CIRCUS entertainer Bippo suddenly stopped clowning around in a show-stopping finale to a ringside performance in Bury.

He drew gasps from a 300-strong crowd, who then clapped and cheered, as he proposed to his girlfriend in front of them!

Ramsbottom’s most famous clown, alias Gareth Ellis, went down on one knee and opened a box containing a sparkling engagement ring as startled Lucy Louise Ladbrooke looked on.

So overcome by the emotion of it all, Gareth initially forget to say the four crucial words “Will you marry me?” But after recovering his composure and asking Lucy to be his wife, she said “yes.”

The proposal climaxed the opening performance of Circus Mondao’s five-day run at its “big top” in Walshaw Road.

And among the audience who witnessed the joyous occasion were around 13 members of Gareth’s family.

The 21-year-old and fellow circus performer Lucy, aged 20, have known each other for two years.

The old adage about the “tears of a clown” certainly rang true as Gareth openly admitted he was “blubbering like a baby” as he popped the question.

The Ramsbottom lad, who made his first professional appearance as Bippo the clown at the age of 16, said: “I chose to propose to Lucy in Bury because many members of my family were in the front row. I went down on one knee and proposed when I was still in full circus make-up. Thankfully, I was confident Lucy would say yes. This is my second season with Circus Mondao and Lucy and I have been best friends for two years and very close for around nine months. Lucy wants to get married in Hawaii as it’s always been a dream of hers. But the sun probably won’t suit me as I’m ginger.”

Gareth’s bride-to-be, an acrobat-gymnast, said: “At the finale of the performance when Gareth said he wanted to make an announcement, my legs began to shake. I’d no idea he was going to propose.”

No date as yet has been set for the wedding.

Ramsbottom’s very own “clown prince” got his first taste of the greasepaint at the age of three when his parents, Kath and Alan, took him to see Zippo’s Circus. At the age of four, he named himself Bippo and two years later was registered with Clowns International.

Later, the family decided to start a new life. They left their home in Eliza Street and helped Gareth fulfil his boyhood dream of joining the circus.