Video: Why Yuri Nikulin rushed with an ax to his teacher, the legendary clown Pencil
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
December 10 marks the 119th anniversary of the birth of the legend of the circus arena, People's Artist of the USSR Mikhail Rumyantsev, whom everyone knew as the clown Karandash performing with the dog Klyaksa. He was called one of the most highly qualified professionals, his participation in the program provided sold out throughout the USSR, his students were famous circus artists. But none of them could work with the teacher for a long time - they could not stand his tough temper. The most famous student of Pencil - Yuri Nikulin - once even chased him with an ax in his hands …
Mikhail Rumyantsev achieved everything in his life himself. His grandfather was a serf peasant, his father, in his youth, left for St. Petersburg in search of work and stayed there, getting a job as a mechanic at a factory. When Mikhail was only 6 years old, his mother was gone. In 1917, at the age of 16, he, together with his father, participated in the uprising at the factory, and after the revolution he wandered around different cities for a long time in search of a better fate. He started out as a poster artist in theater and cinema. And the decision to become an artist came to him after one day he saw a few steps away from foreign film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks - in 1926 they arrived in Moscow, and in the crowd at the cinema Rumyantsev was next to them. He took this as a sign of fate.
In the same year, 25-year-old Rumyantsev entered courses in stage movement and acrobatics, thanks to which a year later he was taken to the School of Circus Art, in the class of eccentric acrobats. At first, the teachers did not pin great hopes on him. They said about him: "Not particularly gifted, weak, extremely small in stature." Rumyantsev himself was worried about his external data - his height was only 142 cm, he was embarrassed to speak in front of the public and felt very constrained due to self-doubt. But he had one quality that allowed him to soon turn all his shortcomings into advantages and become one of the most popular circus performers - Mikhail was incredibly able-bodied and demanding of himself. He could spend hours rehearsing reprise alone with himself, honing his skills and finding the right intonations.
At first, he was a carpet clown - his task was to fill in the technical gaps between numbers. Rumyantsev tried to move away from stereotypes and quickly abandoned the traditional image of Red Vasya, and then the image of Charlie Chaplin. In 1934 he found his character, which made him recognizable throughout the USSR. Once he saw caricatures of circus artists, signed in the French manner - Karan D'Ash, and decided to perform under this name. And his partner was a black scotch terrier named Klyaksa. This was the name of all the dogs that subsequently performed with the Pencil. In this image, Rumyantsev was so fond of the audience that the performances with his participation were always sold out, not only in the USSR, but also abroad - Pencil became the first Soviet clown to gain worldwide popularity.
During the war, Pencil assembled an artistic brigade and acted with it at the front. During this period, he mastered the genre of sharp political satire, ridiculing the Nazis: for example, Blot was brought to the podium, a microphone was put in front of her, and she barked for several minutes. And after that, Pencil appeared and said: "The speech of the Minister of Propaganda Goebbels is over!"
After the war, Mikhail Rumyantsev often headed clown groups. Among his students and partners in the arena were Yuri Nikulin and Mikhail Shuydin. As a teacher, he was incredibly strict and exacting - making high demands first of all on himself, he expected the same attitude to the profession and from others. Delays in rehearsals were unacceptable, it was not in his rules to cancel performances even for serious reasons. Once, on tour in Siberia, they performed in a room in which the roof collapsed, and the snow fell directly on the arena. Despite this, Pencil entered the arena.
The students considered Rumyantsev a great clown and respected him very much, but at the same time they believed that he had an unbearably difficult character. He was often unfair and intolerant towards them, did not perceive them as equal partners, and they often left him with a scandal. During his first independent performance, Yuri Nikulin asked the teacher to play along with him in the number, and he not only refused, but also made sure that this number was removed from the program. Nikulin did not argue - it seemed to him himself that this reprise was not brilliant. Nikulin's partner Boris Romanov left Rumyantsev after he told him that he was a bad artist and he could replace him with anyone at any time.
Nikulin said: "".
Nikulin's wife Tatiana recalled how one day the artist's patience burst: "".
Mikhail Shuydin will forever remember the day when a frightened colleague burst into his dressing room and said that Nikulin rushed with an ax at Rumyantsev. Shuydin looked out the window and saw Pencil running in the backyard of the circus, and Nikulin rushing after him with an ax in his hands. Later, he admitted that he did not remember anything - as if a veil had covered his eyes. Neither before nor after that did any of his acquaintances see him in such a state - he never participated in conflicts and was very peaceful. At the same time, later Nikulin always spoke of his teacher with respect, admitting that this cooperation gave him tremendous experience.
For all the contradictory nature of his nature, Mikhail Rumyantsev could stand up for his students. Once on a tour in Vladivostok, Karandash was greeted like a real star, and he was accommodated in a hotel suite. And his students, who arrived by transport plane with the donkey Yasha, were assigned seats in a room in the stable, near the dressing rooms. Pencil considered this a personal insult, made a scandal and in protest stayed overnight in the dressing room with assistants.
No matter what they said about him, everyone recognized one thing: Mikhail Rumyantsev was a genius in the art of clowning and a man incredibly devoted to his work. When, in his declining years, he heard the question of whether he was satisfied with his fate in the arena, the legendary Pencil replied: "".
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