Fraser Campbell chose….

Chico the Clown items

I love surrealism. I’m unsure where this comes from, but aged 12 I became obsessed with Monty Python. ‘Owl-stretching time’, ‘Bicycle repair man’, ‘The upper class twit of the year’, ‘My Hovercraft is full of eels’, etc.

I wrote some sketches; most were rubbish. However, years later, my only degree first was for my screenplay ‘Ninja Hippies’. Even recent non-fiction is silly, like my festival memoir ‘I just want socks that bend’.

Unsurprisingly, I picked the oddest things the Herbert collected in 1989.

Fraser Campbell is a Museum and Gallery Assistant at the Herbert.

What the curator says:

Chico the Clown items

1. Fake Finger                   2. Fake Pipe

3. Fake Cigar                     4. Cigarette Holder

5. Lady's Leg Biro             6. Flags and paper medallions

All these objects belonged to Mr Irving Pollard (1898 to1975) who performed as Chico the Clown. He was also a Punch and Judy man, magician and puppeteer. Pollard was badly affected by his experience as an ARP warden during the Second World War. He lost the ability to speak after the Blitz destroyed his workshop in Hillfields, including all his puppets. It was only the process of carving a new puppet that helped him to communicate again with friends and relatives.