November 2 2016 years
During the tour in Rostov-on-Don died Oleg Popov. The "Sunny Clown" was 86.
What is a clown? It's a grown-up child.
Every normal, honest person should always have childhood in their heart. Even if it's just a little bit.
Born in 1930 in a village near Moscow Vyrubovo. The family later moved to Moscow, where my father found work at the Second Watch Factory, which produced alarm clocks and watches (later the "Slava" brand). In 1941, my father was arrested for allegedly making a special watch for Stalin, which broke. He died in prison.
The mother remarried and changed her last name to avoid persecution.
During the war, they lived with relatives in the Moscow region. They were starving. A neighbor helped them survive by making soap, which Oleg sold at the market.
I remember eating porridge, and my mother looked at me and cried. I found out why later. My mother was hungry too, but she gave me her porridge.
In 1943, he got a job at the Pravda Printing Plant as a mechanic's apprentice. He also attended an acrobatics club. "I was doing great!" He decided on his future profession when he learned that the circus school gave students 650 grams of bread per day, not 550 grams as at the factory. He graduated from the circus school in 1950.
He began his career as an equilibrist with the act “Eccentric on a Free Wire” in Saratov circus. He also made his debut there as a stage clown—the clown there fell badly and broke a rib, and Popov was offered his place. He officially found employment as a clown in 1951—in Riga circus. I really fell in love with clowning a little later, in the troupe. Mikhail Rumyantsev, famous Pencil.
The most important thing for a clown is to find a unique look. Dress up in your costume, put on your mask, hat—whatever you wear on stage—stand under the spotlight and take a picture of your shadow. Then ask people, "Who is this artist?" If they recognize you, you've found a unique look. Can you recognize Chaplin by his shadow? Easy! A pencil? Same thing.
He created his own look back then, in the early 1950s. First came the red wig and striped pants. He spotted the plaid cap, nicknamed the "Popovka" in the West, at Mosfilm during the filming of "Arena of the Brave"—he wore about 30 of them throughout his life.
The nickname "Sunny Clown" appeared in 1968, during a tour in London The weather was typical—rain and fog. And the newspaper noted that among the Soviet circus performers there was a funny red-haired clown who resembled "the sun in the ring."
His artistic persona matched his nickname—cheerful, with bright yellow hair sticking out from under his cap. His routines featured balancing acts, acrobatics, and juggling. His signature skit was "The Ray": a clown with a basket, basking in the setting sun and about to leave, returns to collect and preserve the sunlight, perhaps to share it with someone else.
When I start doing any skit, first of all I think that it shouldn’t be stupid <> I was told that in Germany during a sermon a priest mentioned the skit “Ray” as philosophical
He worked for many years at the Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. In the early 1990s, he went through a difficult period. Disagreements with Yuri Nikulin. My wife died of cancer. All my savings were wiped out after the "deposit freeze."
I spent my whole life earning money that I saved for my old age, and in the 90s the state suddenly liquidated all my savings... I served the Motherland for so many years, and it pushes me to go into an underground tunnel, put my cap on the floor and toss balls – maybe they’ll give me some
From 1991 he lived in Germany — during the tour I met a German woman Gabriel, who came especially for his performance. And then she helped out when the impresario cheated the troupe out of money. They got married. He staged his own circus shows and was known by the stage name Hans im Glück—"Happy Hans."
He did not renounce his Russian citizenship. He toured Russia for the first time in a quarter century in 2015. A year later, he planned a major tour, but upon arriving in Rostov-on-Don, he suddenly died of cardiac arrest.
Buried in Bavarian Egloffsteine - in a clown costume, according to his last will.
Where there is a circus, there is my homeland
