Question:  Zachary "Skeeter" Reece studied with an American circus performer  who created the memorable clown figure "Weary Willie" based on the hobos of what era
Context: Victor Adolphus Pépin (March 8, 1780 – 1845) was an American circus performer and circus owner most famous for being a partner in the Circus of Pépin and Breschard.  The Circus of Pépin and Breschard can thus be considered the first American circus and Pépin the first American circus impresario. Skeeter Reece is a clown/unicyclist from the Bronx, NY who began his performing career with the King Charles Troupe (unicyclists who play basketball) in Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus.  Always having a love for comedy, he gravitated toward clowning.  He applied and was accepted into the Ringling Clown College.  He graduated with the Class of '77, the last class of Bill Ballantine.  Skeeter studied with Emmett Kelly, Lou Jacobs, Bobby Kaye,and Duane Thorpe.  He was invited to clown with the Greatest Show on Earth.  Red Skelton visited the show when he was performing, and told him that he was a great clown, which inspired him to keep going.  Skeeter also taught at his alma mater in 1979 and 1980. Willard Mullin (September 14, 1902 – December 20, 1978) was an American sports cartoonist.  He is most famous for his creation of the "Brooklyn Bum", the personification of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, based on fabled circus clown Emmett Kelly's "Weary Willie" hobo persona.  He was widely published: he cartooned daily for Scripps-Howard's "New York World-Telegram and Sun" for decades and was often published in Scripps-Howard's twenty papers, as well as in the "Sporting News". Clarence Chesterfield Howerton (February 9, 1913 – November 18, 1975), also known as Major Mite, was an American circus performer who starred in the sideshow for over 25 years, 20 of which were with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.  He was 2 ft tall and performed with several groups from the early 1920s through the late 1940s, billed as the smallest man in the world.  His small physique was often contrasted alongside larger circus sideshow acts, such as the juvenile obese and the excessively tall. Courtney Ryley Cooper (October 31, 1886 – September 29, 1940) was an American circus performer, publicist and writer.  During his career he published over 30 books, many focusing on crime; J. Edgar Hoover considered him at one time "the best informed man on crime in the U. S." He was also an expert on circuses, and was the chief publicist for Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus at the time of his death. Josh Routh is a nationally recognized American circus performer, and a founding member of the comedic troop Brothers Kaputnik, Death By Tickle and Circus Kaput.  Josh trained at the Circus Center in San Francisco, California and attended the Clown Conservatory where he graduated "Class Clown".  The Conservatory is where Josh found his alter ego "Tchotchke Kaputnik".  As Tchotchke, Josh has performed with The New Pickle Circus (formerly the Pickle Family Circus, The San Francisco Youth Circus, The Much Ado Shakespeare Circus and Velocity Circus. Dio Kobayashi (小林睦史 , Kobayashi Atsushi , born August 28, 1972) is a Japanese circus performer.  He is the first Japanese circus performer to become a member of the World of Top Entertainer tour.  He currently works as a worldwide circus performer.  His other stage names include "Kinosuke Otowa" and "Clown Joker". Emmett Leo Kelly (December 9, 1898March 28, 1979) was an American circus performer, who created the memorable clown figure "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Depression era. John Adalbert Madigan, (12 August 1850 - 23 August 1897) was an American circus performer and ringmaster, during the later years of his life he worked in Scandinavia.  He was raised in an American circus family of Irish background.  He is known for his work in U.S circus scenes between 1866 and 1869, but from 1872 he worked at Cirkus Myers in Central Europe.  To this circus, the Swedish-Norwegian circus artist Eleonora Olsen, later known as Laura Madigan (mother of Elvira Madigan) came to work in 1875, the two became a couple. Dolly Jacobs (born c. 1957 in Sarasota, Florida) is an American circus aerialist.  She is the daughter of famed circus clown Lou Jacobs and former New York fashion model turned circus performer Jean Rockwell Jacobs.  She began her circus career in 1975 and has been working ever since.  She was a featured performer with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.  She and her husband, fellow circus performer Pedro Reis, founded Circus Sarasota in 1997.  In 2012, she received the Florida Folk Heritage Award, and in 2015, was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship award by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Answer: Depression era