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Johan Buziau

Vintage Dutch postcard, 1920s-1930s. R.E.B. (Roukes & Erhart, Baarn), Portrettengalerij No. 104. See from the series: www.flickr.com/photos/truusbobjantoo/3175874523/in/photol...

Johannes Franciscus Buziau aka Buziau (The Hague, 7 January 1877 - Rijswijk (Zuid-Holland), 3 February 1958) was a Dutch clownish comedian and revue artist.

Buziau was born into a family of musicians. When he was 6 years old, the family moved to Amsterdam and later to Antwerp. From an early age, he wanted to be a theatre performer, but found work as an ice-cream vendor in a theatre during the show's intermission. Wanting more, he joined Circus Renz in an act with water ballets, followed by a ladder act with a group of acrobats. Already at the age of seventeen, he became a full-time performer and toured with clownish numbers of which his creation Professor Rikiri became the most famous. With this act, he roamed theatres at home and abroad for nine years; it led to an international career. In 1914, he was asked by Henri ter Hall to perform in the revue Pas d'r op; this made him a revue artist instead of a variety artist. Because he now had a steady income, he was able to marry Geertruitje Hartemink and could also settle in Rijswijk. With the outbreak of World War I, he was forced to confine himself to the Netherlands, where from 1914 onwards, he became the crowd puller for Henri ter Hall's First Dutch Revue Company. The Ter Hall Revue was disbanded in 1928 because the Bouwmeester Revue was much more popular. Buziau joined Louis Bouwmeester jr. and from 1928 to 1942 he performed the same role for the Bouwmeester Revue. As a clown, Buziau was undisputedly the Netherlands' most popular comedian in the period between the two world wars. Film footage of the songs he did on stage was never shot, as he was afraid that the audience would otherwise stop coming to his theatre performances. His humour was based on his white painted face, perfect timing and dry remarks, without being banal or ambiguous. With his big eyes and big ears he had not a handsome but remarkable, clownesque face.

Yet, it is a myth that Buziau was never filmed, as has been claimed. His act of Professor Ri-Ki-Ri, in which he stacked a huge amount of chairs, tables and boxes on top of each other and climbed on top of them, was transformed into a film by Franz Anton Nöggerath jr., called A Helping Hand (1912). While the film had a plot device which explained why the 'professor' did his act (helping a poor, penniless violin player), the remaining print at the Eye Filmmuseum only contains Buziau's tour de force, ending with a close-up of his heavily made-up face. In the same year, Buziau also acted in the - lost - Nöggerath comedy Jopie gaat trouwen (Archibald gets married). In the UK, the character Jopie was called Archibald. In Germany and Austria the film was presented as Eine nasse Hochheitsreise (indeed the newlyweds fall into the water) and the character was called Viktor. Again in 1912, Buziau was in another Jopie comedy, this time set in the army called Attractive Archibald in the UK. In the late 1910s, Buziau returned to the screen for the comedies Er waren eens drie hoeden/ The Three Hats (Willy Mullens, Haghefilm 1918) and Op stap in Amsterdam/ On the spree through Amsterdam (Theo Frenkel Sr., 1919). Unfortunately, most of the films with Buziau are lost.

During World War II, performers often unwittingly became the assailants of resistance reactions by the audience. Allusions were expected from Buziau and the audience applauded gratefully for every ambiguous word. Famously, his quote became, "We used to have it good, but now we have it better.... 'Tis to be hoped we have it good again...". In another performance, Buziau walked on stage with a huge portrait, after which he said, "I was given a portrait by Uncle Herman, but now I don't know what to do with it. Hang it up or put it against the wall?" (a reference to the hated Luftwaffe leader Hermann Göring). In May 1942, Buziau, like many other popular Dutch performers, was detained by the German occupiers as a Todeskandidat in the hostage camp in Haaren. He was soon released again: a relation from The Hague had bribed officials. He never performed again after that time, because the events had affected him too deeply. Toon Hermans did create a furore with a Buziau impersonation from 1943 onwards. He would later become one of the big three of Dutch cabaret after 1945. Wim Sonneveld and Wim Kan, the other two of this trio, also revealed more than once that they regarded Buziau as one of their greatest examples.

Archive research revealed that Buziau was illiterate, could only write a few words and earned 5,000 guilders a week from his performances during the Depression.

Sources: Dutch Wikipedia, Geoffrey Donaldson, Of Joy and Sorrow.

Taken on: December 21, 2013

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Sets appears in: • Dutch postcards before 1930 • Dutch stage more » • Dutch Artists « less

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