Fayetteville, WV (WOAY) – A traveling performer who spent about a month entertaining shoppers at the Fayette Town Center says Fayetteville police ordered him out of town under threat of arrest.
“Who am I? I am a traveling rock climber. I came to this area to rock climb, and I’m a clown … I am Bartholowmew the Clown on TikTok!” said Kevin Mohler, known as Bartholowmew the Clown.
Mohler lives on the road full time, working as an antique dealer as well as a clown. He said he started juggling more than 20 years ago, and his clown act grew out of that skill and his time doing stand-up comedy.
“I can juggle fire. I can juggle five balls, I can juggle knives, I could juggle chainsaws. I might lose a hand, but I could do it!” Mohler said.
He said he paid for his cross-country drive from Prescott, Arizona, by juggling at gas stations, and that rock climbing at Summersville Lake brought him to the area about a month ago. Mohler shares his act on TikTok and said he has performed at the Fayette Town Center several times since arriving.
“It has been nothing but love. I have had nothing but positive, like, interactions,” Mohler said.
According to Mohler, he was not performing on the morning police arrived. He said he was out of costume and eating breakfast inside his RV when someone knocked.
“Only two people, like, do that sort of knocking on my RV: my mother and the police,” he said.
Mohler said two officers were at the door, and he described what they told him.
“We know you have been a clown here. We know you’ve been a clown in Summersville, and Walmart wants you off the property,” Mohler said, recounting the officers’ words.
Walmart declined WOAY’s request for comment.
Mohler said he then drove to a neighboring parking lot to regroup.
“And the police follow me over there and they said, nah, you have to leave. You have to get out of Fayetteville,” he said.
He said officers told him they had received four complaints about him, and that they also refused when he asked about moving to the town park.
“You have to go or we’re going to arrest you. And I said, arrest me for what? And they kind of paused for a second and they said obstruction. And so I left,” Mohler said.
Fayetteville’s town code limits house trailers and mobile homes to 48 hours within town limits (Section 307.14) and allows property owners to have unauthorized vehicles removed from private property (Section 307.04). It is unclear whether either ordinance was violated. The Fayetteville Police Department declined to comment.
“The silliest of all is to ban me from the entire town. There are seven layers of silliness to this … I’m a clown, so I’m an expert on silliness,” Mohler said.
Mohler said he plans to stay in the area through the end of October.
“I did, like, transfer this whole initially upsetting experience into a thousand new TikTok followers. So there is always a positive side … I just want to live my life, you know? And I want to be allowed back into Fayetteville,” he said.
WOAY will update this story if the Fayetteville Police Department responds.
