Film actor professional clown known in the world as a clown without makeup songwriter and performer After graduation he studied at a vocational school Having received the specialty of a welder he worked at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant In 19841986 he served in the Soviet Army in the city of Shuya Demobilized with the rank of senior sergeant In 1987 he entered the State School of Circus and Variety Art GUTSEI Clownery teachers were A Smykov and B Breev In the first year the duet Eddie and Jeannie was formed with Eduard Alekseenko During his studies he was invited to play the main role of Kolya in Nikolai Dostals tragicomedy Cloud Paradise The picture was noticed by both the audience and film professionals was successfully shown at a number of film festivals For the role of Kolya Zhigalov was recognized as the best actor in 1991 After a successful debut he starred in several more films For some time he worked together with Eduard Alekseenko in the Center of Eccentrics by Alexander Zheromsky In 1992 he was awarded a gold medal at the prestigious circus festival in Paris The Circus of Tomorrow In 2003 he received the highest circus award the Silver Clown at the Monte Carlo Festival from the hands of Princess Stephanie In 2005 Zhigalov responded to the proposal of Nikolai Dostal to star in the sequel to the film CloudParadise the film Kolya rolling stone Alla Klyuka Sergey Batalov Irina Rozanova Vladimir Tolokonnikov Lev Borisov Anna Ovsyannikova also played in it At the Window to Europe Film Festival 2005 the film was awarded the Golden Boat Special Jury Prize In 2007 Zhigalov starred in the film Songs of the Southern Seas coproduced by Kazakhstan Germany Russia and France staged by director from Kyrgyzstan Marat Sarulu The film premiered in Russia on April 10 2008 He continues his clown career and works in the most famous circuses and variety shows such as the circus Roncalli Knie variete Wintergarten and many others
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