peta LiLY
  • ABOUT
  • COURSES
  • Shows
  • BLOG: Dark Clown, Clown plus
  • Contact
  • FAQs for the Clown & Dark Clown course
  • Creative Mentor / Acting Coach / Director
  • ONLINE COURSE INFO
  • What people say about the Clown & Dark Clown course
  • What people say about the Alchemy of Archetypes course
  • What people say about the Barefaced Commedia dell'Arte course
  • PLAYS and POETRY
  • What people say about the Clown Course

Klown-zit - A clown play/dramaturgy

4/17/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
In October 2019, something was bothering me. It had been bothering me for a while. Br*xit. Writing this blog post in COVID-19 days, it seems a dim memory, albeit an event which is still unfolding.

I was hired by a Drama School. I had just a few days in which to teach a group of acting students Clown, and to also create a Clown performance.

The teaching was going well and on Day Two, as time was short, I decided to offer the idea that was visiting itself upon me. I would, as ever, ask for the students' improvisations, ideas and contributions but it's good to have a framework to glue it onto. I checked that they had no other ideas to put forward and that they found the idea appealing to play inside.  

Title: Klown-zit. It's a twist on, but not an allegory for Br*xit. It would also follow a recurring interest of mine in the marginal nature of Clowns, by which I mean Clowns under threat.* 

The Clowns are leaving - they have prepared this presentation as their last show, before taking themselves away and leaving us Sad Normals without them.

For the first show-oriented exercise, I divided the group in two and set them each to improvise a Clown Funeral (classic clown trope - there is a lovely take on this in the 1924 film He Who Gets Slapped). I thought I'd choose one improv or perhaps amalgamate the best ideas from either group into it. They were both strong ideas and the two groups had each worked well together. Great, a problem - two versions of a funeral, yes, we'll use them both and make that work!

One boy was ill and absent for a day or two and on his return, I wanted to find a way to let him feature. I asked the group if they could find a cardboard box - or any kind of box. Ultimately, on show night, he was stationed on stage as the audience waited for the show to begin, holding a shoe box, wearing smart black pants, a white shirt and a sombrero.

Sombrero Clown: Hello Madam, would you like to make a contribution?
You sir? Would you like to make a contribution?
All contributions welcome.
Thank you Madam. Thank you there. Thank you.
Whenever audience members laugh – he opens and closes the box lid to ‘capture the laugh’. The inside of the shoe box reads ‘Laughter Bank.’ He holds it like it's precious.
 
A group of clowns enter. They are singing the Wedding March. They carry aloft a bear who has a red nose and big shoes (red trainers on its feet). They gather in a small U shape around the bear which is now on the floor.
 
Clown with an air of authority: Any last words?
Spotted Clown: Words.
Minnie Mouse Clown: Words.
Clown with an air of authority: (a touch long-sufferingly) Thank you. Any more last words?
Pyjama-clad Clown: Yes. 
They turn to look at him.
Pyjama-clad Clown: Oranges … (they nod, with varying degrees of certainty) Dave …  (they nod as before) ... Knees. (they nod - either touched, or relieved it's over).

Another group enter, including two angel clowns – they are singing the Death March.
 
Minnie Mouse Clown: Oh no, we ‘ve been singing the wrong song!
 
They hold a clown aloft with a gurning death face (tongue out). She opens her eyes and winks at the audience as they cross the stage in front of the first group and resumes her death face. The Death March goes into double time. They place the Goofy gurning clown on the floor and circle sombrely. Someone places a rubber chicken on her chest like a flower. The angels throw tinsel. Group two start to cry. They huddle to cry. The first group of clowns, who have been feeling inadequate and wrong, are suddenly also overcome and join the crying circle too. 

The 'dead' clown raises her head - looks at the group. Her interest is piqued. She approaches, then is overcome, wailing louder than them all.


Clown with an air of Authority notices, congratulates the troupe of clowns: 'Well done, well done!' Shakes hands with Goofy, then turns to the audience to address them. He is flanked by Spotty Clown and the Goofy 'dead' clown.

​The Authority Clown:  Good Evening and welcome to Klown-zit.
A colourful cardboard sign with Klown-zit written on it is unfolded and held up.
 
One of the angel clowns who is actually quite curt and bossy takes over: 'People think that Clowns are stupid and can't do anything properly.' This prompts a series of ridiculous routines including spaghetti being cooked with one clown contorting herself into everything from sink to stove to kitchen table.

The curt Angel: ... And some people think Clowns are Scary ...
​PJ Clown has a moment of terror when his shark slippers come alive. He runs around the stage and clings to another clown for safety - when he looks up, Spotty Clown is doing her best impression of the balloon-holding 'Pennywise'. The moment is defused by the balloon being released and farting round the room.

Picture
The curt Angel: But mostly people think clowns are just a big Joke.

​The clowns come in pairs delivering lame jokes (one does the set-up and the other
does the punch).

A man goes to the doctor because he has a clown growing out of his neck.
- The doctor tells him, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious.” Boom tish
Why don’t cannibals eat clowns? - Because they taste funny. Boom tish
How big is a clown’s hard drive? - 50 Gigglebytes. Bada ba flop
Two cannibals captured and killed a clown. - They made a laughing stock
out of him.
What’s left of a clown after a bear attack? - Just his funny bone.
Clowns can no longer afford their balloons… - Because of inflation.
Did you ever hear about the unlucky clown? - He tried ten times to make
​the audience laugh, but no pun in ten did. Get it? No pun in ten did … No pun in …
 
What is the gooey red stuff between an elephant’s toes?

... Slow clowns.

There is an act that combines juggling and percussion with a metal tea tray.

There is a sweet interlude when the PJ clown and Minnie Mouse do a version of the leaving song from The Sound of Music with the Teddy bear animated like a puppet: "So long farewell, adieu adieu adieu ..."

Authority Clown returns with his henchmen.
So - we bring you all of this (indicating the stage) - music, surprises, colour.
Will you miss us?
Because we're going now.
Klown-zit means Klown-zit.
We've had enough.
We see the way you look at us. We hear you thinking:
'Their hair is too big, their shoes are too big.
Their voices are too squeaky.
Their clothes are all wrong.'

He starts to speak as if in a big tunnel and the henchman clowns make an echo effect.
People think Clowns (clowns clowns clowns)
Are chaotic (otic otic otic)
But it's you, (oo oo oo)
the Sad Normals - (ormals ormals ormals)
You (oo oo oo)
are the Chaos (aos aos aos)
Bringers (ingers ingers ingers)
and 
we 
are going (going going going)

Carousel music starts to bleed in and they make a double circle, beautifully gliding up and down like gorgeous horses on their shining brass poles ... after a few circuits, they peel off and leave, still in merry-go-round mode ...

The lights dim -
 the Sombrero Clown is last to leave - he pats his laughter bank as if comforting it and hugs it close as he goes.

Applause.


Bright lights up and joyful circus music and the clowns cascade one by one back onto the stage with a dazzling display of acrobatics (and the odd rather lame roly poly). In a line they wave, and lead again joyfully off with kicks and kisses

Picture... when preparing for The Death of Fun, I googled 'no clowns' and a host of images like this came up - try it yourself ...
​

​* Many years back, I led a workshop for the Theodora Clown Doctors in the UK as they were facing their rebranding as Giggle Doctors. The reason being that the organisation was becoming aware that the public (or some of them) were reporting that their children didn't like or were afraid of Clowns.

​No one can say with exactitude what the contributing factors are, but the Clown-horror movies such as 'It' (and it's more recent remake may well be part of it. There was the unfortunate scary clown pranking happening around the country in both UK and USA, plus there was the most unfortunate set of muggings and acts of actual violence by young men dressed in scary clown gear that happened in France in 2014 - all of which contributed to the premise of Clown play 
The Death of Fun devised and directed in Hong Kong in 2017. Since Br*xit was mooted, we have seen a lamentable rise in us-and-them thinking and also in hate crimes.

This was a Red Nose Clown piece but I do enjoy observing that cross-over area, where we love to see and sometimes laugh ruefully at seeing the Red Nose Clown suffering. 
​
​I like using Red Nose Clown as a way to illuminate the 
absurdity in life, the tragedy in life, the poignancy in life.
0 Comments

    SEARCH by Category - scroll below

    This blog covers my Clown, Dark Clown, Comedy, and Theatre Making practices.

    ​Buy me a Ko-fi?
    I am writing a book on Dark Clown. If you enjoy the posts here, I'd love your support on my Ko-fi page. Your donation - even a small one - will help pay for time, editors, proof readers, books to inform context etc.
    ​ Thank you!
     

     https://ko-fi.com/petalily 

    30 years of practical research has created a new genre: Dark Clown. The Comedy of Terrors - Dark Clown & Enforced Performance was delivered at Bath Spa University. The work is cited in Clown (readings in theatre practice) by Jon Davison.
    ​

    Images above: Tiff Wear, Robert Piwko, Douglas Robertson, PL and Graham Fudger. Illustration by
    Charlotte Biszewski. Mask: Alexander McPherson.

    Categories

    All
    Absurd
    Absurdity
    Absurd Theatre
    Acceptance
    Accept Everything
    Acting
    Actioning
    Actions
    Adaptation
    Adversity
    Aesthetic
    All Over Lovely
    Amygdala
    Anais NIn
    An Die Musik
    Archetypes
    Aristotle's Poetics
    Arnold Mindell
    Audience
    Autobiographical Theatre
    Avner The Eccentric
    Awareness
    Backstory
    Bafflement
    Beats
    Believable Verisimilitude Of Pain And Distress
    Benefits To The Actor
    Big And Small
    Bim Mason
    Body Mask
    Bouffon
    Breath
    Breathing
    Brene Brown
    Buster Keaton
    Buzzer Exercise
    Calibration
    Call And Response
    Carlo Boso
    Carthasis Of Laughter
    Casting The Net
    Catharsis
    Chaplin
    Character
    Chastity Belt
    Chinese Clown
    Circo-therapy
    Circus
    Circus Lumiere
    Claire Dowie
    Clown
    Clown & Dark Clown
    Clown & Dark Clown Course
    Clown Doctors
    Clown Dramaturgy
    Clown Egg Register
    Clown Genius
    Clown Jokes
    Clown Logic
    Clown Poem
    #clown #poem #clownpoem #dignity #transform
    Clown Power Symposium
    Clown Professor
    Clowns
    Clown State
    Clown State Process
    Coat-of-arms
    Colin Watkeys
    Comedy
    Comedy Craft
    Compassion
    Conditions For Comedy
    Confessional Theatre
    Conflict And Pain
    Consent
    Consumer Guilt
    Content Awareness
    Contrast
    Controller
    Corpsing
    Costume
    Costume Design
    Costume Embodiment
    Coulraphobia
    Courage
    Covid
    Creativity
    Crying
    Crystal Lil
    Curiousity
    Curriculum
    C-words
    Dark Clown
    Dark Clown Documentary
    Dark Clown Dramaturgy
    Dark Clown Scenario
    Dark Clown Scenarios
    Dark Side Play
    Dave Pickering
    Deadpan
    Declan Donnellan
    Design
    Devising
    Dignity
    Dina Glouberman
    Discomfort
    Distance
    Documentary
    Dramaturgy
    Electro-pop
    Embodied Performance
    Embodiment
    Emotions
    Empathy
    Enforced Performance
    Ensemble
    Ethos
    Evil Laughter
    Exaggeration
    Extraordinary Physiological Response
    Facilitation
    Failure
    Failure As Success
    Fairytale
    Feminist Clown
    Flow
    Fool
    Fox And Maiden
    Gaulier
    Gender
    Genres
    Getting Your Message Across
    Half-Masks
    Hamlet Or Die
    Happenstance
    Hara
    Heart
    High Stakes
    High Stakes Predicament
    High Stakes Predicaments
    Honesty
    Horror
    Humanity
    Humanity In Extremis
    Hybrid Clown
    Hyper-vigilance
    I Am A Timebomb
    Imagework
    Imaginary Circumstances
    Immersion
    Implicate The Audience
    Implication
    Impossible Choices
    Impro. Clown. Clown State
    Impulse
    Impulses
    Inner Critic
    Innocence
    Inspirations
    Intention Of The Dark Clown Work
    Interview
    Interviews & Auditions
    In The Now
    Intuition
    Invocation
    It
    Jean Genet
    John Towsen
    Journals
    Jung
    Keith Johnstone
    King Lear
    Laugh At
    Laughing Gear
    Laughter
    Laughter Nudge
    Laughter To Implicate
    Learning
    Learning Lines
    Le Bide
    Line Up Exercise
    Line-up Exercise
    Lisa Wolpe
    Lumiere & Son
    Mamet
    Marginalised Emotions
    Marx Brothers
    Mask
    Mask State
    Methodology
    Mime
    Monika Pagneaux
    Motif
    Motifs
    Name Game
    Negative Emotions
    NLP
    Normal Audience
    Not Being Seen
    'not Doing'
    Okidok
    One Action
    Pain
    Pantomime
    Pema Chodron
    Pennywise
    Performance
    Perseverance
    Perspectives
    Peter A Levin
    Philippe Gaulier
    Pip Simmonds
    Play
    Play-possibilities
    Plot And Character
    Poetry
    Pop
    Power
    Predicament
    Predicaments
    Preparation
    Process
    Production
    Proprioception
    Props
    Red Nose Clown
    Rehearsal
    Repetition
    Resonances
    Reviews
    Rhythm
    Ridiculous
    Roger Rabbit
    Rough Puppetry
    Rule Of Three
    Rumi
    'sad Normals'
    Sad Normals
    Satire
    Sedona Method
    See The Cost
    Self Compassion
    Shakespeare
    Shame
    Shows
    Sobbing
    Solo
    Solo Theatre
    Stakes
    Stand Up Theatre
    Stand-up Theatre
    Storytelling
    Strange Forces
    Strategic Play
    Sufferring
    Take It Further
    Taking Laughter To The Limits
    Tarot
    Teaching
    Teaching Hygeine
    Techniques
    TED Talk
    Theatremaking
    The 'bide'
    'The Circus'
    The Comedy Of Errors
    The Cost
    The Death Of Fun
    The Fool
    The Guard
    The Little Mermaid
    The Maids
    The Menu
    The Revenger's Tragedy
    Three Women
    Tibetan Buddhism
    Timing
    Tips
    Tips For Learning Lines
    'Tis Pity She's A Horse
    'Tis Pity She's A Whore
    Tonglen
    Topless
    Torture Over Ten Feet
    Tragedy
    Transparent Teaching
    Trauma
    Trickster
    Trigger Warmings
    Trilogy
    Troubled Laughter
    Truth & Fiction
    Truth & Lies
    Truth + Pain
    Upset
    Upset Procedure
    Useful Principles
    Use Your Senses
    Viola Spolin
    Vulnerability
    Warmup
    Wendy Darling
    'what If'
    Witness
    Women And Clowning
    Women Clowns
    Workout
    Writing
    Yoshi Oida
    Zen

    Archives

    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    February 2022
    September 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

workshops & shows 


Join Peta Lily Theatre Workshops on Facebook

Like Peta Lily Shows on Facebook

Follow @peta_lily on Twitter

Follow @petalily on Instagram

Curious about Dark Clown? get your FREE ebooklet when you sign up to the mailing list - see the form to the right!

Something else? If you are looking for a director / creative mentor / workshop leader for a bespoke workshop for your company or organisation or any other matter - go here.

* By signing up to the mailing list you agree to receive mailings about workshops, shows, publications and very occasionally other news, usually only about a half dozen mailouts a year. You can always choose to unsubscribe at any time – there is an unsubscribe link to click on in each email I send. Your information will not be shared with any third party.

Picture

    JOIN THE MAILING LIST & GET YOUR FREE ebooklet - 2020 extended version

    * By signing up to the mailing list you agree to receive mailings about workshops, shows, publications and very occasionally other news. Your information will not be shared with any third party.
    iCloud email addresses don't always work with the mailing system - and, IMPORTANT -please double check you input your email address correctly - if there's a typo I cannot contact you.
    iCloud email addresses don't always work with the mailing system - and IMPORTANT please be sure not to make a typo when inputting your email address.
Submit