Arthur Pedlar is a master in the field of clowning. A life long career and even on his age still performing...

Four years ago ( in 2009)  the W.C.A.  executive committee created the ’ Legacy of Laughter Award’ for clowns who they felt had made a significant contribution to the art over their life-time.     It was first awarded two years ago to the great Russian Clown Oleg Popov, and as the WCA’s Ambassador of Clowns I was commissioned to fly to Aachen (Germany) to present it to him in the ring at the end of the city’s Christmas Circus three-week production.    It was a great honour for me to do this, I told the full house that I’d first seen Popov in 1956 when he was 26, multi-skilled and at the height of his profession, and I was 24 years old: it was the first occasion the Moscow State Circus came to the United Kingdom.    No one had seen such a skilled clown in the U.K. and he got rave reviews.    I made sure I was staying at the same hotel as Popov and his wife – she speaks good English, he none, yet we really communicated, it was an unforgettable experience.     Imagine my surprise at the Awards Banquet at the end of the Sarawak  convention when the winners of the various competitions receive their medals,  it was announced that I’d been given the Legacy of Laughter Award, it was most gratifying and humbling to find myself bracketed with my hero!