An actress of the circus, cinema, theater and television, she was remembered by all Soviet children and adults as a cheerful and mischievous clowness with a delicious pseudonym Toffee. Her name was Irina Asmus. Born before the start of World War II, the girl did not choose to save lives after difficult years, but retained the fuse to bring people joy and give smiles. But in reality, the famous artist all ended very tragically. In Gomel, during an actress, the actress dies in front of a crowded circus hall.
Choice of profession
Since childhood, the girl wanted to get used to the role, but could not decide on the choice of the viewer, or rather, the scene. She was close to the circus, cinema, theater. Irina Asmus initially planned to enter a choreographic school and even passed exams there. But the small growth of a talented girl became an obstacle in this endeavor.
That time had its own characteristics. In the mid-50s, the Soviet circus was very popular. And the artistic Irina, who dreamed of a big stage, conquered the other admissions committee by singing and dancing. This sensation became a ticket to the ranks of students of the State School of Circus and Pop Art.
In 1958, the fairy tale film “The New Adventures of Puss in Boots” was released on television, where Irina Asmus, actress, is on the list of actors. This was the beginning of her filmography.
First arena
At the end of the school, the girl began to work in the circus. As her friends say, she was talented and fearless. I could jump on a skipping rope, spinning under a circus dome, go through the wire and even courageously get behind the wheel of a motorcycle. Becoming a circus artist, she preferred performances in the genre of juggling.
In general, all numbers performed by artists in the arena are dangerous. Even seemingly amusing and harmless monkeys pose a threat to humans, because they are animals. That is, risk is everywhere.
And here Irina has a complicated number that requires balancing and attention. At one of the trainings, she gets injured, as it later turns out, it was a sign of fate, warning that she should not work under the dome. The conclusion of the doctors is the need to abandon subsequent appearances.
Leningrad Theater
At this point, the reader will think: “Oh, theater. Perhaps Irina is the grandmother of the famous contemporary movie international? She also played in the theater, transferred genes to Christine, so to speak. ” However, no, Asmus Irina Pavlovna and Kristina Asmus are two talented people who are not connected by family ties.
But this is not about this, but about how fate brought Irina to the theater. After having to part with circus art, the girl does not leave the thought of the stage, and she enters the studio of the theater for a young spectator in Leningrad. External data determined her role. She began to play the role of adolescents and youths. It soon became clear that the student can master not only the travesty genre, but also get along pretty well in tragic and comedic roles.
Moving to the Komissarzhevskaya theater, Irina received roles from such works as Cinderella, The Prince and the Pauper, Romeo and Juliet. Leningrad newspapers begin to praise Asmus's talent, assigning her the status of a leading actress.
And again the circus
They say that if you work at least once in a circus, then you don’t want to leave it. So Irina Asmus always tried to be close to the arena. Working in the theater during the New Year holidays and children's events, Irina combined two works. She asked for leave from the theater and with pleasure participated in circus performances on the Fontanka.
Dunno, Old Woman Shapoklyak, Volka from "The Old Man Hottabych" - these are characters of New Year's performances in which Irina Asmus got used to. The children then did not yet know that in a couple of years she would become their favorite TV clown.
Playing in the theater and running to work in the circus, she did not stop thinking about the arena. The arena beckoned her, and the girl made a fateful decision - to return to the circus on an ongoing basis, leaving her work in the theater.
Nickname
Now, reading the biography of the famous actress-clowness, you can meet her sweet fictitious nickname "Toffee". It was attached to her upon returning to the circus. Alexander Volodin, playwright and companion of Irina’s theater, seeing her again in the circus, asked: “Toffee, what are you doing here?”
Just by pseudonym, you can compare two talented namesakes. The fact is that Irina Asmus and Kristina Asmus both have fictitious surnames. The modern TV international has a real surname - Myasnikov.
Circus children respectfully addressed a colleague, calling her Iriska Pavlovna - politely and affectionately at the same time.
“Here is a table for you, but a bench ...”
With such words, the favorite transfer of Soviet children began. The meaning of the television program was to teach girls and boys the alphabet. A plot was made for each letter that the children studied with clowns. The first group of students consisted of theater-goers, and the second, which included Levushkin, Shamshadinov, Dovgan and Asmus, consisted of circus actors.
The image of the clown Toffee was similar to Peppy Longstocking: red hair, two braids sticking out funny in different directions, a boy's cap, jumpsuit and freckles. The leaders of the transfer were Klepa with Toffee. Thanks to the idea of teaching the clowns the alphabet and the wonderful play of the actors, ABVGDeyka won all-Union popularity. The fame of the leading overshadowed even famous artists. So at the age of 37, Irina received popular love.
Irina Asmus is hardly familiar to modern kids, but at that time every Soviet family knew the clown Toffee. Now her surname only arouses associations with the actress playing in Varna's Interns, and many ask the question: “Irina Asmus and Kristina Asmus are relatives?”
At the same time as working in a television program, students continued to work in the circus. It used to be that the actors barely had time to remove the clown makeup, as they again had to run to the next shoot. In this mode, the artists worked for 8 years, until in 1986 they approved the new composition of the program participants.
Children husband
There is very little information about Irina’s personal life. It is known that she was married three times. The first spouse is actor Alexander Khochinsky, known for the film Bumbarash. The second husband is the arena inspector, and the third, Mikhail Sychev, is a circus performer.
Irina has a son - Andrei Asmus. Currently works as an operator at special events and lives in St. Petersburg. His middle name is Mikhailovich, but Mikhail Sychev, in an interview, said that he was not his father. It is known that when his son was 19 years old, he served in Gomel. Probably, the desire to see the child led the actress to the Belarusian circus, where a tragic incident occurred.
The image in the circus
There are practically no female clowns in the world. Because the profession requires you to create situations in which people would be laughed at. It is a difficult job to be funny and not a self-pitying clown. Irina Asmus knew how to amuse the audience without humiliating herself. This was a high sense of humor and irony.
She didn’t tear her clothes in the arena, didn’t smear her face and did not tumble, as the profession provided, but in her rooms there were circus elements with humor. Her image remained the same as in the show "ABVGDeyka." Everyone understood that this was a clown woman in pants.
Reprise invented myself. And, of course, they were feminine in nature. There was a room where she went into the arena in the form of an elegant girl, danced and gradually loaded herself with packages, bags, and with each additional baggage her appearance began to deteriorate, her dress was torn, etc. The moral of the reprise was to ridicule the routine of Soviet women who they went home from work, carrying a bunch of bags, and thereby lost their fragile, delicate image.
Clowness Irina Asmus was herself and at the same time each of the spectators sitting in the hall. Therefore, there was a public love for Toffee. By the way, the audience, coming to concerts with her participation, threw sweets and flowers into the arena.
Last tour
Irina did not stop at the clowning, she still wanted to fly over the circus dome. In the girl’s repertoire appears a number with elements of balancing act - “Dance on a lampshade”, in the final of which Toffee jumps upside down using a rotation machine.
So, in 1986, the popularity of Toffee is crazy after participating in the TV show, Asmus reprises the audience, but Irina does not get into the team that the circus management is gaining for foreign tours. Having made a trip to Belarus, the artist is going to go to perform in Gomel. There she performs her Dance on the Lampshade, in the finale of which the rotary machine breaks and dies in front of all spectators Irina Asmus. The biography of a talented woman ends in this sad story. The last return to the circus for Toffee has become fatal.