The 70th annual circus will be Thursday-Saturday, May 7-9, at the All Seasons Arena in the North Dakota State Fair Center. Gillespie will be honored Saturday at the 6 p.m. performance for his years as a Shrine clown.

“Being a clown at the circus is my favorite thing,” Gillespie told The Minot Daily News during an interview in 2016.

Jim Clifford, president of the Minot Shrine Club and director of the circus, said, “Dizzy has been a good friend of mine going on at least 50 years and that’s because of his family. I got to know his dad and his mother real well. Dizzy is a great person and he has a very soft heart for everyone.”

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Gillespie is a longtime Minot resident. He and his family moved from Kansas City to Riverdale and then moved to Minot. His dad, the late Ken Gillespie, was the first fire chief at Minot Air Force Base. After Gillespie and his wife, Claudia, were married, they lived in Kansas City for 14 years, returning to Minot in 1980. She performed as “Cloudy” the clown. She died in 2015.

Eloise Ogden/MDN Ken “Dizzy the Clown” Gillespie is shown in this 2020 photo taken shortly after he became the new president of the International Shrine Clown Association.

For his clown work, Gillespie has won many awards over the years including the prestigious Clown of the Year Award from the International Shrine Club Association.

He became top clown of the International Shrine Clown Association when he was installed as president of the association in February 2020 in San Antonio, Texas. When he took over as association president, he became the first person from North Dakota in that position and the sixth person from the Midwest Region. The Midwest Region includes North Dakota and four other states and two Canadian provinces. Prior, Gillespie was ISCA vice president.

Another prestigious honor for Gillespie was in 1988 when he was president of the World Clown Association.

More recently, Gillespie was honored in 2024, at his local lodge by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for 50 years as a Shriner, receiving a plaque and special blue cap. He also received the Thirty-third Degree, the highest honor awarded in the organization.

Gillespie joined Shriners in Kansas City, Missouri, and continued his involvement after moving back to Minot. However, his first involvement with a fraternal organization came at age 12 when he joined DeMolay, which includes boys and young men. He then followed his father’s footsteps into Shriners and has been involved with the local club’s efforts on behalf of the Shriners children’s hospitals, serving about 10 years as the local hospital representative.

When Gillespie started in the Shriners organization, he didn’t have enough money at the time to ride motorcycle with the group and asked if he could ride bicycles instead. Eventually he became a clown.

As a Shrine clown for more than 50 years, Gillespie started several clown groups in Minot and the area. The first one was the Kiddyland Clowns in Minot. Kiddyland was located in Roosevelt Park in Minot.

Ralph Llewellyn, Fargo, formerly of Minot, got his start in clowning more than 40 years ago as one of the original Kiddyland Clowns that Gillespie assembled in 1981. Llewelly, who portrays “Clumsy” the clown, said his acquaintance with Gillespie was the beginning of a lifetime of learning and a treasured friendship. He said Gillespie took him on and introduced him to many opportunities. In March, Llewellyn was installed as World Clown Association vice president.

When the first North Dakota State Parade was being planned to be held in Minot in 1981, Gillespie was asked to “Bring in the clowns.” He’s a charter member of the parade committee.

“I love making people laugh. That’s the rewarding part of this,” Gillespie said in an interview for a story in The Minot Daily News in 2016.