I first met Rumpel Stiltskin (legal name Jolly Goodfellow) performing at a late night trippers ball at Tuntable Community Hall in the late ‘80s. We remained friends ever since.
Last week the world’s most-loved jester was found dead in his vehicle in Los Angeles. Reports attributed his death to natural causes after a long illness. At 54, his passing has shocked the performing arts and circus community.
Alternative festival circuit
Rumpel was born in Adelaide, learning his trade on the alternative Australian festival circuit at events such as Confest, Woodford, Adelaide Fringe, and hundreds of small sub-cultural freek-shows where he delighted his audience with a mix of failed tricks, poetry, juggling, uni-cycling, and a blend of high pitched, high octane infectious chaos, all whilst in his most famous of court jester attire.
He also loved saying ‘Crikey!’
Once he left these antipodean shores his stock sky-rocketed, he performed in around 50 different countries and became a total legend at Glastonbury.
His highlight reels included stints with Cirque du Soleil; as the ‘fool on the hill’ in the Beatles show Love, where he performed hundreds of shows during 2006 to 2007.
He had many epic 24-hour+ one-man-shows, where he was carried around the site at the end by his adoring fans. Rumour has it his longest stint was over 50 hours at an event in Poland around 2012. Crikey!
In more recent years Rumpel hung out in LA doing commercials, extras work, and appearing on many diverse shows including Australia’s Fat Pizza.
With his health deteriorating he performed less and wrote more.
Returning his belongings
There is a GoFundMe Campaign to help retrieve all his props and belongings from across the globe. Maybe even a Rumpel museum in the near future. You can donate here. https://www.gofundme.com/f/rumpel-jolly-goodfellow.
Rest in peace Rumpel. A true genius of the arts, and the most foolish of friends.
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