Ramón Rampin

From Circopedia

Acrobat, Clown

By Dominique Jando

Born in Madrid, Spain, on October 25, 1985, and eighth generation of the Ramos-Rampin family, Ramón Santos Leal, better known as Ramón Rampin, hails from one of the oldest Spanish circus families—a family that has also produced four generations of clowns. His father, Pedro Santos Padeiro (b. 1950) worked with the 5 Rampins, a group of clowns that had a fructuous career in Europe. His mother is Carmina Leal Redondo (b. 1956).

The stage name Rampin, used by the Ramos family, came from Ramón's grandfather, Emilio Santos. He was thirteen and traveling with the family's street show when he met the famous Spanish clown Ramper (Ramón Álvarez Escudero, 1892-1952), who saw him perform; after the show, Ramper took a piece of chalk and wrote on the back of Emilio's jacket: "Rampin, el pequeño Ramper" ("Rampin, the little Ramper"). Hence Emilio became Rampin, and he passed the name onto his descendants.

Rámon started his career as an acrobat with his family's remarkable Risley actAct performed by Icarists, in which one acrobat, lying on his back, juggles another acrobat with his feet. (Named after Richard Risley Carlisle, who developed this type of act.), The Rampin Brothers, which he performed with his brothers Francisco (b. October 14, 1976) and Pedro (Ramón twin brother) all over the globe for twenty-one years, including eleven years with Cirque du Soleil's production of Varekai. Upon retiring their act in 2014, their father decided to resume the family tradition and created the Rampin clown trio, in which Ramón was the traditional white-face clownGeneric term for all clowns and augustes. '''Specific:''' In Europe, the elegant, whiteface character who plays the role of the straight man to the Auguste in a clown team.—a role he had begun to play at age sixteen—to his father and his brother Pedro.

While Francisco went on to create the Vampire Circus, which tours Canada and the U.S., the Trio Rampin quickly acquired a strong reputation in Europe. Then, in 2022, Ramón decided to go solo and created his own "augusteIn a classic European clown team, the comic, red-nosed character, as opposed to the elegant, whiteface Clown." character; he was followed in this by his brother Pedro, while their father created another clown trio, Los Michels. A very charming and efficient augusteIn a classic European clown team, the comic, red-nosed character, as opposed to the elegant, whiteface Clown., Ramón Rampin received the Circopedia award at the American CircusFest® in 2025.