Making People Laugh is My Honour

The most valuable thing for any artist is to truly reach their audience; to make them laugh or cry, and reflect upon or believe in what is happening onstage. Yuri Nikulin was this kind of artist. He was a beloved figure for the whole country, a circus artist, a director and film actor, a person with a great sense of humor and unique gift as a performer, and overall a generous soul.

Yuri Nikulin was born in the town of Demidov in Smolensk Region where his parents worked in the local drama theatre. In 1925, the family moves to Moscow. They lived in a communal apartment, had little money but a lot of fun — their modest home was full of songs and laughter. Nikulin’s father knew a lot of popular jokes and was a good storyteller, and he passed this gift on to his son. In young age, Yuri started writing down his most favorite jokes in a notebook and kept doing so throughout his life. 

In 1939, he was drafted and served near Leningrad. He was still in the army when the Great Patriotic War broke out in June 1941. That autumn the Siege of Leningrad began and lasted for long 872 days, and Private Nikulin went on to serve almost seven years. When recalling that period, Yuri Nikulin said that humor was something that kept him going amid all hardships of the war and the siege. “You can do a lot of good when you are in a good mood. The same goes for wartime. When laughing, we forgot about the death that we faced every hour, life became easier, we were filled with optimism and faith,” he said. 

A certified Clown

Senior Sergeant Nikulin returned to Moscow only in 1946, and he immediately faced with an issue of choosing a “peaceful” occupation. With a lot of acting experience at school and amateur performances at the front, Yuri applied to Moscow’s leading theatrical universities, but failed to get into even one of them on wording that he lacked acting ability. His luch awaited him at the State Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard which was hiring actors for the clown studio, and in 1948, a new certified clown entered the circus arena. 

A first, Yuri Nikulin was an assistant to the nationally acclaimed clown Mikhail Rumyantsev who worked under the stage name Karandash. Then he joined a clown group of the State Circus as part of a tandem with Mikhail Shuydin who remained Nikulin’s partner for 30 years. Tatyana, Yuri Nikulin’s wife, also took part in some performances of the duo. Since the end of the 1950-s, Nikulin and Shuydin were performing as the so-called “carpet clowns” — it means that they entered the circus arena in pauses between acts throughout the whole performance. Over the long years that Nikulin and Shuydin worked together at the circus, they came up with a huge number of funny clown shows, interludes and gags, developed new genres — lyrical, philosophical and moving ones, and started doing tricks that were new at that time, such as using phonograms, imaginary and abstract objects. It was all for the sake of the audience, who eagerly waited for the legendary duo to enter the arena. 

“Yes, I am a clown. I love my profession and I have never had any doubts about whether circus is art or not. I feel joy when I hear the audience laughing. I feel joy when I see children and adults smiling. I feel joy when I hear the applause after our gags. I firmly believe that laughter is good for your health and it helps you live a longer life.”

Film roles and fame

Yuri Nikulin’s first appearance in film happened in 1958 — it was a small cameo in a movie A Girl with Guitar directed by Alexander Feinzimmer. And two years later, the actor became member of the famous trio consisting of The Coward, The Fool and The Pro — they appeared in short films directed by Leonid Gaidai Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross and Bootleggers. These roles in comedy have brought Nikulin nationwide recognition and love, but such fame did not affect his work in the circus — Yuri Nikulin considered it his main occupation.

In 1961, a film When the Trees Were Tall by Lev Kulidzhanov hit the screens, and the Soviet audience saw a completely different Nikulin in his first non-comic role. However, he later appeared in two more movies as part of the famous comic trio: Operation Y and Shurik’s Other Adventures and Kidnapping, Caucasian Style. In 1968, he got a major role in athe comedy The Diamond Arm which was also directed by Leonid Gaidai and remains everyone’s favorite up to this day.

In 1974, Yuri Nikulin was cast for a role of an elderly soldier in the film by Sergei Bondarchuk They Fought for Their Country in which he put on a military uniform for the first time after the war. A year later, he played a frontline journalist in the film Twenty Days Without War directed by Aleksey German. Over his career, Nikulin starred in more than 40 films and proved to be a talented actor who can play different characters. Comic roles reflected his work in the circus arena, and dramatic roles were a reflection of Nikulin’s life itself.

The real Man

In 1981, Nikulin and Shuydin duo entered the circus arena for the last time. Shortly after, Yuri Nikulin became the chief director, and then head of the circus to which he devoted his life. Under Nikulin’s leadership, the new circus building was constructed instead of the old wooden one. As art director, Yuri Nikulin presented many interesting programmes and helped a great number of artists and veterans of the circus. 

In 1979, Nikulin published an autobiographical book titled Almost Seriously… which stood numerous editions. It is a collection of short stories and reminiscences, both funny and tragic, but always very sincere and touching. Yuri Nikulin has many titles and awards, among which he valued most medals for combat service “For Valour”, “For The Defence of Leningrad”, “For the Victory Over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945” as well as the medal “For Kindness and Mercy” made by circus veterans from their personal silver items. Yuri Nikulin passed away in 1997, and until his last days he inspired people around him with optimism. “Living joyfully, generously giving joy to others. Maybe that is the happiness of life?”. And we agree with him every time we see our favourite movie character give us a fervent wink from the TV screen, as if saying — “Life is complicated, but beautiful”!

Darya Serzhenko
Photos courtesy of the archive of the Regional Public Charitable Foundation for the artists of the Circus and Mercy circus