Joseph Grimaldi

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Joseph Grimaldi , also called Old Joe , (born December 18, 1778 in London , † May 31, 1837 ibid) was an English actor and clown .

Life

Joseph Grimaldi as a clown

Joseph Grimaldi was the son of the Italian clown and ballet master Giuseppe Grimaldi. As a three-year-old, Joseph appeared - together with his father - in the role of harlequin in the Sadler's Wells theater .

Grimaldi's version of the clown, which he developed for himself as a standing role or a funny person , had a white painted face with red lips and cheeks. As a modernization of the traditional commedia figures, it was comparable to the Parisian Pierrot by Jean-Gaspard Deburau (who was, however, more melancholy and poetic).

Joseph Grimaldi's clown mask

Grimaldi did not appear in the circus , but in English pantomime , especially at Christmas time. This form of theater was a type of popular ballet with grotesque plots and opulent sets made up of recurring elements. Grimaldi was famous for getting audiences to sing. Grimaldi invented slapstick gags that lasted until the silent movie era . Grimaldi's main venues were Sadler's Wells and Drury Lane Theaters in London. His greatest success was Mother Goose at the Covent Garden Theater ( 1806 ). Joey, the abbreviation of his first name, became the nickname of clowns in general.

The heyday of his appearances spanned the years 1810 to 1820. Because of a paralysis of his legs, Grimaldi could not perform in the last years of his life.

A year before his death, Grimaldi was busy writing a detailed account of his life. He entrusted the manuscript to the playwright Thomas Egerton Wilks for an adaptation. Wilks finished his editing in September 1837 and sold this version to the publisher Richard Bentley. He commissioned the writer Charles Dickens to edit it again. Dickens published the memoir under his pseudonym Boz in two volumes in 1838 by Richard Bentley. The work is a productive document for the history of the popular stages in London of that time.

The legend of the sad clown comes from Grimaldi, which he spread about himself with the following joke: A young man goes to the doctor and complains about his insurmountable depression. The doctor then advises him to go to the famous clown Grimaldi to cheer himself up. The patient replies: "But I'm Grimaldi."

memory

Every year on the first Sunday in February, the clowns of the United Kingdom hold a memorial service in Grimaldi's honor, traditionally at Holy Trinity Church in Dalston , since 2014 at All Saints Church in Haggerston as an alternative accommodation. When the clowns enter the service, they carry a sign that reads “Fools for Christ”; in worship they pray not to lose their sense of humor.

literature

Title page: Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi.
Print, poster, advertisement (BM 1859,1210.1015) .jpg
  • Boz (Ed.): Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi. Richard Bentley, London 1838
  • Heino Seitler: The creation of the clown figure. In: Karl Hoche , Toni Meissner, Bartel F. Sinhuber: The great clowns. Athenaeum, Königstein im Taunus 1982, ISBN 3-7610-8237-1 , p. 16f.
  • Andrew McConnell Stott: The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi , London: Canongate Books 2009, ISBN 978-1-84767-295-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Heino Seitler: The emergence of the clown figure. In: Karl Hoche , Toni Meissner, Bartel F. Sinhuber: The great clowns. Athenaeum, Königstein im Taunus 1982, p. 16f.
  2. ^ Foreword by Charles Dickens. In: I - the comedian. The memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi. Siedler, Berlin 1983, pp. 21-23.
  3. ↑ A matter of laugh and death: what to expect at the Joseph Grimaldi service. Time Out , 2014, accessed May 22, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Jennifer Rieger: The most famous clown in England. Deutschlandfunk , May 22, 2016, accessed on May 22, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Grimaldi, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Old Joe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English pantomime and clown
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1778
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1837
Place of death London