Thoughts after a 3-week clown and storytelling course with Vivian Gladwell from Nose to Nose and Norman Skillen.
Being a clown is a life long path. In fact, life is a long clown path. Or the path is a long clown life. Either way, life and clowning exist in parallel! The obstacles that trip me up in my everyday life are the same that trip me up as a clown. Negative thought patterns and a fear of chaos are the banana peels of my clown’s world. Over a year ago I began working for Clowns Without Borders South Africa (CWBSA) as a performing and facilitating artist. It brings together many of my favourite things: children, laughter, healing through expression and play. CWBSA brings joy and laughter to areas of crisis in Southern Africa, with laughter as our medicine and play as our instrument of mass instruction. Since I consciously began this journey into the world of the clown, the parallel between the important lessons in clowning and the current lessons in my life has been fascinating. Having this mindset transformed the three weeks course with Vivian and Norman into a deep and enriching personal journey. Using the metaphor of the clown world, we can face personal challenges with a smile. Instead of bravely coping with life, we can courageously embrace it, be present with it and transform it. Eventually it even becomes funny. Have you ever noticed how truly enlightened people seem to laugh a lot? Take the Dalai Lama as an example or the Zen and Taoist poet Han-Shan who could be found alone in the mountains laughing hysterically. I find myself asking the question, is all this seriousness really necessary?
From the outside it might be hard to imagine what a three-week clown and storytelling course actually entails, what we did from 9am to 5pm every day. And what attracted participants to come from all over the world, from Norway, the UK, the USA, South Africa and Swaziland, to take time out of their normal lives to fool around? Maybe some didn’t read the course information properly, maybe some were searching for a new spice in their life or desperately seeking light hearted times. Who knows? One thing seems certain, however, we were all destined to be there.
With his background as a court jester and love of facilitating, Vivian guided us through an array of clown exercises, which were hilarious, poignant and painful, often all at the same time. For the first week we discovered, explored and nourished our clowns. In the second week, Norman introduced storytelling to the pot and for the third week we explored the dynamic relationship between the two worlds. With his love of jazz, Norman used rhythm and breaking conventions to link clowning to storytelling. We often failed, sometimes deliciously, sometimes miserably but always successfully. When you think about it, successful failure is something to strive for! Believing that every failure is a success seems such warped logic at first but if only I could attain such enlightenment, I would be a very happy fool! The words ‘foolish’ and ‘childish’ are often used in a derogatory way but my experience has taught me otherwise. For as William Blake says so aptly, “If the fool would persist in his folly, then he would become wise’.
Some version of the fool appears in virtually all cultures, as it is an archetype, one of the universal patterns that arises out of our collective unconscious. Known to the Native Americans as heyoka meaning crazy, or ha hawkan meaning holy idiot, to the Tibetan Buddhists as yeshe chölwa andto the Hindus as the Mahasiddhas. Among the Sufi, the stories of the Mulla Nasruddin’s unreasonable behavior reflect the deepest truths and among Christians, St Francis of Assisi, with his brotherhood of jesters of the Lord, maybe also be seen as such a holy fool.In the Tarot deck, the Fool card represents the tremendous trust and presence of the fool, and in normal playing cards, there is always a Joker card. From the Hasidic sage Baal Shem Tov, to the Zen masters and their koans, the spiritual practice of play informs all crazy wisdom. Wes Nisker has written a book called exactly that, Crazy Wisdom, which I was given to read recently by the director of CWBSA, Jamie McLaren Lachman. Nisker writes about how the fool is the most potent of the archetypes, and the capable teacher of what he calls, crazy wisdom. According to him, crazy wisdom is the wisdom of the saint, the Zen master, the poet, the mad scientist and the fool. Crazy wisdom loves paradox and puns and pie fights and laughing at politicians – something we need now more than ever in this rapidly changing world.
Nisker writes, “Crazy wisdom flows through all human history, bubbling up here and there, pointing out different ways of looking at things, reminding people to take it easy, and providing a necessary counterpoint to self righteousness. Crazy wisdom arises again and again to expose us to ourselves and remind us of the strange impossible nature of our enterprise here on earth – life. Crazy wisdom laughs at our ridiculous ways and shows compassion for the suffering that results from them”. Not only are great fools very rare, but they are wise beyond understanding. Closely related to the Fool are his cousins: the clowns, jesters and the tricksters. All challenge convention, turning cherished beliefs and rules on their heads. Says Nisker, "They spread doubt about our beliefs, our abilities, our motives, our institutions, our sanity, our loves, our laws, our leaders, even our alliteration”. I believe we all have an inner fool. Whether this manifests as a clown, a trickster, a jester or a fool, we all have this archetype within us. The clown is the most childlike of them all. The clown is innocent and silly. The clown questions everything and trusts life. With our ideas of whom we should be, what society expects from us, and so on, we can become our own worst enemies. As the Sufi poet, Rumi, said ‘Behead yourself!’
It was with this desire to behead myself, to surrender and dive open hearted into the pool of unknown possibility, that I arrived traveled from my home in Swaziland to the beautiful city of Cape Town, to make my home there for the month of February. The course took place in Erin Hall, a beautiful centre with pomegranate and fig trees on a leafy road in Rondebosch. In three weeks, the group learnt so much by failing - by falling on our asses and picking ourselves up, time and time again, by dying to the past in order to remain in the present. We learnt so much through observation, by watching other fail and triumph. So in order to capture the spirit of this experience, I will highlight the ten most important clown lessons for me in the hope that they might convey a ray of the magnificent light of the clown world and somewhat illuminate the path to your own inner fool.
Lesson One
B r e a t h e
The first lesson in clowning is also the first lesson we learn in life- to breathe! It sounds easy but think again! We live so much of our lives in autopilot, unaware of our breath and how it is related to our mental, physical and emotional state. Most mindfulness and meditation practices start with the breath, and always come back to it because it enables us to let go, to come back to the present moment, and to come into our bodies and out of our minds. This was my first lesson in clowning, and the one I always come back to when I forget everything else. Some good advice I recently received was ‘when you’re feeling blue, start breathing again!’ Yes, it’s always a good idea to breathe! A breath is especially powerful when the exercise is failing miserably. I find that in the pause that a breath allows, a space is created for divine gifts of comic genius to be bestowed upon us. In these moments, even the clown is surprised by what comes out of their mouths or bodies!
One of our first exercises required four clowns to simply move across the space simultaneously. It is called simultaneous leader and involves listening carefully to the group and moving together in unison without anybody being the leader. However, my group could hardy take a step together – we were frozen in a painful waiting game for someone to begin. Vivian intervened in his kind but assertive way and told us, simply, to breathe. The anticipation and fear of taking the lead was causing us to hold our breath and in turn, hold back. The minute we let our breath flow, the exercise flowed and became funny. In clowning and in life, it is important to let go of control.
Lesson Two
L e t g o
The lesson of letting go in clowning comes in many shapes and sizes, such as letting go of control, letting go of pre-conceived ideas and letting go of getting it right. Letting go of control essentially means embracing chaos. It means going beyond boundaries and fully indulging in every emotion, thought and experience because the world of the clown full of contradictions and paradox. Clown chaos entails getting it wrong and having absolutely no idea of what you are going to do or even what you are doing. And even if you don’t know what you are doing, keep doing it because the audience will create the persona and story around you. Like all of life, it is all perception! So commit to the power of letting go, because often the funniest, most profound and deeply beautiful ideas are born out of this chaos.
The idea of letting go of all your seemingly great pre-conceived ideas and stepping into a space with no idea of what you are going to do, armed only with a red nose and silly costume, is daunting to say the least. To be told to empty your mind, be in the present moment and surprise yourself with ideas, is easier said than done. Metaphorically speaking, to release one trapeze bar before the next has swung into view! The absence of control and presence of chaos and risk seems like a recipe for disaster. But the clown defines disaster in a different way to the average person. To the clown, the disaster of getting it wrong is where the funny lies.
Letting go of getting it right is contrary to what we have been told most of our lives. Our society and education system is completely focused on getting it right, adhering to the criteria, ticking and fitting into boxes but never ever failing. Heaven forbid we ever fail! Human beings go to great lengths to cover up their failures, to sweep them under the carpet, to bravely cope but never admit it. Yet it is the cause of so much unhappiness and disillusionment! The clown gets it wrong and enjoys getting it wrong! Only in that acceptance can the clown move forward. So it is also extremely important to never rescue the clown! Although it is so tempting, it is within that chaos and acceptance of chaos that the clown can emerge transformed and move forward into new territory. As an audience member, that progression and transformation is so satisfying to watch.
In essence, letting go requires a great element of trust. But the fool is one who goes on trusting against all his experience - his trust is so pure that nobody or nothing can corrupt it. As Osho says - be a fool in the Taoist sense, the Zen sense. “Don’t try to create a wall of knowledge around you. Whatsoever experience comes to you, let it happen, and then let it go”. In that emptiness and nothingness, there is the void from which the universe and all life emerged. And so, absolutely anything can happen… as long as you get out of your own way!
Lesson Three
B e t r u t h f u l
Life is full of inconvenient truths and the fool has always been there to expose them. Back in the day, the jester was the only one who could tell the King the truth without being beheaded because he used laughter and wit as his tools of communication. As the clown is so completely honest and sees with the eyes of a child, he can spot a phony a mile away. The clown can also spot his own phoniness a mile away, as can the audience. As an audience member, it became clear over the course that honest, spontaneous play is somehow funnier than pre-conceived, contrived ideas.
Another of our first exercises involved entering the space, engaging with a piece of cloth in whatever way came to us in the moment, and then exiting the space. It seems simple but yet it is so difficult to let go of all the great ideas you have while waiting for your turn! One participant, however, could not resist a funny idea that came to her while waiting and mimed a scene with the cloth and an invisible fly. It was funny but because it lacked the honesty of the moment it was theatre and not clown. Also, miming and interacting with something that isn’t there makes it harder for the audience to engage with the performer, just like how the fourth wall in the theatre removes the audience. This is not the world of the clown because without the audience, the clown does not exist!
So it is essential as a clown to interact with what is real and true around you, to be true to yourself and the moment as much as you’ll ever be. Skinny legs and all. The clown I am talking about is not always happy and does not have the painted smile that scares so many children with its dishonesty and disguise. The clown exists within all of us, in our most truthful moments with ourselves. And the key to such honesty is to breath and be present.
Lesson Four
B e p r e s e n t
To the Native Americans, the Sacred Clown personifies the Void – the great black openness of space, the great Womb from which we are all born. In that empty space, the clown exists in a state of lively awareness where anything could happen! He is completely open for Life Force to flow through him. It is also a place to realise the interconnectedness of all life, the unity of all things, and therefore how we are infinitely responsible for each other. This place is called the present moment and it is all we ever have.
Sounds deep, philosophical and perhaps quite easy to breathe and be present. But just try right now and be completely present for the next thirty seconds! Close your eyes and focus on your breath. After seconds the monkey mind has jumped from past to future and back again, as if they were branches on a tree. But practice is always the secret to getting better at something and practicing being present while clowning makes for a fun path to the final goal of full liberation! Yet a clown must not get trapped in the future by thinking of the end result. In life and in clowning, it is about the journey not the destination. That is, being present instead of existing in a future that doesn’t actually exist!
The Two Plus One exercise required two clowns to enter together and after a few minutes of creating their world together, a third clown comes in. Vivian’s instruction to the third clown was simple – to not come in with any ideas and to just listen for a moment before doing anything. The result was subtle yet powerful and sincere. This listening moment enabled the third clown to simply be present in the space, and this gave the audience a chance to craft their own ideas about the relationships and stories between the three clowns. This is important because the audience is the clown’s barometer, and the dynamic interaction between clown and audience informs the clown play.
Lesson Five
B e h e a d y o u r s e l f !
The act of trying to be present makes you realise how much your thoughts can get in your way and even trip you up! The book Crazy Wisdom claims that humans don’t know how to think. “It may be that we think so much we can’t think, and know so much we don’t know anything”! That, in order to hear crazy wisdom, we need to somehow shut off or turn down the grinding noise of the rational, analytical gears and get just a little bit out of our minds! In other words, pry those mental fingers loose!
To me, beheading myself means to move into the visceral world where everything seems less stressful and more playful. A clown teacher once said to me, “If it's not working today, have a drink, go to bed, let it go. But whatever you do don't worry about it. The flame has not gone out”. What a relief to trust that! And to trust that you don’t need to think of the perfect idea, but to just allow the story to come to you. To be encouraged time and time again to KISS – keep it simple stupid! Simplicity is beautiful and often funny but the human mind tends to complicate things, especially when it feels the pressure to create something funny.
On Day Five we did an illuminating exercise that explored the relationship between the intellect and the sensual, the mind and the body. It revealed how status and relationship – key elements of clowning – are linked to these dichotomies. In the Western World, the relationship between the colonialists and the natives regarded the intellectual approach to life as superior to the more sensual approach. This belief has caused decades of imbalance and disrespect. Through this exercise I came to see how cathartic clowning could be when we turned this belief on its head and played with it. How satisfying it was to see the sensual visceral clown become a higher status than the intellectual wordy clown! So much comedy portrays that dynamic – for example Manuel and Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, the Tramp and Circus Master in Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus Film. Perhaps more clowning in the world would mean less conflict. Perhaps if we were more present in our bodies, instead of in the left hemisphere of our brain, then life wouldn’t become so serious as we grow up. We don’t stop playing because we grow up, we grow up because we stop playing!
Lesson Six
L i s t e n d y n a m i c a l l y
Once you have got out of your own way somewhat, it becomes easier to listen. To listen dynamically is to truly listen – it really is a true art! It means to listen to yourself, to listen to the other clowns in the space, to listen to your audience and to listen to the empty nothingness from which all stories come.
Listening to yourself encourages you to be honest. It entails breathing and being present. It often entails listening to the quiet voice within you, instead of the constant chattering. Listening to other clowns helps you to discover the story, status and relationships. You may be playing a simple game with a brown paper bag, but if you both truly listening to each other instead of trying to get your idea heard, you have a better chance of creating honest relationships and funny moments. Listening to your audience is explored in Lesson Nine, entitled The Audience is Your Mirror. Finally, dynamic listening is about engaging in a game with the universe – you listen to the empty nothingness, the universe delivers, you respond, the universe listens and so on. A cosmic ordering system, both playful and terrifying!
Lesson Seven
F a i l d e l i c i o u s l y
Fail deliciously. Embrace the failure and allow it transform you and take you to new heights. Allow it to produce results more original than anything you could achieve by aiming at originality, or by giving up when you perceive your failure as bad. As Irving Wardle wrote, ‘If our hero is swallowed by a monster, he will change into a heroic turd and soldier on to fresh adventures’. Enough said.
Lesson Eight
T r a n s f o r m a t I o n
Nisker writes, “Down through the ages, saints, holy fools, jesters, poets, and artists have challenged conventional wisdom and tried to get us to see what we often reject – mystery, paradox, the unity of all things, balance, and transformation”. Transformation is the catalyst for change and quantum leaps of evolution. Change is the only constant and embracing it is how we move forward! So the transformative power of clowning can be seen as a source of wisdom and healing. The paradoxes and seemingly warped logic of the clown world bring so much insight into the way Western society stifles us. For example, being open is sometimes regarded as a weakness so we become hard, closed and cold. The clown reveals the paradox that the weakest can be the most powerful. The dumbest can be the most wise. When the trickster’s rampant curiousity backfires, something new is discovered and this is where creativity comes from. Some advice from a clown - do something backwards, break your own traditions and habits and a breakthrough occurs! It is in the moment of surrender, of failure, that the world is created anew and transformation can occur. The best way out is through. Acknowledge the pain and then let it go. Don’t carry it around with you. Focus on the joy, the mystery, the happiness, and the cosmic joke!
As clowning is a very special confrontation with yourself and other people, and the course brought up old wounds and there was rarely a day without tears. Transformation can be a painful process but like I said before, using the metaphor of the clown world we can face personal challenges with a smile. Instead of bravely coping with life, we can courageously embrace it, be present with it and transform it. Eventually it even becomes funny.
Lesson Nine
T h e a u d I e n c e i s y o u r m i r r o r
The audience is the clown’s most important tool. The clown does not exist without the audience because the audience is the clown’s mirror, reflects the truth back to the clown. Looking at the audience is a surefire way to gauge whether or not what you are doing is working. This is also encouragement to breathe – because if you aren’t, then chances are the audience isn’t either!
As we are reflections of each other, the clown is also a mirror for the audience - mirrors in which the audience sees their folly as well as their resilience. When we begin to take ourselves too seriously, the clown is there to give us a laugh. When we become too heavy with self-importance, the clown is there to lighten us up!
One of my favourite exercises was called The Conference. Two clowns come in to present a conference – one is the presenter and the other is the assistant. Only, neither clown knows the subject of the conference. The subject is discovered through the initial play between the clowns and through connecting with the audience. When it was my turn, I came in as the presenter with my assistant clown, introduced us and promptly attempted to get on with finding the subject of the conference. As I was trying to get on, I was uneased by the way in which my assistant was gazing admiringly and speechlessly at me! This little game continued for a while, until I clicked that the audience were laughing at this dynamic. And that is when I realised we had found the subject for the conference, which I entitled, to the audible satisfaction of the audience, Perfection & Being Perfect. The clown and audience engage in a silent dialogue and if you listen closely, you will know what they want you to do to make them laugh!
Lesson Ten
E n j o y y o u r s e l f !
At last, here are some final paradoxes to conclude this rambling cobswobble. Don’t think when you are clowning but remember all these lessons. Be an upside-down, forward-backward, icy-hot contrary. Do something wrong and reply, ‘Yes? And so what?’ Remember the rules but break them religiously yet not continuously. But most importantly, be serious about having fun and don’t take anything too seriously! Have fun finding your inner fool. If you enjoy yourself, chances are others will too.
Be Happy Fools
Being a clown is a life long path. In fact, life is a long clown path. Or the path is a long clown life. Either way, life and clowning exist in parallel! The obstacles that trip me up in my everyday life are the same that trip me up as a clown. Negative thought patterns and a fear of chaos are the banana peels of my clown’s world. Over a year ago I began working for Clowns Without Borders South Africa (CWBSA) as a performing and facilitating artist. It brings together many of my favourite things: children, laughter, healing through expression and play. CWBSA brings joy and laughter to areas of crisis in Southern Africa, with laughter as our medicine and play as our instrument of mass instruction. Since I consciously began this journey into the world of the clown, the parallel between the important lessons in clowning and the current lessons in my life has been fascinating. Having this mindset transformed the three weeks course with Vivian and Norman into a deep and enriching personal journey. Using the metaphor of the clown world, we can face personal challenges with a smile. Instead of bravely coping with life, we can courageously embrace it, be present with it and transform it. Eventually it even becomes funny. Have you ever noticed how truly enlightened people seem to laugh a lot? Take the Dalai Lama as an example or the Zen and Taoist poet Han-Shan who could be found alone in the mountains laughing hysterically. I find myself asking the question, is all this seriousness really necessary?
From the outside it might be hard to imagine what a three-week clown and storytelling course actually entails, what we did from 9am to 5pm every day. And what attracted participants to come from all over the world, from Norway, the UK, the USA, South Africa and Swaziland, to take time out of their normal lives to fool around? Maybe some didn’t read the course information properly, maybe some were searching for a new spice in their life or desperately seeking light hearted times. Who knows? One thing seems certain, however, we were all destined to be there.
With his background as a court jester and love of facilitating, Vivian guided us through an array of clown exercises, which were hilarious, poignant and painful, often all at the same time. For the first week we discovered, explored and nourished our clowns. In the second week, Norman introduced storytelling to the pot and for the third week we explored the dynamic relationship between the two worlds. With his love of jazz, Norman used rhythm and breaking conventions to link clowning to storytelling. We often failed, sometimes deliciously, sometimes miserably but always successfully. When you think about it, successful failure is something to strive for! Believing that every failure is a success seems such warped logic at first but if only I could attain such enlightenment, I would be a very happy fool! The words ‘foolish’ and ‘childish’ are often used in a derogatory way but my experience has taught me otherwise. For as William Blake says so aptly, “If the fool would persist in his folly, then he would become wise’.
Some version of the fool appears in virtually all cultures, as it is an archetype, one of the universal patterns that arises out of our collective unconscious. Known to the Native Americans as heyoka meaning crazy, or ha hawkan meaning holy idiot, to the Tibetan Buddhists as yeshe chölwa andto the Hindus as the Mahasiddhas. Among the Sufi, the stories of the Mulla Nasruddin’s unreasonable behavior reflect the deepest truths and among Christians, St Francis of Assisi, with his brotherhood of jesters of the Lord, maybe also be seen as such a holy fool.In the Tarot deck, the Fool card represents the tremendous trust and presence of the fool, and in normal playing cards, there is always a Joker card. From the Hasidic sage Baal Shem Tov, to the Zen masters and their koans, the spiritual practice of play informs all crazy wisdom. Wes Nisker has written a book called exactly that, Crazy Wisdom, which I was given to read recently by the director of CWBSA, Jamie McLaren Lachman. Nisker writes about how the fool is the most potent of the archetypes, and the capable teacher of what he calls, crazy wisdom. According to him, crazy wisdom is the wisdom of the saint, the Zen master, the poet, the mad scientist and the fool. Crazy wisdom loves paradox and puns and pie fights and laughing at politicians – something we need now more than ever in this rapidly changing world.
Nisker writes, “Crazy wisdom flows through all human history, bubbling up here and there, pointing out different ways of looking at things, reminding people to take it easy, and providing a necessary counterpoint to self righteousness. Crazy wisdom arises again and again to expose us to ourselves and remind us of the strange impossible nature of our enterprise here on earth – life. Crazy wisdom laughs at our ridiculous ways and shows compassion for the suffering that results from them”. Not only are great fools very rare, but they are wise beyond understanding. Closely related to the Fool are his cousins: the clowns, jesters and the tricksters. All challenge convention, turning cherished beliefs and rules on their heads. Says Nisker, "They spread doubt about our beliefs, our abilities, our motives, our institutions, our sanity, our loves, our laws, our leaders, even our alliteration”. I believe we all have an inner fool. Whether this manifests as a clown, a trickster, a jester or a fool, we all have this archetype within us. The clown is the most childlike of them all. The clown is innocent and silly. The clown questions everything and trusts life. With our ideas of whom we should be, what society expects from us, and so on, we can become our own worst enemies. As the Sufi poet, Rumi, said ‘Behead yourself!’
It was with this desire to behead myself, to surrender and dive open hearted into the pool of unknown possibility, that I arrived traveled from my home in Swaziland to the beautiful city of Cape Town, to make my home there for the month of February. The course took place in Erin Hall, a beautiful centre with pomegranate and fig trees on a leafy road in Rondebosch. In three weeks, the group learnt so much by failing - by falling on our asses and picking ourselves up, time and time again, by dying to the past in order to remain in the present. We learnt so much through observation, by watching other fail and triumph. So in order to capture the spirit of this experience, I will highlight the ten most important clown lessons for me in the hope that they might convey a ray of the magnificent light of the clown world and somewhat illuminate the path to your own inner fool.
Lesson One
B r e a t h e
The first lesson in clowning is also the first lesson we learn in life- to breathe! It sounds easy but think again! We live so much of our lives in autopilot, unaware of our breath and how it is related to our mental, physical and emotional state. Most mindfulness and meditation practices start with the breath, and always come back to it because it enables us to let go, to come back to the present moment, and to come into our bodies and out of our minds. This was my first lesson in clowning, and the one I always come back to when I forget everything else. Some good advice I recently received was ‘when you’re feeling blue, start breathing again!’ Yes, it’s always a good idea to breathe! A breath is especially powerful when the exercise is failing miserably. I find that in the pause that a breath allows, a space is created for divine gifts of comic genius to be bestowed upon us. In these moments, even the clown is surprised by what comes out of their mouths or bodies!
One of our first exercises required four clowns to simply move across the space simultaneously. It is called simultaneous leader and involves listening carefully to the group and moving together in unison without anybody being the leader. However, my group could hardy take a step together – we were frozen in a painful waiting game for someone to begin. Vivian intervened in his kind but assertive way and told us, simply, to breathe. The anticipation and fear of taking the lead was causing us to hold our breath and in turn, hold back. The minute we let our breath flow, the exercise flowed and became funny. In clowning and in life, it is important to let go of control.
Lesson Two
L e t g o
The lesson of letting go in clowning comes in many shapes and sizes, such as letting go of control, letting go of pre-conceived ideas and letting go of getting it right. Letting go of control essentially means embracing chaos. It means going beyond boundaries and fully indulging in every emotion, thought and experience because the world of the clown full of contradictions and paradox. Clown chaos entails getting it wrong and having absolutely no idea of what you are going to do or even what you are doing. And even if you don’t know what you are doing, keep doing it because the audience will create the persona and story around you. Like all of life, it is all perception! So commit to the power of letting go, because often the funniest, most profound and deeply beautiful ideas are born out of this chaos.
The idea of letting go of all your seemingly great pre-conceived ideas and stepping into a space with no idea of what you are going to do, armed only with a red nose and silly costume, is daunting to say the least. To be told to empty your mind, be in the present moment and surprise yourself with ideas, is easier said than done. Metaphorically speaking, to release one trapeze bar before the next has swung into view! The absence of control and presence of chaos and risk seems like a recipe for disaster. But the clown defines disaster in a different way to the average person. To the clown, the disaster of getting it wrong is where the funny lies.
Letting go of getting it right is contrary to what we have been told most of our lives. Our society and education system is completely focused on getting it right, adhering to the criteria, ticking and fitting into boxes but never ever failing. Heaven forbid we ever fail! Human beings go to great lengths to cover up their failures, to sweep them under the carpet, to bravely cope but never admit it. Yet it is the cause of so much unhappiness and disillusionment! The clown gets it wrong and enjoys getting it wrong! Only in that acceptance can the clown move forward. So it is also extremely important to never rescue the clown! Although it is so tempting, it is within that chaos and acceptance of chaos that the clown can emerge transformed and move forward into new territory. As an audience member, that progression and transformation is so satisfying to watch.
In essence, letting go requires a great element of trust. But the fool is one who goes on trusting against all his experience - his trust is so pure that nobody or nothing can corrupt it. As Osho says - be a fool in the Taoist sense, the Zen sense. “Don’t try to create a wall of knowledge around you. Whatsoever experience comes to you, let it happen, and then let it go”. In that emptiness and nothingness, there is the void from which the universe and all life emerged. And so, absolutely anything can happen… as long as you get out of your own way!
Lesson Three
B e t r u t h f u l
Life is full of inconvenient truths and the fool has always been there to expose them. Back in the day, the jester was the only one who could tell the King the truth without being beheaded because he used laughter and wit as his tools of communication. As the clown is so completely honest and sees with the eyes of a child, he can spot a phony a mile away. The clown can also spot his own phoniness a mile away, as can the audience. As an audience member, it became clear over the course that honest, spontaneous play is somehow funnier than pre-conceived, contrived ideas.
Another of our first exercises involved entering the space, engaging with a piece of cloth in whatever way came to us in the moment, and then exiting the space. It seems simple but yet it is so difficult to let go of all the great ideas you have while waiting for your turn! One participant, however, could not resist a funny idea that came to her while waiting and mimed a scene with the cloth and an invisible fly. It was funny but because it lacked the honesty of the moment it was theatre and not clown. Also, miming and interacting with something that isn’t there makes it harder for the audience to engage with the performer, just like how the fourth wall in the theatre removes the audience. This is not the world of the clown because without the audience, the clown does not exist!
So it is essential as a clown to interact with what is real and true around you, to be true to yourself and the moment as much as you’ll ever be. Skinny legs and all. The clown I am talking about is not always happy and does not have the painted smile that scares so many children with its dishonesty and disguise. The clown exists within all of us, in our most truthful moments with ourselves. And the key to such honesty is to breath and be present.
Lesson Four
B e p r e s e n t
To the Native Americans, the Sacred Clown personifies the Void – the great black openness of space, the great Womb from which we are all born. In that empty space, the clown exists in a state of lively awareness where anything could happen! He is completely open for Life Force to flow through him. It is also a place to realise the interconnectedness of all life, the unity of all things, and therefore how we are infinitely responsible for each other. This place is called the present moment and it is all we ever have.
Sounds deep, philosophical and perhaps quite easy to breathe and be present. But just try right now and be completely present for the next thirty seconds! Close your eyes and focus on your breath. After seconds the monkey mind has jumped from past to future and back again, as if they were branches on a tree. But practice is always the secret to getting better at something and practicing being present while clowning makes for a fun path to the final goal of full liberation! Yet a clown must not get trapped in the future by thinking of the end result. In life and in clowning, it is about the journey not the destination. That is, being present instead of existing in a future that doesn’t actually exist!
The Two Plus One exercise required two clowns to enter together and after a few minutes of creating their world together, a third clown comes in. Vivian’s instruction to the third clown was simple – to not come in with any ideas and to just listen for a moment before doing anything. The result was subtle yet powerful and sincere. This listening moment enabled the third clown to simply be present in the space, and this gave the audience a chance to craft their own ideas about the relationships and stories between the three clowns. This is important because the audience is the clown’s barometer, and the dynamic interaction between clown and audience informs the clown play.
Lesson Five
B e h e a d y o u r s e l f !
The act of trying to be present makes you realise how much your thoughts can get in your way and even trip you up! The book Crazy Wisdom claims that humans don’t know how to think. “It may be that we think so much we can’t think, and know so much we don’t know anything”! That, in order to hear crazy wisdom, we need to somehow shut off or turn down the grinding noise of the rational, analytical gears and get just a little bit out of our minds! In other words, pry those mental fingers loose!
To me, beheading myself means to move into the visceral world where everything seems less stressful and more playful. A clown teacher once said to me, “If it's not working today, have a drink, go to bed, let it go. But whatever you do don't worry about it. The flame has not gone out”. What a relief to trust that! And to trust that you don’t need to think of the perfect idea, but to just allow the story to come to you. To be encouraged time and time again to KISS – keep it simple stupid! Simplicity is beautiful and often funny but the human mind tends to complicate things, especially when it feels the pressure to create something funny.
On Day Five we did an illuminating exercise that explored the relationship between the intellect and the sensual, the mind and the body. It revealed how status and relationship – key elements of clowning – are linked to these dichotomies. In the Western World, the relationship between the colonialists and the natives regarded the intellectual approach to life as superior to the more sensual approach. This belief has caused decades of imbalance and disrespect. Through this exercise I came to see how cathartic clowning could be when we turned this belief on its head and played with it. How satisfying it was to see the sensual visceral clown become a higher status than the intellectual wordy clown! So much comedy portrays that dynamic – for example Manuel and Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, the Tramp and Circus Master in Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus Film. Perhaps more clowning in the world would mean less conflict. Perhaps if we were more present in our bodies, instead of in the left hemisphere of our brain, then life wouldn’t become so serious as we grow up. We don’t stop playing because we grow up, we grow up because we stop playing!
Lesson Six
L i s t e n d y n a m i c a l l y
Once you have got out of your own way somewhat, it becomes easier to listen. To listen dynamically is to truly listen – it really is a true art! It means to listen to yourself, to listen to the other clowns in the space, to listen to your audience and to listen to the empty nothingness from which all stories come.
Listening to yourself encourages you to be honest. It entails breathing and being present. It often entails listening to the quiet voice within you, instead of the constant chattering. Listening to other clowns helps you to discover the story, status and relationships. You may be playing a simple game with a brown paper bag, but if you both truly listening to each other instead of trying to get your idea heard, you have a better chance of creating honest relationships and funny moments. Listening to your audience is explored in Lesson Nine, entitled The Audience is Your Mirror. Finally, dynamic listening is about engaging in a game with the universe – you listen to the empty nothingness, the universe delivers, you respond, the universe listens and so on. A cosmic ordering system, both playful and terrifying!
Lesson Seven
F a i l d e l i c i o u s l y
Fail deliciously. Embrace the failure and allow it transform you and take you to new heights. Allow it to produce results more original than anything you could achieve by aiming at originality, or by giving up when you perceive your failure as bad. As Irving Wardle wrote, ‘If our hero is swallowed by a monster, he will change into a heroic turd and soldier on to fresh adventures’. Enough said.
Lesson Eight
T r a n s f o r m a t I o n
Nisker writes, “Down through the ages, saints, holy fools, jesters, poets, and artists have challenged conventional wisdom and tried to get us to see what we often reject – mystery, paradox, the unity of all things, balance, and transformation”. Transformation is the catalyst for change and quantum leaps of evolution. Change is the only constant and embracing it is how we move forward! So the transformative power of clowning can be seen as a source of wisdom and healing. The paradoxes and seemingly warped logic of the clown world bring so much insight into the way Western society stifles us. For example, being open is sometimes regarded as a weakness so we become hard, closed and cold. The clown reveals the paradox that the weakest can be the most powerful. The dumbest can be the most wise. When the trickster’s rampant curiousity backfires, something new is discovered and this is where creativity comes from. Some advice from a clown - do something backwards, break your own traditions and habits and a breakthrough occurs! It is in the moment of surrender, of failure, that the world is created anew and transformation can occur. The best way out is through. Acknowledge the pain and then let it go. Don’t carry it around with you. Focus on the joy, the mystery, the happiness, and the cosmic joke!
As clowning is a very special confrontation with yourself and other people, and the course brought up old wounds and there was rarely a day without tears. Transformation can be a painful process but like I said before, using the metaphor of the clown world we can face personal challenges with a smile. Instead of bravely coping with life, we can courageously embrace it, be present with it and transform it. Eventually it even becomes funny.
Lesson Nine
T h e a u d I e n c e i s y o u r m i r r o r
The audience is the clown’s most important tool. The clown does not exist without the audience because the audience is the clown’s mirror, reflects the truth back to the clown. Looking at the audience is a surefire way to gauge whether or not what you are doing is working. This is also encouragement to breathe – because if you aren’t, then chances are the audience isn’t either!
As we are reflections of each other, the clown is also a mirror for the audience - mirrors in which the audience sees their folly as well as their resilience. When we begin to take ourselves too seriously, the clown is there to give us a laugh. When we become too heavy with self-importance, the clown is there to lighten us up!
One of my favourite exercises was called The Conference. Two clowns come in to present a conference – one is the presenter and the other is the assistant. Only, neither clown knows the subject of the conference. The subject is discovered through the initial play between the clowns and through connecting with the audience. When it was my turn, I came in as the presenter with my assistant clown, introduced us and promptly attempted to get on with finding the subject of the conference. As I was trying to get on, I was uneased by the way in which my assistant was gazing admiringly and speechlessly at me! This little game continued for a while, until I clicked that the audience were laughing at this dynamic. And that is when I realised we had found the subject for the conference, which I entitled, to the audible satisfaction of the audience, Perfection & Being Perfect. The clown and audience engage in a silent dialogue and if you listen closely, you will know what they want you to do to make them laugh!
Lesson Ten
E n j o y y o u r s e l f !
At last, here are some final paradoxes to conclude this rambling cobswobble. Don’t think when you are clowning but remember all these lessons. Be an upside-down, forward-backward, icy-hot contrary. Do something wrong and reply, ‘Yes? And so what?’ Remember the rules but break them religiously yet not continuously. But most importantly, be serious about having fun and don’t take anything too seriously! Have fun finding your inner fool. If you enjoy yourself, chances are others will too.
Be Happy Fools