Recently Ciara Thorburn [circus artist, clown pirate (CC Member) and facilitator & instigator of such excellent things as the Spin Circus Festival & Circus Garage Sale Facebook group] did a course at the famous (or infamous) Ecole Philippe Gaulier (The Gaulier Clown School). As Ciara was doing it she posted a daily diary on Facebook which was such a good read I asked if we could post it here on Carnival Cinema so it could be saved and shared.
Thank you Ciara, for generously sharing your experience!
I hope you all enjoy,
Cheers Hamish
Day 7#
I only have two days left here, I anxiously romanticise the idea of coming back, but its almost impossible. I feel like I will always chase clowning around the world, but it’s really the hardest career path. Adulthood, money, my career (whatever it is), family, and responsibility calls, but at the same time curiosity and passion prevail. I wonder how this training will really influence me and my career, I know it is self-indulgent. Last night I talk with some actors in my course, we are all in the same position. Artists really are the hardest working people I know, and what a privilege to be in on the secret. The secret of being a clown that is, those who know, know.
Movement
– We start with group skipping, it’s great to see how excited the rest of my class is by this. Again there is a lack of knowledge in facilitation, but I try to keep my mouth shut regarding technique as much as I can. I ask (for safety) if we can change the orientation so we don’t run into the wall, Tom Tom says “No. Thank you for changing the exercise.” Most people run from the centre under the rope to the centre. It’s hard for me, but I keep my mouth shut, and try to blend in.
– We warm up on the ground, Tom Tom demonstrates the exercises for the day with little explanation. A candlestick, a two high, and face balance with a stick. I base a few candlesticks, I don’t feel comfortable encouraging others without time for technique. Someone tells me they injured their back in the other class attempting foot to foot. While stretching Tom Tom condescendingly comments “you can check the expert next to me”, while I straddle stretch with the rest of the class. Flex isn’t even my thing. I’m at a loss of what to do.
– We play an exercise as school children in class, where the teacher forbids us to swear and leaves the room. From instruction I interpret this as an exercise of focus and major/minor, there is a lot of text exchanged, however, the clown is naïve and doesn’t know what swear words are. The exercise turns more into a skit, and I wonder how we can play with the audience, where it seems like there is a fourth wall in play. A few groups go up, but I miss out.
– The class is almost over and a new exercise begins, I go to get up but am too late. Francisco gives up his place for me, which means a lot. The exercise is simple, a line up of clowns must say swear words but execute them in a naïve way, we don’t know what they mean. I say “Ass”, Tom Tom asks some more questions through live coaching and moves on.
And that’s the end of class.
I occurs to me how much clowns sometimes rely on text. It makes me think of an exercise from yesterday, where one of the clowns sung in fluent French, half of the audience (who spoke French, and were familiar with the song) were laughing. Half of the class were not, as we tried to decipher what was going on. It made me think about the relationship between language, culture and clown. I feel that as a clown humour should go beyond text, easy in theory but hard to execute. I think about how the misunderstanding of language can be used as a comedic tool, but also how it can ostracise.
Gaulier
I look at myself again in costume through the glass doors before I enter, I haven’t chosen to wear the white/more trad makeup as I want to, because I am afraid to be the only one and the implications clown makeup brings. I don’t feel as good in my costume today. I realise I don’t look as good or funny as I think I looked, and this makes my confidence fade. In the exercises today I don’t get to play with my mop.
– We play Grandma’s footsteps, Philippe takes photos of us as we walk towards him. I assume this is for advertising. We are all more focused in this exercise in our costumes.
– Ketch is called up to do a (bad) mime skit.
This is so interesting because Ketch is a trained mime. I wonder (and so does he) if Philippe is aware of his experience. Philippe says something along the lines of “I know why this is hard for you”, which makes me think he is aware. I feel anxious excitement for Ketch, as he must perform as if he is a novice. Ketch does some poor ‘wall’ mime, Philippe stops him and tells him he is shit and to repeat. Philippe criticizes him for not repeating it exactly and sends him out of the room. I feel Ketch is confused and disappointed in himself, he doesn’t know how to succeed at the exercise. Once out of the room, Philippe says to us in secret that when Ketch returns, Philippe will stand and exclaim “BRAVO!” and we are all to erupt in applause. Ketch is called back in and attempts to perform the wall exactly as he did the first time, he does, Philippe exclaims “BRAVO!” and we all stand. Ketch has a great smile on his face and accepts to applause, but is also confused. Philippe says “We like heem like zis, no?”.
This solo exercise is repeated with a few other students, who are instructed to do things they are not good at. The students are told they don’t have the pleasure, and the exercise is over.
– The Grimace.
A line-up of clowns is told to give the audience a scary grimace (or silly face), and when instructed to pair it with a sound. I watch the first group, and find ‘the drop’ which some have, the most funny (when the clown attempts the grimace, and then goes back to themselves, and then back to the grimace). I get up for the second round, try not to pre-empt and make a silly grimace, then a sound. Nobody laughs, I try the drop, nothing, my turn moves on. Philippe explains that sometimes when you are onstage and you are in the flop, you can try the grimace. The audience is thinking ‘this clown is not funny, there is nothing that is funny, I won’t laugh at this clown’, then you make the grimace and the audience thinks you are stupid for even trying, and then comes the laugh.
– The sock game – focus and complicate
Two clowns are onstage and put socks in the back pockets, when instructed Philippe says who is in charge of the focus and is to steal the other clowns sock. I watch a few other pairs of clowns, I think they’re not sharing with the audience, they’re is no complicitae. It is like watching two children play a shit game in the park and it is not interesting for the audience. I think, I got this. I am paired with the angry gnome from Venezuela, and I am pleased as I feel our costumes look good together onstage. I am instructed to steal the sock, I get the sock, I share my happiness with the audience. I am instructed to tease my partner, which I do, I feel I am playing with her, and sharing with the audience. Philippe stops us with some criticism, and says we have one minute to have better complicitae. She whispers something to me discreetly like “Ok, we can”. We are gonged about ten seconds into our second attempt.
Homework
We are given confusing instructions again to create a duo routine, where we naively impersonate people we have met on our travels. I interpret this exercise as one of complicitae, focus, play, naivety and pleasure. I reason in my head, that the task is just another reason to be onstage, and these techniques are what really matters. This exercise will be the last thing we perform here, on Friday, in front of both classes. I really wonder how to go about this. I am paired with Kirsten, and we will rehearse tomorrow, I mostly just want to enjoy the process.
The Clowns
After class I have offered to teach some of the clowns some balloon twisting, quickly our apartment is full of clowns. It’s nice. They are enthusiastic, but mostly we eat, drink amazing red wine, and chat. I get to talk with some about my clown practice. And it occurs to me that there are different practitioners of clown, and that some techniques are different to others. It seems obvious, but it has never really occurred to me. I feel like in my head I have my own picture of clown and what (should) work, and the recipe according to what I have been taught and what I like to watch. I realise that my picture of complicate, what I feel is complicitae on stage, is different from what the audience sees. This also is true of my pleasure, and my play. Even if I am having fun onstage, the audience may not see that I feel this. I feel like I share too much with the audience and not enough with my partner. It is really hard for me to articulate this lesson I have learnt today.
A few friends stay until late and we exchange some of our knowledge and training, it is particularly interesting for me to get an insight into what the Le Coq training actually is. So much of it is familiar to me from past teachers, though I have never known why we do it. Undulations, coordination warmups, the twenty movements… they are all so familiar, and I realise they all stem from the same place. I also have never known how these movements translate to characters, but these clowns demonstrate it well. I realise how much of these movements have unknowingly influenced the physicality of my characters, and I wonder how important it is that I understand why.
Ciara Thorburn
*You can read the other days here:
Ciara Thorburn
Circus Artist, Variety Performer, Children’s Entertainer, Clown, MC, Cabaret Luminary and human being.
Ciara is a passionate, progressive and creative circus artist based in Melbourne, Australia. An avid art critic in her past life, Ciara has combined her passion for conceptual art with entertainment in an inimitable fusion of variety skill with clowning. Ciara defies expectations, using everyday objects in extraordinary ways, and has a knack for turning the mundane into the astonishing with her unique character work.
Ciara Links
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