Pic (clown)

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Pic (actually Richard Hirzel; born March 11, 1949 in Kreuzlingen ) is a Swiss clown and pantomime who contributed significantly to the first successes of Circus Roncalli .

Life

Richard Hirzel grew up in St. Gallen as the youngest of four children. His father Fritz Hirzel was a painter , his mother Elsi, née Stadelmann, a tailor . His stage name derived his sister Picasso from. He worked again and again with his brother Fritz Hirzel , a journalist and writer . As a teenager, Pic played football at FC St. Gallen ; However, he had to bury dreams of a professional career after a knee injury. But he remained loyal to the ball, albeit in a completely different - poetic - form. The artist said in an interview that he was fascinated by soap bubbles as a student . And they also became one of his trademarks. As a child he was already enthusiastic about the circus. He first appeared as a clown in 1966, directed by his brother Fritz. But the father lacked the money to finance an acting training - and Richard Hirzel first became a teacher . He lives in St. Gallen and has a daughter, Jil.

Career

According to his own statements, Pic has traveled half the world since 1969, in between initiating popular circuses as citizens' initiatives and starring in short films . He painted between tours. In 1968 Pic developed his first full-length program with pantomimes, clown numbers and grotesques and toured Switzerland's small theaters with it. From 1972 he attended the École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, where he learned the basic forms of classical theater , in addition to studying Commedia dell'arte , Greek choir and mask play . Here he also met his future partner Pello .

After graduating, he went on a solo tour, including the one-person piece Le Grand Gogo . In 1979 Pic went on tour with Pello. The piece was called Pic and Pello come to visit . In the same year, the Circus Roncalli was on the verge of financial "off" - in this hopeless situation, the Swiss cabaret artist Emil Steinberger not only offered the Austrian circus director Bernhard Paul financial support, but also introduced him to the clown duo Pic and Pello.

Bernhard Paul writes about Pic that he is one of his favorite artists . Hardly anyone else has had such a lasting impact on Circus Roncalli as he has. Bernhard Paul describes Pic as a very social colleague - the artists at Circus Roncalli have the clown Pic to thank for the fact that Monday and Tuesday afternoons at the Roncalli are free of play to this day.

So in 1980 Pics began a long-term collaboration with Circus Roncalli. He also performed in the Swiss Circus Knie . His performance there with a hippopotamus as a butterfly is legendary .

But Pic also appeared repeatedly at cabaret events , including Otto Grünmandl , Dieter Hildebrandt , Gerhard Polt and Gisela Schneeberger at the Kammerspiele in Munich. From 2001 to 2002 Pic could be seen again at Circus Roncalli. After a few years of seclusion in St. Gallen, Pic performed again in 2005 - from autumn with the solo program Der Schlüssel and from December 2007 in the Roncalli Christmas Circus in the Tempodrom in Berlin . In 2007 Pic also showed his paintings for the first time in the cultural area of ​​the canton of St.Gallen.

In 2011 the book Das Bein ohne Mann , a dialogue with the writer Dante Andrea Franzetti , was published, and in 2014, Comic Bones with Notes and Painted Pictures by Pic.

style

Pic is a Pierrot , but you can also call him a juggler , comedian , comedian , pantomime or clown . His form of expression is the language of the body, facial expressions and gestures are the means of communication.

In his solo numbers he appeared as a waiter with a tray full of bells that he made to ring. His performance as Pierrot Lunaire is also famous, as the 'clown of the moon' who rolls into the arena in a sky-blue star ball. A number that was completely new in 1980 and has remained unique of its kind. “The ball opens slowly, the clown emerges from it. And then Pic starts playing with the soap bubbles. First he blows small ones who dance friendly in the circus air, then big ones, really big ones. They shimmer like prisms in the most beautiful rainbow colors, but soon the balloon-sized bubbles fall on the floor of the arena and burst. "

In the Journey to the Rainbow , the successful Roncalli program from 1980, he and his partner Pello had the task of connecting the numbers dramaturgically. With these "pause fillers" the two became stars at the Roncalli. They created - so Natias Neutert in his full-page review - "a poetic energy field that rest on all art skills" of the program "emanated and so boosted to the 'possible miracles', as they appeared to us. As if Pic and Pello were really two quick-change travelers and we were their travel company. "

Honourings and prices

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ More detailed biography. Richard Hirzel, accessed March 17, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Bernhard Paul: Roncalli and his artists , Cologne 1991, p. 100 ff.
  3. ↑ Thomas Schütte, Mario Angelo: Walk into the Circus Roncalli. Cologne 1981, p. 69 ff.
  4. ↑ Natias Neutert : Where is the circus? - Somewhere else! In: The time. No. 47, November 16, 1984, features page 58. (online at: zeit.de )
personal data
SURNAME Pic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hirzel, Richard (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss clown
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Kreuzlingen