Larible the great: " For a clown flops are more useful than triumphs ".
David Larible - guest of honor at the " International Festival of the contemporary circus" at the Brescia Social Theatre - doesn't want to hear people repeating that he is the best clown in the world. And he quotes one of his models, clown Charlie Rivel, who answered journalists: " It doesn't matter whether I'm the best or the worse one. It's important that I know that there will be someone else after me".
It is hard to find a phrase that synthetizes better the sense of theatre, ephemeral art by definition, than consumes itself in the wait of a moment of beauty, in eternal balance between tradition and renewal. It's hard to find a more representative personality nowadays.

Granted the Silver Clown trophy in 1989 and the Golden Clown two years later at the Montecarlo Circus Festival, Larible, at 44, represents nearly all the characteristics of the circus. Take for instance his family tradition: " We've been in the circus - he says - for seven generations. My father was a trapezist and a juggler, the first Italian to be invited in America at the Ed Sullivan Show. My mother is a Casartelli, of the Medrano dynasty".
He presents himself at the mythical American " Ringling, Barnum and Bayley " circus, where he is the main attraction, and at the New Circus festivals like the one in Brescia.
" In the circus art- Larible says - school and experience melt. I have had the example and the guidance of my father. I dreammed to be a clown, and he kept repeating me to practice as an acrobat and a musician as well, because being a clown is a point of arrival and departure; you can't make it if you don't know how "to hold" your audience." He had a strict apprenticeship: before becoming a clown Larible has been a juggler, an acrobat, a trapezist, a dancer.
" Then - he smiles - I was a little fussy. But that preparation has proved most precious to me later."
It is easy to speak about success now, but the beginnings haven't been easy: " In Switzerland, at my debuts, a critic destroyed me. I felt very bad about it, but then I understood that this was his own opinion, and I had to respect it. ". Then came success and triumph, tributed to me by the sophisticated and demanding audience of Montecarlo:" When I won the Golden Clown trophy I had a five minutes standing ovation. No one before ever had it. When I think about it, I still have the shivers.

The balance is more than active, isn't it? " Yes, but I must admit that failures are more usefull than triumphs. Failures mould you and they force you to give ever more ". That practically means much training. In Brescia I'll have two shows a day. The prespective of working in a tradition theater like Brescia's is a great emotion even to an established clown like myself. " it appeals to go through this test. The tension before stepping into the stage keeps you alive. In the theatre you must face new problems, like the frontal vision of the stage instead of the circular ring of the circus ".
But then it isn't so strange: " Clownery is a form born from the Commedia dell'Arte, even if in the last century it's been identified mainly with the circus ".
Now things are changing; the vanguard theatre has raised the clown to a model: a live actor, free from routine, who doesn't act, he just is.
" It's the same reason - Larible comments - why children love us. The clown is an anarchist, he doesn't follow any rules. He masters the techniques, sure, but beauty comes from something else: the tie with the public, the timing, an almost musical "ear": you can refine, not learn ".
Many young people aspire to become a clown: " Somed are really good, but often they're mislaid by the movie business and tv, where they pay more. The problem is not success, it is to do what you're prone to." It is a moment of generational turnover, for all the circus: "That's why I watch with interest the New Circus. The important thing is to have professionalism. I love the traditional for its magic, and the new one for its freshness. Both have defects: the old circus is kinf of closed, the new one risks to be looking to much for the effect . But without experiments you can't go ahead ".