The Clowning Workbook: A Practical Course

273 Pages·2022·14.849 MB·English

by  Jon Davison

THE
CLOWNING
WORKBOOK
i
OTHER TITLES IN THE THEATRE ARTS WORKBOOKS SERIES:
The Dramatic Text Workbook and Video: Practical Tools for Actors
and Directors by David Carey and Rebecca Clark Carey
The Actor’s Workbook: A Practical Guide to Training, Rehearsing
and Devising + Video by Alex Clifton
Stage Combat Arts: An Integrated Approach to Acting, Voice and
Text Work + Video by Christopher DuVal
Directing with the Michael Chekhov Technique: A Workbook with
Video for Directors, Teachers and Actors by Mark Monday
The Laban Workbook for Actors: A Practical Training Guide with
Video by Katya Bloom, Barbara Adrian, Tom Casciero,
Jennifer Mizenko and Claire Porter
The Shakespeare Workbook and Video by David Carey
and Rebecca Clark Carey
ii
THE
CLOWNING
WORKBOOK
A Practical Course
JON DAVISON
Series editors: David Carey and
Rebecca Clark Carey
iii
METHUEN DRAMA
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY, METHUEN DRAMA and the Methuen Drama logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published in Great Britain 2023

Copyright © Jon Davison, 2023

Jon Davison has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as author of this work.

For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xii constitute an extension of
this copyright page.

Cover design: Charlotte Daniels
Cover image © Ieva Aust

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any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given
in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher
regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased
to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.

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ISBN: HB: 978-1-3500-5045-7
PB: 978-1-3500-5047-1
ePDF: 978-1-3500-5043-3
eBook: 978-1-3500-5049-5

Series: Theatre Arts Workbooks

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iv
CONTENTS
List of illustrations xi
Acknowledgements xii
Preface xv
Introduction 1
PART ONE ‘THAT WAS FUNNY’
11
1 Introductions and warm-ups 13
1.1 Names and naming 15
1.2 Wrong naming 20
Case study 1.1 Clown workshop at AFDA, Johannesburg,
April 2018 25
Case study 1.2 Clowning and Puppetry workshop, London,
April 2019 28
2 Name Tag 31
2.1 Name Tag as a game 31
2.2 Laughter response 36
2.3 Forgetting about the game 38
Case study 2.1 Clown workshop for dancers, London,
June 2017 39
Case study 2.2 Clown workshop at AFDA, Johannesburg,
April 2018 40
v
vi CONTENTS
Case study 2.3 Undergraduate Physical Theatre students,
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, March 2018 42
Case study 2.4 BA European Theatre Arts students and
graduates, Rose Bruford College, London, September 2017 42
3 Ball play 47
3.1 Throw and catch 47
Case study 3.1 Clown workshop, Ngizwe Youth Theatre,
Soweto, April 2018 53
Case study 3.2 Clown workshops for primary school teachers
in service training day, Southend, UK, September 2018 54
Case study 3.3 Open public workshop at Victoria & Albert
Museum ‘Friday Late’, April 2018 55
Case study 3.4 MA Voice Studies, RCSSD, London,
May 2018 56
4 Doing things when it’s funny 61
4.1 Throw the ball when it’s funny 61
4.2 Stop when it’s funny 69
Case study 4.1 Clowning and Puppetry workshop, London,
April 2019 72
5 On/Off 75
5.1 Ball-Clap-Hit 75
5.2 Leave or stay 78
5.3 Leave when not funny 79
5.4 On/Off with scripts 82
6 Step-Laugh 87
6.1 Step-Laugh – crossing the stage 87
6.2 Step-Laugh scripts 90
Case study 6.1 Weekly clown course, London Clown School,
June 2019 91
Case study 6.2 Five-day workshop, Brussels, November
2019 95
CONTENTS vii
Case study 6.3 Weekend workshop, Brighton November
2019 95
Case study 6.4 Clowning and puppetry workshop, April 2019,
London 97
Case study 6.5 DH Ensemble, April 2019, London 98
Case study 6.6 MA Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare’s
Globe, London, December 2009 99
7 That was/n’t funny 101
7.1 Catching the ball in a circle 101
7.2 Catching the ball for an audience 102
7.3 Any action in a circle 102
7.4 Any action for an audience 103
7.5 This is going to be funny 103
7.6 Extended variations 104
Case study 7.1 Weekend workshop, Brussels, November
2019 105
Case study 7.2 Calgary Clown Festival, Canada,
September 2019 107
8 Make others into clowns 111
8.1 Throw ball with intention 111
8.2 Don’t catch it when it’s funny 112
Case study 8.1 London Metropolitan University, BA Theatre
and Performance, 2019 114
Case study 8.2 London Clown School weekly class, 2019 114
9 Laughter as a pardon 117
9.1 Ball Tag 118
9.2 Musical Chairs 121
9.3 Grandmother’s Footsteps with laughter conditioning 122
Case study 9.1 AFDA, Johannesburg, one-week workshop
March 2018 123
Case study 9.2 Circus Hub, Nottingham, series of weekend
workshops, July 2018 124
viii CONTENTS
10 Conclusions to Part One: Right and
wrong thinking 127
PART TWO ‘I FEEL FUNNY’
131
11 I (don’t) feel funny 135
11.1 I caught the ball 135
11.2 Free scripts 137
11.3 ‘This is going to be funny’ 138
11.4 Homework 139
Case study 11.1 Week workshop, AFDA, Johannesburg,
April 2018 141
Case study 11.2 Week workshop, Brussels, July 2019 145
Case study 11.3 Weekly clown course, London Clown School,
January 2020 146
12 Self-laughter 149
12.1 Basic mirror self-laughter – solo 149
12.2 Mirror laughter plus free action 151
Case study 12.1 Weekend workshop, Gent, Belgium,
February 2018 152
Case study 12.2 BA Theatre and Performance Practice,
London Metropolitan University, November 2019 154
Case study 12.3 MA Voice Studies, RCSSD, London,
May 2018 155
13 Reading others’ feelings 161
13.1 Doing the expected 161
13.2 Doing what the audience expects 163
14 Guess the show 165
14.1 Solo performance 165
14.2 Duo performance 167
14.3 Trio shows 168
14.4 Audience variations 168
CONTENTS ix
Case study 14.1 Week workshop, University of the Arts,
Cape Town, February 2017 169
Case study 14.2 BA Theatre and Performance Practice,
London Metropolitan University, November 2019 171
15 Feeling shit 173
Case study 15.1 Comedy Module, BA Drama, Liverpool John
Moores University, October 2017 174
16 Personal clown skills 175
16.1 Self-refl ection 175
16.2 Sharing your refl ections 176
16.3 Teaching your knowledge 176
Case study 16.1 Research workshop, Clown Symposium
‘State of Play’, Edge Hill University, December 2018 177
16.4 Clowning socially 178
PART THREE ‘THAT WAS SUPPOSED
TO BE FUNNY’
179
17 Funny plans 181
17.1 Make a funny plan 181
17.2 On-script and off-script 184
17.3 Plans with feelings 185
17.4 Types of plan 186
Case study 17.1 Devising class, London Clown School,
May 2019 188
Case study 17.2 Public open workshop, Victoria & Albert
Museum ‘Friday Late’, April 2018 189
17.5 Funny plans and simple scripts 189
18 Intruders 193
18.1 Intrude on an organized performance 193
18.2 Reverse intrusion 196