Mexican clown ends popular news show

MEXICO CITY – One of Mexico’s most popular and often hard-hitting news programs went off the air Wednesday as Brozo the clown removed his wig and plastic nose to bid viewers farewell.

Holding back tears, Victor Trujillo said he decided to end the 2 1/2 -year-old morning news program due to the death of his wife, who co-produced the program, a month ago.

“It can’t just go on as if nothing had happened,” he said. “The fun was diminishing. I couldn’t keep putting on the wig and not feel it was a yoke that weighed on me.”

The emotional words were sharply at odds with his salty, leering character – Brozo, a populist, adult-oriented clown.

Brozo appeared daily to discuss and laugh at the news, accompanied by a team of oddball assistants, ranging from a scantily clad “secretary” to a crazed street reporter in dark glasses and an aviator jacket.

He used the circus atmosphere to draw viewers into serious subjects, breaking stories by interviewing top politicians about public policy even as more conventional news shows focused on celebrity scandals.

It was the clown who embarrassed a Mexico City legislator, trapping the man on a live broadcast and demanding an explanation while airing previously unseen videotapes of the politician stuffing his pockets with a businessman’s cash.

“Don’t treat me like a fool!” the angered clown shouted when the politician tried to explain the money away.

Trujillo, 43, has been using the Brozo character for years – taking the name from “Bozo” the clown and “la broza,” meaning trash or – in slang – a somewhat affectionate term for rowdy or working class people.

President Vicente Fox – whose wife Marta Sahagun once appeared with Brozo – sent a letter congratulating Trujillo and saying, accurately, that he had brought “a new style broadcasting the news.”

Trujillo said he didn’t want his unhappiness over his wife’s death to affect the program: “At this point, I can’t give myself the luxury of taking the risk.”