Book of the Week
Monday, November 16, 2009 at 9:59PM I'm delighted to say that Grimaldi is going to be BBC Radio 4's "Book of the Week" beginning Monday, 7th December. From the press office:
This week's Book Of The Week presents Andrew McConnell Stott's fascinating account of the life of one of England's most famous clowns, Joseph Grimaldi.
Joseph Grimaldi was introduced to the stage at the age of two by his ballet-master father, a cruel disciplinarian. His unexpected death made Joseph the main breadwinner of the family, at the age of nine and, in spite of the dangers of life as a child on the stage, he worked his way up the theatrical rankings to become a superstar of Georgian pantomime.
An innovator, acrobat and comic genius, equally treasured by the fashionable set and the provincial public alike, his clowning brought national celebrity, enormous fees and a social circle that included Lord Byron.
Regardless of his fame, Grimaldi was a profound depressive, whose tragic life was marked by incapacitating bouts of insecurity and self-doubt. Poor business sense left him penniless. And, by his early forties, he was prematurely crippled by the leaps and pratfalls that had once so delighted his audience. Despite a successful benefit performance at Sadler's Wells to fund his retirement, Grimaldi ended his life as a depressive alcoholic in the slums of Islington.
Nevertheless, Grimaldi's legacy to popular culture is unique and lasting – the notion of the stereotypical sad clown, the funny man who, despite the laughter and adulation, cannot find happiness himself, is personified by many modern-day comedians.
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