Slava Polunin

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Slava Polunin in Snowshow

Vyacheslav Ivanovich (Slava) Polunin (Russian: Вячеслав Иванович (Слава) Полунин; born June 12, 1950) is a Russian clown, creator of the "Asisyay-review", "Snowshow" and "Diabolo" shows.

Polunin was born in the town of Novosil, Oryol Oblast, Russia into the family of a shop-assistant. He was successful in his school theatre, imitating Charles Chaplin, but was refused entry to the Leningrad Theater Institute because of poor pronunciation. After a few years' study at an engineering school, he graduated from the Leningrad Institute for Soviet Culture, where he later taught.

In 1968, he started a semi-professional pantomime named Litsedeyi (Russian for mummers or literally people who make faces). In 1981, his first very successful performance on TV took place in the New Year Eve program Novogodnij Ogonyok (Новогодний Огонёк). It was a part of his now famous Asisyay-reviw. In 1982, in Leningrad he organized a Mime parade in which more than 800 mime artists from all parts of the Soviet Union took part. It was an unheard of event featuring semi-underground artists at a time of strict Communist control of all artistic events. In 1985, during the Moscow World Festival of Youth and Students he organized a master-class of pantomime attended by many Western mimes. In 1987, Polunin organized the USSR Festival of Street Theatres (Всесоюзный Фестиваль Уличных Театров): more than 200 participants including critics and children lived on an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Finland, and made short excursions by boat to the nearby city of Leningrad.

In 1988, Polunin's theater Litsedeyi had created five highly successful shows: Dreamers (Фантазёры), Eccentrics (Чурдаки), From the life of Insects, Asisyay-review and The Catastrophe. They decided to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the theater with its funeral. The events included funeral speeches over multiple coffins labelled with the names of the participants, followed by a funeral procession with the coffins through the streets of Leningrad. Then the coffins were set aflame, and floated down the Neva river. Despite the theatrical style of the performance, it was indeed the end of the theater. The participants believed Konstantin Stanislavski who stated that any theater dies after it has existed for twenty years.

From the Snowshow performance of Slava Polunin

In 1989, Polunin organized The Caravan of Peace, where mimes from different parts of the world were on the road for half a year giving street performances in many European cities. Later, he started the Academy of Fools, the center devoted to the "resurrection of the carnival culture in Russia".The project was started with Polunin's own money, but when the money was spent, the project was frozen. In 1994, Polunin declared that he would make a few commercially successful shows on the West and then would return to continue the work of the Academy with the money earned. Among the shows he organized were the highly successful Snowshow (Снежное шоу) and Diabolo devoted to comical meditation on life, death, and the beauty of the universe.

Enthusiasts call Polunin "the best clown in the world". He has earned many prestigious awards including Gold Angle (Scotland), Gold Nose (Spain), Triumph (Russia)