We will start from zero, from the foundations of the Clown. We will rediscover our pleasure in playing, and we will reconnect with our innocence. From that place we will realise that, as we are not hiding anything, as we are innocent like children, we are loved by the audience. It´s then when our Clowns are born, when we consciously give ourselves the freedom to be who we are, perfect in our imperfection, beautiful in our naivety and clumsiness. 

We will work on the fundamentals of Clown: 

Pleasure. The pleasure we have in play, in being alive. How to recognise it and maintain it, what happens when you lose it and what to do then. 

The Flop. What it is exactly. What happens when the Flop comes and what to do then. 

The trick to having certain success. How it works and why, if you do it well, it is impossible to fail in Clown. 

Innocence. Redefining this concept, and becoming aware of why it is vital for the Clown, and which results we can achieve by being more innocent. 

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We will explore the fundamentals of clowning: the pleasure of play, finding and accepting our failure; how to use our own ridiculousness in our favour. In other words, laugh at yourself and you will make others laugh! We will put on a red nose in order to remove our masks, to be re-born as clowns. We will admire each other for our stupidity and together will make fools of ourselves, enjoying the healthy craziness and innocence of the clown. We will work on the next concepts in practice: pleasure, flop, emptiness, the “not knowing”, the simplicity of the mental process of the Clown. We will explore, investigate and demonstrate what is it really that makes us funny, and what aspects we need to develop in our Clowns to make them work. We will understand the simple but effective formula to always have success as Clowns.

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This is an opportunity to explore more in depth how the Clown works. We will learn to share our pleasure with the audience, to relate to them through our eyes. We will simplify our thoughts and actions in order to bring humour more clearly to the audience. We will let ourselves go so that we will learn to swim comfortably in our craziness, in our absurdity, knowing when and how to get the best from it. We will work with emotions, understanding how the Clown relates in different ways to them, from play. How the Clown can feel much yet not suffer, how one becomes a mirror to human behaviour, via pleasure. How attachment/detachment works with emotions and the relationship to humour. 

Do you want to explore how to generate varied material in order to create finished Clown numbers you can put on stage? In this course we will look at how to generate ideas and numbers, using: the abilities of the student (or the lack of ability); the Clown monologue; Clown emotions; and Clown characters. Each student should leave with material to be working on and, especially, with the knowledge of how to generate new material in the future. 

This course focuses on the ‘rules’ and forms of comedy and what makes it work. We will work both on new material created during previous courses or on already existing ideas, or from the student’s own repertoire. In each case the objective will be to find the best form for the number to have a maximum comic impact on the audience. Most importantly, we will look at how to combine this knowledge with your own personal clown, and how to create well-made clown numbers without losing your own spontaneous clown stupidity.

You will take home a wide range of creative possibilities.

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