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Famous Fartist Foulup Fracas

MrRING

MrRING

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Remember the beloved fartist from the late 1800's or early 1900's? The one who I believe performed under the name La Petomaine?

Well, I came across a recent quick article on his career that indicated that his hysterical stage shows ended due to changing tastes, with his musical mimicry with backdoor gas losing it's sweet fragrance with audiences.

However, before this mention, every other version of the story related that La Petomaine lost control of his special sphincter and let out a very public "brown note" of his own at the conclusion of a show, which was his final performance - drop the mic, literally.

I'm thinking now that the accident version of the story must just be an urban legend based on the obvious joke about what would happen if you tried to squeeze wind out of your backside day in and day out to the adulation of the crowds. Does anybody know for sure what facts ended the aromatic reign of the Fartist?
 
GNC said:
That doesn't happen in the Leonard Rossiter short film about him... (I assume it's accurate).
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I videoed the film in the 80s off Tv and my mum was in hysterics watching it.

I think any latter mishaps were hinted at......

But I do remember being shocked to read that ending to his career as the film hadn't explicitly said that....It had hinted that his repetoire of noises/impressions decreased over time - probably too much muscle strain for a lifetime.....
 
MrRING said:
... Does anybody know for sure what facts ended the aromatic reign of the Fartist?
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I cannot locate any account claiming Joseph Pojul ended his entertainment career as the result of a bowel accident. The very notion contradicts his known working habits.

During his celebrated career he employed as many as five enemas per day. In any case, his "farts" weren't internally generated flatus. Pojul's unique talent was using his abdominal muscles to draw air into his lower intestines, which provided the gas for his sound tricks.

It was widely remarked that his version of "farting" didn't cause any of the unpleasant odors associated with the natural variety.
Probably because of his habit of taking daily enemas, he could do his act without creating any offensive odors, this is something remarked on by nearly all who came in close contact with him.
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https://thehoundnyc.com/tag/le-petomane-joseph-pujol/

Accounts vary on the exact timeframe for his retirement from show biz, but those that mention his retirement attribute it to the period of World War One (1914 - 1918). He'd left his original venue (Moulin Rouge) some years earlier, and had continued to be a popular act in his own venue. Tastes changed, and as early as 1906 a newspaper writer commented that acts such as Le Pétomane's had fallen out of fashion.

The bottom fell out of the Parisian entertainment market when the war began. Pojul was approaching age 60 (b. 1857) at the time. Some accounts claim he retired in 1914; others claim it was 1918. This account gives the most complete overview I've found of the family situation that helped push him out of show biz:
In 1914 the Great War broke out and all four of his beloved sons were mobilized. One became a prisoner of war and two were invalided. After the 1918 armistice, Joseph Pujol was a shattered man, he no longer had the heart for his comic act. He would move the family back to Marseilles, and then in 1922, to Toulon, where he resumed his original trade as a baker, eventually opening up a biscuit factory. He died in 1945 at the age of 88 ...
Click to expand...
https://thehoundnyc.com/tag/le-petomane-joseph-pujol/
 
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