Sitemap

Entertainment

The Sunshine Clown

CorD Recommends

Ancient Footwear Unearthed: Europe’s Oldest Shoes Discovered in Spain

Scientists have identified what are believed to...

Japan’s Population of Those 100 Years of Age Hits Record 92,139

The number of individuals in Japan who...

World’s Largest Whisky Bottle Sells for $1.4 Million at Auction

The world's largest bottle of whisky, christened...

Three-Quarters of Church of England Clergy Declare Britain No Longer a Christian Nation

Three-quarters of clergy within the Church of...

Scholz Champions Western Balkans’ Path to Membership

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in Slovenia, advocated for quickening the EU accession for the Western Balkans, underlining the importance...

Wiener Städtische Insurance company is the winner of Dobročinitelj (Benefactor) award

The company Wiener Städtische Insurance received the Dobročinitelj (Benefactor) award for socially responsible activities implemented during 2021, 2022 and...

CEB Grants €1.3 Billion Loans to Boost Social Sectors in 11 Countries

The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) has sanctioned loans totaling €1.3 billion for 11 member countries, including Serbia...

Serbia Advances in Renewable Energy with Pupin Wind Park Financing

In a significant stride towards renewable energy adoption, Serbia has finalized the financial arrangements for the Pupin Wind Park,...

Đedović Handanović: Nuclear Energy in Serbia by 2039 at the Earliest

Nuclear energy in Serbia could become a reality by 2039 at the earliest, should work on the project commence...

At the age of 86, Oleg Popov has been dubbed the world’s oldest performing clown. His circus career started almost 70 years ago and he still tours and has no plans to hang up his trademark red nose. Popov was one of the most popular clowns in the Soviet Union during the second half of the 20th century and for the last thirty years he has lived in Germany with his second wife, Gabrielle Lehmann

At the ripe old age of 86, the world’s oldest clown has given up tightrope walking. However, Oleg Popov, the most famous Soviet-era jester, still spends half the year touring and has no plans to hang up his trademark red nose. “The Sun Clown”, as he is also known, never fails to enthral young and old alike with his oddball character based on a figure from Russian folklore — one who appears stupid, but really isn’t.

“I also love to make people laugh in private,” the Russian said while on a recent tour, laughter sparkling in his lively blue eyes.

“I am very happy. If I could live my life over I would become a clown all over again.”

To the sound of loud applause, a small man with a shock of straw-coloured hair shuffles into the ring under a black-and-white chequered cap – just as he has done for almost seven decades.

Alone in the spotlight, Popov – who in 1981 won the Golden Clown award, the “Oscar” of the circus world – chants softly in Russian, clutching an old umbrella handle sprouting a bunch of multi-coloured balloons.

His black jacket is too short, while his red, blue and black-striped pants stop at his calves. His bow tie, like his nose, is red, and his face lightly made up.

Between performances of hoop-jumping poodles, flying acrobats and a trained elephant, Popov entertains with a trick that sends soup ladles flying into ice buckets.

To the crowd’s delight, he then uses a bicycle pump to “inflate” a fellow clown, who rises centimetre- by-centimetre from a collapsed pose on the floor.

Born Oleg Konstantinovich Popov into a poor family in a small town near Moscow, he joined the Russian State Circus School in Moscow at the age of 14, spending 10-hour days learning the arts of juggling, tightrope walking, trapeze work and acrobatics.

Accompanied by a circus orchestra, Popov and his 55-year-old German wife Gabriela also juggle and do magic tricks – no vocabulary is required as they communicate with their audience in the universal language of laughter.

“The work of a clown is interesting, because it is art, and art is like an endless ocean,” said the octogenarian between shows, taking a break in his circus trailer filled with costumes, balloons and old-fashioned suitcases.

“What Charlie Chaplin was for the movies, Oleg Popov is for the circus,” states a tribute to Popov on the Great Russian State Circus website, referring to one of the clown’s own idols.

Clown Oleg Popov attends the rehearsal of the new circus show.The tribute likens his reprises to “poetry”, saying that he “bathes the circus ring in the sunshine”, hence the nickname.

Born Oleg Konstantinovich Popov into a poor family in a small town near Moscow, he joined the Russian State Circus School in Moscow at the age of 14, spending 10-hour days learning the arts of juggling, tightrope walking, trapeze work and acrobatics.

After a sickly childhood often spent hungry, Popov’s gift for hilarity soon earned him payment in the form of food coupons for performances at Russian collective farms or sports clubs.

At 19, the clown, whose clockmaker father disappeared under the Stalin regime, was given a full-time job at the government-run Russian State Circus. His big break came in 1954 when he stepped in to replace the head clown, who had broken his arm.

The clown now lives on a farm about 30 kilometres from Nuremberg, Germany, where he and Gabriela, who became a circus performer after their wedding in 1991, raise horses, dogs, rabbits and white rats that are used in their shows.

Popov took over as head clown two years later, the same year he left Russian soil for the first time on a tour of Western Europe. It was the first-ever foreign tour by a Soviet circus, arranged by the Kremlin to bolster its image abroad.

“I was not allowed to leave the circus. We were watched permanently by KGB agents” tasked with preventing defections, he recounts in a rare serious moment.

Popov has since performed all around the world, including France, Australia, the United States, Japan, Israel and Cuba.

His current employer, the Great Russian State Circus, credits him with helping “bring about a rapprochement between East and West through the language of the heart”.

The clown now lives on a farm about 30 kilometres from Nuremberg, Germany, where he and Gabriela, who became a circus performer after their wedding in 1991, raise horses, dogs, rabbits and white rats that are used in their shows.

Popov tours each year for six months, offering more than 200 performances, mainly in Germany but also in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Oleg returned to Russia in 2015 for the first time after 28 years of self-imposed exile in Germany. There he attended the First “Master” gala event (the Russian circus equivalent of the Oscars ceremony) at the State Circus of Sochi, where he was greeted with a long standing ovation

“For the rest of the time I watch birds flying in the sky,” he says.

Ringmaster Thierry Dourain said Popov has never let his fame go to his head. “He does not assume any airs, not even when (Russian Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin phones him on his birthday.”

And quitting is out of the question.

“He thinks he will die in the circus, that one day God will call him from his dressing room or the ring,” said circus director Willem Smitt.

In the early 1990s, as the Soviet Union collapsed, he began touring for a few years with a unit of the Moscow Circus in Germany, where he eventually resettled. He has since performed extensively in Germany, in circus shows, on television, or with his own touring show. He married Gabriela Lehmann, a German circus performer, in 1991, she is 32 years his junior. In 2006 Popov was invited to perform at the 30th anniversary of the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo. Even though he was 75 years of age at the time, he still managed to inspire a standing ovation.

Oleg returned to Russia in 2015 for the first time after 28 years of self-imposed exile in Germany. There he attended the First “Master” gala event (the Russian circus equivalent of the Oscars ceremony) at the State Circus of Sochi, where he was greeted with a long-standing ovation. The Russian Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky, read a welcome message from President Vladimir Putin, which proved to be a very emotional moment for Oleg and for the Russian audience.

Related Articles

Putin Wins Russian Election Decisively

Presidential candidate Vladimir Putin has won 87.26 percent of the vote based on 60 percent of the ballots counted, the Russian Central Election Commission...

Iran and Russia Shift Away from SWIFT for Interbank Transactions

Iran and Russia have officially transitioned from the Western SWIFT financial clearing system to their own direct interbank transfer mechanism, as announced by Mohsen...

Russia and NASA Extend Joint ISS Spaceflights Until 2025

Russia's state space agency, Roscosmos, has announced an extension of its joint spaceflight program with NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) until 2025,...

Russia’s Oil and Fuel Exports to Europe Drop to 5%, China and India Emerge as Main Importers

According to Alexander Novak, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy, Russia anticipates that its oil and petroleum product exports to Europe will constitute a...

Serbia Issues Over 50,000 Work Permits to Foreigners in 2023

In 2023, a total of 50,397 work permits were issued to foreign nationals in Serbia, according to data from the Ministry of Labour and...

Finland to Close Several Border Crossings with Russia Amid Asylum Influx

Finland is set to close four of its nine border crossings with Russia in an effort to stem the influx of asylum seekers, Prime...

Russia Excluded from UN Human Rights Council Membership

The United Nations General Assembly, in its recent session, did not elect Russia to the Human Rights Council for the 2024-2026 term, as confirmed...

Belarus to Integrate its Energy System with Russia by Early 2024

Belarus is set to finalise documentation that will commence the integration of its energy infrastructure with Russia's, paving the way for a unified energy...