Q 01/05

Thanks to Joseph Grimaldi, the pantomime Clown role became known by what nickname?

A) Joey

B) Bobo

C) Charlie

D) Sammy

Answer · why

A) Joey

Joseph Grimaldi so dominated the Clown role at Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden in the early 1800s that British pantomime clowns took his first name a...

Q 02/05

Which pantomime catchphrase did Joseph Grimaldi originate?

A) Oh no it isn't!

B) Here we are again!

C) It's behind you!

D) Look out below!

Answer · why

B) Here we are again!

Grimaldi's entrance cry 'Here we are again!' became the traditional greeting of the pantomime Clown; his best-known song was 'Hot Codlins', about a se...

Q 03/05

Clowns in full costume attend Joseph Grimaldi's annual memorial at Holy Trinity Church in which London borough?

A) Camden

B) Islington

C) Southwark

D) Hackney

Answer · why

D) Hackney

Holy Trinity Church in Dalston, known as the Clowns' Church, sits in the borough of Hackney; the service is held on the first Sunday of February, and ...

Q 04/05

Which famous novelist did Richard Bentley hire to edit and improve Joseph Grimaldi's memoirs?

A) William Thackeray

B) Charles Dickens

C) Wilkie Collins

D) Anthony Trollope

Answer · why

B) Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, then writing as Boz, reworked Thomas Egerton Wilks's clumsy draft for publisher Richard Bentley, and the Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi a...

Q 05/05

The earliest known clowns have been traced to the Fifth Dynasty of which civilization, around 2400 BC?

A) Sumer

B) China

C) Egypt

D) Persia

Answer · why

C) Egypt

Egypt: records from the Fifth Dynasty, around 2400 BC, describe a dwarf entertainer at the pharaoh's court, the earliest figure usually counted as a c...