“If We Say ‘Go To The Ghetto We Don’t Want You Anymore’...They Are Bouffon.”

An odd class today: mostly talking.

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Philippe announced that starting next week we will go to modern Bouffons.

Transvestites

Unemployed people

Gypsies

Sick people (AIDS)

Mad people

Gay people

Jews at concentration camp

“It has to be people out of the society...banished.”

“It has to be people who come to say something beautiful.”

“If you are unemployed and you love Sarkozy you are not Bouffon.”

“If you are a pute to make money to by drugs - no.” We can play a prostitute but only if they are kicked away from society.

“If you are a heroine addict you run to get your injection but you don’t say fuck you.” - so not Bouffon.

Aboriginals: “if they have a big party on a reservation and they mock the prime minister, it could be Bouffon.”

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We will work on King Ubu (a parody of French people) and a few of Philippe’s plays too. “You have to work one act.”

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“You play the parody. It’s not the character.”

“If we say ‘go to the ghetto we don’t want you anymore’...they are Bouffon.”

What makes a Bouffon? “It’s mainly the laugh after you suffer. You cry. You regret. At the end, you say ‘What do I do? I laugh.’ And when you laugh you are the pope of Bouffon.”

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When we finally did get up on stage Philippe got a band of ten Bouffons to group together in a huddle and got the audience to throw tennis balls at them. They then turned slowly to us and came towards us, whilst one person sang a religious song. He got a few people to parody somebody, a priest, or their bastard, and then he got audience members to go on stage and remove all the deformities of the Bouffons on stage. To remove all the stuffing and to untie the knots around people knees and heads. At the end, we see the same gang as before, but they are more normal. Still dirty, with missing teeth and scruffy hair, but not medieval anymore. 

“So I think you’re not going to lose anything...I hope.”

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I asked if I could play Captain Cook in order to mock and destroy him, and Philippe said yes it’s possible but “don’t take the costume of what you are speaking...it’s less freedom.” e.g. Only a hat. Or a cross for a priest. Not too much. I’m not sure why it’s less freedom - I guess the more costume you have the less it’s clearly you mocking. I like the idea of playing Captain Cook in full costume, but a shabby dirty one, but we’ll see.