colorful crate down the main dirt stretch at the fairgrounds -- the tiny blue propeller spinning on his hat in the breeze -- Woz set up shop on a patch of grass.

For a young girl, he whipped out a black balloon, pumped it full of air and manipulated it into a dog.

Suddenly Woz had the attention he was looking for.

After a few more balloon animals, Woz started performing his magic, often times bringing one of the toddlers in to take part.

"The magic is geared toward the little ones," said Doug Wozniak, who performs as Woz. "I try to make people have some giggles, have some fun."

Wozniak performs with a simple philosophy: be silly.

"If you do something silly, people appreciate it," he said. "That's exactly the opposite of what we've been taught. If you're silly, sometimes that gets you in trouble. I think, deep down, people like being silly."

Wozniak has been an entertainer for the last 30 years.

"I enjoy it, especially when the little tiny ones go away with bug eyes or go away with a smile on their face," he said.

Evidence of Wozniak's appearance at the fair can be seen all around it, with kids of all ages carrying around Wozniak's balloon creations.

Some kids wear his balloon hats, some like his dogs, while others -- mostly the boys -- like his swords.

"I have found that no one can resist balloon animals," he said. "They absolutely, no matter what the age, love the concept."

Keeping in minds it's not only kids at the fairs, Wozniak also has a tendency to twist and pinch his balloons into creations for grandparents, too. Looking across the rides such as the Ring of Fire and an air castle, he said some of the entertainment at the fair are things elderly people couldn't enjoy.

"At the most you see a grandma on the merry-go-round," Wozniak said. "So I like to give the grandmas I see a balloon flower, and they really, really enjoy that. They're flabbergasted that somebody would give them something."

He also has more personal reasons.

"My mother and father are both dead, so this is a remembrance for me," he said.

This is a first appearance at the fair for Wozniak, who is from Chippewa Falls, Wis.

"It's a nice fair and the weather is wonderful," he said. "You couldn't ask for anything better."

Another performer at the fair Saturday was Greg Kaler, The Games Guy.

Kaler specializes in playing a variety of games with toys from around the world.

The Diabolo, from Africa, has two sticks connected by a string. The players try to pick up, swing and juggle an object shaped like an hourglass.

Foxtails are like racquet balls attached to flaps or socks. When given the opportunity, crowd members were tossing them everywhere but to each other at times.

"I demonstrate noncompetitive games from around the world that are cooperative in nature," Kaler said. "It's a hands-on type show."

After demonstrating the various objects in his show -- showing everybody how to do what very few of them are actually able to do -- he lets the audience use them.

"Kids are very creative," Kaler said as a boy walked by with the People Juggler (a large elastic band that uses several people at once for different games) wrapped around most of his head.

Fair goers may recognize Kaler as one of the Zuchinis, which used to perform at Heritagefest. The group consisted of him, his son and his daughter, who are both at college now.

Of his roughly 20 years as an entertainer, Kaler said he's been doing The Games Guy gig for about seven years, traveling to 44 states.

"I do a lot of driving," he said.