Thursday 20 May 2010

Clown Devising at "Cal Clown"

Here are two numbers from the show performed by students on the Professional Clown Course at the Escola de Clown de Barcelona, in "El Local", a bar in Figueres.

They show that in just 5 weeks (of an 8-week course) it is possible to be performing clown material that really works.

By "really works" I mean performances that make an audience laugh spontaneously at the stupidity of the clown (and not, as I have seen so often, at the concepts, fantasies, ideas or ideologies that many performers try to sell whilst trying to clown).

I mean numbers that are carefully constructed along clown principles (and not according to narrative, character, or vague ideas of improvisation or "self-expression").



At the Escola de Clown, we have created a course of studies that is taught by an integrated team of teachers. They are not an odd collection of individuals who each teach "their vision" of clown and who make the students start from the beginning every time they have a new teacher. They are instead concerned with leading the students through a process that passes through all the key moments: playing, pleasure, relationship with the audience, failure, form and structure.

There are many places where you can study with a single teacher, or with a mixed bag of teachers, but I think this place is still unique in providing a truly professional training.

1 comment:

jango said...

You have such a bitter taste in your mouth. Why? Do you do you wish to sour others you gather around you. We have no enemies and never will though its the choice of others to call us a foe that will never change the mind of who we are and what we stand for. We will never speak of you or others of our profession in a derogatory or disparaging tone. We will never be against you then again if you are invisible we cannot be for you. We don't proclaim there is one devine or ultimate clown theory nor do we pretend to have the historical knowledge or intelectual license to critique any true clown artist of our profession to date. We don't profess to know what's funny... we live it and the only personal advice we can offer is, "Don't shit on the table where you eat or piss in the bed you sleep."