Stupid August

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The three fratellinis with a white clown and two stupid Augusts, 1932

The stupid August is a clown figure in the circus . As a red clown , he is the white clown's assistant and is at the bottom of the hierarchy. August and stupid August are opponents of the white clown and tease each other. Most of the time, the audience's sympathies are more with the warm-hearted, foolish, silly August than with the know-it-all white clown.

history

The stupid August goes back to antiquity, the centunculus ("one hundred spots") drove his rough jokes in Roman markets and public places. He appeared in a brightly colored costume, pants and jacket were patched together from many rags, his comical effect was heightened by the fact that he appeared without shoes and without hair. He already had the bald head that is one of the distinguishing features of today's clown, who is known as “incompetent”, as well as the oversized heelless shoes that cause his strange walk. The gestures, facial expressions and posture of this figure are reduced: his entire appearance heralds failure.

Forerunners of the stupid August were also the court jesters of the Middle Ages, characters from the Commedia dell'arte and Till Eulenspiegel . In its current form it first appeared in France at the beginning of the 19th century, and Tom Belling [1843–1900] is considered to be the real inventor .

Characteristic for (stupid) August is the red bulbous nose and the firm make-up on the mouth, cheeks and eyes. Traditionally, he can cross the stage and go into the audience. He amazes and confuses the white clown, even when he is full of goodwill. August has to realize an achievement in its number in which the accidents are linked. His universe often collides with that of the white clown who rules the stage.

Federico Fellini explained the dispute between the two clown characters as follows: "It is the struggle between the proud cult of reason, which becomes the arrogant cult of aestheticism, and instinct, the freedom of instinct." The Große Brockhaus from 1929 borders the stupid August vom Clown from: "The 'stupid August', a special clown figure, is actually the parodied figure of the stable master that the clown Tom Belling created."

Stupid August is also avolume of poetry publishedby Günter Grass in 2007, in which he addresses the media debate about his Nazi past. In a poem he wrote:

“Like the clown during childhood / in the Sarrasani circus, / the month of the same name. // making a fax, / making faces, / like once when I was fourteen. // already I feel strange, / put in front of the fast court / the righteous. // And also the pointed hat, turned / from yesterday's newspaper, / dresses because it is always valid. "

- Günter Grass

Famous actors

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wiener Zeitung : Beppo Beyerl: “How the clowns got into the ring. The dressage of the diaphragm ", from May 20, 1998 ( Memento from March 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b siren opera theater: figures
  3. ^ "Günter Grass. Dummer August “ ( Memento from April 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Stuttgarter Zeitung from March 27, 2007