Oleg Popov: "The audience persuaded me"

In St. Petersburg at the opening after the restoration of the Circus Ciniselli, Oleg Popov performed - the famous "Sunny Clown"

After a long absence, Oleg Popov arrived in St. Petersburg, December 15, 2015

Incredibly popular and successful in Soviet times, Oleg Popov in 1991 went on long tour in Germany. Of which he no longer returned to Russia.

You only for the second time in the last quarter of a century in Russia - in the summer came to Sochi. Why didn’t they come before?

There were contracts all the time, work is the main thing for me.

Where are you working now?

I work, as they say, at home - I was busy with 11 months a year, contracts for the whole season, now less, I speak, where I myself like it.

Bicycle and partners

Do you mainly perform in front of children?

No, in ordinary circuses, there is a different audience, most often these are circuses-chapito, in Germany there are a lot of them.

Are you still riding a bicycle? Previously, you were great in the arena in the arena!

Well, if you switch to three -wheeled, then I still ride very well! ..

Are you one or with partners?

There is a partner, a young clown Volodya, he is from Ukraine. In some reprisals, my wife Gaby performs with me, we met her in the circus. There are partner animals-they accompany me almost all the time. Mstislav Zapashny, with whom we are still friends, even on my 70th anniversary gave me a puppy-black, shaggy. We called him a stranger, he was with me for many years. Now I have a little dog, I called her a miracle, she also performs with me.

How did Vadim Gagloev, the director of the Russian Federation, have you managed to persuade you to come to Petersburg? As far as I know, Polunin traveled to you, persuaded, and he didn’t succeed ...

I myself have long wanted to meet with the St. Petersburg circus, with the audience. Especially when I learned about the restoration of the old circus building on Fontanka. But first I arrived in the summer of this year, I was several days in Moscow, then I went to Sochi, I spoke there. And, you know, the audience persuaded me - when, after my performance, two thousand spectators stood up, applauded and asked to speak more, I flinked. Then I thought: since they welcome me like that, they remember - you can work. The program in the Fontanka circus, which was prepared for the opening of the building and in which I also performed - just wonderful, rarely managed to see such programs in Europe. And they accepted me in St. Petersburg too remarkable. So I wanted my own name and knowledge to help the circus recover.

“When, after my performance, two thousand spectators stood up, applauded and asked to perform more, I trembled: since they greet me like that, remember - you can work”

Human plans

Vyacheslav Polunin has already said that in February you will have a whole program in the Fontanka circus - what is it about?

I will not say, this is a secret, nothing can be said to the premiere! But I already saw the prepared poster, I really liked it, it turned out beautiful.

At least in general words - what will the program be about?

I can only briefly say - let the sun always be! The program will be sunny! Now we are just discussing the script, details, tours - how they will be built, what interesting can be included in them. So far, we plan that they will last two or three months.

A performance dedicated to the opening of the restored old building of the Circus Circuli on Fontanka in St. Petersburg, December 15, 2015

Will you come to each performance?

No, then I will settle here, in St. Petersburg, for the duration of the tour.

Did you learn German at least a little?

Unless quite a bit, but I won’t die with hunger - I will agree! But my Gaby learned Russian, she says perfectly, it helps me very much.

So you have all circus reprisals without words?

I try to do without words - in the circus I must not speak, but show. I know individual words, sometimes I use, but words in the circus are not the main thing. Often completely different problems arise. So I once in Germany invented a circus program under the name "Carousel". The idea is simple: a carousel is spinning in the arena, there are both toy horses and living horses. Different artists go to them, the carousel stops from time to time, the artists take turns going from horses to the arena and show their numbers. And a fun song was needed for this program. I ordered music to a young musician who was recommended to me. He quickly wrote a melody - but it was not circus music at all! A regular modern set of rhythms is a boom-boom boom. In the circus, you need to understand in order to create for him! What to do? I thought, thought, drank a glass of vodka-sat down and wrote myself. A good song turned out, by the way.

Let yourself drink?

Of course, a glass of vodka, sometimes, in moderation - must!

“ *I thought, thought, drank a glass of vodka-sat down and wrote myself. A good song turned out, by the way *"

Nuremberg Bazaar

You are also called a sunny clown in Russia, and in Germany - happy Hans, Hans IM Glück. Do you agree with this name?

Of course I am a happy person! I have my favorite job, my beloved people nearby, a wonderful house - in the village near Nuremberg. How good it is to live in the forest! In silence, without a crowd of people - listen to the noise of trees, walk. Bavaria is very beautiful, there are such wonderful landscapes - if I were an artist, I would constantly draw them!

Do you get out in Nuremberg? Or and sit in the village in your village?

Of course I go, I am in the city two times a week. I especially like to walk around the bazaars - I call them "folk museums." What doesn’t happen there! By the way, I meet many Russians in these bazaars - they will recognize me, we talk, they tell about themselves.

Go to bazaars to talk in Russian?

Not only. I buy all sorts of necessary things there, I master them with my own hands with my circus props - I do it all myself. I am also looking for clowns figures for my collection - I collect clowns, of various materials. I have already got a hundred pieces - ancient and not very, small, more.

Does the German viewer differ from Russian? In your reprisals, the Germans laugh in the same places as the Russians?

The Germans laugh just like our viewers, the same jokes, if they are really funny. In general, the Germans love the circus, their sense of humor is good and they understand the circus - there are almost a hundred circuses in Germany, including Shapito. So the viewer there is very good.

“ *The Germans laugh the same as our viewers, the same jokes, if they are really funny *”

You left the country in difficult years, when our city was desolate, you have not been in Russia for a long time in St. Petersburg. Did you manage to see the city at least a little? Can you compare with what happened then?

I saw a little, but Petersburg impressed me - a very beautiful city! I am generally a happy person: in such a wonderful city to be on the opening day of the building of the very first Russian circus, and even participate in the performance - what could be better? And the times are all sorts - difficult, even unbearably heavy. I left Russia when the artists did not even pay a bloody salary when people survived as they could. Now times are changing, but they still have found the opportunity to restore the old circus Chiniselli. I want to say thanks to everyone who paid attention to the circus, who helped restore it. And I am happy that I lived before this day.

Are you going to return to Russia at all?

Honey, how old is it left to live?! But no matter what happens further, in homeland and die is happiness.

Photo: Natalia Skek