Coco the Clown

Coco the Clown (or Theo de Kovel) is a clown character who is very famous in Britain and later became famous in America. Coco was not a whiteface clown but an auguste.This type of clown is supposed to be a bit stupid, so he gets teased by another clown who is supposed to be much cleverer. Coco always gets buckets of water thrown at him or custard pies in his face.

Theo de Kovel (or Polakovs) (1900–74) made the character of Coco the Clown famous. Later his son Elwin de Beer (1923-2009) made him famous in the Netherlands

After retiring from the circus, Nicolai Poliakoff toured schools in the UK as Coco promoting road safety. He had a walking stick in the shape of a Bolesha Beacon. For this work he was awarded the OBE by the Queen.