Joseph Grimaldi

On his death, the concern became very much embarrassed, and struggled for several years with a load of debt.

Hughes was succeeded as manager by Grimaldi, a Portuguese, the grandfather of the famous clown whom some of us remember at Covent Garden, and in Grimaldi, in 1780, by Delpini, an Italian bufo singer, under whose management the novel spectacle of a stag hunt was introduced in the arena.

Saddler's Wells continued to give the usual entertainment, the advertisements of 1780 announcing a great variety of singing, dancing, tumbling, posturing, rope dancing, etc., by the usual very capital performers and others, more particularly tumbling by Rayner, Tully, Huntley, Garman, and Granger, pleasing and surprising feats of strength and agility by Richard and Baptiste and their pupils, and tightrope dancing by Richard, Baptiste, and Signora Mariana, varied during a portion of the season by the last-named artiste's new and extraordinary performance on the slack wire, particularly a curious display of two flags and a pleasing trick with a hoop and three glasses of wine.

Astley soon became a popular place of amusement for all classes.

The programme was chiefly musical and concluded with a pantomime in which Rayner, the acrobat from Sadler's Wells, sustained the part of Harlequin.

At the latter place of amusement, charges ranging from a shilling to three shillings and sixpence were now made for admission, and the performances, other than music and dancing, consisted of posturing by a boy called the Infant Hercules and tightrope dancing by Madame Romaine, another female artist known as La Belle Espagnole, and two lads, one of whom was a son of Richard, the other known as the Little Devil.

Grimaldi II, son of the manager of the Royal Circus and father of the famous Joey Grimaldi, was clown at this establishment for many years, commencing, it is said, at the munificent salary of three shillings per week, which was gradually raised until, in 1794, we find him receiving four pounds per week.

I cannot better conclude this chapter than with the following strictures upon the places of amusement to which it chiefly relates, culled from a newspaper of 1788.

He looked more like a lubberly boy who had been caught eating jam.

With the ascendancy of Joe Grimaldi, the clown took precedence over Harlequin and has had it ever since.

But it was due to Joe's great genius.

He was called the Garrick of Clowns.

On his death, the concern became very much embarrassed and struggled for several years with a load of debt.

Hughes was succeeded as manager by Grimaldi, a Portuguese, the grandfather of the famous clown whom some of us remember at Covent Garden.

And in Grimaldi, in seventeen eighty, by Delpini, an Italian buffo singer, under whose management the novel spectacle of a stag hunt was introduced in the arena.

Sadler's Wells continued to give the usual entertainment.

The advertisements of seventeen eighty announcing a great variety of singing, dancing, tumbling, posturing, rope dancing, et cetera, by the usual very capital performers and others.

The programme was chiefly musical and concluded with a pantomime in which Rayner, the acrobat from Sadler's Wells, sustained the part of Harlequin.

At the latter place of amusement, charges ranging from a shilling to three shillings and sixpence were now made for admission, and the performances, other than music and dancing, consisted of posturing by a boy called the Infant Hercules and tightrope dancing by Madame Romaine, another female artist known as La Belle Espagnole, and two lads, one of whom was a son of Richard, the other known as the Little Devil.

Grimaldi II, son of the manager of the Royal Circus and father of the famous Joey Grimaldi, was clown at this establishment for many years, commencing, it is said, at the munificent salary of three shillings per week, which was gradually raised until, in 1794, we find him receiving four pounds per week.

So they knew India really well, and they would've seen this a lot.

They would've seen this image a lot, okay? And they basically dressed an actor called Joseph Grimaldi in this costume and made it look like this.

So they brought this image to the West and put it on the stage, and all clowns from then on copied that look, 'cause it was brand new.

No one had ever seen anything like this before.

Uh, so if you type in Joseph Grimaldi, um, you'll see straight away what I'm talking about.

Yeah, Joseph, uh, just Grimaldi as it sounds.

G-R-I, Grim, A-L-D- uh, yeah.

Joseph Grimaldi.

But they've been telling you for ages.

Like another thing I uncovered along the way was, well, first of all, the costume of a clown, which has been popularized by Joseph Grimaldi.

He was the first actor to wear the costume, which was created by Freemasons and given to him by a Freemason.

But, you know, he wore the costume, which became the industry standard going forward into the future to today.

So Azuras are too, but they're the good ones.

And then there's the Devas, which basically also the same thing they're all the offspring of the rishi sages which are the fallen angels so they just all had they're all cousins and took human wives and mixed and all sorts of things if you look into the stories but the rakshasas were were demons and they have the exact visage which is on the front cover of the book that's what all their mouths looked like but this is where the costume of a clown was taken from the indian representations of these creatures It's a carbon copy.

Literally, they just stole it and dressed Joseph Grimaldi in a raucous costume.

Anyway, there's a 2002 episode of Supernatural.