10 Dec 1901
В Petersburg was born Mikhail Rumyantsev — clown “Pencil”.
Every art form has its own path to truth, and every artist has his own path to understanding truth. I chose the funny path.
In 1914, at the age of 13, he entered the art and craft school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (now the Roerich Art School), but studied without much interest.
In 1922 he moved to Tver region, He wrote and designed posters for the city theater. In 1925, he moved to Moscow and found work as a poster artist at the Ekran Zhizni movie theater, creating movie posters.
By the age of 25, he decided to become an actor after becoming acquainted with the work of the founders of silent cinema. Mary Pickford и Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Enrolled in stage movement courses Valeria Tsvetaeva (sisters of the famous poetess).
He then studied at the circus arts courses (now the State School of Circus and Variety Arts). He studied in a class of eccentric acrobats. He worked in circuses. Smolensk, Kazan и Stalingrad. He appeared in the guise of Red Vasya - with a heavily made-up face, a red wig, and checkered trousers.
During his first performance, he fell flat on his face from a height of half a meter onto the arena and hurt himself badly. He did it on purpose—out of helplessness, to somehow elicit laughter from the audience. He was immediately removed from the show.
Since 1928 he began appearing in public in the clown image of Charlie Chaplin, but after a few years he abandoned this role.
While dressing in Chaplin's costume, I took photographs in various positions, studying myself in it, trying to achieve the exact same appearance as in Chaplin's photographs. I was especially intrigued by the trousers with their distinctive "Chaplin" folds. All this consumed a great deal of time and energy and distracted me from the main thing—creating a repertoire.
He developed his own stage persona, choosing his performance style and costume—a black pointed hat, a large checked shirt, and a rope tie. He was only 142 cm tall.
You can't imitate anyone. There's simply no point. Even the most seemingly ordinary appearance, the simplest costume, is accepted by the audience if the clown has charm, if the clown is recognized.
Clowns are like teapots. There are twenty teapots: one is beautiful, shiny, and feels good in your hands; another is shabby; a third is leaking; a fourth has a broken spout; a fifth has a wire handle, but you can boil water in all of them.
By 1935 he was already working at the Leningrad Circus, appearing in a new image: Caran D'Ache (he saw the name in an album of French caricatures).
- Hello, comrade Rumyantsev!
— I'm Rumyantsev for the housing department, and for everyone else, I'm Karandash
In 1936, he transferred to the Moscow Circus (now the Nikulin Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard). It was then that he added a small Scottish terrier named "Klyaksa" to his stage persona. The capital's public received Karandash with enthusiasm.
His act, "Incident in the Park," ran day after day for 25 years—both audiences and Rumyantsev himself considered it his best. A clumsy man, fresh from a sauna, accidentally breaks a statue of the Venus de Milo and tries to reassemble it, mixing up its parts—he'd never seen it as it looked before it shattered.
It takes a moment to destroy beauty. It takes centuries to restore it.
During the Great Patriotic War, he went to the front with his artistic brigade. One of his students at that time was Yuri Nikulin.
Pencil's dressing room. He talked for half an hour, and I listened. I realized one thing: Pencil doesn't agree with how we're taught and what we're taught: "Stay with your nose in the sawdust!"
(Yuri Nikulin)
His political jokes were legendary, but, according to his daughter, he always knew his limits. During Brezhnev's "stagnation," he would come out to the arena with a huge string bag chock-full of scarce, imitation goods, and remain silent for long periods.
I'm silent because I have everything. Why are you silent?!
He toured abroad and wrote scripts for New Year's performances for children.
He worked in the circus for 55 years: he last performed in the arena two weeks before his death.
After half a century of fooling around, it's too late for me to become serious.
He died in Moscow in 1983, at 81.
