Joseph Grimaldi. Loud, Mad, Hysterical To Know.

Talk about yer tears of a clown? Read this very detailed and engaging biography of Joseph Grimaldi, the father of modern clowning, or at the very least the pioneer of so many aspects of what we take to be the trappings of clowndom, te white face, the baggy pants etc. He was also one o he earliest examples of cross over celebrity. A man not only entertained the common masses with his act performed many times over the course of a working day and night but he also entertained the hoi poloi in a previously unthinkable social aspect, humor being a great leveller even among pretentious notions such as class distinctions. This was an entertainer who could count as a friend and admirer Lord Byron himself. No small thing thing in any era, never mind one with the iron clad social restraints of the Regency Era. You generally stayed what you were born til the day you died.
           Joseph Grimaldi performed on stage from a very early age, driven there by the pushiest of show biz parents. Beginning as Little Clown when he made his debut on the stage of Drury Lane in 1780 he went on to pursue a hard working life performing his act to rapturous acclaim, beloved by generations. The wear and tear of such a life left him riddled with ill health by the time he reached old age. During his final performance he was unable to even stand in order to bid his many fans good bye, doing it from a supporting chair. A sad end to a tough career. If it could even have been said to end there as he had another few years of penury and poverty to endure. He would be carried on a friends back to the local tavern where he would talk and amuse drinkers for more of the same. In the age of Mothers Ruin, gin could be the closest thing to a safety net, if not a sanity net, one could get entangled in, while drinking to oblivion, escaping the now and the then through inebriation. Life was hard all round in those far off days but as always especially so for those at the bottom of the ladder.
              After his death it was non other than a young Charles Dickens who was first to assemble a biography of Thomas Grimaldi which to the author's surprise sold quite well. Dickens had seen the great clown perform when he was a boy( Dickens that is, not Grimaldi.) and had this to say; To those who never saw him, description is fruitless, to those who have, no praise comes up to their appreciation of him. We therefore shake our heads and say "Ah,you should have seen Grimaldi."
              Hmmm that Charles Dickens. He certainly knew how to string a few words together in something close to a linear fashion and imbue them with meaning.
              All clowning not withstanding this is a great biography.