Hello! So this is a wee bonus post or two about what I am up
to. And that is sat on a Eurostar on my way to Entampes, near Paris, to go to
clown school.
First off, a bit about it all. So the place I am studying is
called Ecole Philippe Gualier. Which roughly translates as Phil’s school.
Gualier is what’s known as a ‘master clown’ and trained under Jacques Le Coq, who also has his own school going in
France. Clowning is a serious business. I’m not even joking. Think of it more
like ballet or a music conservatory. Some very serious people have taken the
time, over hundreds of years, to work on the ancient art of prancing around and
being funny. Much like actors spend time
at drama school learning how to master controlling their bodies, voices and
minds, so must a clown.
So yes, as wankey and pretentious as you can get!
Now I know what you’re thinking. Big tent, juggling balls,
and a unicycle. The word clown makes most of us think of the circus, as that’s
the only place we’ve heard that word associated. And while that’s not entirely
wrong, as often clown acts are found there, clowning in general is so much
broader. Think Mr Bean, think Sasha Baron Cohen (e.g. Ali G, Borat), think Stav
Lets Flats, think of those funny videos on tiktok with people falling over. Then
also think smaller, subtler, Ted Lasso or the characters in The Office.
I might be completely wrong, but my understanding of
clowning is the ability of being able to react truthfully and show that to the
person watching. And to find the funny.
The one stereotypical thing we probably will do, is have a red nose. The
red nose is considered to be the worlds smallest mask, and for some tried and
tested reason, works in most cases.
Our classes are divided into Movement and Improvisation.
Movement, I expect to be very similar to what I had near daily on my undergrad
degree- lots of prancing around and generally learning how to move and control
our bodies, which are our main instrument in clowning. Improvisation I imagine is
going to be us standing on stage with nothing around us and working out a way
to keep the attention of and amuse our classmates and to ‘find the game, play
the game, and recognise when the game is over’. Which ties in scrumptiously
with all of my sketch and improv antics.
And to find out our ‘type of clown’. A bit like Myers-Briggs personality test or a horoscope, we can all be divided into a type. And we all have a type of inner clown. Something that makes us
interesting to be watched, silly and our gut instincts. My understanding is
that if we can remove our ego, then we can find this. There are a few different
types; Boss Clown, Naughty Clown, Sad Clown, Bashful Clown, Angry Clown. This is all from memory from Uni and hearsay, so I'll let you know if I'm wrong.
I’ve heard all sorts of things about Gualiers teaching methods. That he really takes on the boss clown role and tells it to you bluntly- ‘you’re not funny’, ‘you’re not interesting’, ‘make me interested’. So I’m largely expecting to have two weeks of being insulted by an old man. Very French.
Now on to the why I am I doing this. It’s always been
something that has seemed vaguely interesting. A few of my close friends have
been to various iterations of clown schools around the world over the years.
But it wasn’t until a few of my improv friends in Melbourne flew all the way to
Paris to do it was my interest piqued. It makes sense to me to go right to the
source, rather than having second hand information taught to me (not that I’m
slagging off any other clown schools/teachers). There are two in France that
are considered some of the best in Europe (if not the world)- Gualier or Le
Coq. The latter requires a year or two’s commitment, where as the former does offer short courses, making it much easier to fit it around working and life in
general. I was vaguely looking into doing it this summer, knowing that it would
be tricky to get the time off work, when I saw this January edition of the
course. I also knew that it was unlikely that I would have a job by now, of
which I was correct. And it would be difficult to justify it once I'm back being a proper grown up after travelling. I'd have to chose between clown school and things like car insurance, and the former would never win. So why not self-improve whilst I was waiting.
I have no real ulterior motive here other than to get better
at something that I like doing. It’s nice making people laugh, so why not try
to improve. I’d be keen to go to Chicago at some point to do an improv course
at the birthplace of improv too, but one step at a time.
We did do a module or two in Clowning at uni. I didn’t
really enjoy it at the time, and wasn’t very good at it.
So we’ll find out if that’s changed in a couple of week’s
time.
Here is a couple of links for further reading if you are interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Gaulier
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/arts/television/philippe-gaulier-clowns.html
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