From the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks, Billy Baker ran away from a college scholarship to join the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College class of 1970. He hit the road with the Ringling Red Show. There he rose to be a featured member of Clown Alley for 3 seasons. He also performed and was featured on the 1977 Blue Unit. While riding the rails with Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey, he started writing songs. This led to meeting and performing with many famous country music artists. Jerry Jeff Walker recorded two of his songs as album title cuts.
In 1984 Baker began a 12 year association with Dolly Parton. He became Dolly’s featured musical-comedy star attraction at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennesse. In 1996, he started his own award winning musical-comedy show on the Pigeon Forge show strip, “Elwood Smooch’s Old Smoky Hoedown”. The show had a successful run for 11 years. In 2006, he was the featured comedian at The Comedy Barn in Pigeon Forge. Baker’s physical comedy has been featured in over 125 television commercials, including one that won an Emmy award. In 1992 he became a featured comedy ensemble member of the Hee Haw TV show in its last two seasons. In 2008, he premiered “Elwood Smooch’s Choo Choo Cha Boogie Show” at the world famous Chattanooga Choo Choo in Chattanooga, Tennesse. Besides performing a revolving door of comedy characters, he is also well-known as a baritone singer.
Billy Baker was inducted into the 2001 Clown Hall of Fame.