SPECIAL EVENTS

 His wife Cristi has just told me the terrible news... 

Jango Edwards is dead! 

Not dying of laughter, like the rest of us at his shows or seeing him shout at passers-by who recognized him in the street (and whose cheek he never failed to lick) but just dead... 

We can't believe it even if we dreaded receiving this kind of call. We knew Jango was sick, very sick. But always so full of life and energy that we forgot that there could be a fatal outcome.

Jango Edwards was this clown like no other, this preacher of the church of laughter and derision who had notably made the best hours of Canal + in France and so many places around the World. 

Jango used to introduce me by saying: “…he’s my producer and my friend!”. 

Words always touching and so rare from artists who are legion to advocate decorum but are rarely sincere.

Jango was a ball of energy. An artist of full and complete sincerity who often said:

"I wake up clown, I eat clown, I fuck clown, I sleep clown"... 

Last April, on his last birthday, we had the chance to live with him in Barcelona. I whispered in his ear that he should not be afraid to die because he was immortal! I really think he is immortal because those who saw him on stage, those who participated in his masterclasses, the strangers on the street who came to ask him for an autograph or a selfie, viewers from France, Germany , from Austria, from Russia or from Spain or from all the corners of the planet he has visited. All of these will never forget this man who had dedicated his life to making ordinary mortals laugh.

Jango Edwards was not just this preacher of laughter, spreading his gospel across continents like a missionary serving the gods of humor and frenzy. This clown (and the term has always seemed too reductive to me concerning him) transcended the boundaries of laughter. 

He was the embodiment of art: "Jango Edwards" was the artistic performance embodied by Stanley Edwards, this young American from Detroit who had decided, in his soul and conscience, to devote his life to art and laughter. 

Jango was therefore not just a simple clown who knew (better than anyone in the world) how to crash beer cans on his head or sprinkle his audience with eggs and party accessories. He was one of the most generous artists of his generation (Slava Polunin, the Russian star of the Slava Snow Show told me one day that he ranked Jango in the pantheon of comedians alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton), a artist who has devoted his entire career to the well-being of men and women, of all his spectators (whether in the street or in a theater). This public who does not know that he has also coached many artists like Marianne James in France for her famous Ultima Recital, Nina Hagen in Germany, Iggy Pop and many others. That stars like Mike Jagger of the Rolling Stones or Bono of U2 flocked to his shows. 

To err, like laughter, is human. Jango will have made all the mistakes a man can make... All the excesses too... On and off the boards... For him, life was a stage! 

Jango said that laughter is a weapon of mass construction! 

He was the general-in-chief of this army of madmen who roamed the world from Amsterdam to Barcelona, from Moscow to Vienna, from Milan to London.

Jango had no good manners (during a meal, he could poke your plate at any time or invite himself to the next table to loosen overly serious table neighbors). But he had to "know how to laugh". Laughter was therapy for the wounded child he had been. Instead of victimizing himself, he had decided to laugh about it. 

Before greeting the spectators at the exit of the theaters in which he was performing... Jango spoke "seriously" for a few minutes... The time to explain to them that life is short and that you must never forget to wear on this mouth, there , right under your nose, a broad smile… A smile at life, a smile at man. The smile which is the weapon of the wise as the philosopher said. And since laughter is immortal, since laughter sweetens tears, let's not forget that our teeth are not there just to eat or bite. Let's keep smiling. To laugh is to live and to deprive yourself of it is a bit to die... Let's never forget the life lessons of Jango Edwards, let's never forget this man, this artist, this unforgettable friend: 

Smile!!! 

Thierry WOLF