Dusty Rhodes carries a plastic nose in his pocket...just in case.

Dusty Rhodes' official title backstage at the Port Theatre is Head Carpenter. He's quick to add that it"s a title, which in the vernacular translates to "stage ape”.

Dusty has been carrying a clown nose in his pocket for the past twenty years, when working on the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. This little piece of plastic laughter makes its move from pocket to face in only two types of situations, when kids are around or things are less than perfect.

“When things get really tense and human kindness goes out the window and humour goes out the window, when everything gets stressed out and everyone gets pissed off I put the clown nose on,” says Dusty.

And not just any clown nose will do. Like anything, quality and craftsmanship has a large part to play. Dusty is particularly fond of his current little implement of comic relief partly because, at nearly two years old, it has history and partly because as far as noses go, it’s top notch.

“This one came emergency courier from Vancouver at last year’s Nanaimo Children’s Festival,” he says, fondling it. “I had it couriered over especially by a friend when I couldn’t find mine one morning. It’s a good Italian made nose, really hard to find.”