Browning dazzles kids with his off-ice persona

It was the easiest crowd figure skating icon Kurt Browning has had to dazzle in years: a room full of kids.

He thumb wrestled with some, played paddy cake and shot pool with others.

The 17 kids between six and nine years old didn't understand his celebrity status, but they were still drawn to him.

Combining his good nature with his well-known charisma, Browning looked as comfortable interacting with young ones as he does spinning and leaping across the ice.

"My dad always says I was lucky I never had to grow up, and maybe that's why kids relate to me," said a smiling Browning, 36, while indulging photographers and autograph seekers.

In town for tonight's Gotta Skate! show at Copps Coliseum, Browning spent about an hour last night filming a commercial at the Hamilton East Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club. The club is using a temporary location at the Centre Mall until its Ellis Avenue club, undergoing renovations, reopens in August.

The short commercial, shot for the J. M. Smucker Company, involves Browning reading an inspirational children's story, called Dumpy La Rue, to a group of kids. It's the tale of a pig who wants to dance but everybody scoffs at him. He proves them wrong, and becomes the ultimate dancer.

The taping of Gotta Skate! and the commercial will only be shown during the broadcast of the skating show on the WN cable channel Nov. 29 and on NBC Dec. 1. The show's main sponsor is the Smucker company.

Browning has been a professional figure skater since 1994. A four-time world champion, he's performed under the watchful eye of millions of fans.

But last night the only stare he got was from kids anxiously awaiting ice cream sundaes Browning was serving after the commercial shoot.

They enjoyed Browning's animated reading of the book. He used different voices to accent the characters, and he acted out some of the scenes. He stopped and explained what the word "cavorting" meant when kids' eyes glazed over.