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 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland 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 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, 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. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 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 Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk To fi nd out more about our authors and books visit w ww.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our n ewsletters . 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