Bouffon: The Pleasure to Blaspheme

First day of the Bouffon workshop.

In the middle ages, all those that were ‘not-normal’ (mad, deformed, dwarves, gays, Jews etc) were kicked away to the forests and the swamps and the ghettos with bells on them (to give ‘normal’ people warning). But once a year the church opened it’s doors to the ‘not-normal’ and they were allowed to blaspheme for twenty-four hours.

In this workshop we’re going to look at five or six different shapes of Bouffon, and then we’re going to discover the Bouffons of today. “We are going to explore this world with a lot of fun and no respect.”

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Michael opted to be the guinea pig and dress as a dwarf today - as a little person. 

With stubs for arms, and stubs for legs. A dirty face and black holes in his teeth. Philippe got him to speak as a gay, to dance, to sing, to smile. It looks very strange and quite scary. Watching, I get an awkward feeling of not knowing whether to laugh or to look away (in society we usually look away).

Then ten of us got up - all standing (on our knees - on blue fitness mats) side by side with our hands (elbows, with hands folded into our shirts) touching. Philippe got us each to imitate the prime minister/president from our country, then to speak as a snobby posh rich person. Then to sing a religious song together. We ended up singing O Holy Night. 

Whilst singing it, at one point we all had to look at each other and smile. Then at another point, to touch and rub each other. And then, finally, to break out into an all out orgy on the floor...whilst singing full-boar. Then afterwards, all of us had to burst into laughter which was loud and hearty and lasted for a long time. And then we had to stop laughing, pretend to be serious, and to apologise to the audience. “I’m sorry.”

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“The fun to blaspheme...the pleasure to blaspheme...to mock the people whom god is their friend.”

“You are allowed to be below the belt...they can be terrible.”

“The people we mock are people of power...the people who could say ‘go to the ghetto - we don’t want you’.”

“Fuck you.”

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Then, like we did in Le Jeu, Charles got up to be interviewed by Philippe, and if we wanted to imitate him, we could get up beside him and repeat his words and actions in a mocking way. I gave it a go - which I never did in Le Jeu - and had fun to exaggerate Charles’ low Bristol voice and punctuating hand gestures.

“To imitate is to have fun - to mock with love. To parody is to destroy the other person.”

“In a way parody is like a caricaturist.” 

“You can imitate with fun, and you can imitate to be really nasty.”

“Because you were kicked away you are allowed to do a big big parody.”

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At the end of class Philippe told us a story about how he had worked with a theatre company with handicapped actors in it and they did Bouffon. One actor, also a little person, wanted to play God, which he did. And in his performance, he used a watering can to water the apple tree which he would later use to ensnare Eve. And his text surely would have been nasty. I think this sounds thrilling. An opportunity for somebody who God has not ‘been kind to’ (somebody deformed and not traditionally ‘beautiful’) to say “fuck you God”. It seems that Bouffon can give a voice to those without one. With Bouffon, you can say unspoken things.

I asked about whether we should be sensitive to other people’s beliefs in the class. i.e. If I go on stage and mock Christianity, and there’s a Christian in our class, I might offend them. But Philippe said if they are not fanatics, then they should be okay with seeing different interpretations of their beliefs. He described a time when a priest wanted to do the Bouffon course, which Philippe repeatedly said “no, it’s not for you”, but eventually gave in. He said to the priest that he was allowed to disagree and correct Philippe, whenever he said or did something that wasn’t correct, but the priest said nothing. And at the end of the workshop, the priest came up to Philippe and said “Thank you...I now know what the devil looks like.” So we’re free to go where we want to.

“You have to find three good people [powerful people] to mock.” Already, I’d like to mock Captain Cook, Jesus, and perhaps the royal family.

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It was really great to see everybody again after the break. We have about twenty in the class now. All familiar faces, including André (a good friend of mine) who just returned from Australia. And we have a new movement teacher, Carlos, from Italy, who is adorable. We all fell in love with him today as he tried to teach us this bizarre songs (which he kept on forgetting the tune and words to).