The Groom Wore Clown Shoes: A Patch Tale of Love and Greasepaint, Part 2 of 2

YESTERDAY: We met Tinley Park newlyweds Kurt and Julie Dekker, childhood sweethearts who ran into each other after 16 years when Kurt was called to fix Julie's broken window. Now another 16 years later, the two have wed and perform as the clown duo of Cazoo and Loopy.

When Julie's broken window reacquainted the pair, both were married to other people. But they became friends, Kurt even performing as Cazoo at Julie's children's birthdays.

Years passed, children grew and marriages disintegrated. Kurt was diagnosed with and treated for a rare form of lymphoma that attacks the immune system. Since a procedure four years ago, he is cancer-free.

Kurt rubs the yellow Livestrong bracelet on his wrist when he talks about the cancer. He talks about how lucky he was it was caught early and how odd it was that it's mostly found in people of Korean, Hispanic or Mediterranean origin. He is none of those.

"You only get so many sunrises and sunsets," Kurt said. "And if you miss them …"

"It's your own fault," Julie said, gently rubbing her new husband's arm.

Kurt and Julie started dating two years ago – 14 years after they became reacquainted and 40 years after they first met.

Every year since they've been dating, Julie has thrown Kurt and his new immune system a birthday party on the anniversary of the procedure. This year, it was pirate-themed; last year, Spongebob Squarepants.

The immune system is only 4, after all.

Between cancer and a divorce, Kurt hadn't been Cazoo in quite a while by the time 2009 rolled around.

Julie wanted to change that. Kurt isn't Kurt without Cazoo, she said.

Plus, Julie is the gallery director for the Vogt Visual Arts Center and thought the June 2009 Fine Arts Fair could use a good clown. She asked Kurt to perform. The clown was back.

Although Kurt said the richest material comes from reacting to the audience, clowning isn't all improv and social commentary.

"You've always got to have something in your pocket; a squeaker or a plunger or a rubber chicken," Kurt said.

The First of May

After Julie brought back the clown in Kurt, it was Kurt's turn to bring out the clown in her, prepping her for this year's June Fine Arts Fair.

"He couldn't wait to put me in makeup and see how that would look," Julie said. "We did it and it was the most natural thing in the world."

Julie Dekker is a "First of May," clown slang for a newbie. The term comes from the traditional start of the circus season.

She said she's normally a defensive person, putting barriers especially high if she feels someone is staring. But the greasepaint lets her breathe.

"I put it on and it's not me," she said. "It's my one safe place where I don't care if anybody looks at me."

A costume was easy due to Julie's petite size and the current vogue for bright colors and bold patterns in children's clothing.

"I'm lucky enough to fit in little girl clothes and it's too easy," Julie said, laughing. "They're trying to make them look like clowns."

When the last touch of makeup was added that day, Kurt and Julie smiled at each for the first time as Cazoo and Loopy.

And then they decided to raise Cain at the 171st Street Walgreens.

Beyond their occasional moments of what Kurt calls "guerilla clowning," where they just show up unannounced and clown, the two only do charity events and only clown for free. Their next gigs will be at a lupus fundraiser in Chicago and an Oct. 9 event for the Tinley Park Fire Department.

"Can you do it?"

In the last week of August, Kurt's brother Keith called to say he and his wife Lisa would be visiting from Seattle. The brothers have always been close – in the early 1980s in Colorado, Keith and Kurt took the mime class that led to Kurt's life as a clown.

"I said, 'We've got to get married while they're here,'" Julie recalled. "And (Kurt) said, 'Can you do it?'"

That was the proposal. The two were married Sept. 10.

Tinley Park pulled together in typical fashion for the wedding. Due to Julie's position as gallery director, the park district let the wedding take place at the Vogt Center gazebo (don't ask; they don't do weddings). Members of The Singing Men of Note provided the music. Mayor Zabrocki sent flowers.

Aside from the clown makeup, the immune-system birthday parties, the tattooed wedding bands and the fact that for some reason they own at least 45 hats, Kurt and Julie Dekker are a typical newlywed couple. They hold hands. They finish each other's sentences. They can't keep their eyes off each other.

And they make each other laugh.