Find Your Funny Bones Through Clowning
Play with what you’re doing.
What Is Clowning?
Clowning is what clowns do. It’s what they’re experts at doing.
You don't need to be a clown to clown.
Basically, clowning is playing with what you’re doing.
So, the question is:
Do you know what you’re doing?
The better you know what you’re doing, the more you can play with it.
That’s essentially it. That’s where to start if you want to learn clowning.
It has taken me a long time to understand that the path to freedom in clowning passes through creating clown acts. The shorter and simpler, the better. I wrote this piece in January 2014, towards the end of Ira Seidenstein’s fifth annual Quantum Clown Residency (QCR), a 3‑week physical acting and clown course in Brisbane, Queensland, …
I never looked for a mentor. The thought of having one never occurred to me – not before I realised that I actually did have one. Here’s the story of how meeting my mentor Ira Seidenstein was essentially about meeting my creative self, the world and others – through clowning. The text is a slightly modified and …
There are two types of clown masters:Those who want to control you – to be your master.Those who want to pass on their mastery – to set you free.Ira Seidenstein, my mentor, belongs to the second category. He is a true clown master – first of all a performer of consummate skill and secondly an educator …