Félicien Trewey

Félicien Trewey, born Félicien-François Trevey (23 May 1848 – 2 December 1920), was a French magician, mime, comedian, vaudevillian, tightrope walker, balance artist, dancer, musician, chapeaugraphist and shadowgraphist.

He had great skill in the uncommon art of writing any words selected by his audience backwards and was an exceptional lightning sketch artist.

He set up a "rough proscenium" at a back window of his dad's house where he performed the ever-so-popular Punch and Judy by draping rags over his hands.

The two traveling boys were fairly successful while performing at cafes around the neighborhoods, but at times they found themselves tired and hungry.

[9] Sometimes they had to rely on borrowing objects from the owner of the cafe for juggling and balancing feats such as knives, bottles, forks and such.

After a year on the road, his reputation grew and landed him in a Marseille music hall, making tenpence (a coin worth ten pennies) a day.

During their travels, Trewey would play many parts, including Pierrot and Cassandre, the clown and pantaloon of French pantomime.

His appearance of "the clown de Salon" consists of a black skin-tight costume, a chalked face, and a white powdered periwig.

Afterwards, he toured in many places around Europe (i.e. Austria, Belgium, Spain, Russia, Germany, England) with great success.