Australian rodeo clown Big Al Wilson will perform at the International Rodeo in Dunedin next month.
The one-time bull-riding champion turned a career-ending injury into a new vocation as a rodeo clown, event organiser Fred Doherty said.
Describing Mr Wilson as Australia's top professional comedy clown, Mr Doherty said he was excited to attract such talent to Dunedin.
Dunedin was "new territory" for Mr Wilson, who attends about 40 rodeos a year.
Mr Wilson was raised in Sydney and went to his first rodeo while on holiday, aged 18.
Despite never having been around livestock, he entered a bull-riding event and was bucked off.
He went on to travel the professional rodeo circuit, becoming rookie bull ride champion in 1984. He won the bull-riding title at Australia's biggest rodeo, in Mount Isa, in 1985.
He was one of the top five professional bull-riding champions in Australia for several years, Mr Doherty said.
A "career-ending injury" in the 1990s changed all that when he was hit in the head by a bull, fracturing his skull.
Passion for the industry got him back on his feet during a recovery in which he suffered from depression, Mr Doherty said.
The rodeo will be held at Forsyth Barr Stadium on November 17.
